SPRING/SUMMER 2017
FABIO BIANCO ARTIST | EXHIBITIONS | PAINTINGS | SCULPTURE | VIDEO
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ILLUSION FLOWERS! ILLUSIONIST! New Paintings
BUGNO ART GALLERY VENICE, ITALY
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MAGENTA & GREEN LIGHT OIL AND GOLD LEAF ON CANVAS CM.150X158
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NEW PAINTINGS Chiara Moro
T
here is a distinct change of perspective in the new art project by Fabio Bianco. In the past the viewpoint was introspective, aimed to promptly probe the interiors of its colourful environments, creating imaginary prospects thanks to the strong use of colour. Here the camera turns on itself and changes its point of view. The vision stops its static role, chandeliers (exceptional medium to give the painting a cinematic characterization) lose their centrality, reflexes increase their games and drag us into the narrative. In this latest series of works, the viewpoint is from the inside out, like the gear to the machine, dreamy and mystical, totally unaware of what lurks outside. So, we can imagine a fabulousimaginative nature, there we can see more abstract, surreal and dreamlike elements. We can find again usual key points of the paintings of Fabio Bianco like the chandelier, central point of the pictorial representation, but we lose the lines between reality and fiction, between consciousness and imagination. The final result is a direct contact with the work, mediated by the use of colour and by the definition of space. We can recognize, strong and characteristic, Aboriginal mythology and culture influences, with “points and lines” which create dreamy atmospheres. The paint comes out of the canvas, lives in his vivacity and simultaneously creates visual vortices. Geometric patterns and tribal images blend with theatrical portraits by Fabio Bianco, significant both for formal elegance and for remarkable iconographic research that
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leads to the most deeply rooted traditions in the human being. Here we can find geometries that appear abstract but using a complex symbolism in which to different forms are assigned specific meanings. The construction of space remains the same of past works, with a division of the environment that wants the chandeliers hovering at the top, the glittered and hypnotic reflection repeated on the sides and the perspective which remains central. It’s also interesting the reference to Andy Warhol’s flowers, vibrant and highly contrasted colours photo cuts that transform matter into visual suggestion. Just like Warhol’s flowers, Fabio Bianco’s paintings lightly touch the decorative art world becoming more intense, deeper and deeper, dense, doughy, alive, as something extremely beautiful but delicate, ephemeral and layered.
V
i è un netto cambio di prospettiva nel nuovo progetto artistico di Fabio Bianco. Se prima il punto di vista era introspettivo, nel sondare alacremente gli interni dei suoi colorati ambienti, nella creazione di prospettive immaginarie, grazie al forte uso del colore, qui la cinepresa gira su se stessa e cambia punto di osservazione. La visione smette i suoi panni statici, i lampadari, medium d’eccezione per dare al dipinto un taglio cinematografico, perdono la loro centralità, i riflessi aumentano i loro giochi e ci trascinano nella narrazione. In questo ultimo ciclo di lavori, il punto di vista è dall’interno verso l’esterno, come dall’ingranaggio verso la macchina, sognante e mistico, totalmente all’oscuro di quello che
si cela al di fuori. Vi si immagina, quindi, una natura favolosa-fantasiosa, vi si scorgono elementi maggiormente astratti, surreali e onirici. Ritornano i punti cardine dei dipinti di Fabio Bianco, come il lampadario, fulcro della rappresentazione pittorica, ma si perdono i confini tra realtà e finzione, tra presa di coscienza e immaginazione. Un contatto diretto con l’opera, quindi, mediato dall’uso del colore e dalla definizione degli spazi. Si notano, forti e caratterizzanti, le influenze alla cultura e alla mitologia aborigene, con punto e linea che creano atmosfere sognanti, la materia pittorica esce dalla tela, vive nella sua vivacità, e crea, contemporaneamente, vortici visivi. Pattern geometrici ed elementi figurativi di carattere tribale si fondono con le rappresentazioni teatrali di Bianco, apprezzabili sia per l’eleganza formale che per una ricerca iconografica che rimanda alle tradizioni più radicate nell’essere umano. Geometrie che appaiono astratte ma che si avvalgono di un complesso simbolismo in cui a diverse forme sono assegnati significati ben precisi. La costruzione dello spazio rimane la stessa delle opere passate, con una divisione dell’ambiente che vede i lampadari aleggiare nella parte superiore, il riflesso ripetersi ipnotico ai lati e la prospettiva rimanere centrale. Interessante anche il riferimento ai fiori di Andy Warhol, tagli fotografici in cui cromatismi vibranti e fortemente contrastati trasformano la materia in suggestione visiva. Esattamente come i per Warhol i fiori, anche i quadri di Bianco sfiorano il mondo dell’arte decorativa intensificandosi, diventando sempre più profondi, densi, pastosi, vivi, come un qualcosa di estremamente bello ma delicato, effimero e stratificato.
