Opening Thursday 14 February
15.02 – 27.03.2019
108 – Sogno Lucido
Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea is proud to present Sogno Lucido, the solo exhibition of the Italian artist 108, curated by Michela D’Acquisto.
After years during which 108 had entrusted his essential shapes exclusively to black, on the occasion of the new exhibition in the gallery’s spaces the artist returns to the use of color: it’s an instinctive evolution that sees it no longer only as a small rational component largely absorbed by the preponderant irrationality of his dark spots, but which now re-evaluates its sensitive qualities capable of bringing reality closer to the spiritual sphere, in a process strongly inspired by Huxley’s writings concerning perception and by Kandinsky’s color theory.
Abstract but organic, these works avoid the laws of geometry and arise from chance and from the repetitions that govern nature; concise and yet perfectly eloquent, they also formally reflect the duality of their essence, as black is at the same time plenitude and emptiness, and in addition «it’s externally the most toneless color, against which all other colors, even the weakest, sound stronger and more precise».
Through an approach similar to the automatic one employed by surrealists or, even better, by mediums and shamans, 108 abandons the control of reason and entirely refers to the unconscious his all-encompassing artistic practice, which includes and combines various suggestions – above all, the Twentieth century avant-gardes, the primordial cults and popular traditions of his Piedmont, Eastern cultures and religions – but also his daily life and the absolute need to transcend it.
As in a private ritual, or as during a lucid dream – in which one is aware that one is dreaming and therefore it becomes possible to control its narrative – through his art 108 invents and molds his surrounding reality, offering a privileged view on the dreamlike dimension that always shines through his works.
On show: paintings, a site-specific installation, and works on paper.
108 (1978, Alessandria, Italy) lives and works between Alessandria and Milan.
He is considered one of the most important exponent of Post-graffitism in Italy. He started his artistic research with an approach to traditional graffiti. At the end of the ’90, after moving to Milan in 1997 and his degree in Industrial Design, his style evolves in forms and themes: he’s one of the first artists to use numbers and not letters as a tag. His abstract and mysterious figures appear in abandoned places in the streets of Milan, Berlin, London, New York and Paris. He also works with sculptures, sounds, paintings and installations.
Among his main group exhibitions: in 2007 the attendance to the Biennale di Venezia with his project Walls Inside, in 2014 to the Biennal of Urban Art in Moscow, in 2015 the group show Mapping The City curated by Rafael Schacter at Somerset House in London and La Famosa Invasione Degli Artisti A Milano, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milano, in 2017 Abstractism, Galleria Varsi, Rome; Dialogues, Galerie Celal M13, Paris, in 2018 Offline, Artmossphere Biennale, Moscow; PGSD, Museo Marca, Catanzaro; R.P.M., Plastic Murs Gallery, Valencia.
Among his main solo exhibitions: in 2012 Seventeen Dens, Ego Gallery, Lugano, in 2013 Crossroad #1, Doppelgaenger Gallery, Bari; The Thin Mountain – The Soft Mountain, 999Contemporary, Rome; La Manipulation De La Form, Bienurbain, Besancon, in 2014 Passaggi Concreti, Studio d’Ars, Milan; Genius Loci, Sale d’Arte della Città di Alessandria, Alessandria; LAVA, Van Der, Turin; Solstizio D’Inverno, Studio Cromie, Grottaglie, in 2015 Antipodas, Dinamica Galeria, Buenos Aires; Svartans Orolighet, Nevven, Goteborg; 1010 + 108 = 1118, Soon Switzerland; The Rite Of Spring, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milano; La Forma Dell’Ignoto, Ego Gallery, Lugano, in 2016 Di Carne, Di Nulla, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milan, in 2017 Post-Tradition, Villa Casati Stampa di Muggiò, Muggiò; (Waiting For A) New Ice Age, Galerie Slika, Lyon; Equinozio D’Autunno, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milan; in 2018 Abolir Toute Pensée Rationnelle, Galerie Celal M13, Paris.
