Lumen Ray - Jerome Zodo, Italy

James Clar, Matteo Fato, Raul Gabriel, Lori Hersberger, Guillaume Leingre, Alistair McClymont, Yari Miele, Tony Oursler, Ivano Sossella, Morgane Tschiember and United Visual Artists.

Jerome Zodo Contemporary Gallery is proud to present Lumen Ray, a Collective Exhibition of works on show, for the first time together: James Clar, Matteo Fato, Raul Gabriel, Lori Hersberger, Guillaume Leingre, Alistair McClymont, Yari Miele, Tony Oursler, Ivano Sossella, Morgane Tschiember and United Visual Artists.

This journey is a path through light, natural, authentic, reflected, metaphoric or real – the light of reason, an awakening of conscience. Taking inspiration from the reflections of Hans Sedlmayr (Light in its Artistic Manifestations, 1960, “Studium Generale”) in which he reconsiders art historic-graphically as a sub-specie lucis, the Exhibition embraces a dialectic and multiform commitment of the luminous medium according to the heterogeneity of artistic and generational practices.

The interpretation of that energy which allows us to recognise as ours this reality surrounding us, creates new and infinite prospects, defined as Lumen, such as the splendour coming from shining things and together a measure of the flow of matter; and Ray as the technological aspect that transforms the work, from a representation of natural light to a source of photonic emissions. Lumen Ray is a timeless and free tale, subversive and mutating, a comparison between science and conscience, where the various artistic considerations expressing it, generate multi-form relationships of light/space, light/object and light/matter.

The flow blends different interpretations: from the universal of Alistair McClymont in the “astronomical” description of Eclipse (2012), a black/white sequence in real relationship of light between Sun-Earth-Moon and, again, light-time in Unix Time, as an alternative to the Gregorian calendar in i-Pad version to the divertissement of “reflecting” reflections in which energy is sometimes “caught” and then “released” by the fluorescence of Yari Miele and placed next to the instantaneous painting of Matteo Fato. From material to immaterial, the ray filters with elegant motion through the virtual openings of Grey Area (2013) of the English collective United Visual Artists to then broaden out into a sky spectrum and solidify into Light (2013) by Raul Gabriel invading with its own weight the Exhibition area, up to its self-denial that, in the end, will cancel it out with a simple gesture of alchemical painting in makeitpossible (2013) by Ivano Sossella.

From two-dimensional to three-dimensional, a drop of light solidifies in Bubbles (2012) by Morgane Tschiember, while the neon portions of Lori Hersberger become explosive effects through the irony of Bomb by Tony Oursler. Among fluo touches curious glances follow the scene as it darkens during the performance of Why Be Blue (2012) of French artist Guillaume Leingre whose mark is impressed as though in a dark room, leaving in half-shadow a message of double reflection in The End (2012) by American James Clar.

James Clar (1979, Wisconsin, USA) leaves and work between New York and Dubai. As a media artist, he bases his aesthetic research on the light as support, subject and object and the technological potentials that get changed in the pop culture.
His works are included in museums and both public and private collections such as: the Museum On The Seam, Jerusalem, the MOMA, New York,, the Chelsea Art Museum, New York, the New Museum of Contemporary Arts , New York, the Museum of Science and Innovation, Tokyo, La Triennale, Milan, the Susan e Michael Hort Collection, New York, the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, Istanbul, the Salsali Collection, Germany and the Farook Collection, Dubai. James Clar took part also to Japan Media Arts Festival and il NHK Digital Arts Festival in Tokyo, Seoul Design Festival in Seoul and Festival of Light in Lyon. He was also artist in residence for: Technology Research Institute, FedEx Insitute of Technology, Memphis; Fabrica Research Facility, Benetton’s Design Research Facility, New Media Art Institution, Eyebeam Atelier, New York.

