CAR drde is pleased to present a group show under the title The Malpighian Layer featuring works by Amélie Bouvier, Inga Meldere, Giulio Saverio Rossi, Jonathan Van Doornum and Theis Wendt. The exhibition is curated by Bruno Barsanti and Gabriele Tosi.
The Malpighian layer is the deepest part of the epidermis and it is named after the Italian scientist Marcello Malpighi, born in 1628 in Crevalcore, near Bologna. In this innermost layer skin cells are continuously formed by division, a process also known as mitosis. As the cells produced by these divisions age, they migrate upwards to replace the cells being worn away at the surface. Malpighi could describe this phenomenon thanks to the groundbreaking use of the microscope.
In a metaphorical sense, the images generated by the works in the exhibition can be considered as the “outer” layer of an expanded immaterial skin, the spectrum of a physical or cultural substratum pushed up to the surface from the invisible “inner” layers. This movement provokes a shift in the perception; the usual hiddenness of something ”negative” that always comes with the “positive” image is here addressed by invoking the same process that allows the image itself to appear. Making use of different strategies, these artworks denote the artificial and misleading nature of sight: the beyond, the before and the after become difficult to determine and only appear to exist in a shifting condition as if merged with one another. Mapping this immaterial skin as a folded space originally existing in a compressed and encrypted manner appears to be the core action made by the artworks in order to reveal the presence of something authentic that would otherwise be easily lost.
Amélie Bouvier (Paris, France, 1982) lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. Her practice begins with the use of images and diagrams from various sources, such as scientific and military archives, Google and science-fiction material, exploring lines between real and imagined perceptions. Her laborious drawings transform images and specific details of events in order to provide new perspectives on the identity and agency of place, time and epistemological building blocks.
She has had several noteworthy exhibitions including those at Museo Patio Herreriano (Valladolid, Spain), Carpe Diem Arte e Pesquisa (Lisbon, Portugal), Plataforma Revólver (Lisbon, Portugal), the Verbeke Foundation (Kemzeke, Belgium), and at Museu Da Cidade (Lisbon, Portugal). Her work has been included in the 16th Cerveira International Art Biennial and in the 6th Biennale of Art and Culture of São Tomé e Príncipe. She was selected for the ISELP prize “Hors d’Oeuvre” in Brussels and was named best emerging artist at Just Mad in Madrid, as well as a finalist for the CIC’Art Prize.
Jonathan Van Doornum (Mariënberg, The Netherlands, 1987) Lives and works in Zwolle, The Netherlands. The search for the authenticity of the built world is his driving theme. He questions the absence of ornaments in daily life and seeks for the meaning of historical architecture. These questions are translated into sculptures that are made out of inexpensive materials such as MDF and chipboard. By carefully appropriating regional architectural references into sculptural installations, Van Doornum’s work can be seen as an articulation of a society in dissolution.
In 2013 he received the young talent grant by the Moondrian Fund, in 2015 he has been artist in residence at Wiels in Brussels, in 2017 he has been artist in residence at De Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. His solo shows include the ongoing “Polishing my fake patina” at DASH (Kortrijk, Belgium), “Imagined Trust” at Wiels’ Project Room (Brussels, Belgium), “Killing two birds with one stone” at Kunstvereniging Diepenheim (Diepenheim, The Netherlands).
Inga Meldere (Kuldiga, Latvia, 1979). Lives and works in Helsinki, Finland. She holds a BA in Pedagogy at the University of Latvia, Riga and then studied Visual Arts at the Art Academy of Latvia, Riga. She was later a researcher at Jan Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht. Her practice can be seen as a long engagement between art history and a personal archive in which familiar images can exist in parallel to private memories and experiences. Meldere elaborates the idea of a complex image, layered by different printings, paintings and collages.
Her work has been shown internationally in both solo and group exhibitions include those at SIC art space (Helsinki, Finland), kim? Contemporary Art Center (Riga, Latvia), Careof (Milan, Italy),, National Arts Club (New York, USA), Driehaus Museum (Chicago, USA) and Latvian National Museum of Art (Riga, Latvia). She was nominated for the Purvitis Award in 2016.
Giulio Saverio Rossi (Massa, Italy, 1988). Lives and works in Turin, Italy. He studied at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin. His work is characterised by a critical use of traditional pictorial media, stating that our ability to see pictures influences our ability to look at the world and denying the act of painting as the result of a repeated practice.
His recent exhibitions include the solo shows “No Subject” at LOCALEDUE (Bologna, Italy), “Bordi/Borders/Bords #1” at Spazio K+D (Turin, Italy) the group shows “Sulla Pittura” at Spazio Siena (Siena, Italy), “Teatrum Botanicum” at PAV - Parco Arte Vivente (Turin, Italy), “Viva Arte Viva” at Futurdome (Milan, Italy).
Theis Wendt (Copenhagen, Denmark, 1981). Lives and works in Copenhagen. Wendt’s materials mimic qualities and textures of other materials, as if they were consciously trying to adjust themselves. The quasi-organic appearance of Wendt’s sculptures unlock a view on a post-humanist, dystopian future. In his 2D work, picture frames are no longer windows to a different world, but are endlessly caught up in self-referentiality. Paintings are no longer painted depictions of a beyond, but they have become a copy of themselves, a partially translucent cast revealing only a shallow depth. Wendt studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art (MFA) and exhibited at (selection): San Diego Art Institute (San Diego, USA); Brandts Sculpture Triennal (Odense (Denmark), Torrance Art Museum (Los Angeles, USA), Kalmar Konstmuseum (Kalmar, Sweden).

opening : Saturday 12th May 2018 h 18 - 20.30

mpefm ITALY art press release