Rebecca Maria Ballestra, 20 Marzo 2016
Photography” is a group show which displays works by established artists together with younger ones. The exhibition presents different approaches to photography, enhancing the difference between those artists, such as Darren Almond and Giacomo Costa, working on a landscape vision deprived of human presence and those like Mario Schifano and Matteo Basilé who focus on the human figure and its presence in space. As a complement, two women artists gives a feminine, positive and positivist point of view, deploying new ways of interpretation. Maria Rebecca Ballestra gives new afflatus to the delicate balance between man and nature and Barbara Kechler chasing, literally running after those small quick poetic changes of routine life. Giacomo Costa who exhibited already at our premises in 2013, is an Italian artist well known for his futuristic landscapes executed completely by computer soft-wares and exhibited in several important museums such as the Leopold Museum in Wien and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. We selected a rose of his historical works among which there are the famous Aqua 8, on the invitation card, and Mountain 9 from 2009 series. Mario Schifano is one of the most important member of Italian pop art and founder of the School of Piazza del Popolo in the 60's. His research, eclectic and versatile in many medias, has anticipated the American avant-gardes and innovated the elaboration of images. One of the most interesting moments of his career is focused on the advent of television and its social consequences. We present at this purpose a selection of Polaroid’s he executed in the early 90’s and representing iconic images of those days such as Fidel Castro and Pepsi Cola advertising. Darren Almond is an important British photographer and film maker, represented by the most important international galleries. Since 1998, Almond has been making a series of landscape photographs known as the Full moons. Taken during a full moon with an exposure time of 15 minutes or more, these images of remote geographical locations appear ghostly, bathed in an unexpectedly brilliant light where night seems to have been turned into day and enabling details undetectable to the human eye to be revealed. For works in this show he has traveled to Patagonia, Tasmania, Cape Verde and the Outer Hebrides. While depicting disparate lands, the works all embody Almond's interest in time, both as an actual, lived experience as well as a cultural and historical construct. They acknowledge his deep connection to particular landscapes, and map the artist’s personal interest in its geology, myth and history. We are glad to present on this occasion “Full moon at Esk River” shot in Tasmania in 2013. Matteo Basilé is an important Italian photographer who has been exhibiting around the world and in particular in China where he also made a portrait to Ai Wei Wei during the latter’s one domiciliary detention. His research focuses on the incredible capacity of photography to surpass painting both for the emotional involvement and the esthetic composition. His photos look like paintings, obtained after several hours of detailed preparation of models and background. We will have a preview of the new work on which the artist is currently working.
Maria Rebecca Ballestra is an Italian photographer and a conceptual artist. She is been travelling around the world for artistic residences with particular interest in ecology subject matters and future evolution of earth landscape. We selected the famous series “Babylon”, exhibited at Maraya Art Centre of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, and representing the most sacred and powerful religious buildings in the world such as Saint Peter’s in Rome, The Temple of sky in Beijing and the mosque of Mohamed Ali in Cairo. Barbara Kechler is a young self-thought,painter and photographer from Rome. Her photos confuse the viewer as they play to imitate a painting result. She has always worked on light effects and the artificial illuminations and we are glad to exhibit some images from her research on dynamic and night lights.
Opening reception on March the 10th at 6:30 pm
“Le Stella Mare”
18, Avenue de Grande Bretagne
98000 Principato di Monaco
www. natolimascarenahs.com