Matteo Fato was born in Pescara (Italy) in 1979, where he currently lives and works. Most recently, he completed the residency at the Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art with an exhibition curated by Daniele Capra Vidéos_Dessins. In 2011 he took part to the 54th Biennale di Venezia in the Accademia pavillion and the Treviglio Awards. Main solo exhibitions: (2012) Impersonale, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Strasbourg, France; Cose Naturali, Jerome Zodo Contemporary, Milan, Italy; (2011) Matteo Fato (osservando la parola), curated by Umberto Palestini, Casa natale di Raffaello/Bottega Giovanni Santi, Urbino, Italy; (2010) Il senso dell’ordine, AB23, Vicenza, Italy; (2009) [!m’a:t?t”e(o)f;a.t,o], Galleria Cesare Manzo, Rome/Pescara. He recently took part to the following group exhibitions: Ishmael “one is a painter,” curated by Alberto Zanchetta, Museum of Contemporary Art, Liss, Italy, (2012) Premio Francesco Fabbri, edited by Charles Hall, Villa Brandolini, Pieve di Soligo (Treviso), Italy, (2012) Fender Rewind, curated by Luca Beatrice, International Museum, Library of Music Bologna, Italy; (2012) Minima Marginalia, curated by Alberto Zanchetta, Dolomiti Contemporanee – Ex Fabbrica Visibilia, Taibon, Italy; (2012) Fuori Uso in Opera, curated by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, cantiere Caldora “Opera” Pescara, Italy; (2011) Difetto come indizio del desiderio, curated by Andrea Bruciati, NEON>CAMPOBASE, Bologna, Italy; CECI N’EST PAS DU CINEMA! curated by Marcella Beccaria, Castello di Rivoli, Museo del Cinema, Torino; (2010) Libri d’Artista dalla collezione Consolandi 1919-2009, curated by Angela Vettese and Giorgio Maffei, Palazzo Reale, Italy. In 2008 he was invited in residence at the Fondazione Spinola Banna with Adrian Paci as a Visiting Professor. In 2010 he was selected by the Dena Foundation as Italian artist in residence at Art Omi, New York. From 2009 to 2012 he taught techniques at the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino, Italy.

Raul Gabriel (1966, Buenos Aires, Argentina) lives and works in Milan and London. Painter and sculptor of different forms of linguistic universes, the artist is primarily active on the European scene with several important projects, including the most famous CUBE in Perugia, followed by: Auditorium Conciliazione, Rome Umbra Architecture Foundation; Festival of Two Worlds , Spoleto, Palace Museum Collicola Carandente Visual Arts, Spoleto, Bow Arts Trust, London, Fondazione Ca ‘La Ghironda, Bologna; Mudima Foundation, Milan Shangai Expo 2010, e GM TRAFFIC LIGHTS, Spazio Oberdan, Milano. His works are in many public and private collections: Museum foundation Ca la Ghironda, Bologna Civic Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Palazzo Reale, Monza Palace Museum Carandente Collicola Contemporary Art, Spoleto Museum; Schellekens Collection, London; Davenport Collection London, Richards Collection London; Boughart Mougins Colection London; Hambro Collection London; Muller Collection, Switzerland; Amparo Madrid Collection, Collection Colombo Milan Collection Stramezzi, Milan; Mudima Foundation, Milan.

Lori Hersberger (1964 in Basel, Switzerland) lives and works in Zurich. His work combines a variety of media, like sculpture, painting and light work. He gained international attention with Archaic Modern Suite presented at the Venice Biennale in 1999. After receiving several awards and recognitions, Swiss Art Award (1999 – 2001) has become an artist of international renown, with several important museum projects, including: Kunsthallle Giessen (Germany); MAC Musée d’Art Contemporain Lyon, Lyon (France), Kunsthaus Zurich (Switzerland), Kunsthalle Basel (Switzerland); Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen (Switzerland); Cobra Museum, Amsterdam (NL); Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneva, Geneva (Switzerland); Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe (Germany); Kunsthalle Wien (Austria); Museum Schloss Belvedere, Wien (Austria); Stedeliik Museum of Contemporary Art, Gent (Belgium). His work is mainly represented by the gallery Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris and Salzburg (France, Austria) and Nicola Von Senger, Zurich (Switzerland).

