From 11 to 28 October the Consulate General of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute of London present an exhibition by the artist Pizzi Cannella.
Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 10am to 5pm
This exhibition has been organised on the occasion of the Giornata del Contemporaneo 2024, and it is part of the Frieze Masters series of events.
“The moment comes when you can no longer add or remove anything.
That’s when the picture is complete.”
– Pizzi Cannella
The exhibition, organised under the auspices of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and curated by Elena Geuna in collaboration with the artist, will bring to London works ranging from the late 1990s to the most recent ones – around twenty, most of which will be exhibited in the English capital for the first time – with loans from an important Italian museum, as well as from private institutions and collections.
A prominent figure of the Nuova Scuola Romana and the San Lorenzo Group during the 1980s, Pizzi Cannella’s practice is distinguished by a deep reflection on pictorial language and his ability to explore universal themes through a synthesis of forms, colours, and materials. Through constant aesthetic and conceptual research, the artist creates works that oscillate between the figurative and the abstract, challenging artistic conventions and inviting the viewer to question the nature of human existence.
The thematic interweaving that permeates Pizzi Cannella’s oeuvre constitutes the conceptual core of the exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute in London. Delving into the fundamentals of painting, such as light, shadow, sign, space, and matter, the exhibition path develops on two levels.
On the ground floor, the works take on a more figurative character, with a predominance of dark tones characterised by blacks, greys and ochres. This floor becomes a space for immersion in the depths of the unconscious, where forms materialise into objects charged with symbolism and memory. Works such as Le passeggiate di Matisse, 2010-2011 (GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Fondazione Guido ed Ettore De Fornaris) and Salon de Musique, 2020 are defined by their material concreteness and dark tones, where objects laden with symbolic value emerge, such as amphorae, shoes and chandeliers. Meanwhile, fragments of urban landscapes coalesce into a chaotic amalgamation of Western cathedrals, such as Cattedrali, 2021 whose grainy details rendered with encrusted greys, bituminous blacks, and weathered whites delineate an atmosphere of suggestive introspection.
On the first floor, the palette brightens with white, azure, and blue, highlighting an interest in the chromatic textures of painting. These works tend towards a more abstract aesthetic, with a greater emphasis on form and composition. The artist explores the idea of transforming the raw material of matter into a more subtle and spiritual form of expression, revealing a desire to elevate the gaze upwards, towards a sense of transcendence and harmony.
Geographical elements in works such as La Isla, 2004, and Le Bagnanti de La Isla, n.d., are adorned with geometric patterns and fluid, organic lines that recall the shape of the eye, mirrored in the discreet yet curious gazes of Bella Coppia. Pulcinelle, 2003 and Pulcinelle, 2003 (Unicredit Art Collection). The silhouettes of continents and islands, along with ethnographic references like those in Bagno Turco, n.d., merge into a kaleidoscope that exalts the interaction between the artist’s language of painting and drawing.
In an interplay between form and colour, Pizzi Cannella invites the audience to reflect on the complexity of the human condition and the search for balance between light and shadow, form and matter. Tangible elements, resonating as archetypes deeply intertwined with the artist’s memories and imbued with nostalgia, are isolated and suspended in time within a space where the human figure is perpetually absent. In the delicate balance between action and contemplation, the exhibition reveals the artist’s creative gesture and his desire to explore the structures of visual language.
On the occasion of the exhibition, a bilingual Italian and English catalogue (Silvana Editoriale) will be published, including reproductions of all the exhibited works, along with an essay by the curator Elena Geuna.
image: Ombra cinese, 1991
Pizzi Cannella. Born in 1955 in Rocca di Papa, in the second half of the 1970s, the artist studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome under Alberto Ziveri and philosophy at La Sapienza University. He held his first solo exhibition in 1978 at the La Stanza Gallery in Rome. In 1982, he established his studio in the former pasta factory Cerere, in the district of San Lorenzo, forming the School of San Lorenzo together with Bruno Ceccobelli, Gianni Dessì, Giuseppe Gallo, Nunzio and Marco Tirelli. His painting practice was strongly established with his solo show at the Attico Gallery of Fabio Sargentini in 1984. In the same season (1984-1985) followed solo exhibitions at Annina Nosei Gallery, New York; Folker Skulima Gallery, Berlin, and, the following year, at Triebold Gallery in Basel. The artist has exhibited in major international institutions and art events, including Biennial of Paris (1985), Venice Biennale (1988, 1993), Istanbul Biennale (1989), Quadrennial of Rome (1987), Civic Museum in Gibellina (1991), Archaeological Museum in Aosta (2001), Art Hotel in Toulon (2004), MACRO Testaccio in Rome (2006-2007), Palazzo Pitti Complex in Florence (2010), Estorick Collection of Modern Art in London (2015), Josè Martì National Library in Havana (2015), Winter Palace at the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg (2017), Palatine Chapel of the Maschio Angioino in Naples (2019) and Classense Library in Ravenna (2021). Pizzi Cannella’s work forms part of important public and private collections, such as those hosted by Gallery of Modern Art in Bologna, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Mumok Museum in Vienna, Hotel des Arts in Toulon, Museum of Contemporary Art in Beijing, Macro (Museum of Contemporary Art) in Rome, Biedermann Museum in Donaueschingen (Germany), Museum of Modern Art in Saint-Étienne, GAM (Galleria d’Arte Moderna) in Turin, Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg), Collezione Maramotti (Reggio-Emilia) and Collezione Unicredit.
Elena Geuna. Independent curator, author, and contemporary art consultant, she obtained a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York and specialised in the History of Fine & Decorative Arts at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Geuna has developed several curatorial projects at museum institutions, including two exhibitions dedicated to Lucio Fontana, at Palazzo Ducale, Genoa (2008) and at the MAMM in Moscow (2019). Among her most notable exhibitions are Arte Povera in Moscow at MAMM, Moscow (2011); Rudolf Stingel (2013) and Sigmar Polke (2016), both at Palazzo Grassi, Venice; Damien Hirst: Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable at Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana, Venice (2017). She also co-curated three exhibitions dedicated to Jeff Koons: at the National Archaeological Museum, Naples (2003); at the Château de Versailles, Versailles (2008); and at the Mucem, Marseille (2021). In 2022, she curated Indistinti Confini with Giuseppe Penone for the Parco della Trucca in Bergamo, and in 2023, in London, the exhibition Christo: Early Works, the first in the series of traveling exhibitions Gagosian Open.