Lorenzo Scotto di Luzio
28 Feb - 05 Apr 2008
LORENZO SCOTTO DI LUZIO
Ancient and Modern presents drawings by Lorenzo Scotto di Luzio. Lorenzo Scotto di Luzio’s work is manifested in a wide range of media including sculpture, installation, photography, animation, music and video. This is the first exhibition to focus purely upon the drawings that have formed a backbone to his diverse practice – something that links his childhood scribbles to the complex and laborious works of recent years. These tragi-comic drawings expresses a sense of futility and desperation. Although skilled as an academic draftsman Scotto di Luzio approaches each drawing with no idea of what the subject or form will take other than that prescribed by the drawing implement and paper in front of him. He compares what are often crude drawings to the ornate calligraphic, first letters of medieval documents where a whole story is depicted in a single, iconic vignette. The works are consciously inspired by a broad range of sources including artists such as Hans Bellmer, Otto Dix, George Grosz and Christian Schad and also by the ideas of Guy Debord. He presents his contorted cast of charectors as members of Debord’s ‘Society of the Spectacle’ (1967): where ‘all that once was directy lived has now become mere representation.’ An accumulation of such representations, or ‘spectacles’, Debord explains, are ‘a concrete inversion of life’ and loci ‘of illusion and false conciousness.’ Recently, particular inspiration has come from narcissistic, exhibitionist films posted on YouTube.com. Lorenzo Scotto di Luzio was born in 1972 in Pozzuoli, Naples. He currently lives and works in Berlin. At the end of last year he held a major solo exhibition at the Museo d’Arte Donna Regina (MADRE), in Naples. The exhibition was accompanied by a monograph published by Electa. Recent group exhibitions in which he has presented work include ‘Ironia Domestica,’ at Museion, Bolzano and ‘Italy Made in Art: Now’ a major survey of contemporary Italian art and design curated by Achille Bonito Oliva and held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai (both 2007); ‘Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires’ at Ancient & Modern; ‘Fatto in Casa’ at Castel San Pietro, Bologna and ‘Filmen Opera’ at Castel San Elmo, Napoli (2006) and ‘La Dolce Crisi’ at Villa Manin, Codroipo, Udine (2005). He is represented by Galleria Fonti, Naples and Galleria Emilio Mazzoli, Modena.
Ancient and Modern presents drawings by Lorenzo Scotto di Luzio. Lorenzo Scotto di Luzio’s work is manifested in a wide range of media including sculpture, installation, photography, animation, music and video. This is the first exhibition to focus purely upon the drawings that have formed a backbone to his diverse practice – something that links his childhood scribbles to the complex and laborious works of recent years. These tragi-comic drawings expresses a sense of futility and desperation. Although skilled as an academic draftsman Scotto di Luzio approaches each drawing with no idea of what the subject or form will take other than that prescribed by the drawing implement and paper in front of him. He compares what are often crude drawings to the ornate calligraphic, first letters of medieval documents where a whole story is depicted in a single, iconic vignette. The works are consciously inspired by a broad range of sources including artists such as Hans Bellmer, Otto Dix, George Grosz and Christian Schad and also by the ideas of Guy Debord. He presents his contorted cast of charectors as members of Debord’s ‘Society of the Spectacle’ (1967): where ‘all that once was directy lived has now become mere representation.’ An accumulation of such representations, or ‘spectacles’, Debord explains, are ‘a concrete inversion of life’ and loci ‘of illusion and false conciousness.’ Recently, particular inspiration has come from narcissistic, exhibitionist films posted on YouTube.com. Lorenzo Scotto di Luzio was born in 1972 in Pozzuoli, Naples. He currently lives and works in Berlin. At the end of last year he held a major solo exhibition at the Museo d’Arte Donna Regina (MADRE), in Naples. The exhibition was accompanied by a monograph published by Electa. Recent group exhibitions in which he has presented work include ‘Ironia Domestica,’ at Museion, Bolzano and ‘Italy Made in Art: Now’ a major survey of contemporary Italian art and design curated by Achille Bonito Oliva and held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai (both 2007); ‘Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires’ at Ancient & Modern; ‘Fatto in Casa’ at Castel San Pietro, Bologna and ‘Filmen Opera’ at Castel San Elmo, Napoli (2006) and ‘La Dolce Crisi’ at Villa Manin, Codroipo, Udine (2005). He is represented by Galleria Fonti, Naples and Galleria Emilio Mazzoli, Modena.