LUISA CATUCCI PARTICIPATES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ART MADRID WITH A MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROPOSAL
Feb 11, 2020
art madrid
The German gallery Luisa Catucci is participating for the first time in Art Madrid with a multidisciplinary proposal that combines the installation and performance narrative of the sculptor Lidó Rico, the ethereal photographic compositions of Aqua Aura project and the stratified paintings of the artist David Hochbaum.
Based in Berlin, Luisa Catucci Gallery has an exhibition program focused mainly on ecological, social and existential issues, all expressed in different artistic media (painting, sculpture, photography, video art and installation). Many of the artists represented by the gallery have participated in important biennials and international exhibitions such as Documenta, Manifesta or the Venice Biennale. Luisa Catucci is not a conventional art gallery, its space is situated as one of the main elements of the cultural agitation of the area.
In its premiere in Art Madrid within the general program of the Fair, Luisa Catucci Gallery, will exhibit an artistic proposal where invites the viewer to reflect on the great power of art and to discover intrinsic feelings that are out of the ordinary.
Lidó Rico (Yecla, Murcia, 1968), uses matter as a language, as a means of reflection. The artist himself takes self-portraits in his sculptural installations, his body (arms and torso) and mainly his face being the mould of his creations and one more element within the work. In this way, Rico develops concepts in relation to the body, space and the natures that arise between them. The human subject is the center of his sculptures, far away from individualism, their faces wear masks or maintain extreme stereotyped gestures.
The artist in his creative process generates a game between the performative and the sculptural, using his own anatomy, immersing his body in different materials to get the mold of his pieces; molds that are emptied and filled with polyester resin. From the beginning, Lidó Rico considers it necessary for the contemporary human being to rebel and for this reason he shows in his works that he is totally torn by an anguish, which needs to manifest itself in the form of an intimate groan.
The Aura Aqua project was born in Milan in 2009. Based on her studies in astrophysics, particle physics, biogenetics, philosophy and psychology of perception, Aura Aqua uses photography and digital art as means to express her own language. The search for the sublime in our time is one of the main conceptual interests of Aura Aqua's works. For this, the artist needs the direct intervention of the spectator, disconcerting him spatially, that is why she executes her photographs by situating elements apparently taken from nature in scenarios such as scientific and astrophysical research laboratories, art museums, exhibition spaces where they are not commonly located.
”Aqua Aura is a kind of synthetic stone. Originally, it's a quartz. Quartz crystals are placed in a vacuum chamber and heated to 871°C. Gold vapour is then added to the chamber so that it fuses with the surface of the crystal, giving the crystals an iridescent metallic shine and a bright blue colour. The proximity to the gold makes it luminous and iridescent but at the same time more fragile than its initial condition. That is all. I am one of those stones. Time and a slow process have sat on me."
David Hochbaum (New York, United States, 1972), dedicates his artistic career to two concepts: community and collectivity. The American artist works actively with collaborative collectives and artists of all genres and backgrounds. In addition, Hochbaum organizes art criticism salons, free workshops for artists and helps little-known artists to promote their work.
His artistic discourse focuses on the search for philosophical and psychological elements through experimentation with various expressive media such as photography, painting, sculpture, film and even woodworking techniques. In his studio, Hochbaum calcines, distills, ferments and sublimates the main issues in his work. He is interested in themes related to Greek mythology, his collages of cities and towers reflect the places in which the artist lived and to which he has travelled. The cities in his work are at the same time portraits and landscapes, the human figures become cities and the cities become portraits of those figures.