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IT’S THE EXPERIENCE THAT COUNTS, NATURALLY
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“Per questa serie di dipinti, che richiamano la natura, mi è sembrato interessante creare un esposizione all’interno di un bosco isolato, spoglio di presenza umana, catturato durante una splendida giornata di sole e con in sottofondo il suono/rumore degli uccelli e delle foglie agitate dal vento. Ho scelto un percorso opposto a quello più comodo, cioè quello di ricreare la natura in modo artificiale all’interno di uno spazio chiuso, come quello di una galleria d’arte, e ho deciso di restituire i dipinti alla natura, alla loro fonte d’ispirazione. Il modo di fruire delle esposizioni è cambiato in questi anni, si è adattato ai nuovi mezzi di comunicazione che portano le mostre dagli spettatori e non viceversa, usando siti web dedicati, vernissage tv, artsy e altro ancora. Ecco, per questo motivo ho voluto creare un’esposizione che lo spettatore potrà vivere e vedere attraverso video e fotografie, questa volta usate per aumentare l’esperienza emozionale di chi guarda e non per ridurla.”
“For this series of paintings, which refer to nature, I considered interesting to create an exhibition inside a solitary forest, with no human presence, unearthed during a beautiful sunny day and with the sound/noise of birds and leaves shaken by the wind, in the background. I chose a path in a way differently from the most comfortable: I decided to recreate nature in an artificial manner within an enclosed space, such as an art gallery, and to give back the paintings to the nature, their inspiration. Our way to enjoy an exhibition has changed in these years, adapted to new media that carry the exhibitions to the viewers rather than visitors to shows, thanks to the use of dedicated websites, vernissage tvs, artsy and more. That’s why I wanted to create an exhibition that the viewer can experience and see through video and photographs; photographs that are used to heighten the emotional experience of the beholder and not to reduce it.”
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“NEW DIMENSION OF SPACE, OBSERVE THE OUTSIDE, FROM THE INSIDE”
BLU OLTREMARE “DETAIL” OIL AND GOLD LEAF ON CANVAS CM.150X158
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One of the principles of my Paintings: I like to paint in the sunlight, the summer has my favorite light.
FLOWER ILLUSION
OIL AND GOLD LEAF ON CANVAS CM.200X250
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LITTLE FLOWER PAINTED IRON, CM.50X80X80, 2017
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500
9 17
45°
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NEW SCULPTURE 22.5
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SUPER ENJOYMENT!
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Teatro oil and gold leaf on canvas, cm.150x190, 2017
“IMAGINE FREEDOM”
Elizabeth Lopeman
F
abio Bianco’s work inspires something new in the real of contemporary painting, with saturated and blurred fields of color and nearly dizzying skews that toy with depth perception. The glamorized and enigmatic baroque interiors flirt with the fantastical as well as hearken to oft-heard complaints of media overload in a global culture of decadence and relentless advertising. At the same time, his dazzling use of a full spectrum to render depth within the antique environs of theaters and private salons extends an invitation into an at once familiar and beguiling world splintered with the refracted light of chandeliers.
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He frequently features towering and fanciful cakes, or they appear in backgrounds as they compound a frivolity and a freedom of the imagination with ideations of abandon and celebration. Bianco’s paintings have a decorative quality upon first sight, especially some of his more recent representations of rugs, but he reappropriates these attributes by manipulating the scale of identifiable objects—furniture, cakes, chandeliers, architechtonics and their embellishments—thus complicating the relationship between his representation of space and the “real” space occupied by the viewer. In conjunction with a vertiginous rendering of space, Bianco’s use of color—reds, magenta, oranges and their counterparts,
the contrasting blues and green—constructs a language of chaos and excess, the fantastical.
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THE ARTIST
fabiobianco.artist Fabio Bianco’s work inspires something new in the real of contemporary painting. www.fabiobianco.com
FLOWERS OIL AND GOLD LEAF ON CANVAS 2017
- RED POINT
OIL AND GOLD LEAF ON CANVAS, CM.150X158, 2016
- ABORIGINAL LIGHT OIL AND GOLD LEAF ON CANVAS, CM.120X120, 2016
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STADIUM
oil on canvas cm150x168, 2016
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FABIO BIANCO BIOGRAPHY
Born in Mirano, Venice, Italy, 1971 Lives and works in Venice EDUCATION
Group exhibitions
1986-91 graphic design, Istituto Statale D’arte di Venezia, Venice, Italy
2017 - Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show, Smith-Davidson Gallery, Palm Beach Florida, U.S.A.
