Plastik #1 – Luba Bakičová, Simone Negri, Attilio Tono is on view at Galerie Monica Ruppert, Frankfurt
September 10 – October 28, 2022
Galerie Monica Ruppert is pleased to present a sculpture exhibition by Italian-born artists Attilio Tono and Simone Negri and Slovakian artist Luba Bakičová.
In the use of glass, ceramics and plaster, our current artists turn to materials that for a long time had a shadowy existence in art. Either they served to prepare a work to be executed, or they were used to make decorative objects, and not infrequently they were classified by their use. Sculpture made of soft materials has something that hard materials such as stone do not: they can usually be shaped directly by hand.
Simone Negri’s ceramics are hybrids, both painting and sculpture. One does not function without the other, losing its tension like a thunderstorm that builds up without discharging. Not bright, luminous colours but watercolour marbling break through the pure white of the ceramics. The abstract formations, especially when assembled as a multipart multiple, recall archaic, prehistoric monoliths, and mysteriously radiate an inner calm.
Luba Bakičovás works in glass, which she playfully unites with the completely different material concrete. The hard and solid against the clear and soft. Unification is to be taken literally and determines her technique for working with these so different materials, which has been refined over the years. Bakičová additionally contrasts the material through the intense colourfulness of the glass and the (un)colourfulness of the grey concrete.
Since his studies, Attilio Tono has been interested in organic materials because they are constantly maturing, ageing and changing. The unpolished surface of his plaster sculptures provides the perfect breeding ground: they soak up the wine and olive oil that Tono pours over them, or in which he leaves his sculptures for days. Left to time and exposed to a changing environment, the sculptures are at the mercy of unpredictability as they exude their fragrance.
Simone Negri (*1970 in Milan), studied at the Istituto Statale d’Arte, Castelmassa, has exhibited since 1998, 54th Venice Biennale 2011, National Gallery, Rome 2015, Triennale Milan 2021. Negri lives and works in Erbusco, Brescia, Italy.
Luba Bakičová (*1985 Ilava, Slovakia), J. E. Purkynî University, Czech Republic (2005-09, Master in 2009-2012), National Academy of Arts, Sofia, Bulgaria, Associated Secondary School of Glassmaking, Lednické Rovne, Slovakia; Second Prize Artzept International Design Award Milan (2011 and 2016), First Prize National Contest of Glass Schools in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic.
Attilio Tono (*1976 in Milan), studied at the Accademia die Belle Arti di Brera, Milan, he has taught sculpture at the Accademia di Belle Arti Aldo Galli, Como, since 2006, as well as materials science at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan. Tono has exhibited internationally for many years, including in Korea, Switzerland, the USA and Russia, and lives and works in Berlin and Milan.
Text by Nicole Guether.
Contact
info@galeriemonicaruppert.de
Galerie Monica Ruppert
Bleichstr. 48
60313 Frankfurt
Germany
All photographs © Marco Vedana (documentingart.de)