Paola D'Agostino, Royal Museums of Turin Director - Musei Reali di Torino

Paola D'Agostino, Royal Museums of Turin Director - Musei Reali di Torino

Paola D'Agostino

Director of the Musei Reali di Torino

Photograph by Giuliano Berti 

for the Royal Museums of Turin

Courtesy Musei Reali di Torino

Royal Museums of Turin

Palazzo Reale di Torino

Photograph by Daniele Bottallo

for the Royal Museums of Turin

Courtesy Musei Reali di Torino

Palazzo Reale Galleria del Daniel

Photograph by Andrea Guermani

for the Royal Museums of Turin

Courtesy Musei Reali di Torino

Palazzo Reale Scala delle Forbici

Photograph by Dario Fusaro

for the Royal Museums of Turin

Courtesy Musei Reali di Torino

Following the completion of the appointment procedures, Dr. Paola D'Agostino took up office as Director of the Royal Museums of Turin on 1 October 2025 .

Paola D'Agostino takes over the prestigious role held by Enrica Pagella from December 1, 2015, to November 30, 2023, and, following the recognition of the Royal Museums as a first-tier state museum, by Mario Turetta, Head of the Department for Cultural Activities of the Ministry of Culture, as Deputy Director.

An art historian and specialist in Italian Renaissance and Baroque sculpture, she graduated and obtained her PhD from the University of Naples “Federico II”, with specializations at the Courtauld Institute of Art and University College London. From 2015 to 2024 she led the Bargello Museums in Florence and boasts extensive curatorial experience abroad, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as a Senior Research Associate in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, to the Yale University Art Gallery, as the Nina and Lee Griggs Assistant Curator in European Art .

In her first words as Director, Paola D'Agostino declared : “ I am very honored to begin my new role as Director of the Royal Museums of Turin, which, with their monumental heritage, extraordinary art and archaeological collections, Library, and Royal Gardens, constitute one of the most prestigious museum complexes in Italy and the world. Over the last ten years, the Royal Museums have experienced extraordinary growth, thanks to the two high-profile directors who preceded me. It is a privilege to contribute to the cultural project and to the valorization of these places and of the Savoy dynasty, which designed them, enriched them with masterpieces, and modified them over time .”

" Walking through the monumental halls of the Royal Palace ," continued Paola D'Agostino, " wandering through the spaces of the Manica Nuova with its diverse collections, stopping in the Royal Library, or strolling through the Royal Gardens gives a sense of the centrality of the Royal Museums to the city. These halls convey not only the cultural and political history of Turin and Piedmont, but also the unique history of Italy and its extraordinary cultural heritage ."

Paola D'Agostino - Biographical notes

Paola D'Agostino is an art historian specializing in Italian Renaissance and Baroque sculpture. She studied at the University of Naples Federico II, where she received a PhD in art history in 2003. She specialized in London, at the Courtauld Institute of Art (MA, 1998) and University College London (MPhil program, 1998–1999). While studying in London, she collaborated on the exhibition Earth and Fire. Italian Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova , at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2001–2002).

He taught for several years as a contract professor of modern art history at several Italian universities and held seminars at British and American universities.

From 2009 to 2013, she worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as a Senior Research Associate in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts . During her tenure at the Metropolitan Museum, she also helped organize the exhibitions Bernini: Sculpting in Clay (2012–2013) and Antonio Canova: The Seven Last Works (2013). In spring 2013, she was the Cynthia Hazen Polsky/MET Visiting Curator at the American Academy in Rome. From 2013 to 2015, she was the Nina and Lee Griggs Assistant Curator in European Art at the Yale University Art Gallery, where, among other things, she co-curated the exhibition The Critique of Reason: Romantic Art 1760–1860 .

From December 1, 2015, to January 14, 2024, she served as Director of the Bargello Museums, a museum group that includes the Bargello National Museum, the Medici Chapels Museum, the Orsanmichele Complex, the Palazzo Davanzati Museum, and the Casa Martelli Museum. During her tenure, these five museums underwent extraordinary work on their monumental buildings—among the oldest and most important in Florence—including collection reorganizations, experimental restorations, research agreements with Italian and international universities, and exhibitions, with prestigious international collaborations from the National Gallery in Washington, to the Museums of Berlin, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

During her tenure as Director of the Bargello Museums, the Bargello National Museum was awarded the 2017 medal by the President of the Italian Republic, Hon. Sergio Mattarella, for organizing the exhibition "The Factory of Beauty. The Ginori Manufactory and its People of Statues." She was responsible for organizing the Bargello Museums' exhibition " Donatello. The Renaissance," curated by Francesco Caglioti, co-organized by the Bargello Museums and the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation. The exhibition received the prestigious Apollo Award in London for best exhibition of 2022.

Since 2023, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the IMT School of Advanced Studies in Lucca.

In 2024 she collaborated on the “AD Arte Project – national platform of services for the accessibility of cultural sites”, for the General Directorate of Museums of the Ministry of Culture and from January to June 2025 she was Robert Lehman Visiting Professor at Villa I Tatti – The Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies.

