New Opening | PUNTO POP
PUNTO SULL’ARTE Gallery is thrilled to announce the opening of a THIRD ART GALLERY completely dedicated to Contemporary POP Art in the pedestrian historical centre of Varese, at via San Martino della Battaglia 3, only a few steps away from PUNTO SULL’ARTE II, opened in 2020 at number 6.
The opening of the new gallery will be on Saturday, May 20 from 11 am to 1 pm.
Petrol cans signed Vuitton, colorful balloons with Chanel logo, king size Doctor Martens leather boots that seem to come out of the painting, elegant giant lipsticks, an ostrich that imperturbably crosses colorful urban landscapes and the iconic “Balloon Dog”. Here is Pop, popular art which is directly connected with our daily obsessions, brands as symbols of modernity, consumption that tries to mediate with the imagination of those who create, the fetish object that becomes enormous. Neo Pop breaks through every social barrier, mixing high and low culture, entering homes with works of almost obsessive evidence, which make us remember how our life is continuously bombarded by cult objects, almost always superfluous and perhaps expensive, but indispensable to our eyes. It is a relentless struggle that the artists, with their hypersensitivity to the new and to changing fashions, try to win, manifesting in the works a sort of love-hate towards the consumer society, and witnessing the profound signs of globalization and the paradoxical isolation of the individual, who has himself become an object of consumption.
PUNTO SULL’ARTE Gallery, which since 2011 has been carefully following the evolution of contemporary art in Italy and abroad, has immediately noticed the expressive power of Neo Pop. At first, the gallery has chosen to exhibit artworks of different pop artists, from ANGELO ACCARDI to GIORGIO LAVERI, and today it dedicates to this artistic movement an ad hoc gallery space, the PUNTO POP, at via San Martino della Battaglia 3, in the city centre of Varese. On display there will be, alongside already international well-known artists, a selection of young talented emerging ones.
This is the case of VALENTINA DIENA, born in Milan in 1996, who carries out an almost police investigation around the objects we are used to seeing in our daily lives, without worrying about observing them closely and giving them the right weight in our lives. The artist, on the contrary, takes their fetishism to extremes, making them almost grotesque, but of an extraordinary formal perfection, thanks to the incredible pictorial technique evident in the use of colored pencils.
Can a tank of petrol, which is itself a symbol of consumption and of exploitation of our planet’s resources, ennoble itself and enter the court, like a crow with peacock feathers? The French ERIK SALIN, who worked as Custom Painter for Harley Davidson, enchanted by Pop Art, is convinced of yes. He therefore covers the tank with the most famous brands of French luxury, from Hermès and Vuitton to Chanel, but without forgetting legendary motor brands such as Ferrari and Porsche. Is this a provocation? Is it a nod to the hunger for status symbols that pervades our modern society? As for Diena, Erik Salin, who was born in Paris in 1960, also creates impeccable works, with finishing touches certainly not inferior to those of the brands he represents, but with an underlying irony that sometimes leads him to modify the logo.
In this work of de-sacralization of consumption, Salin is supported by his wife GÉRALDINE MORIN, who was born in Lorraine (France) in 1976, and who is a painter and sculptor, creator of costume jewelry and cardboard furniture, as well as discoverer of the hidden talent of her husband. She adorns with luxury logos balloons and shoppers of the most luxury fashion brands – perfect for being displayed nonchalantly in a chic living room – or Disney icons, combining Mickey Mouse with Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Charlie Chaplin and even Steve McQueen. A space-time short circuit that shows how media pesters us every day with all sorts of images, brands and product placement, a trick in which is easy to fall and to be tempted by impulse buy.
ANGELO ACCARDI, who knows it very well, claims that “art must be first felt and then understood”, of course if you love it. His ostrich, a formidable and colorful presence, represents our widespread fears, in a world where man has lost his central position, victim of a society which produces negativity. His art is almost liquid Pop, in which the prevaricating forms of the buildings of the megalopolises “melt” into the endless shades of color, reminding us that basically the illusion is part of us all, together with its symbols, to build a timeless imaginary, in which a painting by Klimt or Bacon – Accardi’s master of dreams – can stand next to a blue ostrich, to a rhino or to the bow of a ship, as well as Elon Musk standing, in the artist’s iconographic style, next to Homer Simpson.
Irony and provocation also characterize the works of GIUSEPPE VENEZIANO, one of the most appreciated Contemporary Artists in Italy and abroad. The artist investigates the world and society taking inspiration from history, news, politics, movies and art history. Through his recognizable style – thanks to the simple line of his figures – he overturns reality and fiction and talks of our time with all its banalities and contradictions.
The ceramic sculptures by GIORGIO LAVERI – an example of the highest Italian craftsmanship – are perfectly placed between the poetics of Duchampian ready-made and American Pop Art. The critique of consumerism passes through the images and titles of his works. The irony and the desire for reflection actively involve the observer who, captured by the brightness of the surfaces, finds himself trapped in a limbo where reality and imagination constantly merge and confuse.
In this whirling melting pot of shapes, colors and references, on display there will be also reproductions of the famous iconic “Balloon Dogs”, sculptures representing a dog-balloon by the international renowned artist JEFF KOONS.
It is therefore up to the author to suggest a way out of the consumer impasse, to re-establish the exact values to feelings and things and thus rediscover a critical and positive vision of life, far from clichés and false compels to which modernity has accustomed us.
Published on 17/05/2023
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