Ai sali d’argento, 2004, grafite su carta, 144 x 200 cmAi sali d'argento, 2004, graphite on paper, 144 x 200 cm
Matité
May 2011 – June 2012
Carlotta Pesce is pleased to announce the inauguration of a personal exhibition dedicated to Serse (born in San Polo di Piave, 1952. He currently lives and works in Trieste) organized in collaboration with Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Bejing, Le Moulin.
Serse is one of the most interesting figures on the Italian art scene, who has taken part in important international exhibitions from Europe to the United States and China. For over twenty years he has renounced the use of colour and coherently pursues research based on the patient and original art of drawing with graphite. In his work the drawing has nothing to do with the idea of planning as with a sketch, but rather the craftsmanship of the goldsmith, the chisel, the perfect gesture which in the union of signs creates a detailed plot that imitates the silver bromide of antique photographs, achieving theeffect of a printed photograph, or the fuzziness of a screen. The drawing, submitted to meticulous analysis which sounds out all possibilities, is the instrument that constitutes the work in its absolute completeness.
From Serse’s graphite flows one of the most intense re-readings in contemporary art of the traditional theme of landscape: seas, skies and clouds, towering mountains, snowy woods, natural spaces deprived of any human presence, transfigured by shadows and light. A repertoire of images of the suspended temporality that oscillate from the meticulous detail of adroplet, a crystal or an architectural feature, to immense spaces revealing nature in its primary and sublime condition. The title chosen by Serse for this exhibition is Matité, which is French for opacity. It refers to the opaque quality of graphite in contrast to the sparkle of diamonds, and evokes the heroic attempt to represent light, the real protagonist of the artist’s creative process, starting from the dark mark, the black pencil lead, its mineral consistency and silvery shimmer.
This exhibition is a new appointment in the series of exhibitions which every year involve different internationally renowned artgalleries who are invited to take part, inaugurated in 2010 with a series of Encounters with Lia Rumma Naples, Milan, followed in 2011 by a series of Encounters with Giò Marconi, Milan and in 2012 with Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Beijing, Le Moulin.
Galleria Continua was founded in San Gimignano in 1990 by three friends: Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi and Maurizio Rigillo. It is situated in an evocative space in what was a 1950’s cinema, and is one of the most important internationally recognised contemporary art centres in Italy. In 2004 Galleria Continua was one of the first Western galleries to inaugurate a new space in 798 Art District, the artistic district of Beijing, to promote international contemporary art where it was previously poorly visible and stimulate innovative cultural exchange. In 2007 Galleria Continua founded Le Moulin at Boissy-le-Chatel, in the Parisian countryside, by turning a disused factoryinto a unique space of over 10,000 m² dedicated to contemporary creation. In just the first three years after its opening it welcomed over 30,000 visitors.