NY Rome

Minimalism Arte Povera

NY Rome
Minimalism Arte Povera
curated by Lorenzo Belenguer
Vanya Balogh, Lorenzo Belenguer, Cedric Christie, Ayelet Amrani Navon, Eva Raboso,
Gavin Turk

6 May - 3 June 2016

Le Dame Art Gallery at Meli White House
London

Minimalism as Arte Povera

Minimalism as Kinetic
Minimalism as Surrealism
Minimalism as Photojournalism
Minimalism as Conceptualism
Minimalism as Minimalism
Influences | Distortions

NYRome

Minimalism/Arte Povera

by Lorenzo Belenguer
This exhibition is an invitation to explore
the strong links between Rome and New York
in the 60s as a starting point, how they influenced each other and how prevalent they
are today in Contemporary Art. The influential YBA, Gavin Turk, leads a selection of
six artists from Britain, Israel, Spain and
Croatia to demonstrate that both movements
are still very current in art making today.
A minimalistic aesthetic has always fascinated artists. But it is in the 60s when
a movement, Minimalism, was developed as a
reaction to the Abstract Expressionism in
vogue in those years. Around the same time,
the term Arte Povera was coined by the art
critic Germano Celant, literally meaning
poor art, because of its use of everyday
or poor materials. It also started as a
reaction to abstract painting. However the
production process is very different in both
movements. Minimalism favours industrial
manufacturing while Arte Povera assembles
daily objects, both following a rigorous intellectual process and aiming for a basic,
and perhaps spiritual, presentation of ideas.

Contemporary Minimalism is a fusion of many

movements. Nowadays artists feel free from
the corset of manifestos from the last
century and pick and choose as they wish. A
selection of six artists demonstrates that
Minimalism can also be presented as art in
movement, or kinetically, in the contribution of Gavin Turk; as photojournalism of
an island destroyed after the recent war
in the Balkans; as Surrealism with basic
colouring. Or just as an artwork where the
terms Minimalism and Arte Povera can be
interchanged.
The 60s produced some of the most innovative movements in Art History and I find
Minimalism and Arte Povera rather unique.
Based in two different cities in two different continents, a strong dialogue between both took place. I would like to
present this show as a starting point of
future projects with works by Serra, Judd,
Flavin, Pistoletto, Andre, Penone, Merz,
Kounellis, etc, shown alongside contemporary artists such as the ones introduced
in this exhibition. A dialogue in the making.

Vanya Balogh
Vanya Balogh is a photographer, artist and independent curator born in Zagreb, Croatia.
He currently lives and works between cities of London, Berlin and Venice. He has studied
at Central St Martins and Regents College Of Psychotherapy and Counselling. His artistic
output is diverse and multifaceted. He equally explores different mediums from painting,
film, performance to photography, sculpture and site specific interventions. His photographic work is commercially acclaimed and he worked as a photographer and stylist with
a cult street style magazine I-D over a decade in the 90s, simultaneously curating sonic
soundscapes for his underground electronic record label KILLOUT Recordings. His work has
been widely published and exhibited in UK and internationally including Victoria & Albert Museum, Tate Modern, Venice Biennale several times and Loop Barcelona amongst many
others. His curation, which is integral part of his creative output is defined by high
intensity, large scale events which are designed for alternative spaces, instigating autonomous temporal zones for emerging and established artists to experiment and observe
the disputed realm between business, commerce and art. Most notably recent series of
group exhibitions in West End Car Parks and on the small scale, apartment project VROOM,
which inhabits artists living rooms have both gathered much attention. His annual artist led curatorial project BIG DEAL, established in 2008 and built to last during the
recession and economic downturn is entering its 9th anniversary and has featured some
400 international artists so far. He has work in private collections and is currently
planning a major solo show with several book volumes due for launch in 2016.

from left:
HOUSE/WOOD 2009 from POTENZA series 2006 - 2016,Inkjet Print - Mix Media
FISHING NETS/ROPE 2009 from POTENZA series 2006 - 2016, Inkjet Print - Mix Media

Lorenzo Belenguer
Lorenzo Belenguers work straddles the realms of sculpture, painting and drawing. In one
area of his practice, he transforms metal objects into sculptures that evolve from the
visual rhetoric of Minimalism and double as canvases. Spanish artist based in London
highly influenced by Minimalism and Arte Povera. Lorenzo Belenguer was one of the two
performers invited by Leah Capaldi to perform Hung at the Serpentine Gallery. Tate
Liverpool as part of the Keywords project. No Soul for Sale at the Tate Modern and
many other exhibitions mainly held in London. Last year, Belenguer exhibited alongside
56th Venice Biennale

