Monday, February 16, 2015

Venice Palazzo Loredan: Within Light / Inside Glass Exhibition

Photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati


 
Venice Palazzo Loredan: Within Light / Inside Glass Exhibition. In occasion of the International Year of Light, until April 19th, in Palazzo Loredan, one of the most beautiful spaces in Venice, the exhibition Within Light /Inside Glass curated by Rosa Barovier Mentasti and Francesca Giubilei.  In collaboration with the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Light, glass and their interaction from an artistic and scientific point of view are the theme of the exhibition conceived and promoted by Vicarte, the research unit “Glass and Ceramics for the Arts” based in the campus of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
Fifteen international artists were invited to develop works on the theme of glass and light for the rooms of the palazzo.
Above. Enrico Tommaso De Paris / Italy – Chromosoma # 010605 - 2005. As a multi-media artist he uses the most expressive language from painting to installation, from video to digital images. His works have their roots both in science and in philosophy. His installations, quite often site-specific, transform the space in which they are exhibited into a place of reflection on contemporaneity: the macro and microscopic reality become represented like our DNA, like the atoms from the time of Democritus that represent the elements composing any material. Everything arrives in a mixture of light and sound, glass, plastics and steel.

 Photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati


Within Light / Inside Glass. Anna-Lea Kopperi / Finland – Room of Angels (installation of recycled mirrors) – 2015. Anna-Lea Kopperi is a conceptual artist known because for her interactive and environmental works, installations and public sculptures, which lead us to consider the environmental, architectural and social aspects of the places in which they become situated. Her ephemeral and site-specific projects use subjective perceptions in order to pose existential questions. She often employs mirror fragments set in very specific ways to reflect the surroundings and refract light creating a surreal, spiritually evocative atmosphere.

 Photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati



  
Within Light / Inside Glass. Silvano Rubino / Italy – Sensitive Light in Sensitive Form – 2014 – solid ground, carved and sanded glass. Rubino’s artistic activity includes photography, video and sculpture. His interest is focused on the activation of space and the relationship between the environment and the viewer, between the work and the public; quite often returning to form studies, studies of light and equally to the exploration of words. The material he usually uses for his sculptural works is glass, worked by the skilful hands of the Murano artisans, is deprived of most of its traditional qualities (luminosity and transparency) and acquires a more ambiguous, deceptive nature.

Photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati

Within Light / Inside Glass. Animating the spaces of Istituto Veneto with interesting experimentations, the works presented speak to the interaction between light and glass from both a formal and conceptual point of view.  Using neon or natural light, borosilicate glass for micro or macro sculptures, old Murano techniques or new technologies, photography, painting and drawing, transparency and luminescence.
Above. Co-curator with Rosa Barovier Mentasti, Francesca Giubilei and Taddeo Zuccheri president of Vitraria.

 
Within Light / Inside Glass. Alan Jaras / Great Britain – Refractograph S190 – 8 – 2012 – lensless photography. Jaras is a scientist and an artist who after leaving his career as industrial researcher and microscopist has directed his energy to the study and relation between art and science. He transforms light into art works. His works are classical photographs of lightbeams passing through sheet glass with varying surface attributes at differing angles.  Multi-coloured images result from this process, recalling the depths of the sea or far away galaxies.


 
Within Light / Inside Glass. Elisabeth Scherffig / Germany – Giest und Sinn – 2012 – pastel on Arches Paper. Her artistic research revolves around the concept of space. The primary technique is drawing, very detailed and able to show us surfaces in the smallest details, perceivable as the intimate structure of things. Over the last years she has devoted herself to the observation and photography of heterogeneous glass surfaces, which she converts into pastel drawings on paper. This project connected with glass is a study, through drawing, of vision and light. 
 
Photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati

Within Light / Inside Glass. Teresa Almeida / Portugal.  Almeida is a young artist and designer interested in exploring the link between art and technology. She is currently working with luminescent glass, reconstituting aestheticforms whose point of departure is environmental destruction. Her main interests aretechnology, handicrafts, ecology, sustainability and design for empowerment and social innovation.  
 

Within Light / Inside Glass. Eric Michel / France – Naissance d’un Photon – 2012 – neon. Infini – 2012 – neon.  Michel is a multi-media artist who works mainly with light and color. His lightworks are essentially based in research on the immaterial. Light plays a very important role and is the vehicle for conveying his sensitivity. Its both wave and particle nature, material and immaterial, effects transportation from the real to the imaginary.

