Gianni Pellegrini and Ignacio Uriarte at Rolando Anselmi

Artists: Gianni Pellegrini and Ignacio Uriarte

Venue: Rolando Anselmi, Berlin, Germany

Date: June 13 – July 4, 2018

Photography: Riccardo Malberti / all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Rolando Anselmi, Berlin/Rome

Rolando Anselmi is pleased to present a double solo show involving works by the Italian artist Gianni Pellegrini and the Spanish Ignacio Uriarte. The show aims to create a dialogue between the two artists, confronting their personal approaches to the bi -dimensional surface as a space in which display their aesthetic and procedural imaginary. In the body of works “Profili” Gianni Pellegrini defines light out of the contrast to darkness, penetrating the indefinable limit which separates them. The absence of shadows – marked by the absence of defined shapes – underlines the fight between light and darkness. Brightness and obscurity appear as parts of an homogeneous matter developed through impalpable multiple states. Pellegrini’s paintings are originated by an accumulation of imperceptible acrylic layers left decant on the surface. The absence of brush strokes brings the gaze to wonder on the surface getting progressively absorbed by looking for coordinates. Pellegrini’s paintings merge the contradictory characteristics of physicality and immateriality: they are concrete and present but at the same time unfathomable and suspended. They create a tense structure of light-filled and an oscillating depth. Inspired by his former career in business administration, Ignacio Uriarte has developed a language able to translate this experience – based on the use of analogue media and mechanical instruments – into an aesthetic one. Weaving layers of straight parallel and orthogonal lines, Uriarte’s paper works resemble the way a printer or a weaving machine works: despite the rather mechanical process, the unplanned circumstances which characterize human made processes give birth to vibrant pictorial appearances. The use of almost empty markers determines the lines to be stronger at the beginning and to turn more transparent and lighter towards the center recalling certain photographic experiments in the darkroom. The choice of the most standard office-universe colors (black, blue, red and green) matches the pictoriality with which signs are displayed: Uriarte transcends the standard utilitarian flatness in favor of an unforeseen atmospheric cromia.

Gianni Pellegrini (b. 1953, Riva del Garda, Italy) lives and works in Riva del Garda. In early ‘70s he approached his first abstract-analytic experimentation, endorsing in 1975 the “Astrazione Oggettiva” group. In 1978 he had his first solo show at L’Indiano gallery in Florence; during the early ‘80s he exhibited at Il Sole in Bolzano and Ferrari in Verona. In this period he had two important solo shows at Palazzo delle Albere in Trento (1985) and Galleria Mèta in Bolzano (1986). In 1986 he published “Graffiture”, with texts by Paolo Fossati, Claudio Olivieri, Giovanni Maria Accame, Claudio Cerritelli edited by Nuova Prearo Edizioni, Milan. During this period he had solo and group shows at Galleria Peccolo in Livorno, Galleria Plurima in Udine, Galleria Casati in Bergamo and Cavenaghi in

Milan. In 1994 Gianni Pellegrini participated to the exhibition “Della Luce” at Palazzo della Permanente of Milan, the show has been documented in a publication with texts by Danilo Eccher, Bruno Bandini and Lorenzo Mango. In 1997 he has been invited by Marco Goldin to show at “Pitture. Il sentimento e la forma” and in 2002 he had a solo show at Vittoriale degli Italiani in Gardone Riviera. His work is documented in “Pittura Aniconica” edited by Mazzotta in 2009 and curated by Claudio Cerritelli. During the 2000s he has constantly exhibited at Galerie Stracke in Köln, Florian Trampler in Munich and Frankfurter Westend Galerie in Frankfurt. Recent solo shows include Fondazione Salvadori-Zanatta (2016), the retrospective on Astrazione Oggettiva at Galleria Civica of Trento (2015) and Estorick Collection in London (2016).

Ignacio Uriarte (b. 1972 in Krefeld, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. He studied audiovisual arts at the Centro de Artes Audiovisuales in Guadalajara, Mexico from 1999 to 2001. He had solo shows in museums such as: Leopold Hoesch Museum Düren (Düren, 2018), Ladera Oeste (Guadalajara, 2016), Mies van der Rohe Pavillion (Barcelona, 2015), Kunstmuseum Bergisch Gladbach (Bergisch Gladbach, 2015), MARCO (Vigo, 2014), Berlinische Galerie (Berlin, 2014), UMOCA (Salt Lake City, 2013), The Drawing Center (New York, 2013), Deutsches Architekturzentrum (Berlin, 2012), Centre d’Art La Panera (Lérida, 2012), Sala Rekalde (Bilbao, 2011), Casa del Lago (Mexico City, 2011), Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (Perth, 2010), Kunstverein Kunstverein Arnsberg (Arnsberg, 2010), Huarte Centro de arte (Pamplona, 2008), MUSAC (León, 2008), La Casa Encendida (Madrid, 2008).He has participated in numerous group shows at: Fundación Marcelino Botín (Santander, 2018), Centro Párraga (Murcia, 2016), MACBA (Barcelona, 2015), Maison Hermès (Tokyo, 2015), Kunsthalle Wien (Wien, 2015), Albertina Museum (Wien, 2015), S.M.A.K. (Gent, 2015), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, 2015), Fundación La Caixa (Barcelona, 2014), Kunstmuseum Bonn (Bonn, 2014), ARTIUM (Salamanca, 2014), Lenbachhaus (Munich, 2014), CAB (Burgos, 2013), Museum Ludwig (Cologne, 2013), Kupferstichkabinett (Berlin, 2013), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin, 2013), Ludlow 38 (New York, 2012), Spike Island (Bristol, 2011), Triennale Design Museum (Milan, 2011), Fondazione Pistoletto (Biella, 2009), Pratt Manhattan Gallery (New York, 2011), FRAC Lorraine (Nency, 2010), MNBA Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires, 2009), Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten (Marl, 2008).