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Rosenfeld Porcini are proud to present The Continuation of Romance: Painting –
an Interrupted Discourse, a group exhibition of fourteen international artists
working with painting.
The Continuation of Romance brings together twelve European artists and two South American artists:
Emmanuel Barcilon (France), Zsolt Bodoni (Romania), Bram Bogart (Belgium), Enrique
Brinkmann (Spain), Piero Pizzi Cannella (Italy), Francisco Corcuera (Chile), Steve Goddard (UK),
Aída Rubio González (Spain), Nadia Hebson (UK), Carlo Mattioli (Italy), Nicola Samorí (Italy),
Toti Scialoja (Italy), Eduardo Stupía (Argentina) and Bogdan Vladuta (Romania).
Just as painting has been intermittently pronounced “dead”, “beauty” has been labelled a mere paean to
the bourgeoisie inducing nothing more than a passive appreciation. This exhibition will attempt both to
show that painting is still very much alive but also that “beauty” rather than being passive, can have
cathartic powers, as witnessed by the great religious masterpieces which adorned so many of the
churches of Catholic Europe. Through both abstract and figurative examples, the exhibition will contain a
variety of artists’ approaches to mark making and will attempt to stimulate thoughts on the mystery of
man’s continued ability to find and convey inspiration through this age old medium.
The work ‘Le Cattedrali’ by Italian artist Piero Pizzi Cannella clearly references an essential part of
European history but in an unmistakably contemporary way, illustrating perfectly both in form and content
how one can continue with the great tradition yet remain very much of our time. In contrast to Cannella’s
rich palette, Bogdan Vladuta’s work is painted predominantly in black and white and represents a large
panoramic view of a cityscape with its Communist era buildings partially destroyed. Although painting a
potentially highly charged and political subject, Vladuta’s interests are far more concerned with decay and
memory.
Italian artist Nicola Samorì has worked for a few years now around the figure of the great Spanish
painter who lived most of his life in Naples, Italy; Jusepe Ribera. In part reproducing and in part totally
transforming the highly dramatic images of the artist, he has managed to create a visual lineage between
the seventeenth century and the present day. We are showing ‘Ebbro’ a large canvas which features a
transformed version of Ribera’s ‘The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew’. The English artist Nadia
Hebson’s large canvas of a shipwreck is another work which strongly references an existing tradition. At
times embracing abstraction, at times unmistakenly figurative, the monochromatic blue palette gives a
strange and surreal light to the composition as if the shipwreck stands as a metaphor with far wider
implications.
The Romanian artist Zsolt Bodoni intertwines his own personal history with those of his country, his rich
visual imagination creating images of great fascination and power. ‘In Bloom’ is a recent work in which a
highly original and very worked palette provides the rich backdrop to Bodoni’s mysterious yet evocative
imagery. Also filtered with a personal approach, the work of English artist Steve Goddard recounts an
individual journey through memory – both individual and art historical – as the artist moves with total ease
between sculpture, drawing and painting. We have included in the exhibition a large ‘Nan in Chair’ which
directly relates to his memories of his grandmother who was instrumental in his becoming an artist.
For Italian painter Carlo Mattioli, the solitary tree in a landscape is an image which has remained
dominant throughout his painterly life. In ‘Landscape’, the abiding monochromatic tone only accentuates
the haunting image which appears to emerge out of the landscape as if surrounded by a great mist. Aída
Rubio González is a young Spanish artist whose highly-original paintings display enormous confidence;
her works vary from sexually-charged human relationships to paintings that rework art history.
Early in his artistic career, Spanish artist Enrique Brinkmann sought to find a way to “create air
between the picture surface and the wall”. From that need he arrived at the idea of a transparent metal
mesh which would hang a short distance from the wall. We are showing works in the exhibition which
illustrate the extreme musicality of these compositions and the beauty of their colour and form.
Argentinian artist Eduardo Stupía works almost exclusively in black and white, drawing upon an
extensive palette of marks and techniques within a single canvas: pencil, charcoal, acrylic, graphite,
watercolour and ink are used to push the boundaries of each medium’s potential as far as possible, yet
succeeding in creating final works full of harmony and vitality.
Like Stupía, the large compositions of Francisco Corcuera draw upon a variety of mediums, combining
a great lyricism with this continual sense of a highly mathematical attempt at governing the space, yet
never managing to achieve it. Toti Scialoja is an Italian artist who has embraced abstraction throughout
his career, yet moving constantly through various stages of expression. The large work on display in the
exhibition belongs to the final artistic period of his life when he found a new freedom both in gesture,
exuberance of colour and energy.
Bram Bogart, another artist who was never to leave abstraction, is renowned for the thickness of the
applied paint. In Bogart’s works from the 50s the juxtaposition of brush strokes, striking use of colour and
dynamism of the composition render the thickness of the paint a logical consequence of the whole.
Finally, Emmanuel Barcilon is a French artist who uses a material consisting of varnish mixed with pure
pigment which he applies numerous times to the wooden surface, often intervening during this process to
add graphic elements so that at the painting’s conclusion, various images, marks or colours are visible
below the surface, some buried deeper than others, as he creates a very personal visual diary.
The Continuation of Romance is the seventh exhibition at Rosenfeld Porcini, and the second in its series of
occasional themed group shows. The exhibition will extend over both floors of the extensive gallery
space.
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