 

Within Light / Inside Glass. Robert Wiley / USA – Questioning the Answers – 2015 – Flames worked glass, mirror. Point of Reference #8.1.3. – 2015.  Robert Wiley’s research is currently focused on study of the nature of creativity, and points of approach and divergence between art and science. Understanding the deeper mechanisms of creative thought (artistic and scientific) is the most important element of his work, he often works in glass, in which the material acquires a symbolic role. His artistic practice emerges from exercise and meditation, leading him to create works that span the gap between analytical thought and poetry.

 
Within Light / Inside Glass. Mika Aoki / Japan – Forest – 2014 – flamed worked glass.  Aoki works mainly with glass. Her works represent spores, microorganisms, mould, natural forms, and biological systems scattered over the most diverse environments that become animated in the presence of light. Her research is somewhere between science, art and fantasy. Her transparent and delicate works seem to disappear in the dark and become visible only with light.

 

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Sunday, February 15, 2015

Venice - Murano: 1950s Kiosk/Bar – Poldo Bar

 
Venice - Murano: 1950s Kiosk/Bar – Poldo Bar.  When visiting the island of Murano, famous for it’s Murano hand-blown glass, it’s worth going to have an espresso at Poldo Bar. It is a tiny, tiny original 1950’s kiosk/bar on the Campiello Convento on the Fondamenta Sebastiano Santi. Untouched by time it is true Mid-Century Italian design, and hopefully will remain that way.
Poldo Bar. 3 Campiello Convento, Fondamenta Sebastiano Santi - 30100 Murano -tel. 041 739337.

 
Poldo Bar. The tiny kiosk/bar, also sells packaged commercial candy and was established sixty-five years ago by Poldo and today, his son Giovanni, who shuffles around the bar runs it. It is beautifully preserved with its original fixtures; mirrors, crystal glass and bent lacquered rattan wood.




Poldo Bar. Signor Giovanni, who could be straight out of a Fellini movie, prepares an espresso.
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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Venice: The 2015 Photographic Exhibition Season - Tre Oci

photograph and copyright manfredi bellati


Venice: The 2015 Photographic Exhibition Season - Tre Oci.  At the Casa dei Tre Oci on the island of Giudecca, the 2015 photographic season opened (until April 12) with three different exhibitions. The successful format Giudecca Photography, is now in its third presentation.  A path of research linked on several levels and turns the  exhibition space into a genuine kunsthalle, once again proposing a visual pathway comparing contemporary languages with the great tradition of Venetian photography. The three different exhibitions are aimed at interpreting the essence of today’s photography in a logic that moves towards surpassing genres and transversality.  Photography that is capable of interpreting the idea of change without belonging to any established school of thought.



 
Tre Oci: Sguardi Privati. Sessanta Ritratti Italiani - Fotografie di Francesco Maria Colombo. Sixty portraits of Italian cultural personalities; Toni Servillo, Dario Fo, Bernardo Bertolucci, Peppe Barra, Claudia Gerini, Margherita Hack, Gillo Dorfles, Valerio Mastandrea, Luciana Savignano... Solids and voids. Silences and tremors. Though better known as orchestra director, Francesco Maria Colombo’s approach to photography is meditative, because he observes his subjects slowly, leaving them free to express themselves in the time and the space they prefer.
Above. Francesco Maria Colombo with a portrait of actor Ferruccio Soleri – Milan 2013.

 photograph courtesy Tre Oci

Tre Oci: Sguardi Privati. Sessanta Ritratti Italiani. These images seem to reveal to us the last act of a quest that follows, explores and flushes out his subject until the latter chooses to yield to the camera lens. In a certain sense these portraits express the idea of the inner drama and deep intimacy that the subjects chose to tell in photography.
Above. Francesco Maria Colombo - Allan Bay - food critic - Milano 2014 – copyright - Francesco Maria Colombo.

 
Sguardi Privati. Sessanta Ritratti Italiani - Francesco Maria Colombo

 
Architects Tonci and Barbara Foscari in front of a portrait of the writer Benedetta Craveri – Roma 2014 by Francesco Maria Colombo.
 
 
 Publisher Alessandro Tusset in front of a portrait of actor Toni Servillo - Milano 2013 by Francesco Maria Colombo.


Video artist Anita Sieff stands besides a portrait of the poet Guido Ceronetti – Milan 2013 by Francesco Maria Colombo.

 
Tre Oci: Sguardi Privati. Sessanta Ritratti Italiani – photographs by Francesco Maria Colombo. Patrizia Valduga – poet – Milano 2013. Franco Zeffirelli – director – Roma 2012.



Art historian Cristina Beltrami and La Biennale’s Fabio Pacifico stand in front of a portrait of actress Ambra Angiolini – Brescia 2013. Soprano Carmen Giannattasio – Milano 2013 - Francesco Maria Colombo.