1991-95 painting, Accademia di Belle Arti Di Venezia, Venice, Italy Scholarship 1994 Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
EXHIBITIONS Selected solo exhibitions 2014 - Ginger Lily, Bugno Art Gallery Venice, Italy - Art Fair Kohl, Gallery Barbara Ruetz, Kohl, Germany 2013 - Chandeliers, Istituto italiano di Cultura, Thessaloniki, Greece - My Sweet Home, Gallery Barbara Ruetz, Munich, Germany - Zuidkoop Natural Projects, De Lier, Holland 2012 - Business+, dOCUMENTA (13) Kassel, Critical art Ensemble Winning Hearts and Mids, Kassel, Germany - Inchino, Theatergalerie Bremen, Bremen, Germany 2010 - Fabulous Life, Art Contemporary Garage, Gabicce, Pesaro, Italy 2009 - Remember The History & Imagine The Real, Simon Gallery, Yokohama, Japan - Brillante Riflessione Parte II, Ufofabrik Art Gallery, Moena, Trento, Italy - Brilliant Reflection, Art Gallery Ritsart, Maassluis, Holland
2016 - ArtMiami, Smith-Davidson Gallery, Miami, Florida, U.S.A. - 25th Anniversary, Bugno Art Gallery, Venice, Italy 2015 - Contemporaneamente, Bugno Art Gallery, Venice, Italy 2013 - Echi Oltremare, Thessaloniki Biennale, Thessaloniki, Greece 2012 - Venice Reflected in Contemporary Waves, Gallery Rayko Alexiev, Sofia, Bulgaria - Venice Reflected in Contemporary Waves, Gallery Kadieff, Helsinki, Finland - Venice Reflected in Contemporary Waves, The Manege, Saint-Petersburg, Russia 2011 - 54th Venice Biennale,Villa Contarini, Padova, Italy 2010 - Art Fair Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy - Fabulous Life-Baekground, Ufofabrik Art Gallery, Moena, Trento, Italy - Mari contro Mari, Museum of St. Augustine, Genova, Italy 2009 - Premio La Colomba 2009, Venice, Italy - 1st floor for contempopary art, Bianco. Interno3. Morucchio, Liassidi Palace, Venice, Italy - Works on paper, NY arts Venice Pavillion, Giudecca Cantieristica Minore Veneziana, Venice, Italy PUBLIC COLLECTION - Macedonia Museum of Contemporary Art Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
2007 - Chandeliers, Art Gallery Daniele Luchetta, Venice, Italy
“PLAY YOUR PLAY”
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2006 - Yes-Man, Art Gallery Daniele Luchetta, Venice, Italy
Selected Exhibitions
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TOMOHITO WAKUI Born in Mirano, Venice, Italy, 1971 Lives and works in Venice
Tomohito Wakui was born in 1990 in Niigata-Japan. He currently continues to live and work based in Tokyo. His practice includes film pieces as well as work made by combining common junk parts with audio and other components and programming them, in order to produce art that expresses technology’s primitive possibilities. He re-perceives the notion of data in its most fundamental sense, and in doing so, searches – through art - for the next evolution within humanity’s history. Significant recent exhibitions include ‘Aoi Yasashisa Ni Dakarete’ (Naonakamura, Tokyo, 2012) and ‘Long,Long,Long’ (Garter, Tokyo, 2016). Selected group exhibitions include ‘Genkai Toka Ne-Shi Limiter cut Shiteru Shi Ten’ (Higure 17-15 cas, Tokyo, 2013), ‘Tensai High School!!!!’ (Yamamoto Gendai, Tokyo, 2013), ‘Tabikoen (Dorifuto)’ (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 2015) and ‘Genbutsu Over Dose’ (Kitakore Building, Tokyo, 2015).
