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EXHIBITIONS

ARTISTS
    Short Stories
    21.11 > 24.1.2015

    The ‘Galleria del Cembalo’ opens a new exhibition (from November 21st 2014 to January 24th 2015) with the twelve photographic series of the collection “Short Stories” realized by Paolo Ventura.

    “In September 2011, while I was working to fix the roof in my studio, a piece fell from it and created an opening. All of a sudden, a dark corner of the room got enlightened. The unexpected light in the north-facing side of the studio made me feel the need of creating these little theatres and make them come alive.” Paolo Ventura

    The exhibition curated by Paola Cavazza and Donatella Pistocchi discloses twelve “Short Stories” (about sixty images), in addition to some sketches, a few costumes and one painted backcloth which the artist uses as scenery for his tales. Skimming one after the other the very few images composing each story, in vertical frames, apparently static, as if they had been realized in a photographic studio at the beginning of 1900, one stares at human stories of knife throwers, magicians, jugglers, soldiers, hunters and children. The artist’s studio turns into a theatre.
    It’s always him, Paolo Ventura, director, costume designer and manifold interpreter, the main character of the scene, whereas his wife, his son or his twin brother alternate as victims of his fantasy. He wisely mixes painting with photography, each time drawing inspiration from the artists of the past, from the Futurists to the ones of the Italian ‘900, with great respect and paying specific attention to the history of photography. The outcome is an extremely personal artwork, truly recognisable, but never baroque. Ventura is an amused experimenter: his narrative images, surrealistic and tragic, recall the memory of familiar tales as well as literary ones.
    Some of the “Short Stories” shown here for the first time in its entirety have already been exposed at the MART (Museo di Arte Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto) in Rovereto (TN), at the Hasted Kraeutler Gallery in New York and at the Fotokino in Marsiglia.

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    PRESS REVIEW
    Paolo Ventura
    The Knive Thrower
    Edition of 5 + 1 AP
    7 Archivial pigment prints, cm 60x40 (60x280)
    Paolo Ventura
    Homage a Saul Steinberg
    Edition of 5 + 1AP
    3 Archivial pigment prints, cm 60x40 (60x120)
    Paolo Ventura
    The Man in the Suitcase
    Edition of 5 + 1 AP
    6 Archivial pigment prints, cm 60x40 (60x240)
    Paolo Ventura
    The Vanishing Man
    Edition of 5 + 1 AP 4 Archivial pigment prints, cm 60x40 (60x160)
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    Press review