Louis Fratino: "Morning"

LOUIS FRATINO MORNING October 9 – November 14, 2020

LOUIS FRATINO MORNING October 9 – November 14, 2020

SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO.

530 WEST 22ND STREET NEW YORK, NY 10011 TEL 212 929 2262 WWW.SIKKEMAJENKINSCO.COM

They have called me “The exclusive poet of love.”

And perhaps this is true.

But the wind here that blows on each blade of grass and the noises of the distant city whose lights are visible from where I stand, do they not also speak of love?

And are there not behind these warm clouds the sounds of an ardent love beyond which there is nothing but silence?*

Louis Fratino makes paintings and drawings from specific memory and art historical references.

Fratino synthesizes visual languages sampled from antiquity to modernism to describe the contemporary body, landscape, and interior spaces. New paintings of still lifes and interiors explore the tonal and emotionally evocative qualities of morning light, and the quotidian routines associated with that time of day. Searching for a sense of queerness in the gestures of everyday life, Fratino considers the nuanced interactions of light with form, space, and surface as potential realms for discovery. Influenced by the writings of Italian poet Sandro Penna and works by artists Filippo de Pisis and Marsden Hartley, Fratino looks for an essential queerness that lies parallel to the body, extending outward into a more complete world.

* Sandro Penna, “They have called me,” in A Boy Asleep Under the Sun: Versions of Sandro Penna, ed. and trans. Peter Valente (Brooklyn: Punctum, 2014).

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Born in 1993, in Annapolis, MD, Louis Fratino received his BFA in Painting with concentration in Illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD in 2015. He is a recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Painting, Berlin (2015-16) and a Yale Norfolk Painting Fellowship, Norfolk, CT in 2014. Fratino lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. The artist’s first institutional solo exhibition, curated by Jared Ledesma, will open at the Des Moines Art Center in November 2021.

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Man, book, mirror, 2020 Oil on canvas 42 x 56 inches (106.7 x 142.2 cm)

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Fish market, 2020 Oil on canvas 23 x 28 inches (58.4 x 71.1 cm)

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Tom in Albisola, 2020 Oil on canvas 14 x 11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm)

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Among women only, 2020 Oil on canvas 80 x 65 inches (203.2 x 165.1 cm)

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Swift and mosquito, 2020 Oil on canvas 36 x 52 inches (91.4 x 132.1 cm)

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Morning, 2020 Oil on canvas 92 x 72 inches (233.7 x 182.9 cm)

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The Sleepers, 2020 Oil on canvas 65 x 95 inches (165.1 x 241.3 cm)

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Waking up first, hard morning light, 2020 Oil on canvas 90 x 70 inches (228.6 x 177.8 cm)

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Polaroids on the kitchen counter, 2020 Oil on canvas 60 x 60 inches (152.4 x 152.4 cm)

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Richardson Street living room, 2020 Oil on canvas 90 x 70 inches (228.6 x 177.8 cm)

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Pinewood table, 2020 Oil on canvas 45 x 45 inches (114.3 x 114.3 cm)

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May, 2020 Oil on canvas 36 x 20 inches (91.4 x 50.8 cm)

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July, 2020 Oil on canvas 57 x 38 inches (144.8 x 96.5 cm)

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Tom’s eyes, 2020 Oil on canvas 12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)

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Hill, 2020 Oil on canvas 9 x 12 inches (22.9 x 30.5 cm)

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View of Monte Cristo, 2020 Oil on canvas 36 x 20 inches (91.4 x 50.8 cm)

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Eggs, dishes, coreopsis, 2020 Oil on canvas 42 x 42 inches (106.7 x 106.7 cm)

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Sleeping on your roof in August, 2020 Oil on canvas 85 x 65 inches (215.9 x 165.1 cm)

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Dead pigeon, 2020 Oil on canvas 12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)

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Noon, 2020 Oil on canvas 12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)

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LOUIS FRATINO

Born 1993, Annapolis, MD Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

EDUCATION

2016 Fulbright Research Fellowship in Painting and Printmaking, Berlin, DE 2015 BFA, Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD 2014 Ellen Battel Stoeckel Fellowship, Yale Summer School of Art and Music, Norfolk, CT

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2020 Morning, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, October 9 – November 14, 2020 2019 Nudissima, Antoine Levi, Paris, France, October 18 – December 5, 2019

