Material and Colour

Material and Colour
Jewels - Sculptures -Installations

The exhibition focuses on a phenomenon which, originating from artistic experimentation in the 1990s, has gradually outlined itself more clearly in the first decade of this century. Organic, mineral and artificial matter now has a central role: it bears creative stimuli associated with the analysis of its own specificity, which gives rise to fantastic, symbolistic and naturalistic formulations. All materials may be subjected to examination, which inspires free, unregulated schemes devoid of preconstituted ideas. Artists like Karl Fritsch, Bussi Buhs, Beppe Kessler, Annamaria Zanella, Barbara Paganin and Stefano Marchetti in his recent works elaborate images that are profoundly affected by transformations and pulsations of matter which their own rules and energy set into motion. Other artists, such as Iris Eichenberg, Ruudt Peters, Lam de Wolf and Robert Smit choose very different materials: they combine metals with wood, paint, fabric, glass and minerals – the latter in their morphological entirety – and join them with conceptual and symbolic associations related to individualistic representations and esoteric, mythological and historical expressions. Still others convey their messages through objects - sometimes selected as true objets trouvés – the assemblage of which becomes installation-jewellery: such are the works by Isabella Facco, Silvia Walz and Lisa Walker. Lastly, there are artists who have skilfully associated their experience with images defined both by geometric elaborations and by mechanical constructions, like Fritz Maierhofer and Fabrizio Tridenti. Recalling the great Minimalist and Constructivist movements, they carry out experiments with materials that give them freedom of expression: Maierhofer uses Corian, a plastic substance, and Tridenti upsets perfect mechanisms by introducing rust, paints and pigments that jeopardise their functional structures. The exhibition also displays Bussi Buhs’s sculptures and one of Barbara Paganin’s installations.

With this exhibition, Studio GR.20 aims at emphasising the importance of substance over form, and in this context pays homage to Sandra Marconato. The artist uses evanescent materials like gauze, paper, tempera and acrylics to create sculptures and installations that the Paduan public already admired at exhibitions in the Palazzo della Ragione (16th Biennale del Bronzetto e Piccola Scultura, Padua, 1995) and at the Museum of Palazzo del Monte (anthological exhibition, 1996).

Graziella Folchini Grassetto