Contamin-Azioni – LdM Gallery

FROM JUNE 22 TO JULY 27
OPENING: JUNE 22 AT 5:00 PM

After the opening, the exhibition will stay open until Thursday, June 27

Mon – Wed: 10AM-2PM, Thu: 4-7PM

Special openings: Friday, June 30: 4-7PM

During the week of the special event the opening hours of the gallery will be
Wed, July 19, Thu, July 20, Friday, July 21: 4-7PM and Sat, July 22: 10AM-1PM

Special event: a special event will be held at the LdM Gallery a guided tour through the exhibition in the presence of the artists, on Wednesday July 19, at 5pm.


Contamin-Actions

Project curated by Mattia Lapperier
Featuring works of:
Adriana Amoruso
Pietro Desirò
Luca Matti
Leonardo Moretti
Fabio Refosco
Groter Walpius

Gallery Supervisor: Špela Zidar



About CONTAMIN-ACTIONS:
The pandemic has radically changed our way of perceiving space. An invisible enemy that spreads like wildfire, fast, insidious, unstoppable, capable of affecting the entire world population, has undermined our certainties, placing the danger – perhaps for the first time in the contemporary era – in the dimension of the imperceptible. Therefore, this exhibition intends to investigate the processes tending to expansion, that aim at affecting space, aggressively, as they were an uncontrollable viral infection. The selected artists research concepts of propagation, emanation, duplication, and germination. The form repeats, remaining unvaried, but at the same time – constantly changing, multiplying, crossing the borders, and generating Contamin-Actions. The project combines the works of six contemporary artists from different generations, backgrounds, and training that use different languages in their practice. What brings them together is the common tendency to research, in their artworks, the expansive processes of organic nature. In the LdM Gallery the artists exhibit paintings, sculptures, and installations, in which the principle of flexibility is pushed to its maximum degree.During the OPENING:

The contamination does not refer only to the dialogue between the works on display, nor does it consider only the “invasion” of the exhibition space. Some of the artists in the exhibition also include the viewer in the process of growing and expanding their artwork. Fabio Refosco presents a large canvas created between 2019 and 2022, which was the result of a great collective effort, in which all the guests who visited his studio have, even if only minimally, contributed to its realization. In reference to this collaborative project, the artist will propose a participatory action during the exhibition opening , while the  installation by Adirana Amoruso also features shreds of canvas on which the visitor is invited to intervene, which the artist will later act on as well, thus laying the foundations for collective work.

About the ARTISTS:

Adriana Amoruso
Adriana Amoruso (Trani, 1991) graduated in Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, the city where she currently lives and works. Her artistic research experiments with various languages which include installation, performance and embroidery. Knotting, weaving, embroidery are all actions that recur in her creative process. Daughter of an embroiderer, her works allow her to reconnect to her roots. Although each of them is self-contained, taken together, the shreds of canvas presented by the artist tell an intimate and introspective story, on which to let one’s deepest emotions flow freely and then come together again.

Pietro Desirò
Pietro Desirò (Florence, 1994) trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and at the Akademie der bildenden  Künste  in Vienna, currently lives and works in Florence. In 2014 he won a scholarship that allowed him to refine the study of graphics at the Il Bisonte Foundation. In 2015, together with other artists, he founded Cartavetra: a gallery/workshop in Florence, where he holds engraving courses and collaborates with other artists in organizing exhibitions and events. He prefers paper as a support for his chalcographic experiments. He usually makes use of mixed techniques that he implements and refines incessantly, a practice that induces him to return to his work, even after some time. Lately he makes use of paper previously subjected to the action of molds and bacteria, on which he intervenes with the sensitivity of an entomologist.

