Simeone Crispino and Stella Scala, better known as Vedovamazzei, live and work in Milan. These complex, extremely prolific artists are impossible to categorize according to theme, aesthetic, or working method. Their body of work, now comprising over 900 pieces, points to an ongoing practice fueled at times by special commissions, but also a daily process of exploration that springs from the tireless give-and-take between their two minds. The images they create, ranging from sketches on paper to giant installations that have travelled around the world, manage to engrave themselves deeply on the viewer’s retinas. Avoiding any quest for purity in form and content, but also those tricks of the intellect that bear the noxious smirk of gimmickry, Vedovamazzei employ a carnal sort of irony, presenting their own bodily reflexes, revealing all the exaggerations that characterize them, tackling universal themes without yielding an inch of ground.
For the exhibition titled Paesaggi inaspettati, Vedovamazzei draw on a vast range of media, including sculpture (Appliance#3), painting (Floating human shit searching for the perfect storm in the mediterranean sea), and installation (Go-Do), addressing a single theme from many different angles. It could be described as a political landscape with literal misunderstandings in the case of the neon work, the translation of an incident into oils (The most visited place ever), and the construction of a narrative around a failed object, or the depiction of a romantic, impossible whim (Appliance picture).
Vedovamazzei have most recently presented: Da io a noi, Palazzo del Quirinale, 2017; Da Duchamp a Cattelan: Arte contemporanea sul Palatino, ALT, Rome, 2017; Fuori Uso - Avviso di garanzia, Pescara, 2016; Horizontal, Casa Italia, Rio 2016; Inauguration of the new works of art in the Troubleyn/Laboratorium, Antwerp, 2016; UN United Nothing, Certosa di San Giacomo, Capri, 2015; The end of a work never made, (Non Basta ricordare), MAXXI, Rome, 2014; No Necestitas Suerte, Istituto Italiano di Cultura and Galleria Fucares, Madrid; Terrible Beauty, Art, Dublin Contemporary, 2011; One too many 15 years later, A Palazzo, Brescia; vedovamazzei, Le Temple, Paris, 2011; Sette lavori di vedovamazzei, Magazzino d'Arte Moderna, Rome, 2010; Public Art Projects, Art 38 Basel, 2007; Greatest hits vedovamazzei, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, Naples, 2006; London under London, Percy Miller Gallery, London, 2005; vedovamazzei, Praz-Delavallade, Paris, 2005, 3 Räume 3 Flüsse, Hann. Münden, 2000.
Their works have been featured in the group exhibitions Liberi tutti! Arte e società in Italia 1989-2001, Museo Ettore Fico, Turin, 2015; The wolf and the tiger, Palazzo della Permanente, Milan, 2015, The home of your dreams, Bratislava, 2015; Arte alle Corti, Turin, 2015; Towards which planet? Canal/05 Art Agallery, Brussels, 2014, Non Basta Ricordare, MAXXI, Rome, 2014, La lettura: Cento copertine d'autore, Milan, 2013, Exquisite Corpse, Galerie Georges-Philippe et Nathalie Vallois, Paris, Intorno al Libro, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, 2012; Lady Dior As Seen By, Triennale di Milano; Cara domani: Opere dalla Collezione Ernesto Esposito, MAMbo, Bologna, 2012; Una magnifica ossessione, MART, Rovereto, 2012; Sideshow, Dormitorio pubblico Ugo Mulas 1954, Campoli Presti Gallery, Paris, Neon - La materia luminosa dell’arte, MACRO, Rome, 2012; REBUS, Simon Lee Gallery, London, 2011; Où sont les hommes?, FRAC Languedoc-Roussillon, Montpellier, 2008; Fit to Print: Printed Media In Recent Collage, Gagosian Gallery, New York, 2007; Isobar, Fieldgate Gallery, London, 2007; Ironia Domestica, MUSEION, Bolzano, 2007; At the Outskirts of Humour, 22nd Hamburg International Short Film Festival, 2006; Biennale de Montréal, 2002; Migrazioni e multiculturalità, MAXXI, Rome, 2000; Over the Edges, S.M.A.K., Ghent, 2000; Beyond the Borders, Kwanjiu Biennal, 1995; Campo, Venice Biennale, 1995.
Opening :
SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 2018, 6 PM
mpefm
ITALY art press release
Gallery hours:
Monday-Saturday 10:00 to 12:30 / 15:30 to 19:30
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