The Corona-crisis has changed our lives a lot. Many countries have limited public activities; several are almost totally shut-down. Schools, universities and shops are closed. This stop of public life, also affects cultural institutions like museums, art spaces and galleries. Many cultural operators defy this standstill and take it as a challenge to enhance their… (read more)
Love Silvia Levenson 2019 Kiln formed glass 11 cm x 11 cm x 22 cm Edition of 20 pieces Silvia Levenson’s glass sculpture “Love” is a soft pink hand grenade positioned on a round cake plate with pedestal. A transparent glass dome encloses it. On the shell, the word “Love” is written…. (read more)
Sono ancora qua. SetUp to be continued Autostazione Piazza XX Settembre 6, Bologna 24 – 26 January 2020 Last autumn Alice Zannoni, co-founder of the SetUp Contemporary Art Fair, announced that there would be no event with this name in 2020. Born in 2013, the alternative trade show for emerging artists and galleries was situated… (read more)
BOOMing Contemporary Art Show DumBo, ex scalo ferroviario del Ravone Via Casarini 19, Bologna https://boomcontemporaryart.com 23 – 26 January 2020 During four days, the first edition of BOOMing took place in the DumBo, the district of a former cargo railway station close to the central station. Artistically directed by Simone Gavoldi, the art fair… (read more)
For the second part of our Art City tour throughout Bologna, we concentrate on the western area of the city centre. Some exhibitions glance at our present, others are going back in history, partly back into archaic times. There are excursions into dream worlds, human or android; forms or colours are featured and our perception… (read more)
Rimediazioni Analogiche (Analogue Remediation) Donatella Lombardo 2015 Installation, mixed media 145 cm x 90 cm x 40 cm (support included) Donatella Lombardo’s installation “Rimediazioni Analogiche (Analogue Remediation)” is a red merchantable typewriter, type Olivetti Valentine with a long white panel of cloth coming out of the platen-roller. Digitally printed on the cloth are… (read more)
Last week, we made some proposals for exhibitions to see during the ART CITY in Bologna, Italy. Now, after the White Night we visited several more venues. Most of them are still open for some time. It is a diverse programme of smaller or bigger shows, where every art lover will find his/her pleasure. For… (read more)
The 44th edition of the Bolognese art fair ARTE FIERA just closed. Time to reflect on this traditional trade show in the heart of the region Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Simone Menegoi, the artistic director for the second time, gathered 155 galleries, thereof 108 in the main section and 47 in the three sections with a special… (read more)
In these days, the Bolognese art week started. Besides the traditional Arte Fiera, Italy’s oldest enduring art fair, there are many collateral events throughout the city and around. This year’s program of the ART CITY is once more larger than in the preceding years. There are 22 main projects and a special one, coordinated by… (read more)
Another year passed by and we would like to glance to what happened in the last months. We visited numerous exhibitions in Bologna and beyond, starting with the Bolognese Art Week, two Milanese art fairs and the Venice Biennale. Later we reported on exhibitions in Bologna, Florence, Bremen, Ferrara and San Gimignano. Moreover, we… (read more)
In a second tour, we visited six more exhibitions of the autumn season in Bologna. Most of them are still ongoing. Although the variety of artists and techniques is comparable to the exhibitions of the first round, the presented shows are more minimalistic in the second part, self-evidently with exceptions. Galleria de’ Foscherari: Mario… (read more)
After the summer break, there are various new exhibitions in Bologna on view. There are different artists with diverse techniques and subjects. Nevertheless, the exhibitions have in common that they invite to pause and to contemplate the objects to discover them deeply. Goethe-Zentrum: Bauhaus Reloaded 1919-2019: Architettura Bauhaus 1919-1933 Spazio Testoni: Human Places Magma… (read more)
Black Out 2 Ester Grossi 2018 Acrylic on canvas 120 cm x 100 cm Courtesy Spazio Testoni, Bologna, Foto Giulia Mazza Ester Grossi’s painting “Black Out 2” is a composition of four geometric shapes on black ground, which overlap each other partially. The upper diagonally red lined field could be described as rectangle with rounded… (read more)