Luca Matti
Luca Matti (Florence, 1964) is a painter and sculptor who lives and works in Florence. For decades he has also been involved in comics, illustration and graphics, collaborating with magazines and publishing houses. Since 1988 he has dedicated himself to painting and the creation of sculptural works in inner tubes, developing a very personal style that places him among the leading artists on the Italian scene. Since 1994 he has focused on the relationship that man has with the city, drastically reducing his color palette to black and white. Over the years he has developed a recognizable iconography of domestic objects and interiors, urban landscapes and figures halfway between man and insect. His work ranges freely between drawing, engraving, painting, video animation and sculpture from inner tubes, tires and rubber. The various languages condition and contaminate each other, giving life to a universe of stories, suggestions, dreams; a sort of uninterrupted black and white fiction that spans over thirty years of activity.

Leonardo Moretti
Leonardo Moretti (Prato, 1991) lives and works in Prato. After graduating in Painting and in Visual Arts and New Expressive Languages, with a specialization in Decoration, both obtained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, he immediately experimented with various mediums with a predilection for painting, photography and installation. Lately he has been focusing on the dynamics that are generated around the varying of objects, when seen and elaborated from different perspectives. From this follows both the propensity to use (and reuse) waste, as well as the exploitation of the expressive potential inherent in the various materials, especially the plastic ones, including Plexiglas. The latest works draw inspiration from lace and are configured as a reflection on superficiality and banality in interpersonal relationships.

Fabio Refosco
Fabio Refosco (Valdagno, 1968) lives and works in Trissino. His artistic research focuses on the gesture, from which he creates form. If in previous works this practice appeared more incisive, at times almost violent, his latest experiments on paper are decidedly more reflective and intimate, resulting from the irreducible dichotomy existing between control and chance. The component of unpredictability unites his works. In fact, none of his gestures ever arises from a tight control over the form; indeed, it is the artist himself who programmatically accepts the accidental component as an integral part of the process. His soap bubbles soaked in ink, leaving an indelible mark on the support from the moment they explode, represent a moment of life, an indelible sign of what remains.

Groter Walpius
Roberto Pelosi (La Spezia, 1977) trained musician and teacher, is known in the artistic field under the pseudonym of Groter Walpius. He began his experiments in the field of visual arts in recent times. He has always been interested in processes, natural or induced. Rusts, with all types of oxidation, musks and cracks have always exercised an irresistible attraction on the artist since his childhood. The artist considers the fragility of things, their mutability, the possibility of changing their appearance over time, authentic added values. He usually works on paper, concrete, wood, tiles, bricks, pieces of plaster or other recycled material with different techniques ranging from watercolor, pastel, pen, acrylic, to spray painting. His works, the result of a long elaboration process, seem to have been attacked by the passage of time; they present themselves as relics of times that have already passed, as if they were the fortuitous surviving witnesses of a journey.

About the CURATOR:
Mattia Lapperier (La Spezia, 1989) is an art historian, independent curator and teacher. Graduated in History and Forms of Visual Arts, Performing Arts and New Media at the University of Pisa, with a master’s degree in Management of Artistic and Cultural Events, he collaborates with galleries, museums, independent spaces and cultural associations. His interests range from twentieth-century art to contemporary research. In 2020 he published Luigi Russolo incisore / Catalogo generale delle acqueforti, the catalogs La Via dell’Ambra Reloading, 40 days / Artisti in quarantena and the monograph Antonio Franchi. Sintesi emotive for Vanillaedizioni. among his recent exhibitions: Diagenesi. Scolpire il tempo / Simone Negri – Pietro Capogrosso, Florence, Cartavetra, 2023; Geografie emotive / Leonardo Moretti, Florence, Galleria d’arte La Fonderia, 2022; Toten / Leonardo Bartolini, Kumamoto (Japan), Prefectural Traditional Craft Center, 2022; Retaggi / Flavio T. Petricca – Alfredo Rapetti Mogol, Grosseto, Polo culturale Le Clarisse, 2022; Adriatico / Giorgio Petricca, Paris, Le sentiment des choses, 2022; Dialogo inverso. Orientarsi tra le macerie / Ettore Pinelli – Giorgio Distefano, Florence, Cartavetra, 2022; White Noise / Rose-Mari Torpo, Helsinki, tm galleria, 2021; Dalla terra alla luna / Luca Matti, Florence, C2 Contemporanea, 2021; 40 days. Artisti in quarantena / Massimo Angei – Andrea Bianconi – Andrea Bruschi – Valeria Dardano – Lorenzo De Angelis – Sabino De Nichilo – Giorgio Distefano – Andrea Famà – Giovanni Frangi – Federica Gonnelli – Luca Matti – Federico Montaresi – Leonardo Moretti – Giulio Zanet, Turin, Associazione Quasi Quadro, 2021; Terreni contaminati / Leopoldo innocenti, Florence, Galleria d’arte La Fonderia, 2021; Pitture Necessarie / Isabella Nazzarri, Milan, Spazi Mac Mahon, 2021; La Via dell’Ambra. Reloading / Lolita Timofeeva – Valentinaki, Florence, Palazzo del Pegaso, 2020; In coltura / Leonardo Moretti, Florence, Villa Romana, 2020; Trame plastiche – Oltre la superficie / Victoria DeBlassie – Leonardo Moretti, Florence, SRISA, 2019; Corpi trasparenti / Giada Mazzini, Prato, Palazzo Datini, 2019; Locanda Universo. Omaggio a Wagner / Francesco Vaccarone, Bayreuth, Ausstellungshalle Neues Rathaus, 2019. He lives and works in La Spezia. More information on my projects and research lines on: mattialapperier.it

