LdM Gallery
The LdM Gallery is a project by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici, a space where academic research and artistic experimentation meet within a professional setting.
Founded in 1973, Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici prides itself with having core values aimed towards ensuring students achieve the skills necessary to creatively meet the challenges of their respective fields, skills accomplished through interdisciplinary projects and engagement within the professional sector, as well as through the interaction with the local community.
The LdM Gallery closely aides in working towards this goal, creating an efficient space for showcasing interdisciplinary fields of art within the school and collaborating with high-level projects organized in the city of Florence.
The overall mission of the LdM Gallery is to encourage the development of creativity and sophistication within the student body, generate an open dialogue between students and the public, and foster opportunities for students to experience the reality of the art world beyond an institutional setting and gain professional experience through their artwork.
During its first year of activity, the LdM Gallery has hosted the following students’ exhibitions:
ANIMAE (October 10 – October 31, 2018) aimed to bring a new perspective to the subject of religion within photography. The exhibition showed a series of photographs that explored personal relationships between spirituality and symbolism of modern day religion. Featured artists and former Marist-LdM student Camilla Mecagni, and LdM students Susi Rossini, and Natalie Thedford Black explored the concepts of space, time, and atmosphere within each of their collective works.
HE!P (November 7– November 28, 2018) He!p was a student-oriented exhibition presenting graphic design campaign posters approaching a variety of issues found in today’s’ society, and exploring the multicolored world of politics, social issues, and environmental concerns.
BODY OF EVIDENCE (December 5, 2018 – January 30, 2019) Presented to the public were the works of artists and LdM students Emma Hermans, Elise Hillbrand and Lovisa Rönngren, created and developed during the LdM Advanced Drawing Course, in the short period from October to December 2018. With the use of gestural marks and abstract interpretations, the works of each artist interpreted complex concepts of reflection and identity.
BLACK LIPS (February 19 – March 12, 2019) For the fourth edition of Black History Month Florence, LdM Gallery opened up to a guest artist presenting Black Lips, a photography exhibition by Danilo Currò with poetic texts by Andrea Cafarella. Black Lips invited the viewer to go beyond the recurrent stereotypes and caricatures which saturate media portrayals. The project negated the single story approach, so common in the media portrayal of the migration of African people to Italy, which applies the same narrative to people from different countries and cultures, whose motivation for leaving is as diverse as their stories. Their voices are yet to be heard.
POP-UP PITTI (March 21 – April 17, 2019) From the masterplan to the exhibition layout: five architectural elements of 7x7x7 meters were organized in Piazza de’ Pitti to create temporary spaces that dialogue with built environment and human presence. Each volume had to be used as exhibition space for design masterpieces: chairs, tables, bookshelves, sofas and lamps.
VICE AND FLOW (April 23 – May 2nd 2019) A double exhibition in Jewelry Design, featuring the works of LdM Certificate Students and artists Xin Liao, Avani Prajapati and Meagan Moses. VICE engaged in a polyphonic, multicultural and multi-material thematic reflection, showing various interpretations of the seven capital vices. Fluidity was the key inspiration for FLOW, a collection of pieces of jewelry that involved the viewer in a continuously evolutionary, changing dialog by using dynamic forms, to evoke movement, thoughts, and memories.
VISIONS (May 10 – May 17, 2019) VISIONS explored a wide variety of illustrations, clothing, digital printing and experimental designs through the eyes of the future of LdM fashion students. Through the imaginative and singular perspective of LdM fashion designers, VISIONS showcased the diverse approach to the creative solution addressing a broad range of consumers.
VIRTUALITY (June 10th – July 11th, 2019) Virtuality explored the way reality is shaped by online information and interaction. Through this exhibition, LdM Alumna Lovisa Rönngren reflects on how different subjects are digitally connected through pixels and words typed on screens and devices.
PERPETUAL ADAGE (July 15th – August 1st, 2019) Perpetual Adage displays the works of LdM Alumnus and visual artist, Alexander Salazar. The artworks reflect upon the concepts of time and transformation.
GHOSTING (September 17th – October 10th, 2019) Ghosting collects the works of five young emergent artists, and it has been organized in collaboration with Associazione Culturale Forme.
IMPRESSIONS ( October 30 – November 14 2019) hosted a selection of chalcography and woodcut works, created by former LdM students during 33 years of printmaking courses in Florence. The exhibition was a tribute to students of various ages, who came from all over the world and worked with dedication and passion for mastering this ancient and yet very actual technique.
GEO ME TREE (November 20th – November 28th, 2019) A collection of graphic design posters, developed between Fall 2018 and Fall 2019 by LdM Graphic Design students.
IMAGO (December 3rd- December 12th, 2019) A photography exhibition which originates from an open call launched at the beginning of Fall 2019 to all LdM Photography students.
SUPPER, SLEEP, AND SORROW (February 19th – March 5th) is an exhibition dedicated to the work of Sikelela Owen that grapples with communal sharing, faded histories and rest.
The Arno’s Ancient Green Is Holy Not Color by Joel Werring
In Spring 2020, the LdM Gallery should have hosted visiting artist Joel Werring, professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Although we could not physically host the exhibition for obvious reasons, at the start of this academic year, we wish to celebrate the work he accomplished during the lockdown (February-May 2020) while looking forward to meeting Joel and his family again.
ISOLA (November 10th – November 26th) features three young artists, Andisheh Bagherzadeh (Tehran, 1993), Francesca Cerfeda (Napoli, 1993) and Nicolas Denino (Montevideo, 1985) whose work reaches congruity in profound reflection on the origin of their own existence, as well as their genealogical, territorial, cultural, and social identities.
Resili-ART: Resilience is the psychological ability to overcome hardship. Along with the concept of overcoming, it also entails that of personal growth. The works featured in this exhibition have been created during a period of both worldwide and individual stress, uncertainty and solitude. Set up as projects in September 2020, when authors were embracing a relatively new normalcy, their processes were shaken by the second wave of the covid-19 pandemic. Organized by the rotating ideas of Acceptance, Introspection, Fear and Change of Narrative, all together these pieces illustrate human complexity and its creative power to generate divergent thinking in difficult times.
HEART PROJECT is the solo exhibition by Rosita D’Agrosa (Polla, Salerno, 1989) that inaugurates a new season at the LdM Gallery. The exhibition, which takes its name from the homonymous series of works on display, offers the opportunity to open a door into the private world of this young artist who has transformed ordinary life, made up of objects, events, thoughts and emotions, into the portrait of a free and profound intimacy.
More information on the upcoming exhibitions on the LdM Gallery’s Facebook page and Instagram account.
