Luca Pizzaroni "Bianco Trash"
Fred Torres Collaborations
This event has ended.
“The sweet singing of garbage trucks constantly working every night, the intense squealing of rats enjoying a good leftover meal, the colors of flying plastic bags in a super noisy New York City street, are just some of the inspirations that I collect to create my paintings and pictures.”
- Luca Pizzaroni
Fred Torres Collaborations presents the exhibition Luca Pizzaroni Bianco Trash. This is the artist’s third solo exhibition at the gallery, which will feature 8 photographs, over15 paintings, and an installation by the artist. A limited edition catalogue will be published on occasion of the exhibition.
Bianco Trash investigates American consumption, international commerce, and environmentalism. This new body of work continuesPizzaroni’s inquiry into the American culture of consumption, which began with several series based on his experiences working in the fashion world. Originally from Italy, Pizzaroni has been fascinated with American culture, particularly film, since he was a child watching American movies, and then later working on the sets of CineCittá. Pizzaroni approaches his interest in American culture from the viewpoint of an immigrant – ultimately trying to deconstruct the American Dream visually. Featured in the exhibition are recent photographs the artist made of the landfills of New Jersey, just outside of New York City. Wandering through the trash, Pizzaroni documented the result of American consumption, bringing to the forefront the cycle wherein consumers buy cheap disposable goods, largely imported from Asia, which end up as waste, only to purchase more that is thrown away. The photograph Thank You For Shopping serves not only as a reminder of the waste as a result of shopping, and that trash does not simply vanish, but goes somewhere.
In 2011 Pizzaroni began experimenting with white paint on black trash bags. As in past work, he is interested in the role of chance, or serendipity in the way that the paint adheres to the plastic and the marks formed. The Bianco Trash paintings nod to the white paintings of Ryman, and the gestural marks of action painting and abstract expressionism. In this sense, the paintings belie the material, and challenge the tradition of paint on canvas and “high art.”
Pizzaroni states, “Americans make more trash than anyone else on the planet, throwing away about 7 pounds per person per day, 365 days a year. Trash has become the most valuable goods to export, which then is sold back to us as products waiting to be trashed again. We are each on track to generate around 100 tons of trash across our lifetime; our American Dream is definitely linked to this accumulation of trash. My trips to the landfill in Middlesex County, New Jersey made me understand that when there is traffic of garbage trucks going to the landfill it is a sign of people buying - trash is a way to understand our economy.”
About Luca Pizzaroni
Luca Pizzaroni was born in Rome, Italy. He lives and works in New York. He has exhibited both in New York and abroad including shows at KunstWerke in Berlin, The Katonah Museum of Art and the Cartier Foundation in Paris. He is the recipient of a residency at American Apparel and of a grant from the Italian Institute of Culture of New York. His film and video career has included directorial work for both Elton John and Bryan Adams. In collaboration with Florian Böhm and Wolfgang Scheppe, he produced ENDCOMMERCIAL®, a definitive catalog of his visual, urban studies. The book was published in 2002 to wide acclaim.
[Image: Luca Pizzaroni "Thank You for Shopping" (2012) Chromogenic Print, 50 x 60 in.]
Media
Schedule
from June 21, 2012 to July 27, 2012
Opening Reception on 2012-06-21 from 18:00 to 20:00