On July 17, 2025, she was selected as Director of the Royal Museums of Turin, following an international competition by the Ministry of Culture for five Directors of national museums and archaeological parks.

ROYAL MUSEUMS OF TURIN

MUSEI REALI DI TORINO

Piazzetta Reale 1 – 10122 Torino – Italia

museireali.beniculturali.it

Peter Mohall @ Luce Gallery, Turin - "Landskap" Exhibition of Landscape Paintings

Peter Mohall: Landskap

Luce Gallery, Turin

March 21 – April 25, 2025

Luce Gallery presents Landskap, an exhibition of paintings by Swedish born, Norway based, painter PETER MOHALL. This is his fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.

As the Swedish lingual title implies, the exhibition thematic concern is with landscape painting. The coruscating landscapes of rural Scandinavian countryside captures the regional scenery, while the saturated imagery recalling the aesthetics of Post-impressionism, with embedded references to both regional painters like Helmer Osslund, Aleksi Gallen-Kallela and Willi Midelfart as well as idiomatic movements like Les Nabis, die Brücke, and Fauvism.

The specific material qualities of the traditional medium of choice, utilizing tempera grassa paint on jute canvas, along with a particular painting style, a sensitive brush handling and visual references, generates a distinct imagery that reveal a comprehension of the medium and it’s inherent art historical properties. Which is leading us to a tentative conclusion that the subject matter is subordinated by a conceptual inquiry into the medium.

The supporting evidence for this assumption comes in form of thick brush strokes sticked to the «window glass» of the illusionary window into the pictorial dimension. The brush strokes are «floating in the air» between us and the motif, causing our focus shift in and out between the pictorial dimension and the flat surface. The perceptual conflict destabilizes the narrative reading of the painting, leaving us with perceptual challenges searching for visual codes to decipher.

First thing we notice about the brush strokes are that they contain the colour index of the painting. Peter Mohall invites us into his artistic process by sharing the palette. A point of interest is the opportunity to study the change of optic values of a colour from isolation compared to inclusion within the context of surrounding colours in the motif.

An interesting insight about the process is that Peter Mohall has to calculate the numbers of colors to use in a painting in advance. Areas needs to be retained in order to properly attach the brush strokes directly onto the canvas. The brush strokes are often arranged as a grid, a note to the modernist method, or in alignment overlaying the motif.

Furthermore, the brush strokes are identical. Peter Mohall has developed a signature strategy utilizing cast brush strokes in an inquiry into a medium-specific investigation of the relationship between the painterly authentic and automation. First deployed in a formalistic setting on empty canvases, the cast brush strokes thematize the gesture alluding the fusion of two modernist strategies; the brush stroke as subject matter and repetition. Peter Mohall adapted the strategy using figuration as backdrops, innovating an imagery of complexity, multi-layered, with internal painterly discussions and perceptual challenges. A conflict between two image forms where traditional perception interacts with the implementation of modernist strategies.

PETER MOHALL (b. 1979, Löddeköpinge (SE), lives and works in Nesoddtangen (NO)) graduated from the Oslo National Academy of Fine Arts. He has exhibited throughout Europe, Asia and the United States, including solo shows with Luce Gallery, Turin, Nino Mier, Los Angeles, Koki Arts, Tokyo, Pablo’s Birthday, New York and QB Gallery Oslo. His work has been acquired by numerous collections such as Fondazione 107, Turin, Central Bank of Norway, Oslo; and JP Morgan Chase Collection among others, as well as public commissions in both Oslo and Drammen.

LUCE GALLERY

Largo Montebello, 40 - 10124 Torino

www.lucegallery.com

Rachel Hakimian Emenaker @ Luce Gallery, Turin - "The Wind Will Carry Your Traces" Exhibition

Rachel Hakimian Emenaker

The Wind Will Carry Your Traces

Luce Gallery, Turin

30 January -  7 march, 2025

Luce Gallery presents Rachel Hakimian Emenaker, The Wind Will Carry Your Traces. The show features eight batik paintings made from melted wax and hand applied dye. Through this unique approach, the artist reimagines and integrates ‘craft’ with the painting medium. Her composite cityscapes and interior scenes of everyday life convey profound familial and cultural histories, reflecting her diasporic upbringing. Rachel Hakimian Emenaker leans heavily into rich earth tones punctuated by vivid pops of burgundy, lemon, chartreuse, and indigo, heightening the visual impact of each composition. Her paintings are defined by thin yet saturated washes of dye, contrasted by crisp white linework that animates figures and details throughout each canvas. Together, the works in The Wind Will Carry Your Traces invite viewers to witness how diasporic histories and memories are integral in everyday life, fostering connections within communities.

The exhibition’s title, The Wind Will Carry Your Traces, poetically suggests how deeply held values and memories travel with us, shaping who we are no matter where we call home. Rachel Hakimian Emenaker’s ability to seamlessly blend Eastern and Western art traditions reflects her multicultural background and artistic journey infusing her work with remarkable depth. Of Armenian descent, she moved frequently during her formative years, living in Suriname, Russia and now the United States. This rich confluence of influences informs her work, drawing from European painting traditions, Armenian religious iconography, Soviet-era cinema, and ‘craft traditions’ from the Middle East and South America.