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COLLABORATIVE WORK: FABIO BIANCO & TOMOHITO WAKUI
LIGHT OF NIGHT GARDEN LED PANEL CM.90X90, 2017
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NIGHT GARDEN OIL AND GOLD LEAF ON CANVAS CM.150X120
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BUGNO ART GALLERY
THE GALLERY Bugno Art Gallery opened in 1991 with two solo shows: Mario Schifano and immediately after Arman, an artist who has represented a constant presence during the years both in the gallery and in all the many fairs the gallery has taken part. Working directly with Arman for a long time, the gallery devoted itself also particularly to Nouveau Réalisme and Fluxus artistic movements and it’s in this prospective that artworks by Christo, Cesar, Rotella, Ben Vautier and Joseph Beuys have been frequently hosted in its spaces. Since 1991 Bugno Art Gallery’s rooms have accommodated works by very popular Italian artists such as Mario Schifano (who dedicated to the gallery in 1991 a whole serie of works developed around the theme of Venice under the title of “Venezioso”) , Alighiero Boetti, Piero Dorazio, Salvo, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Sandro Chia, Nicola De Maria and Lucio Fontana. During the years the gallery paid great attention also to such “Venetian” Spatialism artist as Emilio Vedova, Giuseppe Santomaso, Afro, Edmondo Bacci, Mario Deluigi and Armando Pizzinato. Actually Bugno Art Gallery supervises the Official Archive of Armando Pizzinato’s artworks. From 2004 the gallery is following with great dedication the contemporary photography working directly with a lot of Italian and international photographers such as Luca Campigotto, Andrea Morucchio, Paolo Ventura, Maurizio Galimberti and Rune Guneriussen; many of these collaborations have created during the time the organization of different and various events frequently connected to important centers of contemporary photography and museums: Marco Zanta, UrbanEurope, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, 2008; Giovanni Chiaramonte “In Berlin”, Triennale di Milano, Milano, 2009; Luca Campigotto, My Wild Places, Fortuny Museum, Venice, 2011; Paolo Ventura, The Automaton, Fortuny Museum, Venice, 2012; Gavin Rain at the 55th Venice Biennal Bangladesh Pavillion, 2013; Tre Oci Tre Mostre, Casa dei Tre Oci ,Venice 2014. In the last recent past years the gallery has curated solo shows devoted to different languages covering and recovering the artworks of undisputed masters of the international art: Salvo “Salvo a Venezia”, 2006; Sayed Heider Raza and Manish Pushkale “Shanti: a scream of peace”, 2009; Gavin Rain “Supernatural part 1”, 2011; Joe Tilson “Venezia”, 2012.
Bugno Art Gallery S. Marco 1996/d - 30124 Venice (Italy) ph. +39-041-5231305 fax +39-041-5230360 info@bugnoartgallery.com
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SELECTED TEXT EXHIBITIONS VIS CHROMATICA E VIS FANTASTICA
L
e opere pittoriche di Fabio Bianco (Venezia, 1971) si inseriscono perfettamente nel clima di rinascita della pittura a cui accennavamo sopra e che ha coinvolto, a partire dalla seconda metà degli anni Novanta, in modo diverso rispetto alla situazione europea, anche l’Italia. Se è innegabile il fatto che il nostro territorio non ha più visto nascere, dopo l’Arte Povera e la Transavanguardia, movimenti artistici in grado di essere esportati in blocco fuori dai confini nazionali, né è stato in grado di creare fenomeni artistici e mercantili come quelli dei Young British Artists in Inghilterra o quelli tedeschi dei Young German Artists, usciti dalle Scuole di Lipsia, Dresda e Berlino, è pur vero che la realtà frammentaria e irregolare del nostro paese ha favorito la crescita di numerose individualità libere ed indipendenti, capaci di relazionarsi con il sistema dei segni locali e globali. La pittura di Fabio Bianco – come quella di altri artisti della sua generazione o anche più giovani – è una “Pittura libera e liberata”, esente dai conformismi classici di un mezzo ancora soggetto ad obsoleti giudizi critici ed estetici. La vis chromatica di questi ultimi lavori (ma anche dei primi), abbinata ad una grande libertà gestuale e ad un eclettismo tematico, riconducono la ricerca estetica dell’artista veneziano in direzione di quei territori riconquistati solo di recente dalla fantasia e dall’immaginazione. La domanda da porsi è nuovamente una e soltanto una: Può la pittura essere considerata uno spazio privilegiato rispetto a quello ormai digerito delle immagini che sono venute a saturare la nostra società contemporanea? In altri termini: qual è il potenziale d’incidenza di queste visioni sui nostri sentimenti e sull’identità personale e collettiva? Sin dai primi lavori, Fabio Bianco costruisce con la Realtà un rapporto di libero scambio; attinge al vasto repertorio di forme e segni che il mondo circostante mette a sua disposizione; ripercorre la Storia dell’Arte passata e recente con ironia e leggerezza secondo un’attitudine