Inside Out – LdM Gallery

FROM SATURDAY, MAY 13 UNTIL THURSDAY MAY 18

4:00pm – 7:00pm

INSIDE OUT

LdM Jewelry Design Department End-of-term Exhibition 2023

In search of Self-expression through Ancient and Modern techniques.

Featuring a selection of works from the Jewelry Design Department:
CURATED BY: DEPARTMENT SUPERVISOR YOKO SHIMIZU SELECTED BY: ELISA DEVAL 



INSIDE OUT

LdM Jewelry Design Department End-of-term Exhibition 2023 

In search of Self-expression through Ancient and Modern techniques. 

A SELECTION OF STUDENT WORKS

Art in the Square 2023

SATURDAY, MAY 13, 2023

11:00am – 6:00pm

Art in the Square is the annual event of Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, a public celebration of the artistic achievements of our students, featuring an exciting range of artworks selected by a panel of experts, including paintings, drawings, printmaking, sculptures, mixed media works, photography, graphic design, architecture, interior design, jewelry, fashion design, dance choreography, and acting performances.

Featuring works and live performances by students of:

FINE ART –  GRAPHIC DESIGN – PHOTOGRAPHY

ARCHITECTURE – INTERIOR DESIGN

JEWELRY – FASHION DESIGN

FILM – MEDIA – PERFORMING ARTS



PROGRAM

Via dell’Alloro 14r, Via del Melarancio 6r, Via del Giglio 4, LdM Premises
FINE ART EXHIBITION
11:00am – 5:00pm

Fondazione Zeffirelli, Piazza San Firenze
ARCHITECTURE, INTERIOR DESIGN, GRAPHIC DESIGN AND PHOTOGRAPHY
11:00am – 5:00pm

Via del Melarancio 6r
RESTORATION Lab
Restoration students work on original artworks
11:00am – 2:30pm

Via dell’Alloro 14r
STREET ART WORKSHOP WITH
EXIT ENTER AND LdM STUDENTS
1:30pm – 4:00pm

Artemisia Classroom

Via de’ Pucci 4
JEWELRY DESIGN
EXHIBITION
11:00am – 6:00pm

LdM Gallery

SHORT FILM & ANIMATION
11:00am – 6:00pm

First floor, Classroom Marconi

FASHION DESIGN EXHIBITION
11:00am – 6:00pm

First floor, Front Building*

*Make a right after the concierge, walk up the

stairs and enter the glass door on the right.

