_For Dutch press release see pdf below_
FLATLAND is extremely proud to present the new work of Paolo Ventura. The work was created just before Covid-19 ruled over the north of Italy and took sadly so many lives. Ex Voto is something you see in the many chapels in Italy, traditional paintings that show gratitude to specific Saints for protection against tragic events. Especially in the Latin world, there is a tradition of votive paintings, typically depicting a dangerous incident which the offerer survived.
The new series of Paolo Ventura, G.R. Grazia Ricevuta are inspired by these Ex-Voto -paintings presented in Italian chapels, but represent miracles much more surreal and strange with the same powerful narration than an original Ex Voto. In light of what is happening today, the timing of the creation of Ex Voto, G.R. Grazia Ricevuta is most extraordinary.
Paolo Ventura is one of the most celebrated Italian photographers today. Known for his post-photography art works, hand made sets, furnished with his own creations, tiny constructions that are translated by Ventura into the two dimensions of a photograph, often painted over to enhance it unique characteristics.
2020 has been a remarkable year for Ventura starting with the world wide press coverage of the first Italian Vogue cover ever published featuring an illustrated story. Ventura's painting of Felice for Gucci was thus a token of of hand-drawn cover created “without traveling, shipping clothes or polluting in any way.” Subsequently Ventura took to painting only during the heavy lockdown of Italy; all paintings were published in his monograph Quarantine Diary, that will be presented in the gallery.
As Ventura is opening a large solo show in Camera in Turin, his new monograph with over 200 works is published that includes 400 images, in 511 pages, evidence of 15 years of work.
With much luck..this book will be in the gallery this Saturday September 19th!
Paolo Ventura’s work has been exhibited worldwide. In 2012, he was selected by curator Vittorio Sgarbi to create a series of works for the Italian national pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. In 2018 Ventura received a large solo exhibition in Armani Silos, Milan.
His work is included in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Art, USA; Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Lowe Art Museum, Miami, USA: MACRO Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Italy; Maison Européen de la Photographie, Paris, France: Museo Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy and Instituto Centrale per la Grafica in Rome, Italy.
In 2014 he collaborated with the celebrated director and prestigious award winner Rob Ashford on the creation of the scenography for the Lyric Chicago Opera Theatre. Ventura received other important commissions from the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome and the Mart, the museum of modern and contemporary art of Trento and Rovereto, Italy. In 2017 Ventura was commissioned by the Teatro Regio of Turin for the stages, costumes and video for the opera Pagliacci by Leoncavallo.
