#levy gorvy

Johannes Girardoni, Interior, Metaspace V3, 2013/2018, Aluminum, fiberglass, resin, wood, LEDs, and sensors with Spectro-Sonic Regrequencer, 108 x 168 x 108 inches, Johannes Girardoni Studio

Johannes Girardoni is a 2019 Francis J. Greenburger Award winner! Celebrate his amazing work with Art Omi and Art-in-Buildings on April 1st!

RSVP here: http://ow.ly/TOgh30nTh8W

Johannes Girardoni has dedicated the last two decades to a complex and precise exploration of the limits of perception through material and light. Shifting between disciplines—sculpture, installation art, and photography—his work is concerned with creating new definitions of space through digital and analogue media.

Johannes Girardoni, Metaspace V3, 2013/2018, Aluminum, fiberglass, resin, wood, LEDs, and sensors with Spectro-Sonic Regrequencer, 108 x 168 x 108 inches, Johannes Girardoni Studio

Johannes Girardoni, Dripbox-Titanium White, 2018, Beeswax, pigment and wood, 42 x 48 x 9 inches, Johannes Girardoni Studio

As mentioned in my review of Luciano Fabro (see link), Arte Povera season is in full swing, both in London and in New York.

The movement, counting Calzolari, Pistoletto, Fontana and Castellani amongst its prominent artists, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017 with an array of fantastic shows.

The most comprehensive by far, was that hosted by Levy Gorvy on Madison Avenue and curated by Germano Celant - art historian and forefather of the movement itself.

Celant was responsible for bringing the movement to the attention of Ileana and Michael Sonnabend, when they met at the Venice Biennale in 1964. The couple pushed the movement towards international recognition.

In 1967 Celant noticed a group of artists, scattered around Rome, Milan, Bologna and Turin who were intentionally juxtaposing their work to that of Pop art. The contrast is blatant when one compares, for instance, Andy Warhol's diamond dust paintings with the simple, "poor" materials used by Zorio. In November, Flash Art, the renowned publication, issued a mission statement characterising Arte Povera as guerrilla warfare. The artists were in fact engaging in a witty, subtle way with Italian postwar politics. 1968 was the year of radical movements, student protests, political battles between parties whose ideologies were polar opposites. Whilst Levy Gorvy's particular exhibition does not necessarily enhance the political elements behind the works, La Galleria Nazionale in Rome does precisely that (see link).

Sonnabend brought Arte Povera to American collectors, displaying the works in her Parisian gallery - opened in 1962 - and then in her New York gallery from 1970. Celant was a dear friend and together they organised in 1972 Paolini's first US solo exhibition.

The works on display across three floors are incredible. Upon entering we are greeted by Pistoletto's Marzia con la bambina (1964). This early work - part of Sonnabend's first show dedicated to the artist - draws us in and encourages us to look around the room (reflected, so that Marzia herself can see). Bottiglia per terra and Donna seduta di spalle reflect Merz's Grembiali = numeri naturali, the ten plastic red aprons hung on the right wall.

These works create the perfect setting for Merz's Igloo (1971) which was exhibited in Sonnabend's first Arte Povera show in New York. Merz, fascinated with the idea of space and shelter uses his work to engage with questions he posits:

Is space straight or curved? Do houses move around you or do you move around houses? What does making a house mean?

Moving to the first floor, we find one of my favourite works - Jannis Kounellis's Manifesto per un teatro utopico (1973) as well as Calzolari's tobacco leaves, attached to neon transformers in Untitled (Non).

Zorio is pleasantly represented in this room with Pelle con resistenza (la vita è vicina e vive) - a beautifully balanced sculpture in which cowhide and electrical cables are delicately arranged - hanging ever so gently from the ceiling.

We find him on the second floor too, with Tenda, a 1967 sculpture that received wonderful praise in Turin only a couple of weeks prior. With the passing of time condensation trapped in the salt placed on top of the green canvas flows through the fabric, creating a puddle beneath.