Massimo Audiello is pleased to announce an exhibition by Luisa Rabbia.
The exhibition will open on Friday, February 23, and run through Saturday,
April 21, 2007.
The opening reception is Friday, February 23 from 6 to 8 pm.
Luisa Rabbia has been interested in the body as a metaphor since her
early works. The bridge she has built between this subject and all kinds
of possible connections such as cosmic, philosophical, religious and
existential is what has kept this obsession vital and in continuous evolution.
The artist's work is based on drawing, seen as a knot that unites rational
construction with the imagination, one mark after another.
The relationship between drawing and time and space, being and becoming,
figure and ground, have led Luisa Rabbia to work with paper, paper-mache
and porcelain.
Old Man, a sculpture representing an old seated man, is absorbed in a
never-ending sleep. Roots entangle him and seemingly take him back to
the earth where he came from.
Brain, is a large porcelain wall piece representing a centenary olive
tree. The infinite lines which make up the bulging roots of the tree
draw similarities to capillary vessels and all together seem to constitute
a brain tissue. Crakes, naturally occurred on the process of making and
the drawing, slowly recorded the time passing by.
A Tree to Walk With is a sculpture representing a portable tree that
could function as a pet or a traveling companion.
All the works in the exhibition seem to come out, be composed of, or
wrapped up in multiple layers of roots and blood vessels. Their graphic
similarities seem to remind us of a primal cosmic unity which still entangles
us even when our daily life wants us to believe in separation from each
other and from the nature we leave in.
Entering Luisa Rabbia's world is like reentering this forgotten unity.
The secret life of objects that surrounds us during the unraveling of
our lives comes to life, like creatures in a fairytale, where the fantastic
is removed and the existential appears in the layers of our personal
and collective experience.
Beside New York, Luisa Rabbia's latest projects include the following
exhibitions: Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China; Giorgio
Persano Gallery, Torino, Italy; Marta Cervera Gallery, Madrid, Spain;
Special Project at Arte All'arte IX and X, Associazione Continua, S.Gimignano,
Italy.
A monograph on her work has been published by Hopefulmonster with a text
by Achille Bonito Oliva.
Massimo Audiello 526 West 26th Street no. 519 New York, NY 10001
tel: 212.675.9082 fax: 212.675.8680 email: audiello@msn.com
website: www.massimoaudiello.com
LUISA RABBIA February 23 - April 21, 2007
Ciocca Arte Contemporanea - via Lecco 15, 20124 Milano
tel +39 02 29530825 - gallery@rossanaciocca.it