Luisa Rabbia - Coming and Going
13 Sep - 27 Oct 2012
Luisa Rabbia, Coming and Going, 2012, White pencil, blue acrylic paint, papier-mâché, wood slices, red fabric, 66 3⁄4 x 60 x 60 in (167 x 152 x 152 cm)
Peter Blum is pleased to announce Coming and Going, an exhibition of new sculpture and drawings by Luisa Rabbia opening on September 13, 2012 at Peter Blum Chelsea (526 West 29th Street). This will be her first solo exhibition with Peter Blum Gallery. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, September 13 from 6 – 8pm. It will be on view until October 27, 2012.
Coming and Going is organized around several large sculptures and drawings that explore the passage of time and the interconnectivity that define contemporary life.
A multi-media artist, Rabbia integrates porcelain, papier-mâché, silver-point, and pencil drawings with natural materials. In the sculptures created for the exhibition, organic forms intertwine and wrap around pencil drawn portraits. Figures emerge out of tangled roots or vein-like elements made out of wrapped fabric and papier-mâché. The roots envelop, connect, nourish, suffocate, detach and conjoin the figures while wood and stones anchor them firmly to the ground and create a strong dialogue between human and nature. Blue and red play a dominant role in her work further echoing an association with the human vascular system.
Concepts of unity and separation are evident throughout. In Dual, two bodies thrust upward delicately relying on each other for balance. Their connection is tenuous and fragile yet strong enough to allow the sculpture to remain freestanding. Towards fills an entire gallery wall with more than 200 tiny portraits on painted porcelain. The installation is meant to be experienced simultaneously as one work made up of highly individualized depictions of people from different cultures and backgrounds.
The passage of time and the loss and change that is associated with it is also recurrent in many of her works. Human traces left on sheets depicted in silver-point drawings along with the second-hand clothes incorporated into several of her papier-mâché works are loaded with personal experiences and reinforce our relationship with our surroundings.
Luisa Rabbia was born in 1970 in Pinerolo (Torino, Italy) and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been exhibited internationally including solo exhibitions at Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires, Argentina, curated by Beatrice Merz (2010); Fondazione Merz, Torino, Italy, curated by Beatrice Merz (2009); Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venezia, Italy (2009); The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, curated by Pieranna Cavalchini, (2008). Group exhibitions include shows at the MAGA, Museo Arte Gallarate, curated by Francesca Pasini and Angela Vettese (2010), MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo, Roma, Italy, curated by Paolo Colombo (2007); and the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva (2006).
For additional information and photographic material please contact Laura Pinello at chelsea@peterblumgallery.com. Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday, 10am – 6pm; Saturday, 11am - 6pm.
Coming and Going is organized around several large sculptures and drawings that explore the passage of time and the interconnectivity that define contemporary life.
A multi-media artist, Rabbia integrates porcelain, papier-mâché, silver-point, and pencil drawings with natural materials. In the sculptures created for the exhibition, organic forms intertwine and wrap around pencil drawn portraits. Figures emerge out of tangled roots or vein-like elements made out of wrapped fabric and papier-mâché. The roots envelop, connect, nourish, suffocate, detach and conjoin the figures while wood and stones anchor them firmly to the ground and create a strong dialogue between human and nature. Blue and red play a dominant role in her work further echoing an association with the human vascular system.
Concepts of unity and separation are evident throughout. In Dual, two bodies thrust upward delicately relying on each other for balance. Their connection is tenuous and fragile yet strong enough to allow the sculpture to remain freestanding. Towards fills an entire gallery wall with more than 200 tiny portraits on painted porcelain. The installation is meant to be experienced simultaneously as one work made up of highly individualized depictions of people from different cultures and backgrounds.
The passage of time and the loss and change that is associated with it is also recurrent in many of her works. Human traces left on sheets depicted in silver-point drawings along with the second-hand clothes incorporated into several of her papier-mâché works are loaded with personal experiences and reinforce our relationship with our surroundings.
Luisa Rabbia was born in 1970 in Pinerolo (Torino, Italy) and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been exhibited internationally including solo exhibitions at Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires, Argentina, curated by Beatrice Merz (2010); Fondazione Merz, Torino, Italy, curated by Beatrice Merz (2009); Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venezia, Italy (2009); The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, curated by Pieranna Cavalchini, (2008). Group exhibitions include shows at the MAGA, Museo Arte Gallarate, curated by Francesca Pasini and Angela Vettese (2010), MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo, Roma, Italy, curated by Paolo Colombo (2007); and the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva (2006).
For additional information and photographic material please contact Laura Pinello at chelsea@peterblumgallery.com. Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday, 10am – 6pm; Saturday, 11am - 6pm.