Sarteri schemochrome, linen and Egyptian cotton overpainted threads. Inspired by the Hamaguri Gate Rebellion that took place on August 20, 1864, at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto.
In these days of #JesuisCharlie western world rediscovered itself unite against barbarities. An alleged culture clash that burns since centuries. Fundamentals of traditional religions are blocking their evolutions in a future society of equality, unity, comprehension and love. Fear, terrorism are just karmic side-effects of shortsightedness. It’s not the matter of a religion against the other, it’s blind rationality from one part and blind faith from the other.
In October 2014 I got the chance to jump again to my second home away from home, the beautiful and bustling Shanghai. This time I enjoyed myself with an unexpected change of plan and painted a non commissioned mural over the infamous Moganshan Lu with some old and new friends that were bombing graffiti. Painting action of the piece follows.
Among 2014 projects that became reality one rediscovered me in an intimate form. I was asked by the Milan City Council and the City’s energy public company to project color interventions that were realized with special paintings and coatings, in strategical spots of the urban area. Streets of Milan as any Italian city, town or village are permeated by art, architecture, culture: you literally breath energies of the glorious past mixing them with contemporary life’s flow. A special intervention has been this one, on the right corner of the prestigious Teatro La Scala. Electric boxes are visual abandoned elements of any Italian urban landscape. Designing a new attire for them makes me feel like taking care of something that is not mine but collective. Color and structures open a visual channel that is capable of engaging the environment and the outsiders who experience it in transition. It feels good when you spot tourists taking pics to what was only a dirt service box, children also get impressed by colors and few bright souls try even to read a message in the color scheme. I’m going to post other realized interventions soon.
Only today I find the time to review my notes about artworks exhibited at Art Basel Miami this last December. These are the selected 10. Beginning with the masterpiece “Nocturne Tropicale II, 2014″ by Robert Kelly showed at San Francisco based John Berggruen Gallery stand.
Bridget Riley is an abstract painter who came to prominence in the American Op Art movement of the 1960s, after her inclusion in the 1965 exhibition “The Responsive Eye” at The Museum of Modern Art. There, her black-and-white paintings—which created illusions of movement—were shown alongside works by Victor Vasarely, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Frank Stella, and Ellsworth Kelly, among others.
Finally I reserved some time to update a backstage post on this blog. Few weeks ago me and Alberto jumped in Dubai for some meetings in the Emirates. We left Milan at 15°C and after a short night we landed in a 45+°C on fire Dubai in the early morning. We found ourself cruising along Sheikh Zayed Road in the first morning traffic, heading to Dubai mall for breakfast.
Maser from Dublin is one of the artist that keeps impressing me through powerful, colorful, optical installations. A bold style that reminds me of Canadian designers Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte and Jakub Zak who pooled their design practices under the epithet Oeuffice. But Maser’s installations set in public spaces and environments scale to a brand new level. A selection of artworks follows.
Unique Sarteri’ schemochrome mixed tecnique on linen with unraveled borders. – 42,5 x 42,5 cm, 2014
Costante Girardengo (18 March 1893 – 9 February 1978) was an Italian professional road bicycle racer, considered by many to be one of the finest riders in the history of the sport. He was the first rider to be declared a “Campionissimo” or “champion of champions” by the Italian media and fans. He has been immortalised in Italian popular culture through the critically acclaimed song “Il Bandito e il Campione” by Francesco De Gregori that juxtaposes his life with that of his childhood friend the notorious bandit and outlaw Sante Pollastri. Pollastri was arrested in Paris in 1927 by men of the Commissioner Guillaume, betrayed by an informer tipped off the police. He was there for a stage of the Tour de France, won by Girardengo few minutes before he got caught. He was sentenced to life imprisonment but was pardoned in 1959 by then President Giovanni Gronchi. He spent the last twenty years of his life in Novi Ligure, where he has been a street vendor. He died in 1979, a year after the disappearance of Girardengo.
* Illustrations by talented Riccardo Guasco
