2024 | Simulacrum: Massimo Giannoni

Pontone Gallery is proud to present a new exhibition of works by Italian artist Massimo Giannoni, his first solo show at the gallery.

Renowned for his depictions of densely packed spaces, Giannoni's latest exhibition of 15 paintings offers a captivating exploration of libraries and bookshops. They are representations of singular spaces, designed for thoughtful consultation and communion with a world of ideas, entertainment and information.

Giannoni builds up layers of thickly-applied paint over a carefully-drafted underpainting of the perspective plan of his chosen location, deploying lively streaks, patches and clusters of multi-coloured impasto. This rich and busy surface articulates a visceral enjoyment of the materiality of paint, reminding us of the tactile excitement anticipated in the touch and feel of sought after manuscripts and documents.

The painter illuminates his spaces with a soft glow, whether that be from the sun shining through a window or artificial sources like lamps and chandeliers. Such subtly modulated lighting gives these interiors a sanctified aspect reminiscent of the church, pointing to qualities of lucidity and enlightenment. Giannoni makes a play for some sense of equivalence in experience between the bookshop and the sanctuary.

The artist presents us with a simulacrum, replacing reality with its representations. Here are the painted signs of books, unreadable but transformed into a comprehensible image that encompasses the idea of the written and what it, in turn, signifies. We are asked to make a connection – with the library of ideas in all its multitude of guises, in all its multitude of languages and its awesome, sublime confusion, ours to attempt to decipher.