Come Softly To Me, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, April 18 – May 24, 2019 2018 Night and Day, Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson, NY, May 26 – June 24, 2018

Heirloom, Antoine Levi Gallery, Paris, France, January 26 – March 10, 2018 2017 So I’ve got you, Thierry Goldberg, New York, NY, September 10 – October 8, 2017

Own, Only, Monya Rowe Gallery, Saint-Augustine, FL, August 4 – September 3, 2017 2016 With everyone, Thierry Goldberg, New York, NY, October 14 – November 13, 2016

REASONS: Works by Louis Fratino, Platform Gallery, Baltimore, MD, August 13 –

September 3, 2016

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2020 Heaven and Hell, Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles, January 18 – February 14, 2020

Spazio Assoluto, Galerie Antoine Levi, Paris, France, September 3 – October 17, 2020

Drawings 2020, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY, September 24 – December 2020

MASS ORNAMENT: Pleasure, Play, and What Lies Beneath, South Etna Gallery, Montauk, NY,

September 3 – October 31, 2020

Good Pictures, Jeffrey Deitch, New York, NY. September 14 – November 7, 2020 2019 Nicolas Party: Pastel, Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY, October 10 – December 14, 2019

Creative Pride, The National Arts Club, New York, NY, September 3 – 25, 2019

Futures of Love, Magasins Généraux, Pantin, France, June 21 – October 20, 2019 Them, PERROTIN, New York, NY, June 20 – August 16, 2019

They Gaze, James Fuentes Gallery, New York, NY, June 7 – July 19, 2019

Liberté et Courage, Villa Romaine, Hyères, France, April 25 – May 26, 2019 2018 O Youth and Beauty! Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro, Nuoro, Italy, November 9, 2018 –

March 3, 2019

INTIMACY, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY, June 28 – August 24, 2018

Glazed, Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, NY, June 27 – August 3, 2018

Invincible Summer, Galerie Mikael Anderson, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 22 – August 25, 2018

KURA (Summer Rhapsody), at Fonderia Artistica Battaglia, Milan, Italy, July 5 – September 10, 2018

Triple: Alex Bradley Cohen, Louis Fratino, and Tschabalala Self, University Museum of Albany,

Albany, NY, June 29 – September 15, 2018 77

2018 Design for Living, Foxy Production, New York, NY, May 18 – June 24, 2018

Touching Palms, Thierry Goldberg, Miami, FL, April 27 – June 3, 2018

One long changing body, Carlier-Gebauer, Berlin, Germany, March 3 – April 14, 2018

Line and Verse, Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, Sweden, January 11 – February 17, 2018 2017 Matisse + Fratino, Cabinet Printemps, Düsseldorf, Germany, December 16, 2017 –

February 9, 2018

Practice in Leisure, Galeria Mascota, Mexico City, Mexico, November 11, 2017 –

January 5, 2018

Embodiment: Louis Fratino, Cindy Ji Hye Kim, Danielle Orchard, Michael Stamm, D.C Moore

Gallery, New York, NY, November 9 – December 22, 2017

Life’s Rich Pageant, Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson, NY, October 14 – November 26, 2017

Anna Glantz, Anthony Cudahy, Louis Fratino, HARPY Gallery, Rutherford, NJ, May 13 –

June 10, 2017

The Edge of Doom, HILDE, Los Angeles, CA, April 22 – May 27, 2017

Mommy, Monya Rowe Gallery, Saint Augustine, FL, March 25 – May 7, 2017

Chase | Fratino | Lee, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY 2016 Sister Outsider, Underdonk, Brooklyn, NY, December 9, 2016 – January 29, 2017

Tom Friedman (+The Birthday Show), 1969 Gallery, New York, NY, November 18, 2016 –

January 8, 2017

Human Condition, Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, October 1 –

November 30, 2016 2015 ((between you and me)), Leake Studio, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD 2014 Diamonds and Doughnuts, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA, October 11 –

November 1, 2014

Love Tap, Current Space, Baltimore, MD, August 30 – September 27, 2014

Art Crush, Platform Gallery, Baltimore, MD, August 15 – September 10, 2014

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SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO.

530 WEST 22ND STREET NEW YORK, NY 10011 TEL 212 929 2262 WWW.SIKKEMAJENKINSCO.COM