 
Tre Oci: Sguardi Privati. Sessanta Ritratti Italiani – photographs by Francesco Maria Colombo. Claudio Parmiggiani – artist – Torrechiara 2014.  Set Designer – Benedetta Palli – Milano 2014.

 
Francesco Maria Colombo being photographed by  art historian Vittoria Crespi Morbio

 
Casa dei Tre Oci: Venetian Galleries and Photography: Bugno, Ikona, La Salizada, Giorgio Mastinu, Michela Rizzo, Upp. On the first floor of the Casa dei Tre Oci, the exhibition Venetian Galleries and Photography, which are actually six exhibitions, as each gallery has its own room.  They represent the six Venetian galleries that have always been operating in the photography field.
Above. Galleria Michela Rizzo, opened in 2004. Here it presents a selection of photographs by Gabriele Basilico, one of the most significant and internationally recognized, Italian photographers, that show two significant moments of his research: on the one hand the representation of the industrial world in a moment of the irreversible transformation of Milan, at the end of the seventies, and the other a reflection on the artistic history of Italy.

photograph courtesy Tre Oci
 
Galleria Galleria Michela Rizzo: Gabriele Basilico – Venezia 2012 –dalla serie Italia. Capolavori del Rinascimento (progetto FMR-AR T'E').

 

Tre Oci: Ikona Gallery. The Ikona Gallery founded by Ziva Kraus in 1979, was the first gallery in Venice dedicated to photography. In this exhibition she presents well known photographers like; Helmut Newton, William Klein, Berenice Abbott, Lisette Model, Adolf De Meyer and Ferdinando Scianna. Besides these are some emerging photographers, including the young Venetian David Weber.


  Ikona Gallery’s Ziva Kraus

 photograph courtesy Tre Oci

Ikona Gallery - Daniele Duca - Caffe, 1995


Photographer Mark Edward Smith

 photograph courtesy Tre Oci
 
Giorgio Mastinu Fine Art Gallery. Giorgio Mastinu deals with modern and contemporary art, ranging from drawings, prints, photographs and documents. Here he presents a series of photographs from the Nineteenth century, to the 1970s. All images are anonymous, small format, and were collected over the years in different countries. The challenge is to make photography "without photographers", leaving only the essentials without using large formats or high-sounding names.

 photograph courtesy Tre Oci

Galleria Upp:  Rachele Maistrello - Untitled (Frieda) – 2011 - c-print.


Galleria Upp. The Galleria Upp alternates projects ranging from performance to painting, from installation to photography, with attention given to the more intimate and personal ethical and social dynamics. Here it presents the Polish artist Michal Martychowiec, photos on the dynamics of sedimentation and transformation of memory. Also in the exhibition the young Veneto artist Rachel Maistrello, whose work often brings photography closer to performance.
Above. Galleria Upp’s Caterina De Cesero in front of Rachele Maistrello – Red Hair – 2010.

 photograph courtesy Tre Oci

Galleria La Salizada. The  La Salizada gallery was founded in 2012 with an eye to the past,  bring to Venice photogrpahs from the archives of the Fratelli Alinari, as well as a perspective by organizing various cultural events with contemporary artists. In the exhbition it presents Luisa Menazzi Moretti, whose photographs are almost pictorial fragments of detailed consistency. And, Elio Ciol, one of the most important Italian photographers,  who for sixty years “writes” with light, focusing with particular attention to landscape.
Above. Galleria La Salizada - Elio Ciol
 - Prima del Temporale - Lestans 1963 copyright Elio Ciol.
   
Galleria La Salizada – Alberto De Giulio
 
Tre Oci’s Valeria Regazzoni and IUAV’s Maria Luisa Frisa

photograph and copyright manfredi bellati
L’Italia Positiva di Stefano Robino Exhibition - Photographer Stefano Robino with his works.
photograph courtesy Tre Oci


Casa dei Tre Oci: L’Italia Positiva di Stefano Robino. Stefano Robino‘s L’Italia Positiva, photographs 1951-1969 is a retrospective of the reporter who became famous for his photographs  of the work environment, of FIAT Grandi Motori.
Above. Stefano Robino - Bimba ai Giardini – 1959.

 photograph courtesy Tre Oci


L’Italia Positiva di Stefano Robino - Stefano Robino - Alla Partenza della Cristoforo Colombo – 1957.

 
Lorenzo and Valentina Marangoni

photograph and copyright manfredi bellati

Sguardi Privati. Sessanta Ritratti Italiani – photographs by Francesco Maria Colombo. Golden Retriever Kima enjoys the exhbition.

 


 
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