Having studied painting in undergraduate school, she gravitated toward the batik techniques she learned while growing up in Suriname, eventually integrating these methods with Western-style narrative compositions on canvas. Batik, a traditional Indonesian craft, involves creating intricate designs by applying melted wax to fabric and dyeing it in layers. The artist begins her process by drawing with melted wax to create distinctive, permanent lines on the canvas. As an unforgiving medium, wax leaves no room for error; every gesture—whether intentional or accidental—becomes a permanent element of the composition. After the wax dries, five to ten layers of dyes are applied with watercolor brushes, followed by a washing process to refine the colors. The canvas is then washed to remove the wax, leaving behind the crisp white lines that define their work. The final steps include drying, steaming the canvas flat, and attaching it to a stretcher, giving the piece a traditional painting appearance. This meticulous process is not only a technical feat but also a poignant metaphor for the artist's exploration of memory and cultural preservation.

A defining feature of Rachel Hakimian Emenaker’s work is the crisp white lines, which she describes as a form of “resistance.” Created by the wax’s resistance to dye, these lines give each painting a bold and cohesive structure. For the artist, this resistance symbolizes resilience in the face of erasure. The lines embody how people preserve and adapt cultural traditions, reconstructing memories into new forms that anchor them in a new home.

Her seminal painting, Traces, a wide main street winds through a vibrant village nestled in the hillside, where terracotta tiled-roofed buildings, postwar apartments, and octagonal churches coexist. A family strolls along a sidewalk while two women converse nearby, standing near a large puddle that shares the town’s reflection and energy. Here figures are painted entirely from recollection, often referencing family members or acquaintances, making each encounter deeply personal yet universally resonant. As with all the artist’s paintings, this scene is reconstructed from fragmented memories, family stories, and vivid descriptions, forming a collective diasporic memory brimming with detail and artifacts. The rolling hills in the background could easily symbolize inherited memories of Kessab, Syria, where ancient churches rise above towns, or evoke the lush green hills of Los Angeles in springtime, seamlessly blending past and present. The painting captures the essence of the diasporic experience: a liminal space where the boundaries of time and place dissolve, allowing distinct cultural and historical influences to coexist in one richly layered composition.

The strength of Rachel Hakimian Emenaker’s work lies in her ability to harness the labor-intensive nature of their medium to emphasize its conceptual depth. Each scene she creates feels as though it could exist anywhere, everywhere, and nowhere all at once, creating this intersection of familiarity and vagueness where memory is most at home. Hakimian Emenaker layers diverse architectural styles and distinct cultural objects that embody the diasporic experience, illustrating how individuals adapt to new environments by bringing familiar elements of Eastern and Western cultures, as well as regional nature motifs, into their new lives. Her paintings present a convergence of cities, aesthetics, and past worlds, blending them into a seamless recreation of diasporic memory. These works invite viewers to consider how memories and cultural fragments persist, transform, and coexist in new spaces, encouraging deeper engagement with the vibrant and multifaceted nature of the diasporic experience.

Rachel Hakimian Emenaker (Armenian-American, b. 1992) is a Los Angeles-based artist working in painting, installation, craft, sculpture, sound, and textiles. In 2024, she earned an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the UCLA Broad Art Center, Los Angeles (2024), and the American University of Armenia, Yerevan (2017), as well as in group exhibitions throughout California, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2017). Emenaker is the recipient of the 2024 Dedalus MFA Fellowship in Painting & Sculpture and the 2023 UCLA Elaine Krown Klein Fine Arts Scholarship. Her work is included in international private collections.

LUCE GALLERY

Largo Montebello, 40 - 10124 Torino

www.lucegallery.com

Luce Gallery, Turin: Fifteen Years Anniversary exhibition

Fifteen Years, Dominic Chambers, Ryan Cosbert, Robert Davis, Derek Fordjour, Connie Harrison, Yowshien Kuo, Hugo McCloud, Johanna Mirabel, Peter Mohall, Demarco Mosby, Ludovic Nkoth, Collins Obijiaku, Zéh Palito, Francesco Pirazzi

Luce Gallery, Turin

16 May - 18 June 2024

Luce Gallery presents a special anniversary group exhibition, Fifteen Years.

This show celebrates the gallery's milestone and features new works by a selection of the artists we work with, including Dominic Chambers, Ryan Cosbert, Robert Davis, Derek Fordjour, Connie Harrison, Yowshien Kuo, Hugo McCloud, Johanna Mirabel, Peter Mohall, Demarco Mosby, Ludovic Nkoth, Collins Obijiaku, Zéh Palito, and Francesco Pirazzi. The exhibition showcases the incredible talent and diversity of artistic style of our artists, some of whom have been with us since the inception of our gallery, as well as recent additions to the program. This show honors our partnership and journey with these artists, whether they have already achieved career stardom or are just beginning to make their mark. Fifteen Years offers a profound moment of pride and reflection, encapsulating Luce Gallery's mission to discover and support international emerging artists, enriching our ever-expanding gallery program.

