21 May 2019

Riccardo De Marchi. Àllai opaì (other holes)

The A arte Invernizzi gallery will open on Thursday 23 May 2019 at 6.30 p.m., a solo exhibition by Riccardo De Marchi under the title 'àllai opaì (other holes)'.

Riccardo De Marchi will be presenting his most recent works in a new exhibition installation specially created for the gallery space. By using the Greek term 'opé' - which can be translated as 'hole' or 'opening', but also as 'sight' or 'eye socket' - the title of the exhibition conveys the idea of vision 'through' a hole, or holes. In his works, as in the case of 'Testo Infinito' ['Infinite Text'] and '9 pagine' ['9 Pages'], on display in the first room on the upper floor, the artist perforates the material to create a continuous contrast between surface and volume, presence and absence. The perforation-script shows the traces of its passing in a journey that is both mental and metaphorical, as well as physical. De Marchi repeatedly brings to bear different ways of seeing, partly depending on the material used, as we see in the installation in the second room on the upper floor. Here, some steel works from the late 1990s, in the form of sheets rolled on themselves and placed on the ground, enter into a dialogue with 'Senza titolo' ['Untitled'], a work in aluminium and polyethylene of 2019.
The artist's line of investigation, in which visual features emerge from carefully controlled and repeated gestures that nevertheless always lead to new results and countless new ways of seeing, continues on the lower floor of the gallery. Here the holes bring to life surfaces in aluminium, plexiglas, steel, and polyethylene, creating works such as the two 'Senza titolo' (2019) and '...Attraverso...' ['...Through...'] (2018). The spatial and material consistency of his art is even more evident in works such as 'Muro' ['Wall'] (2019) and 'Nessun dove' ['Nowhere'] (2019), in which a juxtaposition of different elements placed next to each other, as in the case of the 'bricks', or on top of each other, alternating sheets of plexiglas with mirror-finish stainless steel, intensify our perception of a space filled with different volumes of solids and voids, giving the image concrete form in a vision of even greater diversity.

On the occasion of the exhibition a bilingual volume will be published with reproductions of the works on display, an introductory essay by Francesca Pola, and updated bio-bibliographical notes.