Via Faenza 43
DANCE RECITAL AND THEATRICAL
PERFORMANCE
from Dante Aligheri’s
Inferno
4:00pm – 5.00pm

Church of San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini

Francesco Lauretta – The Bathers

About THE BATHERS: Francesco Lauretta is an artist and a painter. He paints every single day as if wanting to prove incorrect those who judged the medium as outdated. Painting continues and will continue to exist in its countless declinations. Sometimes Lauretta appears as an innovator, who wishes to reinvent painting. If, on one hand he cultivates a profound recognition and understanding of the masters, on the other hand Lauretta enjoys the expressive power of iconoclasm.

At Lorenzo de’ Medici Gallery Francesco Lauretta will present his series of paintings dedicated to one of the most iconic motifs in art history, The Bathers.

Special event: a special event will be held in the LdM Gallery, a talk with the artist, Francesco Lauretta and a special edition of Santa Rosa free school of drawing for LdM students. The Free Scuola di Santa Rosa was founded in Florence in 2017, as an initiative by Francesco Lauretta and fellow painter Luigi Presicce.


On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during the opening hours the gallery interns will be available for special exhibition tours connecting the works on show with the famous motives of the bathers in art history.


Francesco Lauretta, born in 1964, experiments with installation, performance and video. In 2003 he began to work on a redefinition of painting as a form of expression and of the artist as an existential condition, exploring techniques, processes, formal results, deviations, limits and eventual failures. Since 2010 he has worked on “I racconti funesti”, a series of allegories where he uses writing as a tool to make sense of his process. He recently began working on a project on freedom and invention comprehending painting as the foundation of immense and possible worlds. In October 2017 he and Luigi Presicce came up with the idea of Scuola di Santa Rosa, a free school of drawing in Florence. His most recent solo exhibitions have been held at MAC in Lissone, Tenuta dello Scompiglio in

Vorno (Lu), Fondazione Rossini in Briosco (MB), Galleria Giovanni Bonelli in Milan, and Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Palermo. His numerous group exhibitions in Italy and abroad include Paso Doble at Fondazione Malvina Menegaz, Casa Masaccio in San Giovanni Valdarno, Palazzo Riso in Palermo, Frigoriferi Milanesi in Milan and Macy Art Gallery in New York. As well as this he has worked on special projects with artists’ collectives and curators.


March 16th, from 5 to 8PM
LdM Gallery,Via de’ Pucci 4

After the opening, the exhibition will stay open until Friday, April 7th,

Mon 10AM-2PM/4:30-7PM, Tue to Fri 4-7PM 


The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.

Giulia Seri – Amduat

The work of Giulia Seri refers to life from the entirely humane point of view emphasizing the suffering over the transience of existence. Her emotional, fragile and expressive figures are related to mythological references that uncover the fragility of human existence and its relation to death or better, the search for eternity functioning as ex voto, prayers, magic spells. The delicacy of materials and tones the artists uses contrast with the painful of the content referring to pain, death and fragility of flesh.

At the LdM Gallery, Giulia will present Amduat (On the other side for ancient Egyptians) her watercolors, prints and sculptures made of bread, wax, fabric and ceramics.

After the opening on Wednesday February 22nd, the exhibition will stay open until Friday March 10th,

Special event/Artist Talk: Wednesday March 1st from 5 to 7 pm:  a talk between Giulia Seri, artist, Valentina Santini, egyptologist CAMNES, Spela Zidar, art curator.

About AMDUAT:

Giulia Seri’s refers to life from the entirely humane point of view emphasizing the suffering over the transience of existence. Her emotional, fragile and expressive figures are related to mythological references that uncover the fragility of human existence and its relation to death or better, the search for eternity functioning as ex voto, prayers, magic spells. The delicacy of materials and tones the artist uses, contrast with the pain of the content referring to pain, death and fragility of flesh.
At the LdM Gallery, Giulia will present Amduat (On the other side for Ancient Egyptians) her watercolors, prints and sculptures made of bread, wax, fabric and ceramics.

Giulia Seri, born in Rome in 1988, lives and works in Florence since 2008.