With director and founder Nikola Cernetic at the helm, Luce Gallery's mission has always been to seek out new talent and provide spaces for their artworks to gain a wider audience. In a recent interview, Nikola Cernetic explained:

"I opened Luce Gallery in a very romantic way, and to this day, that spirit persists. I've never chosen an artist solely for a commercial reason; I ask them to join my program because I love and believe in their work and vision. Searching for these artists and being the first to discover them is perhaps the most interesting and rewarding part of my job as a gallerist. What distinguishes Luce from other galleries today is really our strong program of international artists and consistent discovery of new artists."

Over the years, the gallery's roster has been assembled to include artists from more than eight countries, including many hailing from the United States. The program currently excels at painting, displaying the full breadth of this medium from dynamic abstraction to hyperrealism, palpable textures to seemingly invisible brushstrokes, and often incorporates elements of mixed-media or collage used to heighten conceptual meanings. With a strong focus on providing under-recognized artists with a platform to exhibit and a partnership to provide support, we are always searching for unique talent with a distinctive quality from around the globe and in every medium.

To date, the gallery has hung seventy-seven exhibitions, participated in sixty-five art fairs across Europe and North America, and helped organize several well-received institutional shows for our artists, including a recent solo show of Zéh Palito's work at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Querétaro in Mexico. Luce Gallery has distinguished itself through its unwavering commitment to emerging artists for fifteen years, and this show encapsulates that vision.

Included in the nineteen newly made artworks on view are a selection of works by artists who have collaborated with the gallery the longest, including a 1970's inspired portrait by Robert Davis, two floral still-life paintings —composed with his signature single-use plastic technique—on panel by Hugo McCloud, a tranquil leisure landscape by Peter Mohall, and featuring a playful sculpture by Derek Fordjour of upturned legs precariously balancing a glass yellow ball. In recent years, other noteworthy artists such as Dominic Chambers, Ryan Cosbert, Yowshien Kuo, Johanna Mirabel, Demarco Mosby, Ludovic Nkoth, Collins Obijiaku, and Zéh Palito have joined the fold. Each brings a distinct 'language' of painting incorporating elements of surrealism, portraiture, and abstraction, expressing the complexities of race, gender, humanity, and memory. Additionally, the newest members to the program include two artists inspired by the landscape, Connie Harrison creating dense abstracted gardens both painted and excavated from oil and wax layers, and Francesco Pirazzi harnessing the mysterious nature of light in a surrealist style, with both artists debuting their solo shows later this year.

When viewed collectively, the artworks in Fifteen Years narrate a tale of the strength of Luce's program and the significance of the gallerist-artist relationship. Here, their devotion to creation is matched with our belief in their talent and abilities. We would also like to reserve a moment to thank our collectors—small and institutional—who have supported both our artists and this gallery's vision every step of the way. Thank you for joining Luce Gallery as we embrace this milestone with open arms and toast to now and to the next Fifteen Years! Salute!

ARTISTS

Dominic Chambers (American, b.1993) is a New Haven-based artist originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He paints introspective scenes that illustrate both the interior and exterior self and how this duality co-exists using a bold, vibrant palette. Chamber's surrealist-inspired work draws on both historical and art historical references and is grounded in his experiences as a Black man.

Ryan Cosbert (American, b.1999) is a Brooklyn-based conceptual artist working in abstraction. Her work draws from her Haitian and Guyanese heritage, humanistic experiences, self- expression, political issues, and rigorously researched historical narratives of the African diaspora. Cosbert skillfully explores the repercussions of subjugation and oppression experienced by the Black community, often shedding light on overlooked Black historical figures, shared experiences, and profound beliefs.

Robert Davis (American, b.1970) was born in Virginia and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. His hyperrealistic paintings and drawings depict nostalgic scenes from the 1970s, often recalling images from popular culture or his vivid childhood memories. Davis' work invites viewers to reflect on the past, encouraging them to form deep personal connections to the subjects and spaces he portrays.

Derek Fordjour (American, b.1974) is an interdisciplinary artist of Ghanaian heritage who works across painting, sculpture, collage, video/film, and installation. Inspired by athletes, musicians, performers, and other Black cultural creators, Fordjour's artworks explore the vast physical possibilities of the human body while anchoring each subject within a broad social commentary. His works feature colorful, textural surfaces paired with energetic subjects, creating a seamless blend of physicality and conceptuality that evokes complex emotions.

Connie Harrison (British, b.1993) is a painter based in London who specializes in vibrant abstracted landscapes. Her technique involves overlaying multiple compositions of oil paint and wax, which she then carves to reveal underlying depths. This process serves as a metaphor for nature's natural rhythms and life cycles. As Harrison works, different parts of the surface evolve in texture, opacity, and color, creating movement and adding physical depth to the painting, as if simulating growth.

