Alessandro Papetti | Lo Spazio Tra La Realtà
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Gallery Jones 1-258 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia V5T 1A6
Alessandro Papetti, “Bologna,” no date
oil on linen, 140 x 170 cm (courtesy of the Gallery)
Opening Reception: November 28TH 5-8PM
Gallery Jones is pleased to present paintings by one of Italy’s preeminent contemporary painters in his latest exhibition Lo Spazio Tra La Realtà (The Space Between Reality).
Born in Milan in 1958, Papetti has exhibited widely for almost 30 years, notably at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and 2011, at major museums in Milan, Paris, Moscow, and Tokyo, and in galleries around the world. A largely self-taught artist, Papetti’s most recognizable works are sweeping, cinematic paintings focused on industrial archaeology, urban landscapes, and portraits and studies of the human form, frequently painted from a high-angle perspective. Papetti’s points to influences from Caravaggio, and Velázquez to Boldini with his greatest influencers being Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon.
The exhibition will include new works along with a selection of works surveying the past 15 years since Papetti last exhibited in Vancouver. Papetti captures a moment on canvas in the same way a camera does, in a fraction of a second, applying his energy to painting in “shutter time” to record his image. ‘I am the product of my environment. I live in a hectic city where everything moves at a fast pace.’ —Claudia Cusano.
He is known for his eerie industrial landscapes, and Alessandro Papetti’s most recent oil paintings are no less haunting. Abandoned arcades vibrate with expectation, leading to foggy boudoirs (Interno), frozen railways (Metrò Passy Paris), to a shipyard where a freighter floats comatose beside a vacant dock (Molo Industriale). Writes Papetti: ‘The light in my cities is fairly northern because I was born in Milan and that definitely had an influence. These are the colours from my city, from the air that I’ve breathed.’ —Michael Turner, Preview Art.