post-moderna; utilizza con disinvoltura gli spunti e le suggestioni fornitegli dal web. L’immaginario indiretto è per l’appunto quel grande “golfo fantastico costituito dalle immagini che ci vengono fornite dalla cultura, sia essa cultura di massa o altra forma di tradizione.” Nel caso del nostro artista però, la visione pittorica non imbocca la facile via della pedissequa citazione, né ricerca gli effetti realistici tipici della fotografia. Lo sguardo di Fabio, lanciato in modo trasversale sul mondo, imbastisce una trama sottile e fascinosa sospesa fra realtà e finzione, fra figurazione e astrazione. La mente creativa opera, in questo caso, secondo i principi matematici della ricombinazione degli elementi. Memoria e attualità, passato e presente, vero e verosimile, si scambiano continuamente di posto, disponendo davanti agli occhi dello spettatore un repertorio di immagini che “sembrano ma non sono”, familiari e stranianti al tempo stesso. Nella serie delle Piscine, dipinta a cavallo fra il ’99 e il 2000, Bianco cercava, attraverso l’uso di colori accesi e innaturali, attraverso le prospettive inconsuete aperte su spazi quotidiani, attraverso l’impiego di una simbologia naturale, la via di una pittura realistica ma non mimetica, capace di solleticare tutti i sensi dello spettatore e non soltanto la vista. Anche questi ultimi lavori, in cui la materia viva e vibrante del colore accende le tele di una luce tanto sfolgorante quanto irreale, sono esercizi sulla percezione. Il magma cromatico, le pennellate di rosso, di blu, di arancione, di magenta, le piccole zone auree e argentee diffuse qua e là con circospezione certosina sul quadro, altro non sono se non la metafora visiva di quell’impasto confuso e caotico dei sentimenti umani, delle tensioni mentali ed emotive che caratterizzano la vita interiore di ciascuno di noi. L’artista coglie nella rappresentazione di interni di edifici pubblici o privati, di teatri, di chiese o di palazzi, lo spunto iniziale per modellare paesaggi mentali idealmente collocabili nello spazio liminale fra il sonno e la veglia, fra il conscio e l’inconscio, fra il reale e il fantastico. La pittura spalanca le porte all’immaginazione, riscattando la finzione artistica dall’universo povero e magro delle copie della realtà. Come non intravedere, dietro questi manufatti, lo sforzo titanico compiuto dall’arte in direzione della riappropriazione dei mezzi e degli stratagemmi dell’immaginazione? La serie recente dei candelabri – degli Chandeliers come li definisce l’artista stesso – possiede l’allure romantica e letteraria di certi romanzi mitteleuropei del XIX secolo ma sono al contempo così enigmatici e refrattari ad una facile interpretazione, da proiettarsi in un futuro senza tempo. Partendo da un elemento familiare e conosciuto (il lampadario modello Ca’ Rezzonico), ripetuto in modo ossessivo in tutti i quadri, l’artista costruisce un complesso gioco di rimandi e di specchi: stanze che si aprono su altre stanze, porte che si spalancano sul vuoto, vetri che rifrangono la luce sulle pareti, pavimenti che riflettono i soffitti. Come un prisma ottico, lo spazio bidimensionale dell’opera conquista la terza dimensione, grazie anche ad un sapiente uso della prospettiva e della luce. Se in un ciclo di lavori precedenti, ironicamente dedicati alla figura degli Yes-men – gli uomini di successo della new economy – Bianco aveva affrontato in modo diretto, con vis polemica e critica alcune questioni socio politiche dell’epoca presente; nella serie degli Chandeliers, la riflessione si fa più sottile e più profonda, ricercando nel rapporto fra individuo e spazio, fra interno ed esterno, fra naturale e artificiale, le cause e gli effetti di un mutamento inarrestabile della civiltà occidentale. Dissimulata dietro le magiche e seducenti atmosfere di questi interni
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architettonici dipinti, si cela l’eterno dilemma della distinzione fra “ciò che è e ciò che è rappresentato”. Oggi, dopo aver attraversato la fase di una pittura iperrealista che scimmiottava la fotografia e il cinema, dopo l’era del remake e della copia, si è tornati ad una pittura libera e gioiosa, preziosa e a tratti maniacale, fantastica e cromaticamente ridondante, potente e fragile al tempo stesso, comunque autentica e originale, capace forse di raccontare, in modo più efficace, con le armi bianche della fantasia e dell’invenzione la realtà e lo spirito di questo tempo.
“Al colmo della sua concentrazione – ha osservato in un bel libro il filosofo e scrittore Alain Badiou – l’arte del secolo mira a congiungere il presente, l’intensità del reale della vita e il nome di questo presente che è dato nella formula, che è sempre anche l’invenzione di una forma. Allora il dolore del mondo si muta in gioia.” Le parole di Alain Badiou ci sembrano un ottimo compendio a quanto detto e a quanto sta accadendo nel panorama odierno delle arti visive oltre che un magnifico viatico per la ricerca artistica di Fabio Bianco.