Yowshien Kuo (American, b.1985) is a St. Louis-based painter whose surrealist work blends his experiences as a Taiwanese American with historical references that comment on social and racial inequality, cultural constructs, sexuality, and the human condition. Incorporating Asian- American figures with American Western undertones, Kuo conveys universal experiences and traditions through detailed narratives and symbolism.

Hugo McCloud (American, b.1980) is a self-taught artist based in Los Angeles. Drawn to unconventional materials, he creates detailed representational works using his technique of 'painting' with single-use plastic bags that fuse industrial products with traditional painting, collage, and printmaking techniques. By using ubiquitous materials like single-use plastic, both McCloud's materials and subject matter directly address issues of labor, geopolitics, and environmental concerns, providing us with a deeper connection to our humanity.

Johanna Mirabel (French, b.1991) is a Paris-based painter whose work explores the intimate connection between our inner thoughts and interior spaces. By combining symbolic hues, tropical plants, household objects, and suggestions of exterior spaces with detailed portraits, the artist creates deeply intimate works that explore the immersive and transportive experience of recalling a memory. Her work draws from her French Guyanese and Martinique-Guadalupe heritage, sociological and philosophical writings, and historical references to Western art.

Peter Mohall (Swedish, b.1979) is a Swedish-born, Norwegian-based artist working in painting. His work explores the history and medium of painting as a subject and how each element contributes to our rich emotional experiences. His scenes of leisure, with picturesque Scandinavian backdrops, are painted on tactile jute surfaces with rich, palpable colors. Mohall further invites viewers into his artistic process by neatly arranging each color from his palette onto his signature acrylic brushstroke casts.

Demarco Mosby (American, b.1991) is a New York City-based figurative painter originally from Kansas City, Missouri. His work is narrative-based and uses the human figure to mirror and reveal the weight and complexity of life's everyday tribulations. By incorporating his symbolic vocabulary of objects like birds, ropes, rocks, and tumultuous landscapes into each composition, Mosby creates layered narratives that aptly visualize the complexity and disorientation of our emotional states.

Ludovic Nkoth (Cameroonian-American, b.1994) is a Cameroonian-American painting artist who now lives and works in New York. Known for fluid figurative works created with undulating heavy brushstrokes, Nkoth infuses his personal life as a Black immigrant with ruminations on family history, tradition, and the legacy of colonialism onto the canvas to manifest the essence of the Black experience.

Collins Obijiaku (Nigerian, b.1995) is a self-taught artist based in Abuja, Nigeria. He employs portraiture to examine the depths, truths, and complexities of humanity, using friends, family, and locals as his sitters. Each expressive gaze is further accentuated by his signature winding charcoal line work, which weaves throughout the sitter's face, reminiscent of 'mapping' their life journey.

Zéh Palito (Brazilian, b.1986) is a figure painter whose vibrant, joyful works celebrate Black culture. With studios in both Baltimore, MD, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, Palito researches neglected histories and gives them visibility in the canon, with each figure represented as a confident protagonist. His work is embedded with details referencing popular culture and traditional Brazilian fruits and flora to further radiate both beauty and joy.

Francesco Pirazzi (Italian, b.1994) is a painting and drawing artist who lives and works in Turin, Italy. His surreal yet quiet Italian-inspired land and cityscapes explore the profound power of light, using it to refocus the viewer's experience of reality to evoke both familiar and mysterious sensations.

LUCE GALLERY

Largo Montebello, 40 - 10124 Torino

www.lucegallery.com

Daniel Burren @ Tucci Russo Studio per l’Arte Contemporanea, Torre Pellice - "Bas-reliefs and High Reliefs. In situ and situated works 2020-2024"

Daniel Buren

Bassorilievi e Altorilievi

Lavori in situ e situati 2020-2024*

Tucci Russo Studio per l’Arte Contemporanea, Torre Pellice

10 March - 28 July 2024

* “Bas-reliefs and High Reliefs. In situ and situated works 2020-2024”

Tucci Russo Studio per l’Arte Contemporanea presents the fifth exhibition of the French artist DANIEL BUREN with the gallery in its Torre Pellice venue, following his first solo show in 1985 in the then premises, Mulino Feyles, in Corso Tassoni in Turin.

One of the leading exponents of Conceptual Art, Daniel Buren boasts an international career spanning more than 50 years. Since the mid-1960s, the artist has chosen to experiment with the zero degree of painting by using an industrial fabric with vertical stripes 8.7 cm wide, alternating white with another colour. Starting from a simple visual register, Daniel Buren leads the observer to shift his attention from the work to the entire physical and social environment on which he intervenes. Since 1967, the artist has abandoned studio work in favour of interventions made in situ (streets, galleries, museums, landscapes, buildings), creating works that are simultaneously related to painting, sculpture and architecture. Believing in the combination of art and life and playing with colours, light, viewpoints and movement, the artist radically transforms the surrounding space and stimulates the direct involvement of the public.