BOX # 6, 2015, Oil on metal - Perspex box, 60x 60x5cm

Cedric Christie
Cedric Christie lives in East London and is a visiting professor at Bath Spa University. After completing an apprenticeship in welding, Cedric used his knowledge of metal to
make sculptures, first exhibiting in 1994. Christie is known for his Pink Painting, 2009,
a crushed and wall mounted car, one of 12 cars in which Christie had travelled between
Basel, dOCUMENTA and Skulptur Projekte with friends Gavin Turk, Richard Strange, Simon
Liddiment and Paul Tucker. His signature artworks, noted for their use of steel, scaffolding tube, snooker balls, cars, chalk lines, graphic text and commercial fabrication
processes, have resulted in a string of solo shows and public art commissions both in
the UK and internationally, in Brussels, Antwerp and New York. In 2011 Cedric Christie
exhibited Color Movement at Flowers Gallery, New York, in which he drew inspiration from
dance - in particular George Balanchines ballet, Agon (1957). He has curated exhibitions such as: Line & Value: Part One, UpDown Gallery, Ramsgate, 2014, and Something I
Dont Do, Flowers Gallery, London 2009. His work is to be found in many collections including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; the Zabludowicz Collection; Unilever, London;
Derwent Valley Holdings plc, London; Brown Rudnick Freed and Gesmer, London; and Land
Securities, London.

COLOURS, 2015 , Stove enamelled stainless steel

Ayelet Amrani Navon

Ayelet Amrani Navon is an artist living and working in Israel. Her practice includes
painting and sculpture. She disassembles pianos and collects discarded objects from local industry and nature and often uses gesso, a traditional primer, in unconventional
ways in her art. Amrani Navon graduated with top honours from Basis Art School in 2011
and from the post graduate program at Basis Art School in 2012. Since then she has had
two solo exhibitions and has exhibited in Israel and internationally, including venues
in London and Paris. Her work can be found in private collections in Israel. Lingus White
Is a wall mounted installation comprised of slender tongue shaped appendages. The disembodied tongues take on a surreal nature. Clusters of of white protruding tips allude to
the possibility of people attached to them, behind the wall, beyond the gallery space. A
tactile organ rich in taste buds and nerve endings, a tongue is also an intimate point of
contact between human bodies. The installation is made of gesso: an inexpensive, modest
material always found in the studio but usually under the paint. It is an understated
medium, plain, white and meditative.

INSTALLATIONS, 2016 Mix Media

Eva Raboso
Eva Raboso is self-taught in painting, drawing and would capture on any surface everything
that comes out of her imagination, but her curiosity has led her to create a unique and
original artistic movement, the Vertical Urban. Canvases with black matte background,
dozens of layers of color glossy acrylic forming buildings, cars, apparently simple
lines, a point of infinite flight and different axes, equal to-none contiguo- form sets
that come alive only by a simple gesture: place an object in front of the box. Any camera
or mobile phone makes magic to focus their creations. And also in this style based on
observation, the Valencian artist uses the brush to express Bad Dreams, a neo-expressionist abstract collection, with which he tries to escape the perfectionist mechanics
of straight lines that are trapped for weeks when developing series Urban. But his art
also involves experimentation street. Eva creates sculptures on car roofs in scrap yards,
ship decks or simple pieces of metal, where toy cars, their toys, and acrylic colors
brighten scenarios in gray top, industrial cutting. These creations, sometimes ephemeral, especially when plasma on concrete blocks on the street, they become immortal when
frozen in the photographs Eva soulful.

From left:
RBAN VERTICAL YELLOW Acrylic on canvas,

100 x 160 cm

POLAROID GREEN EDITED LIMITED, Collage/ Acrylic on Canvas, 80x80cm

Gavin Turk
Gavin Turk is a British born, international artist. He has pioneered many forms of contemporary British sculpture now taken for granted, including the painted bronze, the
waxwork, the recycled art-historical icon and the use of rubbish in art. Turks installations and sculptures deal with issues of authorship, authenticity and identity. Concerned
with the myth of the artist and the authorship of a work, Turks engagement with
this modernist, avant-garde debate stretches back to the ready-mades of Marcel Duchamp.
In 1991, the Royal College of Art refused Turk a degree on the basis that his final show,
Cave, consisted of a whitewashed studio space containing only a blue heritage plaque
commemorating his presence Gavin Turk worked here 1989-91. Instantly gaining notoriety
through this installation, Turk was spotted by Charles Saatchi and has since been exhibited by many major galleries and museums throughout the world. Turk has recently been
commissioned to make several public sculptures including Nail, a 12-meter sculpture at
One New Change, next to St Pauls cathedral, London, England. In 2013 Prestel published
Turks first major monograph, showcasing more than two decades of his work and in 2014
Trolley Books published This Is Not A Book About Gavin Turk which playfully explores
themes associated with the artists work via thirty notable contributors.

NAZAR, 2012 - 2016

Kinetic Painting, Poured acrylic paint on tondo canvas, motor 140cm(h)x144cm(w)x7cm(d)

Le Dame Art Gallery at Meli White House

Albany St, Regents Park
London
NW1 3UP
www.ledameartgallery.com