THE VIS CHROMATICA AND VIS FANTASTICA
F
abio Bianco’s (Venice, 1971) pieces have perfect resonance in this climate of rebirth in painting, in which, starting from the 2nd half of the 90’s, Italy too participated, albeit in a different way with respect to the rest of Europe. Given that, after Arte Povera and the Transavanguardia, this country had not seen the birth of artistic movements able to be exported outside the national borders, nor has Italy been able to create artistic and commercial phenomena like the YBA’s in England or the YGA’s from the art schools in Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin; it could be suggested that the fragmentary and nonuniform nature of our country favours more individual, free and independent development of artists, which are however able to engage within both local and global contexts. Fabio Bianco’s painting – like that of other artists of his generation, as well as younger artists - is “a painting free and liberated” without the classic conformity of a medium still subject to obsolete critical and aesthetic judgement. The vis chromatica of these last pieces (but also of earlier work), combine great gestural freedom and a thematic eclecticism, taking the creative research of this Venetian artist once again in the direction of territory recently conquered by invention and imagination. The question one needs to address once more is, and continues to be: Can painting be considered a privileged space with respect to the contemporary landscape, a space at this point already saturated with imagery? Put another way: What bearing could this particular perspective potentially have on our feelings and on our collective identities? From his first works, Fabio Bianco builds a relationship of free exchange with Reality; embracing the huge repertory of forms and marks that the world around him has put at his disposal, making confident use of the pointers and suggestions provided by the web and replaying History of Art’s past, both recent and distant with irony, a lightness of touch and with a post-modern sensibility. Indirect imagery, and more specifically that great “imaginary gulf of visual imagery that the culture itself - either mass culture or alternative forms of tradition, furnishes”. In the case of our artist, however, his pictorial vision does not go down the route of slavish and uncritical citation, nor does he engage in research concerning the realistic effects of photography. His perspective is a metaphoric thread, subtly weaving it’s beguiling course through reality and fiction, figuration and abstraction. In this case, the creative mind works in accordance with the mathematical principles inherent in the recombination of elements. Memory and reality, past and present, both the probable and the true, are undergoing constant change, creating for the onlooker a repertoire of visual representation that “seems to be, but is not”, both strange and familiar at the same time. In the Piscine series, paintings carried out between ’99 and 2000, Bianco attempted to find, through the use of excess and anomalous colour, an unfamiliar perspective onto everyday spaces, as well as, through the use of natural symbolism, the route to realistic but not imitative painting, able to stimulate the viewer on numerous levels and not only visually. Even these most recent pieces, where the subject matter’s vibrant colours reverberate on the canvas with a brilliant unreal light, are exercises in perception. A liquid magma of colour – painterly strokes of red, blue and orange, magenta, slight areas in gold and silver diffused here and there with
a meticulous circumspection all functioning as none other than a visual metaphor for the chaos and confusion that represent the human condition – a brew of emotional and mental tension that characterise the innermost feelings of every one of us. Through the artists representations of the insides of public or private buildings, theatres, churches and palazzi, he finds that initial spark which inspire the reconstruction of mental landscapes, constitutive of that liminal space between the dream state and waking, the conscious and unconscious and the real and imaginary. The paintings throw open the doors to the imagination, liberating artistic invention from a world impoverished by imitations of reality. How can one not intimate, behind the work, the titanic force the art has undertaken in the re-appropriation of imaginative strategy and means? The recent series entitled “Chandeliers” have the romantic and literal allure of certain 19th century Central European novels, but are simultaneously enigmatic so as not to render themselves easily interpretable, but instead position themselves in a future beyond time. The employment of the recognisable and familiar as a departure point (in this case the Ca’ Rezzonico model of Chandelier) and repeating the motif obsessively in the paintings, sets up a complex game of reflections and resonance, with rooms opening onto other rooms, doors thrown open to emptiness, glass refracting the light dancing on the walls and floors which reflect the ceiling. Like a visual prism, the 2 dimensional space of the piece conquers the 3rd dimension, thanks to the informed use of light and perspective on the part of the artist. If, in previous work, devoted ironically to Yes-men (the successful men of the new-economy) Bianco, through his use of strong critical polemic, confronted certain current socio-political matters directly, in the Chandeliers series, he has rendered those considerations more subtle and profound; exploring the relationship between space and the self, interiors and exteriors, the natural and the artificial, and the causes and effects of the unarrestable transformation of western civilisation. Concealed in the magical and seductive atmosphere of these painted architectonic interiors lies the perennial dilemma, concerning the difference between “that which is and that which is represented”. Today, having passed through hyper-realism, which mimicked photography and the cinema following the era of remake and imitation, we have returned to a painting that is free and joyous, inestimable in value, at times obsessive and fantastical. It is replete with colour, simultaneously powerful and fragile, but still authentic and perhaps still capable of effectively recounting through fantasy and imagination our reality and the defining spirit of our times.