Daniel Buren’s work lies between action and intervention and undergoes constant development and diversification. The exhibition unfolds in two exhibition halls of the gallery where the artist will present a nucleus of 14 works, 7 of which are situated (to use the term Buren himself adopts) and 7 made in situ; in other words, they have been created in relation to their surroundings and inspired by the space in which they are placed. Reconnecting with the concept of sculpture, the title of the exhibition picks up on the techniques of high relief and bas-relief used by man since earliest times. Whereas in high relief the figures stand out strongly from the surface and protrude almost in the round from the plane, in bas-relief they emerge to a much lesser extent. Similarly, some of Daniel Buren’s works in the exhibition feature coloured prisms and/or striped decoration that clearly emerge from the wall, unfolding one after the other or alternating with mirrored surfaces. The latter, reflecting their surroundings, incorporate the space and interact with it and the viewer. Together with the prisms, they create a succession of voids and solids (as in Baroque art), positioning themselves between painting, sculpture and architecture. Other works on display, on the other hand, are realised by means of square iron grids with different textures which, as they develop in sequence, protrude to a lesser extent from the wall, creating an effect (like a bas-relief) that is less projecting and recalls a relief painting. With their decorative force, Daniel Buren’s works transform the place in which they are placed and stimulate the visitor to reflect on his perception of it.

DANIEL BUREN (Boulogne-Billancourt, France, 1938) lives and works in situ. Earlier he trained at the École des Métiers d’Art. The many locations of his interventions include some of the major Parisian institutions such as Fondation Vuitton, Palais de Tokyo, Centre George Pompidou. He is also the author of the permanent in situ work “Les Deux Plateaux” (1985-86) located in the Court of Honor of the Palais-Royal in Paris, as well as hundreds of in situ and permanent works conceived and made for public places all around the world among which Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany, USA, Canada, Mexico, China, Korea etc... A brief selection of international interventions as one-man shows includes: Städtisches Museum, Mönchengladbach, Germany (1971); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1976); Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands (1976); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (1976); PAC - Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy (1979); Detroit Institute of Arts Museum, Detroit, USA (1981); Brooklyn Art Museum, New York, USA (1988); Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany (1995); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA (2003); Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA (2005). In 1965 he won the Paris Biennale Prize, then in 1986 he represented France at the 42nd Venice Biennale where he won the prestigious Golden Lion as best pavilion. In 2007 he received the Praemium Imperiale for Painting from the Japan Art Association and in 2024 the Premio Internacional de Mecenazgo awarded by the Callia Foundation of Spain.

For further information: www.danielburen.com

TUCCI RUSSO STUDIO PER L'ARTE CONTEMPORANEA

Via Stamperia 9 - 10066 Torre Pellice (near Turin)

www.tuccirusso.com

Collins Obijiaku @ Luce Gallery, Turin - Traces of Me

Collins Obijiaku: Traces of Me 

Luce Gallery, Turin 

May 4 - June 30, 2023 

Luce Gallery presents Traces of Me, the first solo exhibition for COLLINS OBIJIAKU with the gallery. On view are series of new portrait paintings - all with his signature meandering charcoal line-work.

Collins Obijiaku is a Nigerian-based painter who uses the tradition of portraiture to examine the depths, truths, and complexities of humanity. In each work, the artist paints quiet, composed figures, with expressive gazes, to directly engage the viewer. To further strengthen the allure and intimacy, Collins Obijiaku draws a winding line—with no detectable beginning or end—that weaves throughout the sitter’s face and skin reminiscent of ‘mapping’ each person’s life journey. Together, the paintings in Traces of Me encourage viewers to contemplate the individuality of each person, as well as their distinct contribution to the diversity and complexity of the human experience.

This exhibition brings together a collection of portraits of people the artist has known since childhood. As the title Traces of Me hints, the paintings conceal a small element of the artist’s connection between him and each kindred spirit on view, a sentiment Collins Obijiaku felt after working on the series. In every elegant composition, he observes an old friend, memorializing their likeness, and thoughtfully records their inner conviction of strength, hope, positivity, and intelligence. Although usually indifferent to incorporating symbolism into his work, his use of ochre yellow, in many of the paintings, references the artist’s nostalgic connection to the hue from childhood. He recalled that all the brightest students were selected for the yellow group — a color he still associates with intelligence to this day. While aesthetically pleasing, the true strength of Collins Obijiaku’s work is how he marries observations of each sitter’s distinct mannerisms and expressions, with his meditative charcoal line work, to gently guide the viewer to see more deeply and encourage profound empathy.

In Portrait of Gladys (woman in blue dress) we see an elegant, young Nigerian woman donning a periwinkle blue dress. In a pale yellow room, she sits with her arms pressing downward, shifting her weight slightly left while leaning ever-so-slightly forward toward us, meeting our gaze directly. There’s a brief pause in her expression — her eyes slightly squinting— as if she’s examining us, rather than the other way around.

Her demeanor is calm and poised, while simultaneously exuding an inner confidence. For Collins Obijiaku this confidence is particularly important to emphasize with his female sitters, as he seeks to change common misconceptions of women, and instead emphasize their power. Meandering throughout her face, across her chest, and cascading down each arm, Collins Obijiaku’s signature charcoal lines create visual pathways for the viewer to explore. Working much like fingerprints or wrinkles, the lines identify her, as well as all the twists and turns of life. She knows who she is, where she’s been, and where she aspires to be.

