Pontone Gallery presents a portfolio exhibition of four gallery artists, who demonstrate a variety of approaches to contemporary figurative painting and sculpture, both in theme and technique.
Massimo Giannoni is a painter of books and, in particular, a multitude of books that are housed in specific libraries, stores and collections. These are painted in a colourful, representational idiom that records their singular architectural settings to build a compendium of significant sites. Giannoni’s forensic enquiry emphasises the historical fragility of the library and the fact that its component parts are all too easily lost, censored and destroyed.
Raffaele Rossi’s delicate and allusive images are reminiscent of the vestigial markings and mysterious symbols of antique and ancient cultures. His fresco and mixed-media technique creates a subtle surface of earthy textures and washes of jewel-like, iridescent colour, into which fine lines describe animal forms and the contours of archetypal landscapes, glimpsed through saturated colour fields.
Recent works by Tim Wright evoke Sylvan mysteries and a dream-like classical world. Oak leaf wreaths twist and turn across the picture’s surface, sometimes framing images of animals. The motifs are revealed and obscured by translucent glazes, shadowy washes and turbid skeins of coagulated oil paint. Light and dark passages are punctuated and enhanced by cursive brush marks and gestural drawing. Acute observation is bound to painterly abstraction to make these dramatic and atmospheric paintings.
In recent years Emil Alzamora's work has oscillated between painting and sculpting. In both practices, he has incorporated various unorthodox approaches and techniques in an effort to explore the human form both physically and psychologically. He often distorts, elongates, encases or deconstructs the subjects with the intention of revealing an emotional or physical situation or narrative. The materials he works with, through their resistance and compliance, create a dialogue with his actions. This action, dialogue, co-creation is the foundation of his artwork, allowing for the ritual of process to reveal and inform at once the aesthetic and the conceptual.