“At the height of concentration – observed the philosopher and writer, Alain Badiou – the century’s art aims to unite the present, the intensity of the real in life and it’s name within the formula, which is the invention of form. It is thus that the suffering of the world transforms into joy.” Alain Badiou’s words seem to summarise admirably the present day’s visual arts outlook and furthermore provides the perfect inspiration for Fabio Bianco’s artistic endeavour. (Gabriella Serusi)
Diamond, oil on canvas cm150x170, 2007
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SPRING/SUMMER 2017
THE CAKES ON MY CARPET
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a Galleria Der Pinacoteke Der Moderne Barbara Ruetz di Monaco ha presentato nel mese di Maggio 2013 la nuova serie di lavori realizzata da Fabio Bianco ed intitolata “The Cakes on My Carpet”. Questo nuovo ciclo di opere, concettualmente concepito come un unico grande trittico, costituisce formalmente un naturale continuum artistico con la precedente produzione pittorica “Fabulous life” nella quale l’artista, muovendosi come di consueto all’interno di una dimensione al limite tra l’onirico ed il “simbolico”, affrontava e svelava la sua personale interpretazione di un più generale stato di meraviglia. Ai grandi lampadari che scandiscono le superfici degli interni attraverso una luce quasi “barocca”, si susseguivano le suggestioni tipiche dei “loci ameni” e dei “parterre de borderie”, in cui anche sontuosi banchetti prendevano vita attraverso maestosi “gateau”. Torte, appunto, che attraverso il tempo e lo spazio, divengono ora, quasi ironicamente, la testimonianza diretta del punto di contatto tra il mondo intangibile e visionario della mente e la concretezza, quasi cruda, del reale (il suo tappeto).
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n May, 2013 the Gallery called “Der Pinacoteke Der Moderne Barbara Ruetz” in Monaco presented the new series of works created by Fabio Bianco and entitled “ e Cakes on My Carpet”. is new cycle of works is conceptually conceived as one large triptych and it’s formally a natural artistic continuum with the earlier pictorial production named “Fabulous life”. Moving as usual within a dimension to the limit between the dreamlike and symbolic, the artist probe and reveal his personal interpretation of a more general sense of wonder. Large chandeliers, which mark interior surfaces through an almost baroque light, are followed by the suggestions of “loci ameni” and of “parterre de borderie”, where sumptuous banquets also took life through great “gateau”. rough time and space, the cakes become now, almost ironically, the direct testimony of the contact pointbetween the intangible and visionaryworld of the mind and the concreteness, almost raw, of the real (his carpet). (N. Silva)
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FABULOUS LIFE
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abulous life è la nuova serie di opere pittoriche di Fabio Bianco (Venezia 1971), artista che da sempre concentra la sua indagine estetica sullo studio della luce e dei riflessi luminosi, realizzando opere dalla complessa impalcatura cromatica. Nel corso della sua carriera artistica, la ricerca estetica di Bianco si è orientata principalmente verso un’analisi profonda degli spazi interni, fastosi e luminosi di palazzi e teatri trasfigurati dalla luce ( Evolution, Chandeliers, Yes-Man ). In questo nuovo ciclo di opere il suo sguardo si addentra nelle meraviglie offerte dallo spazio esterno dei giardini di ricche abitazioni dove talvolta, tra il verde delle piante, è possibile scorgerne gli interni dai lussuosi “chandeliers”, che brillano attraverso grandi vetrate. Il titolo scelto dall’artista sottolinea la dimensione onirica e favolosa che caratterizza il suo ultimo lavoro; il medium pittorico sfruttato da Bianco diventa il mezzo per addentrarsi in un mondo ricco di particolari da cogliere, in un gioco di cromatismi di grande vivacità, dove realtà e finzione restano indissolubilmente legati. Come in un paese delle meraviglie Fabio Bianco descrive, con poetica leggerezza un universo dove il quotidiano diventa fantastico e dove i soggetti sono attori in un clima tra reale e immaginario. Un senso di immobile quiete scivola sulle grandi tele di Fabulous life. Come in un sogno nessun rumore disturba la storia; l’invasione delle coccinelle che ricopre il cielo procede silenziosamente, cosi come silenzioso è il grido della fanciulla che scorge un orso che si aggira indisturbato tra le piante, mentre le torte gelato candidamente invitanti, attendono sul tavolo apparecchiato l’arrivo di qualcuno, sotto l’occhio vigile di un alce. Ogni tela è vestita di colori vibranti, avvolta da una luce abbagliante che Bianco cattura attraverso l’utilizzo di foglie d’oro e d’argento, una luce quasi irreale che si intesse tra le trame della tela creando ambientazioni sospese, scenografie dalla forte impostazione teatrale.