Galleria Enrico Astuni Via Iacopo Barozzi 3, Bologna www.galleriaastuni.net 25 May – 28 September 2019 Summer break in August In his solo exhibition, Where do we go from here? in the Bolognese Galleria Enrico Astuni, Christian Jankowski questions about the relation between artist and audience, both, in the traditional physical contact and the virtual way… (read more)
17 – 22 June 2019 (the gallery exhibitions remain longer open) As every year, the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna goes on tour. Besides a programme of events, performances and special exhibitions in Bolognese institutions, the students of the Academy of Fine Arts show their works in galleries throughout the city. All the exhibitions… (read more)
MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna Sala delle Ciminiere Via Don Minzoni 14, Bologna www.mambo-bologna.org 8 June – 8 September 2019 With the exhibition Julian Charrière. All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and Everywhere. the MAMbo invites the visitors to plunge into the submarine world and to pop up from time to time to… (read more)
Door, NY, 1986 Betty Zanelli 1986 Collage Graphite, oil pastels, acrylic and newspaper on sketching paper 25 cm x 19 cm The collage “Door, NY, 1986” by Betty Zanelli shows a door ajar. In contrast to the background, which presents the bare paper and the sketched spatial environment with black pastels, the front of the… (read more)
BolognaFiere Piazza Costituzione Bologna www.artefiera.it 1 – 4 February 2019 The 43rd edition of the longest running art fair in Italy, was for the first time guided by its new artistic director Simone Menegoi. Even though, he had only six months to prepare the exhibition, he succeeded to give a new momentum to attract… (read more)
In the following, there are three main projects on focus. Leandro Erlich fetched some clouds down from the sky and Michele Spanghero invited to a cinematic sound installation in a subterranean historic movie theatre. Eduard Habicher showed the lightweight of steel. Leandro Erlich: Collection de Nuages Michele Spanghero: AGAIN ANEW – Before the film… (read more)
The new exhibition space DAS opened at the right time for the Arte City. Its first exhibition showed contemporary local and international artists, some with a glance to what might be upcoming in this place. Guido Segni at Adiacenze considered how artworks could be conceived in the era of automation of work. Rob Chavasse focussed… (read more)
The installation “Transboundary #4” by Betty Zanelli seems to treat migratory movements of birds of passage. Nevertheless, it is also about barriers which exclude people. Whereas Giovanni de Gara wants to encourage a reflection about welcoming with “Eldorato”. At the association “L’Altro Spazio” we experienced living inclusion and the artist Fabrizio Tartari. With the exhibition… (read more)
For the 7th edition the SetUp Contemporary Art Fair, around Simona Gavioli had chosen the theme “Ithaca”. 25 galleries, thereof four non-Italian, presented artworks with a focus on the mystical island, home of Odysseus, before and after his 20 years enduring absence, described by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey. By his journeys, the… (read more)
Traditionally, the end of January and the first days in February in Bologna, Italy, are dominated by a huge offer of artistic events. This year, more and more exhibitions started earlier, so that we can talk of a real art week around the oldest Italian art fair. Besides the ARTE FIERA (1 – 4 February… (read more)
Even at the age of 89 years, Greta Schödl still continues to create. Her range of techniques is very large; however, scripture and gold are particularly prominent in her work. We met in her apartment in Bologna, where we spoke about her background, artistic career and oeuvre. Astrid Gallinat: Your father was veterinarian… (read more)
Il Primo Universo (The First Universe) Greta Schödl 1980 Oil and gold leaf on French canvas Signed on the verso 216 cm x 160 cm The painting “Il Primo Universo” (The First Universe) by Greta Schödl shows an asymmetrical accumulation of golden dots and lines on a blue irregular ground. Slightly right from the… (read more)
