NYAB Event - Giancarlo Impiglia and Jasper White “For That Which is Sacred”

Giancarlo Impiglia and Jasper White “For That Which is Sacred”

gallery nine 5

[Image: Giancarlo Impiglia "Sacrifice" (2015) Oil on camouflage canvas, 30 x 50 in.]

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gallery nine5 presents works by Giancarlo Impiglia and Jasper White in our latest exhibition, For That Which is Sacred. The two-person exhibition seeks to examine and expose the impact of war on our society. It is a decisive moment for the United States and the world at large, as we seek to understand the implications of violence domestically and abroad. With For That Which is Sacred, gallery nine5 hopes to highlight artists who are documenting the force of society’s tragedies using different mediums and methodologies, and achieve deeper contemplation of destructive human nature and our inherent ability to neutralize acts of war.

Giancarlo Impiglia creates oil works on canvas that draw inspiration from classical motifs of the Italian Renaissance. Painting traditional scenes from works by artists such as Caravaggio, Impiglia comments on the pervasiveness of war and violence as a never-ending struggle of humanity. His camouflage canvas serves as a material reminder of the constant military backdrop of all interactions; we are all tinged with the masked hostility inherent in camouflage fabric. Regardless of era, Impiglia calls focus to the underlying current of extremism, relevant whether in the 17th century or the 21st.

His work, Sacrifice, which depicts the Biblical story of Abraham being ordered by God to sacrifice his son Isaac, calls into question issues surrounding the measures people who go to in order to appease figures of authority. Though the religious implications of the work are clearly defined, with a lamb on the right representing the religious ultimate sacrifice of God’s own son, Jesus, the scene also accentuates the individual pains of each character it portrays – an agony that modern day soldiers can relate to, regardless of religious leaning. It is Impiglia’s ability to showcase human emotion that renders classical motifs hauntingly contemporary.

Another of Impiglia’s works, Bacchus (Oblivion), a seemingly harmless portrait of the Greek god of debauchery, Bacchus, conveys a different set of emotions. Here, the artist criticizes the apathy of those content to ignore the tribulations of the world around them. Cloyingly oblivious, Bacchus represents a disinterested community, noncombatant in their enjoyment of the spoils of war.
Jasper White draws our attention to another aspect of unconsciousness with his Young Guns series. Photographing the bedrooms of young Israeli soldiers, White, with stunning vibrancy, lays out the facts of compulsory conscription for adolescents. His photographs serve as documentation of the nonchalance with which we subject our youth to weapons of murderous power. Strewn casually about in young men’s bedrooms are guns that equip them with violence.

The heartbreak of the situation lies in the inherent indifference of these young men towards their weapons. The guns serve as merely another focal point on the landscape of their bedrooms, as much a part of their lives as posters and stuffed animals. White’s vivid imagery shows the guns as another object in a messy teenager’s room. Despite the detachedness of documentation, White has created beautiful and tragic imagery that seeks out deeper truths.

The obvious emotions of Impiglia’s work enter into dialogue with White’s photojournalistic images; traditional painting confronts technological representations; handmade gold-leaf frames contrast with simple white ones. Yet, despite the visual contradictions in the two artists’ works, both artists are grappling with a topic that confronts everyone in today’s world, artist and viewer alike. How are we to understand our long-term relationship with war, particularly as it appears to escalate exponentially as evidenced by current day events? Are there remedies to our apathy toward violence, or are we too far gone down the road to turn back? The two artists in That Which is Sacred show how we, as a society, are at a critical juncture; we can no longer afford to turn away.