COLLINS OBIJIAKU (b.1995) is a Nigerian-based visual artist working in portraiture. A self-taught painting and drawing artist, Collins Obijiaku creates alluring portraits of individuals from his home country. In each work captivating gazes and skin permeated with charcoal line work resembling topographic maps, foster a deeper understanding of both the individual, and ultimately humanity as a whole. In 2019, Collins Obijiaku was an artist-in-residence at Black Rock Senegal, the multidisciplinary residency program founded by artist Kehinde Wiley in Dakar, Senegal. Collins Obijiaku’s works have been also exhibited at the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco and the National Gallery of Arts in Enugu in Nigeria. His international exhibitions throughout Africa, Europe, and the United States include a solo show with Roberts Projects in Los Angeles, California. Additionally, his work has been acquired by numerous private collections and public institutions, including the Dallas Museum of Art in Dallas, Texas.

LUCE GALLERY

Largo Montebello, 40, 10124 Torino

www.lucegallery.com

Delphine Desane @ Luce Gallery, Turin - Dreams of a Dreamer

Delphine Desane, Dreams of a Dreamer 

Luce Gallery, Turin 

Through 27 February 2021 

Researching, blending and fusing disparate cultures, periods and moments, Delphine Desane uses her practice as a vessel for self exploration. The brush is a vehicle for understanding. Her simple forms contain multitudes. They speak to a single moment, packed with emotion, memories, longing. A single line acts as a marker for realizations, loss, and labor. Delphine Desane’s portraits are direct, intentionally unembellished, quietly referencing the shapes and figures of known and unknown ancestors. Only after completion do influences present themselves to her - the pointed chin of a Dan Mask, the flattened scapes of the Obin family’s practice (Philomé Obin in particular), and the graphic qualities of Ghanian Asafo Flags. Bold and clear, her portraits are purposefully impersonal, so as to not limit their message.

In Delphine Desane’s first solo show “Dreams of a Dreamer”, landscape provides no home to the artist's cast of characters. Instead they must find roots on their own. These roots find fertile ground in the memory of the viewer, growing slowly into something that can’t be ignored. In her three years as a practicing artist, Delphine Desane has seeded themes of displacement, home, birth and regeneration. Her steady hand relays a grace and conviction central to her person, depicting mostly female, sometimes animal characters, with pieced together identities, both connected to and separated from the Earth. Her generally minimal backgrounds are “an open question,” allowing the viewer to imagine her figures almost anywhere. What multiplicities exist within her subjects are held in the eyes. The truth rests in an iris, but is only accessible to those willing to look directly at it. Like the artist, these figures refuse to be boxed in.

Delphine Desane’s subjects live outside of time - a child, a mother and a grandmother all at once. Lineage is held within a single husk - an impossibility in our physical realm. Delphine Desane’s figures are not defined by their past, present or expected future, respectively, but encapsulate all that they could be, all that they are, all that they were, in one explosive moment. “No matter where you go, the first thing people see is your blackness,” says the artist, and so, that is often the only clue given to the viewer - a reclamation of agency.

Drawing on the surrealist and religious themes in Hector Hyppolite’s paintings (a peer of Andre Breton) and the perceptive black and white photographs of Katsu Naito and Seydou Keita, Delphine Desane creates ever-extending narratives that seem to grow and move as you witness them. There is something ancient in these paintings. Like the figurative etchings on Greek Amphora or the portrait on an agate cameo, “I’ll Open My Sun-Filled Heart to You” shows us a figure thrown into relief, passion shown in her stance alone. In “Promised Land” we see a traveler nearing the end of her journey. Nature folds in on her as she moves, protecting or restricting.

At this early stage in her career Delphine Desane’s oeuvre speaks to the scores of experiences she has weathered at each stage of her life as a Black woman. Her canvases relate to each other in their anonymity. One consistent feature is the artist’s use of blue, valued because it is “synonymous with infinity.”

In “Dreams of a Dreamer”, Delphine Desane brings together the latest body of works, simply rendered, and sensitively offered. The paintings shown detour from Delphine Desane’s previous works in their ambition, easily traceable through their growing size. The artist is beginning to connect the dots between her personal history, imagined future, and the myriad identities of her people. She reaches for something that is purely her own and in so doing excavates the many inescapable influences that inform her dual cultural identities (Haitian and French). Dreams of a Dreamer is one long, never ending, waking dream. A chosen dream. One in which the message is revealed and the messengers are hidden.

By Camille Okhio

LUCE GALLERY

Largo Montebello 40, 10124 Torino

lucegallery.com

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Artissima 18 2011 Art Fair Turin Italy. The international art fair want to combining business and cultural values

ARTISSIMA 18 - 2011 International Fair of Contemporary Art in Turin, Italy

4-5-6 November 2011 

ARTISSIMA 18, INTERNATIONAL FAIR OF CONTEMPORARY ART, TURIN, ITALY, for the second time under the artistic direction of Francesco Manacorda, runs from 4 to 6 November (a preview was organized on 3 November). Over the years Artissima has made a name for itself in the world of contemporary art, in Italy and around the world, as a leading observatory of the finest research being carried out in the visual arts, and as a great cultural event. Last year, Artissima 17 attracted over 48,000 visitors and 1300 accredited journalists. The international art fair takes place in the spectacular premises of the Oval, an architecturally innovative pavilion with 20,000 m² of naturally lit space made for the Winter Olympic Games of Turin 2006. 

