Andrea Mastrovito's Picks
Marian Goodman Gallery - 9/17-10/26/13
I was completely overwhelmed by Kentridge's show as soon as I entered it. New pieces everywhere, the gallery filled with masterpieces. Somebody told me “perhaps there are too many of them”. But they're all amazing, so let them be, all of them! Kinetic and bronze sculptures, flip-book movies, prints and drawings in Indian ink: all there to allow us to enter Kentridge's world and,for a moment, become part of his family. His assistant scenographer during the opening told me: "we are like a big family, to work with him is like feeling at home."
A must see show, together with his inventive production of Shostakovich’s "The Nose" at Met Opera, until October 26th.
Anton Kern Gallery - 9/12-10/19/2013
Well, this is a really good painting exhibition.
I always loved Anton Kern Gallery because you can see incredible shows there, as well as really terrible ones. They try, and they take a risk. I like that!
Jonas' hand is as happy as a kiss of a young pretty lady on your cheek and, I swear, I lost myself for a few minutes on the black and yellow of a painted shoe. A shoe!
Sometimes I think of Jonas Wood like some sort of Matisse who was reborn in California in the 70s and started painting watching sport on tv, in the living room, while his parents were away and he was the King of the House!
In my opinion, this is the best painting show you'll find in NY this month.
Peter Freeman Inc. - 9/7 - 10/19/2013
In this show, David Adamo successfully plays a double role as artist and curator portraying our idea of sculpture and drawing with subtle irony. His clay erasers remind me of the famous Picasso's line: "Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth". The fantastic chalk-floor, made of more than 1,800 square feet of school chalk, laid in a herringbone pattern reminiscent of vast antique wood floor, is a clear metaphor of both our fragility and surprising resistance.
But what really amazed me is his selection and installation of James Castle's work. Above all: his vertical placement, inside a museum-like case, of a series of drawings of jugs and amphoras. In doing so, he breaks their bi-dimensionality and brings back to us the original, ancient objects. Super!
Andrea Mastrovito was born in Bergamo, Italy, in 1978. He lives and work between Italy and New York.
Mastrovito received the MFA in 2001 from Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti in Bergamo. He won the New York Prize, awarded by Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2007, the Special Prize at Monza's Biennale dei Giovani in 2011 and the Moroso Prize in 2012 . He installed solo shows in private galleries in Milan, Florence, Paris, Geneva, Brussels, New York and in four Centers for Contemporary Art in Milan (Museo del Novecento), Monfalcone, Italy, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Lacoux, France. Public exhibitions include: MAXXI Museum, Rome, Italy; Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy; Pecci, Prato; MART, Rovereto, Italy; Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK; B.P.S. 22, Charleroi, Belgium; M.A.D., New York. He's been selected for ISCP residency in winter 2013.