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This fall, Italian-born, Los Angeles-based artist Alessandro Pessoli
debuts his latest body of work at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
(SFMOMA) in his first solo museum exhibition on the West Coast. On view
through February 10, 2013, New Work: Alessandro Pessoli
highlights the artist's diverse range of art making since he relocated
from Milan to the United States in 2009.The exhibition brings together 40
graphite drawings and a related sculpture created during his first year in
California, along with a new series of vibrantly painted mixed-media works
on paper and majolica sculptures that are on view for the first time.
Alessandro Pessoli (b. 1963) fuses classically based tradition with
a contemporary impulse, formulating a hallucinatory world in which the past
is continually reinterpreted and corrupted. Familiar and historical imagery
is resuscitated and intermingled with personal associations, while art
historical references appear throughout. At times cynical, sincere, or
perverse, his constructions depict restless, exaggerated characters who act
out a range of emotions. Like the dreamlike atmospheres they inhabit, the
fragmentary figures seem cloaked in a haze of memory, coming only partially
into focus.
Pessoli's figures are formed through conventional
means: they are drawn, painted, or sculpted. Drawing is central to all
aspects of his artistic production, and his illustrations are defined by
the expressive nature of their lines and the immediacy of their marks. His
ceramics are fabricated from majolica, a sculptural medium synonymous with
the Northern Italian Renaissance. Majolica retains the nuances of Pessoli's
meticulous handcrafting of his figures, enabling the translation of his
drawings and paintings into three-dimensional forms.
An inherent
dexterity in Pessoli's process allows for such seamless shifts between
materials. While he does not simultaneously work in different mediums,
symbols and characters carry over among them and are constantly
reimagined and re-created. Pessoli frequently invokes the formal
characteristics of his predecessors' work—including that of
Honoré Daumier and Pablo Picasso—a reflection of his reverence
for the history of art. Science fiction, cartoons, and cinema are also
quoted and repurposed to fit his needs. These influences are mixed with
personal references, adding complexity to Pessoli's visual lexicon.
Though undoubtedly influenced by his Italian roots, his recent work
also reflects his move to Los Angeles. New Work: Alessandro Pessoli
reveals an imagination in transition: new symbols and influences appear
in this recent work, affecting color, imagery, and form. The resulting
objects convey a palpable freedom, defined by a strengthened personal
vocabulary and a continuing sense of invention.
The exhibition
is organized by Jenny Gheith, assistant curator of painting and sculpture,
and marks the latest installment of the museum's ongoing New Work
series.
About Alessandro Pessoli
Born in Cervia,
Italy, Pessoli studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, and
currently lives and works in Los Angeles. He has had solo exhibitions at
Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia (2011); MACRO Museo d'Arte
Contemporanea Roma (2009); Chisenhale Gallery, London (2005); and The
Drawing Center, New York (1997); and others.
About SFMOMA's
New Work Series
In 1987, SFMOMA's New
Work series was conceived as an important vehicle for the
advancement of new art forms. Artists such as Matthew Barney, Marilyn
Minter, and Christopher Wool were given their first solo museum exhibitions
through the program. The New Work series has showcased
work by Kerry James Marshall, Tatsuo Miyajima, Doris Salcedo, Luc Tuymans,
Richard Aldrich, Phil Collins, Vincent Fecteau, Rachel Harrison, Lucy
McKenzie, Wangechi Mutu, Anna Parkina, Mai-Thu Perret, R. H. Quaytman, Mika
Rottenberg, Felix Schramm, Ranjani Shettar, Paul Sietsema, and Katharina
Wulff, among others.
Read
full press release
*Image above:
Alessandro Pessoli, Fighter and Sandrino 63, 2012. Painted
majolica and cast bronze, 50 1/2 x 27 x 22 inches. Courtesy greengrassi,
London; and Anton Kern Gallery, New York. © Alessandro Pessoli. Photo:
Robert Wedemeyer.
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