After graduating in biology, she studied painting at the Art Students League of New York and in 2017 obtained a scholarship at the international school of graphic art “il Bisonte” in Florence. She participated in group and personal exhibitions in Italy and abroad, participated in artist residencies and obtained various national and international awards; among the most relevant the invitation to the European Triennial of Contemporary Engraving and the International Biennial of works on paper, the jury prize at the Koschatzky Art Award 2021, the selection among the featured artists at the Cramum Prize and the mention of the jury at the Combat Prize 2021. In her work Seri uses different techniques: painting, engraving, sculpture, installation.


The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.

Memesis and Construction

MIMESIS AND CONSTRUCTION

This semester we have moved forward and backward through art history. We have applied techniques that have been employed for over 500 years and have utilized digital tools that are continuously transforming. We have used pigments that go back to the origins of mankind and others that have been on the market for only twenty years. We have taken painting as a vehicle in which we move across time, in which we absorb and ignore traditions, follow and break rules – we have behaved conformist and anarchist at the same time.

For example, in the construction of space in painting: We worked with the baroque space, which makes the objects and faces emerge from the illusion of a deep, dark room. We have used space to transfer the phenomenon of movement into the static medium of painting. We introduced blurring to imitate the photographic simulation of space. Finally, we used ornament and color to undermine and ironize the illusion of space.

In this way, we have been moving in a peculiar realm of freedom in art, where our representations oscillate between mimesis and construction, where we act insecurely, feel pleasure and discover something new simultaneously. 


MARTIN FIGURA presents: 

Francesca Leggio, Jack Masters, Sophia Quinn, Marely Robinson, Torreya Simon, Erin Zurfluh.

The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.


 
 
 
 
 
 

Footwear Futures

FOOTWEAR FUTURES

We are excited to host the footwear influencer and most sought after footwear innovation expertise, Nicoline van Enter. Ms. Van Enter has created solutions for leading brands ranging from start-ups to Adidas and Timberland to Kering group and Balenciaga.

The opportunity to be a part of Nicoline’s presentations is rarely connected to a student group and we are honored to have this opportunity to host Nicoline’s one hour presentation.


Wednesday Nov 16th from 11-12 pm

at the Church of San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini, via Faenza 43.


Nicoline’s approach of design innovation, environmentally friendly manufacturing and understanding the future evolution of footwear has defined how top eco-conscious footwear companies approach sustainability.

Footwear careers are not only for designers. Nicoline came to footwear from her background of engineering, journalism and marketing. She will explain how each person directly connects within the footwear arena and also shares what the footwear industry needs most.

Listen to how trends are conceived in the footwear industry, new approaches of development systems and the possibilities of biotech, 3d printing, automated design, modular shoes and innovative materials, will change the way we know footwear today.

Come ready with questions and to be forever changed on what you once knew about the footwear industry.


Nicoline van Enter has 30 years+ of experience in the shoe industry. She is the founder and creative director of the Footwearists, the international platform for footwear innovation. Sharing insight into the biotechnology, the importance of construction, and what the footwear future and meaningful innovation holds for people and the planet.

 

 
 
 
 

Shelly Jordan

LdM – Lorenzo de’ Medici Istitute Gallery is happy to present the exhibition RESTLESS TRACES: Leaves by USA artist Shelley Jordon.

Jordon’s work begins with painting that is transformed by the artist in installation, animation, animated installations and lately also glass sculpture. Experimenting with different materials, enables the artist to create fluid, moving works that expand through time and different artistic media creating immersive experiences that dissolve boundaries between interior and exterior worlds and allow for exploration and cross pollination of ideas and disciplines.

This exhibition will include recent paintings and hand-painted animations from De-Compostions series, larger mixed-media paintings on BFK paper, that depict leaves in a state of rotting and decay, that investigate the passage of time and cycles of life. The animations are accompanied by original sound/music by composer Kurt Rohde. Jordon will also show some of her very recent experimentation with glass sculpture.

Small-scale watercolors painted from life allow for close observation and the opportunity to record the nuance and particularity of each specimen.

In addition to the video projection and works of art, during the opening the artist will create experimental works on paper inspired by local vegetation, demonstrating to those present the artistic technique with which she usually creates her works. The public is invited to attend the gallery from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm on the day of the inaugural event. After the demonstration, Shelley Jordon will hold an artist conference from 4 to 5 pm, illustrating her artistic career.

