January 5 – February 9, 2008 Opening Reception: January 5, 6-8pm
D’Amelio Terras is pleased to present three rooms by three gallery artists who all have a sculptural practice with a conceptual chassis — Cornelia Parker, Massimo Bartolini, and Dario Robleto.
Cornelia Parker Cornelia Parker’s work often deals with deconstruction of monuments, be it people or places. The photographic works on view are from her series “Brontëan Abstracts” in which she examines the mythology surrounding the Brontë sisters – Anne, Charlotte and Emily. Parker uses an electron microscope to scan artifacts and objects owned by the Brontës such as a lock of hair, a quill pen, a needle. The magnification both abstracts them and reveals their essence. Other photographs focus on both the conscious and subconscious marks left by the sisters — such as ink blots on the lined paper, deletions from the original manuscripts and holes in the pincushion.
Cornelia Parker has held numerous solo exhibitions including at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX; Royal Institute of British Architects, London; Galleria Civica D’Arte Moderna (GAM), Turin, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Chicago Arts Club and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. She was a Turner Prize nominee in 1997.
Dario Robleto Dario Robleto, who uses hard to fathom materials to create his sculptures, utilizes ground vinyl dance-craze records, various medicinal botanicals and carved bone calcium to make his sculpture “Shaker Apothecary”. Along with this piece that directly references a traditional shaker cabinet, Robleto presents a large-scale drawing consisting of three panels that contain record covers constructed out of colored paper and cardboard. The invented record titles reference science, religion, and folk medicines as they relate to American pop culture. The two works together speak of the way music is tied to both the traditional remedies and religious rapture.
Dario Robleto has had solo exhibitions at the Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT, the Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; and the Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria. He was included in the 2004 Whitney Biennial.
Massimo Bartolini Bartolini's works are often experiential and have involved a wide variety of mediums such as sculpture, site-specific installation, performance photography and drawing. He will show a single work titled “Revolutionary Monk” — a bronze figure of a praying monk in a typical Bodhisattva position that is spinning so fast on its axis that it becomes almost invisible. Here the act of prayer is not only something that has a potential to bring about a revolutionary change but also becomes threatening and potentially destructive.
Massimo Bartolini had two solo exhibitions in 2007 — at Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal, and Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England. His recent solo exhibitions included GAM Turin Magazzini d'arte Moderna, Rome, Italy; Galleria Massimo de Carlo, Milan, Italy; and the Stadtisches Museum Abteiburg Monchengladbach, Germany.
Opening on February 9th and running through March 15th is a sequel exhibition that presents three rooms by three emerging conceptual based artists – Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Shana Lutker, and David Kennedy Cutler.
John Morris Paintings on board January 5 – February 9, 2008 Opening Reception: January 5, 6-8pm
D’Amelio Terras is pleased to present never before exhibited paintings by John Morris. He has been known primarily for creating delicate and compositionally complex works on paper that feature built up surfaces and repetitive forms that reflect his fascination with systems and patterns. Unlike his works on paper, these paintings on board allow the mediums used by him in the past, such as acrylic, ink, graphite, and wax, to take on a more fluid and transparent quality.
John Morris’s delicate paintings on board are small and translucent universes made up of grids, dots and patterns where layers of repetitive motifs tie together the individual works. They reference patterns from nature, music notations, and economic systems. Although the paintings are quite labor intensive, they appear to be produced effortlessly and naturally.
“Art like Morris’s suggests a direct, indexical, and therefore euphoric transcription of thought, in which every sign is motivated by some mystical urgency known only to the author, and no detour through conventional grammar dulls the high of radical self-expression.” — Frances Richard, ArtForum, December, 2002
John Morris has had numerous solo and group exhibitions including at Works On Paper, Los Angeles, CA; Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA; the Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC; and National Academy Museum, New York, NY. His work is in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; The Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX.
