Opening: Tuesday, 5th April 2016, at
7:00 p.m.
Artissima Art Gallery, Dubai -
United Arab Emirates
DUBAI – On Tuesday, 5th April 2016 at 7:00 p.m. in Dubai,
"Mimmo Centonze. Large works "
will be opened to the public. That
is the new solo exhibition by the Italian artist Mimmo Centonze. Curated by
MARIANA TURCHIO ,Critic and curator International the Arts
The artist's masterpieces will be presented for
the very first time in Dubai to the general public of the United Arab Emirates, in the huge spaces of Artissima Art Gallery, the Gallery of Contemporary Art.
The exhibition is focused exclusively on large paintings (all works on display
measuring 2 meters high and 3 meters wide) and presents a rigorous selection of
the most recent works on the theme of industrial sheds, large canvases with dramatic impact and tense, stunning and
mystical bright insights which irresistibly disorient and attract the viewer
into the 'light'. They are works of great impact and strong emotional
intensity.
Among the works presented there will also be
the painting called "Shed", which was exhibited in 2012 in the exceptional solo exhibition
that Palazzo delle Esposizioni in
Rome dedicated to the artist, giving him the honor of being the youngest international artist, both
of the present and past generation, to inaugurate a monographic exhibition at
the prestigious venue (Mario Schifano
1990, Kandinsky 1991, Gilbert & George
1991, Botero
1991, Joseph
Beuys 1992, Giorgio De Chirico 1992, Richard Long 1994, Joseph Albers 1994, Tiziano 1995, Hermann Nitsch 1996, Alberto Burri 1996, Maurice Utrillo 1996, Robert Capa 1996, Lucio Fontana 1998, David Lachapelle 1998, El Greco 1999, Enrico Baj 2001, Mark Rothko 2007, Bill Viola 2008, Giorgio De Chirico 2010, Mimmo Centonze 2012).
The exhibition reflects the efforts of the United Arab Emirates to spread art and
culture, especially the Emirate of Dubai that continues to collect praise as an
absolute leader in supporting events and artistic initiatives worldwide.
At the opening of the exhibition in Dubai,
where the artist will be present,
and for the whole duration of the show, the public of collectors, critics,
museum curators, gallery owners, artists and art lovers from all over the world (the exhibition will be held in conjunction
with the "World Art Dubai" International
Art Fair) will be able to also learn about the main steps of the exceptional twenty-year career of the
Master, that starts from the intense portraits made with exceptional
sharpness and vigour, and the majestic but intimate figures portrayed in his
studio, passing through the informal period to reach the extraordinary
explosion of creativity of the great luminous spaces of industrial sheds, which
appeared for the first time in the artist's works in 2008 and continued to
involve the latest impressive sculptures, exciting plastic meditations on this
same theme .
In the last ten years the fame of Mimmo Centonze has grown exponentially: the first solo
exhibition in Milan curated by the historian and art critic Vittorio Sgarbi in
2009, the "Fondazione Roma" Special Prize, assigned in 2010 by the
President of the Fondazione Roma, Prof. Emmanuele F.M. Emanuele, the portrait
of Mafia boss Toto Riina exposed in 2010 in Salemi Mafia Museum in Sicily
inaugurated by the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano, the
exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2011, the rigorous monographic exhibition
that Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome dedicated to the artist’s work in 2012,
the exhibition – which lasted for nine months - carried out between 2013 and
2014 in Matera (exhibition event which actively participated in the application
of the artist's native city as European Capital of Culture 2019), until the
exhibition in 2015 in Venice at Fondazione Cini in Luciano Benetton's
"Imago Mundi: Map of the new art" global art project that includes
artists representing the five continents, and at Expo Milan in the exhibition
called "The Treasure of Italy", selected by the historian and art
critic Vittorio Sgarbi among the best artists from the fourteenth century until
today.
The historian and art critic Vittorio Sgarbi wrote about him: “Only
a few artists of our time have, more than Mimmo Centonze, the sense of vastness
of space”. The President of Fondazione Roma, Prof. Emmanuele F.M. Emanuele, said: “I’m a staunch admirer of
Mimmo Centonze. I consider him one of the most brilliant artists of the new
generation”. The President of the
Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano said: "The artist’s portrait of
Totò Riina is remarkable". The photographer Oliviero Toscani wrote: "The art of Mimmo Centonze is oozing
with sin, decadence, lust, intolerance, blasphemous religion, sex and beauty.
Is there anything better for modern art? ".
