CRAVE

Anna Amadio / Michael Ashcroft / Valerio Berruti / Gordon Cheung / May Cornet / Shezad Dawood / Stanislao Di Giugno / Flavio Favelli / Shilpa Gupta / Kent Henricksen / Isola & Norzi / Caterina Nelli / Pietro Ruffo Vedovamazzei

Curated by Raffaella Guidobono

Private View: Wed 6 Sept 2006 6pm-9pm

To Crave is for the small part of those linked to the sense of willing always something. The group show exploits the illusory and intimate but also the strong sense of everyday fixation towards things and feelings even if we know perfectly well that we could be less needy.

Genius of the Lamp, extraordinary object found in a beach by the girlfriend of the artist Stanislao di Giugno was turned into a bronze sculpture with the sentence engraved: "Have you ever wondered about my greatest wish?". It’s all about possession, since everyone instantly think why I didn’t find the lamp myself.

The exhibition describes ritual obsession shared by who wish so intensively in spite of the seriousness of life, between idiosyncratic or self-willed processes. Each work is a portrayal of the fact that everyone is favourably disposed towards burning desire. The artist deals with his/her own set of circumstances (i.e., personal history, environment, indigenous materials, etc.) setting their expression uniquely apart from all others. The faculty of volition, the resoluteness, the expectation, the power of determination and choice, the strength of purpose are all aspects of the same plan of using one’s will. The resulting perspective of our being human becomes enriched by the variety of feel a powerful desire for something.

The artists create a world in which abstraction and representation plays with precious materials: Gold & Diamantes, Velvet, Goose Feathers, Art Deco table, Cotton paper, Oak, Ebony, Lead, Leather, as well as Self-adhesive Tape, Thread, Permanent Marker, Chalk. The idea is to delve into neglected corners to find a concrete form to what we cannot reach and focus the contradiction as a source of interaction.

About the artists:

MICHAEL ASHCROFT Included in The Triumph of Painting at the Saatchi Gallery, 2 Solo Shows at Max Wigram London, forthcoming Solo show at Lucy Makintosh Gallery Losanna and Roebling Hall NY. Michael Ashcroft reinvents the moost conventional of all genres with ironically-tuned political bite.
ANNA AMADIO She is currently considered to have created one of the most interesting new young positions on the Swiss art scene. She just did a solo at The Kunstmuseum Thun, represented in Italy by Paolo Bonzano.
VALERIO BERRUTI Recent solo shows at the Herzliya Museum in Tel Aviv, Palazzo Bricherasio Torino, Esso Gallery NY, (Modern Painters May 2006 issue and a review in Contemporary n.82 2006)
GORDON CHEUNG Graduated from Royal College of Art, 2001. Currently exhibiting in The British Art Show 6 and Fresh! Contemporary Takes on Nature and Allegory, Museum of Glass - International Center for Contemporary Art, Washington USA. Recently completed Braziers International Artist Workshop. Forthcoming solo show will be at Thomas Cohn Gallery in Sau Paulo.
SHEZAD DAWOOD Performer, painter, just selected for Platform for Art in London, now included in the group show Moving in Architecture at Camden Arts Centre, he conceived the Artist's Studio project in a sublet mansion in Knightsbridge.
MAY CORNET Recent group shows at the Pan Museum in Naples and the Saint Etienne Museum in Saint Etienne.
FLAVIO FAVELLI Selected shows:Interior, IIC Los Angeles 2004 , Clandestini, 50° Biennale di Venezia, 2003; La mia casa è la mia mente, Galleria Maze, Torino, 2003; Where is my home?, IIC, Londra, 2003; Moltitudini-Solitudini, Museion, Bolzano, 2003; Exit, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, 2002; My home is my mind, Artinprogress, Berlino, 2002.
STANISLAO DI GIUGNO Selected Shows: USUK 2. Three Colts Gallery, Londra; ART OMI. International Artists’ Residency, New York; MASAI ART FACTORY “Honey Money? Il gusto dei soldi”, ASSAB ONE, Milano; RAM, Zerynthia, Roma (2005);MACROVIdeoteca. MACRO, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Roma; Anrufung des Großen Bären, Forum Austriaco di Cultura a Roma. Le Signal. Incontri internazionali di videoarte, Biarritz; 1234567890 Lingotto, Torino, Artissima 10.
SHILPA GUPTA Recent shows: Solo at the Havana Biennial 2006, Group show SubContigente at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino.
KENT HENRICKSEN Included in Greater New York 2005 at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Centre and ARS 06 in the Kiasma Museum Helsinki. Represented by John Connelly Presents in NY, recent Solo at Hiromi Yoshii Gallery Tokyo.
CATERINA NELLI Graduated at Camberwell, recent Solo at Fondazione Olivetti in Rome, selected for Locarno In Progress, Premio Michetti 06.
ISOLA&NORZI Hilario Isola and Matteo Norzi, represented by Valentina Bonomo Roma, recent show with Sol Lewitt. Mid September performance at the Palais de Tokyo.
PIETRO RUFFO Group shows at the Bard College, NY, Fondazione Pastificio Cerere. Fragments of time, Yellow Bird Gallery, New York. InsideOut, A temporary art collection,Roma,Red bull music Academy, Premium+, Postdamerplatz, Berlino Duetto all’italiana, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Sendai, Giappone 1999 Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Algeri, Algeria .Ex Mattatoio-Testaccio,Roma
VEDOVAMAZZEI Stella Scala and Simeone Crispino, represented by Magazzino Arte Moderna and Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Parigi Selected Group shows: XIV Quadriennale di Roma Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Roma Ipermercato dell'arte, Palazzo delle Papesse - Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena Galleria Civica d´Arte Moderna e Contemporanea - Torino, Torino, Biennale de Montréal 2002 Montreal, Quebec, GAMeC - Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Bergamo Magic & Loss - Contemporary Art Center Vilnius (CAC)

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