Artissima 2011 Poster

ARTISSIMA 18 hosts 161 galleries (58 Italian and 103 from other countries) in four sections: 

o Artissima Main Section includes galleries on the international art scene (45 from Italy and 57 from abroad) chosen by the Selection Committee.

o Artissima New Entries features young galleries that have been working for less than five years, and that are taking part in Artissima for the first time, chosen by the Selection Committee. At this 18th edition of Artissima, 25 galleries from 11 different countries (2 from Italy, 23 from abroad) have been admitted. During the fair, an international jury will confer the Guido Carbone Award  upon the gallery in the New Entries section that has worked best to discover and promote young artists.  

o Artissima Present Future, devoted to 16 emerging artists invited by a team of international curators, and presented by their galleries. 

o  Artissima Back to the Future was launched in 2010 with the aim of focusing on artists who worked in the 1960s and ’70s and who have enjoyed little recognition in recent decades, but whose work can be seen as particulary significant today. This is an authentic museum-style exhibition of works by a group of artists chosen by an international Committee. Back to the Future shows 20 artists in 2011. 

ARTISSIMA 18: 2011 CURATORIAL PROJECT 

Artissima 18 continues its research into the future scenario of museums, which started up last year with the Casa delle contaminazioni - The House of Contamination.  This year the programme consists of  two different projects, which are independent and yet inextricably linked one to the other: the first, titled Simple Rational Approximations is on view inside the fair, while the other, Artissima outside, in the evenings only. Both projects concentrate on new models and formats for the production, interpretation and circulation of contemporary art. For the "first time at a fair" (according to the press release), they are curated by artists. 

ARTISSIMA 2011 PROJECT SIMPLE RATIONAL APPROXIMATIONS

At the centre of the Artissima pavilion, Simple Rational Approximations is a project for a museum invented by the Turin-born artist Lara Favaretto working with Francesco Manacorda. The title of the project is taken from a mathematical model that defines an interpolation – in other words, the approximate calculation of values of magnitude using known values – which uses rational functions. An approximation, which derives etymologically from “to come near”, also suggests  the underlying theme of the project, which brings together different ideas and attitudes, proposing a fictitious, ephemeral, nomadic organisation that exist only for the four days of the fair. This “provisional  institution” is modelled on some of the traditional functions of contemporary art museums – a permanent collection, a temporary exhibition, a bookstore, an auditorium, an educational department, and a storage – rethinking their way of working through a selection of existing projects or new proposals submitted by individuals, collectives, and institutions, who were selected from the international art world for their inventive ability to re-imagine operational and planning methods.  

ARTISSIMA LIDO: 2011 NEW PROGRAMME OF EXHIBITIONS IN TURIN

For the first time, this year Artissima organises a programme of exhibitions and events in the centre of Turin, outside the fair and outside of its opening  hours. In the mediaeval district of the “Roman Quadrilateral”, a number of not-for-profit spaces run by artists from all over Italy are temporarily move out to a series of city spaces, where they work on their various experimental activities, at the same time and in the same place. The project intends to create a network of spaces and collectives that are often the only organisations that actively promote artistic experimentation in their areas. The aim is to put the international spotlight on a relatively unknown aspect of Italy and of its hidden artistic scene. Imagined as a group exhibition of experimental spaces,  ARTISSIMA LIDO is curated by three Italian artists,  Christian Frosi, Renato Leotta, and Diego Perrone, and it offers a very full, varied calendar of exhibitions, performances, screenings, concerts, and conversations in specially chosen places. ARTISSIMA LIDO's special catalogue was published in collaboration with UniCredit Studio, contain texts by the curators, illustrations, and information about the collectives taking part in the event.

‘We’re working on the experimental mission, and on the innovative potential and international dimension of Artissima through a meticulous curatorial format that builds on last year’s project’, says Francesco Manacorda. ‘Our policy is one of continuation and in-depth examination, without depriving the Fair of its many innovative and spectacular elements. The aim is to create an up-to-the-minute project that can bring out the very best in Artissima, the combination of business and cultural values, which makes this event a powerhouse of the contemporary arts and the ideal meeting place for all those involved.’ 

ARTISSIMA 18 CATALOGUE & FREE iPHONE & iPAD APP

Consistent with the Artissima communication project, this year an ‘Annual Report’ will bring together the texts, essays, images, and statistics about the galleries and the various sections, as well as about the curatorial projects and the events at the Fair and at other venues in Turin. 

Artissima 18 is going onto a multimedia platform for the first time in collaboration with Mousse Magazine. Full information about Artissima 18 are available for the iPhone and iPad. The application is completely free of charge.  

ARTISSIMA WEB SITE