MY SWEET HOME
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abio Bianco’s painting is at tool for visionary aperture. Though it does not abdicate the real subject, itsurpasses and transforms it through the complex interweaving of chromatic layers. Liquid and metaphoric, his painting cracks and breaks the limits and fixities of closed environments, multiplying planes and vanishing points, while confusing the distance between things: ceiling and floor, image and reflection. Fabio Bianco was born in 1971 in Mirano, Venice. He has dealt with art very early, attending an arts high school and studying subsequent painting at the prestigious Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. The exhibition “My Sweet Home” placed in our gallery shows his colored works. Interiors are clearly perspective and yet blur the boundaries to the illusion of the dream world, as a kind of memory. We remember almost flowing down chandelier or a forest which breaks inside out. Fabio reveals to us imaginary creations, in a never ending visual repertoire that seems to be that, but it isn’t. Through its characteristic and authentic style, unusual and excessive colors flow and overlap as if they were metaphors for the human chaos and for the confusion of emotions and mental tension. His scenes are works of a free exchange with the reality, they oscillate between possibility and truth. His works are not the strict mimesis of hyper-realism and imitation. His painting is free, sometimes obsessively, fantastic and also ironic. It connects present and past, figuration and abstraction and explores the relationship between space and viewer, between what is and what shows it. This dilemma is a kind of fusion in a visual prism. Rooms opening into new rooms and the 2-dimensional painting which passes through light and perspective in the 3-dimensional one. Fabio pulls the doors of the imagination which resist the digitized and mechanized world. Fabio Bianco has won many awards and already had exhibitions in important places as Documenta in Kassel, Biennale in Venice, as well as other exhibitions around the world. (Andrea Müller)
Il viaggio tra realtà e finzione di Fabulous life continua con le Sculture domestiche, oggetti d’uso quotidiano realizzati da Bianco con vari materiali di recupero della pittura, come tela, telaio e pigmenti, tutti supportati da progetti ad olio realizzati tra il 2008 e il 2009. Queste sculture oggetto, tra cui spicca la Radio rosa, sono perfettamente funzionanti e rappresentano una personale interpretazione dell’oggettualità domestica e quotidiana, diventando la cerniera tangibile di quell’universo fantastico raccontato dall’artista. La riflessione di Fabio Bianco sul linguaggio pittorico si inserisce in un percorso artistico di originale novità, dove forza cromatica e libertà gestuale diventano elementi essenziali di una personale ed autonoma filosofia della visione, che attinge dalle forme del reale senza però mai limitarsi al puro mimetismo, sfiorando talvolta il limite dell’astrazione. (Marianna Perazzini)
T The Cakes On My Carpet, oil on canvas cm150x200, 2013
he title Fabulous Life emphasizes the dreamlike and fantastic atmosphere that characterizes this series of works, the pictorial medium exploited by Bianco becomes the means to penetrate into a world rich in particulars to be understood, in a play of chromatisms full of great brightness, where reality and fiction continue being in an indissoluble bond. Fabio Bianco, just like in a wonderland, describes, through poetic lightness a universe where the everyday life becomes fantastic and in which its subjects are actors in a climate of real and imaginary. A sense of motionless peace glides on the large painting of Fabulous Life. Like no noise disturbs the story in dreams; the invasion of ladybugs covering the sky goes on silently, just as silent as the cry of the girl who notices a bear wandering undisturbed among the plants, while the innocently appetizing ice cream cakes, are placed on a table cloth waiting for someone’s arrival. Each canvas is made of vibrant colors, surrounded by a dazzling light that Bianco captures through the use of gold and silver leaves, an almost unreal light that interweaves itself among the woofs of the canvas creating suspended environments, sets with a strong theatrical setting.
INCHINO
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he Gallery of the Theater of Bremen, after exposure of Candida Hofer and Aiwewei, invites Fabio Bianco to build a great personal exposure. Fabio Bianco’s works can be seen for the first time in Germany and it is a happy coincidence that the paintings are shown in a spatial situation reflecting atmosphere in many moods of the artist. It concerns the radiance of exceptional interiors, in particular of theatres and opera houses. What Fabio Bianco like on the ranks architectures and on the spatiality of stage and Foyer? First, he liked the contrast of surface area and depth. It begins to pose questions to the room. How could be a so solemn atmosphere created? The not well identifiable lighting design of the artist encourages the feeling of tension, felt by the viewer as exciting and perhaps even irritating. At the same time, meeting the work of Fabio Bianco give the possibility to catch time and space, not through furniture such as seemingly weightless crystal chandeliers, but through world of matter, light and a idiosyncratic perspective. Remarkable are his intense colours, such as the red, reminiscent of theatre curtains, but he also uses golden and silvery shimmering, to underline an almost sublime atmosphere of the rooms. in Bianco’s works are deserted: the viewer is the man who appears in conjunction with the space, going into this space - and it’s this the invitation in Fabio Bianco’s Bremen exhibition, to enter in the special world of images. (A. Schneider)
San Sebastiano, oil on canvas cm280x380, 2011
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