Giovanni Copelli at Operativa Arte Contemporanea

Artist: Giovanni Copelli

Exhibition title: Amanti

Venue: Operativa Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy

Date: September 29 – November 18, 2017

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Operativa Arte Contemporanea

Note: Giovanni Copelli in conversation with Mark Nash can be found here

Operativa Arte Contemporanea is proud to present Amanti, the first solo show by Giovanni Copelli in the gallery space.

After L’Amore Vince Tutto, Eros Capitolino and Per Sempre, Copelli continues exploring the subject of love through Amanti.

The project faces and expands on the relationship between the mythological lovers Mars and Venus.
During the Renaissance, the Neoplatonic philosophical tradition identified the love of the two Roman gods as the power to resolve the negative forces into a cycle of balance and harmony. Countering this philosophical tradition, Copelli transforms the gallery space into an imaginary museum. An hypnotical exhibit of mural paintings, masks, fragments of sculptures and armours tells tales of a lost world, inhabited by allegorical figures. The exhibit introduces the viewer into an out-of-time atmosphere, where one can enter, dive into, and freely establish connections.

The exhibition features a text by Mark Nash.

Giovanni Copelli (Reggio Emilia, 1989) makes paintings and sculptures starting from a complex vocabulary of “fascinating images” of different backgrounds, in an attempt to map the paths that link and define their meanings. In his works are recognizable themes and characters originated from myth and archeology, artistic tradition and popular culture. He currently lives and works in Reggio Emilia. In 2015 he took a Master in Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmiths University in London. He cooperated in curatorial and collective projects such as Viva l’Italia, Museo Archeologico, Bologna (2017). In 2011 he was one of the founders of the independent space INTERNO4 in Bologna and in 2015 he founded Preliminary Group. Among the most recent solo exhibitions: Per Sempre, curated by Simona Squadrito, Edicola Radetzky, Milano (2017), L’Amore Vince Tutto, curated by Simona Squadrito, Dimora Artica, Milano (2016) and Eros Capitolino, Una Vetrina, Roma (2016).