In June 2018, Giovanni de Gara started his project “Eldorato”, for which he covers church doors with golden thermal blankets all over Italy. The objective of the project is, to encourage a deep reflexion about the subject of welcome towards every individual person, without distinction of race, gender, faith, to give a sign of warmth… (read more)
The current exhibitions for the season start are naturally various: by age and origin of the artists, techniques and intensions and depending on the type of gallery. Nevertheless, there are some formal or thematic links between some shows. At the end of this article, you’ll find a list of several Bolognese exhibitions, a lot with… (read more)
On the newest generation of artists in Italy and one meter and eighty from the border. MAMbo (Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna) Sala delle Ciminiere Via Don Minzoni 14 Bologna www.mambo-bologna.org 22 June – 11 November 2018 On 21 June, the MAMbo opened this year’s summer exhibition “That’s IT!”. The show is the first… (read more)
18 – 23 June 2018 Accademia di Belle Arti & many places in the city www.ababo.it By now in its fourth edition, the Bolognese Academy of Fine Arts opens its doors for the public. Moreover, the students leave their educational terrain. Besides the events and performances organised in the traditional walls, numerous students worked with… (read more)
MAMbo – Project Room 25 May – 16 September 2018 www.mambo-bologna.org In May 2018 the MAMbo (Museo d’Arte Moderna, Bologna) opened the exhibition “Rosanna Chiessi. Pari&Dispari” in its Project Room. This Project Room is dedicated to point on artists and art actors with an anchoring in the region, but not only. The choice of Rosanna… (read more)
Contemporanea 2, Florence, Italy www.c2contemporanea2.com 12 – 27 April 2018 For the exhibition, “Fil Rouge” the Florence gallerist Antonio Lo Pinto invited Elyse Galiano and Donatella Lombardo, two artists with different backgrounds. However, there are common things in the works of both. Formally, the two artists are using – inter alia – textile and thread…. (read more)
Galleria P420, Bologna, Italy http://p420.it 07 April – 02 June 2018 The exhibition “Hypothesis on Infinity” questions about the possibility to extend time into eternity. In addition, spatial borders are another subject. On a whole, the show is a time journey into the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the Italian artist Laura Grisi was… (read more)
Palazzo Pallavicini, Bologna, Italy www.palazzopallavicini.com 3 March – 27 May 2018 The Palazzo Pallavicini just opened an exhibition dedicated to Vivian Maier (1926-2009). This American photographer is for several reasons exceptional. First of all, her official profession was not photographer, but nanny. This autodidact shot over 120.000 photos. None of them was ever published… (read more)
During the weekend of the ARTE FIERA in Bologna, there are many artistic initiatives to welcome visitors and local residents. The range is huge from classical panel painting to installation, film projection and performance. Every art lover might find something interesting. In the following, we present our impressions of 28 events. They are sorted by… (read more)
The 34 galleries represented at this year’s SetUp showed a huge range of the contemporary art production. There were paintings, sculptures, photos and installations from traditional to experimental and from figurative to abstract. Some works were conceptual; others more decorative and still others had a surrealist touch. Several oeuvres used pre-existing objects, changed their appearance… (read more)
In the following, we will present ten galleries, which attracted our attention by a particular curating of the booth. Some are notable, because of their choice of harmonising artists and others by their orchestration. Furthermore, at the end, there is a photo series of interesting outlooks and remarkable single works. 29 ARTS IN PROGRESS,… (read more)
At the first weekend of February, numerous art events took place in Bologna, Italy. Besides the 42nd edition of the ARTE FIERA as point of departure, there were the SetUp Contemporary Art Fair and the Fruit Exhibition. But that is not all: by tradition, there are many other events throughout the city. The ARTE FIERA… (read more)
MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna, Bologna 12 Decemebre 2017 – 13 May 2018 https://mostrarevolutija.it/en/ Just in time, at the end of the commemoration of 100 years of the October Revolution, the Bolognese Museum of Modern Art opens the exhibition “Revolutija: from Chagall to Malevich, from Repin to Kandinsky”. Even though, the show is initiated on… (read more)
Inaugurated during the last two weeks, there are eight new exhibitions on view. They differ in the subject as well as in the presented techniques like painting, video and installation. Despite the variety, journeys in unknown worlds, sound and erotic are recurring elements. Matteo Tenardi – Luoghi Instabili* * La deriva delle cose e… (read more)
L’orMa (in civil life Lorenzo Mariani), is a young emerging Italian artist, living and working in Milan. In January 2016 he won the Premio Gruppo Euromobil – Under 30 at the Bolognese art fair ARTE FIERA. Later in the year, the Arteam Cup, honoured him in the category “Over 30”. Part of this prize was an… (read more)
From the outside, the Palazzo Pallavicini is rather inconspicuous: bricks and arcades are no rarity in Bologna. Only the size and the prominent balcony are giving a hint that the building might have some importance. Many Bolognese people and visitors might have passed thoughtless. They will be surprised to learn about the inside and the… (read more)
24 – 27 Mai 2017 Via Tanari Vecchia 5/a Bologna http://gelateriasognidighiaccio.com www.facebook.com/gelateriasognidighiaccio In May 2017, the artist-run art space “Gelateria Sogni Di Ghiaccio” in Bologna presented the group exhibition “Family Matters”. For this purpose, eleven Bolognese artists from different generations reflected the subject in their means of artistic expression. However, the concept of “Family matters”… (read more)
In its last year’s spring exhibition the gallery Spazio Testoni in Bologna presented the works of the Italian neo-constructivist Alberto Zilocchi (1931-1991). It was his first post mortem solo show. This year the gallery rediscovered a companion of Zilocchi, Paolo Ghilardi (1930-2014). However, if that would not be enough, Paola Veronese from Spazio Testoni and… (read more)
27-29 January 2017 Autostazione di Bologna, Italy Piazza XX Settembre, 6 http://www.setupcontemporaryart.com/2017/ Theme: Equilibrio (Balance) The theme of this year’s SetUp Contemporary Art Fair was “Equilibrio” (Balance). Inspired to that issue were the two founders of SetUp – Simona Gavioli (President) and Alice Zannoni (Director) – by a quote of Søren Kierkegaard: “Osare è perdere… (read more)
The facts: 41. Edition: 27 – 30 January 2017 – 178 Exhibitors – 153 Galleries – 48.000 visitors … read more In the first part of our Arte Fiera review, we described basic conditions of this year’s art fair in Bologna. With regard to the curatorship, we will present in the following some stands,… (read more)
41. Edition: 27 – 30 January 2017 The facts: – 178 Exhibitors – 153 Galleries – 48.000 visitors … read more The Bolognese art fair Arte Fiera 2017 presented itself in a new guise. Founded in 1974, with the 41st edition it is still the oldest enduring Italian art tradeshow. This year it got… (read more)
Partitura n.1 (Score Nr. 1) Donatella Lombardo 2016 Digital print on linen, needles, coloured thread, bobbins, plexiglass, adhesive paper, polyurethane padding, threaded screws 48 cm x 20 cm x 13 cm incl. 3 bobbins The base of “Partitura n.1” by Donatella Lombardo is an upholstered segmental arch, with a white linen surface. Printed on it… (read more)
Artissima Art Fair 4 – 6 November 2016 Torino, Italy Main Section [Show slideshow] New Entries [Show slideshow] Dialogue [Show slideshow] Present Future [Show slideshow] Back to the Future [Show slideshow] In Mostra – corpo.gesto.postura [Show slideshow]
The artist Alejandro González shows in his photos his view at the Cuban society. Besides the contemporary look on people, he questions the past and glances as well into a possible future. In July 2016, we met him in his studio in Havana and talked about the first chapter of his series “Re-construction” (2012/13),… (read more)
24 September – 5 November 2016 P420 Via Azzo Gardino, 9, off Largo Caduti del lavoro, Bologna www.p420.it Helene Appel’s pictorial motifs are – in contemporary painting – unusual, even though they are well known in the history of art and from our daily life. The Gallery P420 currently shows the latest works of this… (read more)