Guillaume Leingre (1971, Paris, France) lives and works in Paris (France). «I move through production patterns, appearance and reception of images » says Guillaume Leingre. This statement points out a radical direction in the use of photographic material, blowing up the traditional surface of the images. Over the last years, Leingre has been tearing apart the photographer’s role and photography imagery through series like Portraitiste de France (2003-2007), actions, and writings. He has been breaking consciously and patiently all the rules, cutting loose from the photography family, showing off the naked roots of a grateful inheritance of the Dadaists, the Conceptualists, the Minimalists, Fluxus… He seeks to create works using constrained conception and production techniques with a great knowledge of both historical and contemporary contexts. On February 12th, at Jérôme Zodo Contemporary, Guillaume Leingre will perform a new version of Why be blue : a white room, make it dark by bringing down the iron curtains, and turn off the lights. In this darkness, a strip of pristine white photographic paper is held up vertically, alongside a wall, with a found object (for example, a scraper, a scaffold ladder). Bring up the iron curtains, turn on the lights. The paper turns blue, shapes (those of the objects) remain in reserve, white. The day after, all is blue. Why be blue, is part of LIVE, a larger body of work based on photography and action. Guillaume Leingre was artist in residence at the Villa Kujoyama (Kyoto) in 2008. Since 2011, he collaborates with France Culture and the Atelier de Création Radiophonique, to produce sound pieces (Le Musée radiophonique, Est/Ouest, d’après Sur le Chemin des Glaces). Art critic and author for 20/27, Particules or MAMCO (Geneva), Guillaume Leingre launches in 2013, Bloom, a dealing platform for exhibition catalogues, books and artist’s books, and all kind of documents from 60’s to 80’s artistic avant-gardes. He is represented by Super Window Project.

Alistair McClymont (1978, in Harlow, UK) lives and works in London, UK. After graduating from the Royal College of Art in London, it was announced on the European art scene for his scientific experiments, famous for his Limitations of Logic and the Absence of Absolute Certainty, a scale model of a real tornado. Alistair McClymont has participated in several art exhibitions in galleries and institutions including: the Art Foundation in London, Dundee Contemporary Arts Dundee (Scotland), the Laboratoires Le Paris and the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo in Madrid. His works are in public collections, including the Gibberd Garden in Harlow (UK). During the months of February and April 2013 will present a great staff at CAM Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.

Yari Miele (1977, Cantù, Italy). Among the most interesting figures of the new Italian generation, Yari Miele lives and works in Milan. Interested on the heterogeneity of the luminous matter, the artist goes and contextualized in forms, elements and structures, the photonic universe from the phosphorescence and fluorescence to a darkness interrupted by reflectors lines. Among the most important projects: Tate Modern, NO SOUL FOR SALT, London, The Dictateur, We are not ready, Milan Needless Project, The Dictateur, Three sparks in the eyes, curated by Marco Tagliafierro, Milan, Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea, Imago, curated by Miriam Mirolla, Termoli, Palazzo Barberini, Rome. The Road to Contemporary Art, Things never seen II, Achille Bonito Oliva, Rome, Rabat (Morocco), Italian House New York, GAMeC Bergamo; Customs Hall, Palazzo Ducale, gives fuel to the fire / water, water / and this will suffice, Genoa; Exhibition Palace, 54th Venice Biennale, The State of Art, Turin; Mudima Foundation, Ideators, curated by Moreno Gentili, Milan. Municipal Museum of Modern Art, Award Antonio Santinelli, Senigallia (Ancona), Museum of Image Post, Duplex: from the identical to the manifold, curated by Antonio d’Avossa, Ancona; Palazzo Stella, Stella Prize, curated by Silvia Evangelisti, Crespellano (Bologna).