SHELLEY JORDON

Shelley Jordon was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and now living in Portland, Oregon. A painter and moving-image artist, she uses traditional drawing and painting media applied to two dimensional artwork, animation and installation to express the complex nature of memory; physical and emotional, collective and personal.

Her solo exhibitions include; The Ildiko Butler Gallery, Fordham University at Lincoln Center, New York City, the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH, the Whitebox Gallery Portland, OR and the Frye Museum, in Seattle, WA. Jordon holds an MFA from Brooklyn College of the City of New York, a BFA from The School of Visual Arts in NYC, and is a Professor of Art at Oregon State University and frequently lives and teaches in Siena, Italy.

Invite (English)

Learn more about Shelley Jordan:
www.shelleyjordon.com

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

ReDiscovering – Tutankhamon

TUTANKHAMUN is perceived as a collective element by the whole of humanity, and not only by a single cultural group. It is part of the world’s cultural identity, something coated with an imaginary functionality and beauty, which refers to the image we project in the past, able to communicate with the present. His name evokes a series of usual stereotypical mental images: the artistic peak reached by his excellent funeral mask; life passed in one of the most intriguing periods at the diplomatic level (close relations with other cultures of the Near East); and at the spiritual level (speculations on the figure of the god Aton). 

Furthermore, the not yet clear relationship with the pharaoh Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten, the premature death and dynastic problems that occurred with the accession to the throne by figures not related to the dynasty (Ay and Horemheb), the small tomb compared to a rich funerary equipment, and, unfortunately, the so-called “curse”. However, there is much more in the figure and history of this king. So, after a century it is necessary to “Rediscover Tutankhamun”.


REDISCOVERING TUTANKHAMUN is curated by: 

Massimiliano Franci, Irene Morfini, Valentina Santini (CAMNES).

Photographs by Paolo Bondielli (MediterraneoAntico).

The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, an interdisciplinary space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Frogmen: the history of Florentine street art re-written

On Tuesday, October 18th, at the Church of San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini, at 6PM, Isabel Carrasco will present her bookFrogmen. Primi belati de street art a Firenze”.

The presentation will be the occasion to discuss about the Street Art in Florence, and the talented artists who animated the Florentine artistic scenario, in particular Aroldo Marinai.

During September and November 1979, Aroldo Marinai (Florence, 1941) was stenciling the silhouette of a diver around the center of Florence. With that action, Marinai was likely the first to bring to his city a notion of the street art culture he had been exposed to during his recent stay in New York. In addition, he decided to take the action to a further level by documenting the process with photographs, a sort of written diary, and an exhibition that included a performance. The whole project was published as a short-run booklet entitled: Frogmen: Un segno sui muri come per caso in 1980. The book has been recently re-published as Frogmen. Primi belati de street art a Firenze, 2021.

The book re-edition is put Frogmen in the context of Florentine and European street interventions revealing the key role of Italy in the time-line of independent practices in public space. This conference aims to analyze the project Frogmen as well as to broadly discuss the particularities of Florentine street art. This project is the result of two Marist College – Istituto Lorenzo de´ Medici summer-research scholarships (2018 and 2019). And of a Fall 2020 semester collaboration with LdM Gallery.

ISABEL CARRASCO

Mª Isabel Carrasco holds a PhD in Philosophy by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She works as a Program Director for Marist College Spain and as a Professor in Boston University Madrid program. Her research activity touches upon the relationship between image and writing in contemporary art, focusing on mural writing (graffiti), calligraphy, and independent visual art interacting in public space.

Some of her last publications are: Frogmen. Primi Belati di Street art a Firenze (co-authored book). Florence, 2021. “Love before Tinder. Popular Graffiti in Torrenueva (Ciudad Real)” (article), Lisbon 2022, “El juego entre la escritura y la imagen. Graffiti en los años 70 en Nueva York” (book chapter), Madrid, 2022. Isabel also practices classical and modern calligraphy since 2012.