Fulvio di Piazza “Entangled”

Jonathan LeVine Gallery

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Jonathan LeVine Gallery presents Entangled, a solo exhibition of new work by Italian-artist Fulvio di Piazza in what will be his second solo exhibition at the gallery and our final solo show in New York City before relocating to Jersey City in February 2017.

Fulvio di Piazza is renowned for oil paintings of anthropomorphized landscapes where natural elements merge to create surreal humans and creatures. Described by Art Forum as a leading example of horror vacui, a term for filling the entire surface of an artwork with precise detail, his dense compositions are swarming with life to create a whimsical yet dystopian universe.

In Entangled, solitary faces and animals levitate in the center of the canvas and are the focal point of every scene. At first glance these subjects appear to be comprised of abstract matter, but closer examination reveals they’re delicate environments with mountains, forests, smoke, lava, stars and debris constructing their entire form. These fantastical atmospheres and characters are ominous due to the artist’s use of a dark color palette, however, beyond the gloom there is a sense of renewal.

Di Piazza’s minute attention to detail has been described as representing contemporary models of communication where the background noise becomes the message, which can be difficult to discern due to sensory overload. Critic Marco Meneguzzo elaborates, “Our task is to hear the individual sounds that make up the entire noise of our world, just like we need to take some time to isolate all the components of Di Piazza’s elaborate work.”

Fulvio Di Piazza was born in 1969 in Siracusa, Italy and is currently based in Palermo. He studied at Urbino Art Academy. In 2008, Di Piazza participated in the Quadriennale exhibition in Rome. In 2011, his work was included in an exhibition curated by Vittorio Sgarbi at the Italian Pavilion of the 54th Venice Biennale. His work has been exhibited in galleries in Milan, New York, Los Angeles, London and more.