Tony Oursler (1957, New York) lives and works in New York. He received a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1979. Oursler is primarily known for his innovative combinations of video, sculpture and performance, with grotesque irony exploring the relationship between individuals and the media culture. In 2014 will be presented a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Korea, Seoul. Recent exhibitions in museums ARoS Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark, The Museum of Art and Design, New York; PAC – Pavilion of Contemporary Art, Milan, Italy; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria; MAXXI-Museum national XXI Century Arts, Rome, Italy, MOMA, New York; Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Musee D’Orsay, Paris, France; Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden, the Whitney Museum , New York, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, Italy. Important exhibitions in galleries: 313 Gallery, Seoul, South Korea; JMG Galerie, Paris, France; Lehmann Maupin, New York; Faurschou Gallery, Beijing, China; Steinek Galerie, Vienna, Austria; Baronian-Francey Gallery, Brussels, Belgium; Lisson Gallery, London, Paul Aglim Gallery, San Francisco. In 2011 he participated in the 54th Venice Biennale. His works are in many public and private collections, including the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, Eli Broad Family Foundation, Los Angeles, Goetz Collection, Monaco, Germany, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Saatchi Collection in London, Tate Modern, London, Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Ivano Sossella (1963, Genoa) since 1987 is present on the contemporary art scene with a work always brought to the confines of the art recognition: on this line between artistic experience and its dubious and suspicious of recognition the poetic gesture has always been root and origin. He have been decreed his presence with a number of important international art events, like his participation in Open ’93, a memorable exhibition conceived by Giancarlo Politi and Helena Kontova for the ’93 edition of the Venice Biennale directed by Achille Bonito Oliva; Documenta IX, Orangerie in Kassel, curated by Pierluigi Tazzi, Jan Hoet, Dennis Zazharoupulos (1991); Marathongespraech, Goethe Museum, Weimar, curated by Pierluigi Tazzi, Jan Hoet, Dennis Zazharoupulos; roller-coaster (with Maurizio Cattelan, Luke Bonnet, Marco Stefano Formento, …), Accademia Carrara, Bergamo curated by Angela Vettese, An Emerging scene, Luigi Pecci Museum, Prato curated by Elio Grazioli and Amnon Barzel, Yuppara (with Luca Bonnet, Marco Formento, Claudio Costa, Ben Vautier, Art & language), Psychiatric Hospital, Genoa, curated by Enrico Pedrini, Gabriele Perretta (1989). Among recent projects: Meridiani d’Oriente, Venice Biennale, Venice, curated by Gabriele Perretta; Metessi 2 (with Maurizio Arcangeli, Tommaso Tozzi, Maurizio Cattelan, Luca Vitone) Foundation Noesi, Martina Franca.

Morgane Tschiember (1976, Paris, France) lives and works in Paris. The work of Morgane Tschiember always starts with plasticity. Hence, diversity and multiplicity of techniques, protocols and processes punctuate her artistic development and testify to a polymorphous, protean body of work, in perpetual expansion. Tschiember envisiones her practice as a playground where she can experiment and stretch the possibilities of materials, and explore borders between painting and sculpture, object and architecture, form and context. Tschiember’s visual vocabulary develops its own archetypal shapes and actions/reactions: blow/cut, build/break, paint/burn. Depending on projects context, site specificities, geographic position, available materials, techniques and know-how, each series can be remade, reinterpreted, reenacted and offer to the artist the occasion to open the physicality of her work to flexibility, volatility, permeability and invisible and intricated influences such as political, social and economical parameters. “Bubbles” and “Polaroïds” are part of her latest series. Her work has been exhibited at Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Paris (France), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes (France), Museum of Permm, Permm, (Russia), CRAC Sète (France), Biennale de Beleville, Paris (France), MOCA Tuscon, Arizona (USA). Permanent collections: CNAP, Paris (France), Design Center of the Americas, Dania Beach, Florida (USA), 21C Museum, Louisville, Kentucky (USA), Centre de Développement Chorégraphique, Toulouse (France), Société Générale Collection, Paris (France), ARTOTEC Collection, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest (France). Morgane Tschiember reiceved the Paul Ricard Prize (Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard) in 2002, and was resident at ISCP, New York, in 2009 (CulturesFrance grant). She is represented by Super Window Project (Kyoto) and Galerie Loevenbruck (Paris). Born in 1976 (France), Morgane Tschiember lives and works in Paris (France).

United Visual Artists (UVA, 2003, London, UK) is a collective soul born of different personalities and backgrounds: visual arts, architecture, design, communication, computer science and engineering. Their artistic practice combines a variety of methods, always performative and sculptural, with the highest and most innovative architectural technologies, interactive and then digital. Worldwide renowned for their monumental light installations, they will present for the first time in Italy, a new installation Grey Area, indulging in a more intimate space, without forgetting the most engaging of their artistic research. The work of UVA has been presented in several international institutions: the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Tate Modern Turbine Hall, the Serpentine Gallery, Madison Square Garden in New York; the Royal Academy of Art, the South Bank Centre, the Wellcome Collection, Opera North Leeds, Durham Cathedral, The British Library and the National Maritime Museum, London. There are also several public works in the cities of London, Bristol, Toronto and Istanbul. In 2007, the interactive installation Volume received the well-known prize Yellow Pencil D&AD Awards, they later found the recognition of the London Design Museum as ‘Designs of the Year’ in 2008 and 2010. In 2010 their kinetic installation Chorus was awarded in the 2010 edition of the Prix Arts Electronica. UVA have also collaborated with musicians including Massive Attack, Jay Z, The Chemical Brothers and Battles.