contessanally: Venice: The 2015 Photographic Exhibition Season

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.