February 28th – April 3rd, 2004
Opening: Saturday february 28th 2004, 7 pm
Galleria Paola Verrengia will present the show Photogenic on Saturday, February 28th 2004 at 7 pm, a solo show of works by Isabella Gherardi, curated by Angelo Trimarco and Stefania Zuliani.
Born in Florence, where she lives and works, Isabella Gherardi graduated in Architecture and lived in Mexico for long periods of time, focusing on the study of the work by Alvarez Bravo and Tina Modotti. She exhibited her works in important galleries and museums in Italy (Studio Casoli, Milano; Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato) and abroad (Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen; John Weber Gallery, New York). In 2003 she participated in “Le Opere e Giorni” curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, at Certosa di Padula.
The starting point related to her artistic research is Photography, which Isabella Gherardi uses to take possession of the images that she’s surrounded by and re-elaborate them through creative manipulation. Although the impersonality of the tool called “lens” suggests that photos don’t have any other purpose besides “recording” what’s real, an element that tends to take form in her work is the creative gesture. In Still Lifes, a series of works designed during summer 2002-2003 that will be exhibited for the first time in the context of this exhibition, the artist has photographed the most heterogeneous objects of his studio using natural light: (Isabella Gherardi)
Furthermore, at the gallery based in Salerno we will exhibit a few works by Gherardi focused on the genesis of the image in some sort of progressive restitution of signs traced throughout History. These works have been obtained through snapshots of the labyrinth of names, memories and numbers that had been traced on the basements of the two equestrian monuments located in Piazza Plebiscito, Naples, where the artist had drawn some graffiti inspired by the ones of Altamura, Ancient Egypt and Phoenicians, but also modern artists such as Steinberg, Saint Phalle and Basquiat. This inventory of graffiti has been combined with a few watercolors that the artist had created taking inspiration from show business, fashion and advertising. Female faces of which quite often we only perceive the “glamour” side – eyes and mouth – “tattooed” with these traces of the past. – says the artist – to combine graffiti and watercolors obtaining a further stratification, but above all an intense monumentality, a voluptuous epidermis. This is what made me come up with the title of the show, Photogenic, that means phosphorescent, photogenetic and photogenic.>
These last works are connected to the works that have been exhibited in the same period of time at Fondazione Morra in Naples and have been created to organically get through the creative actuality and vital complexity of the artist.
Essays by Angelo Trimarco e Stefania Zuliani
Fondazione Morra (via Vergini 19, Palazzo dello Spagnuolo – 80137 Napoli) will present the exhibition Photogenic on Thursday, February 19th 2004 at 7 pm.
Wednesday, March 17th 2004 at 5 pm the show will be held at Fondazione Filiberto Menna in Salerno, a meeting with the artist: “Through Photography”, included in the series “Dialoghi d’artista” curated by Stefania Zuliani.
