P.S.1 Presents Loris Cecchini: Cloudless
Wednesday, October 4th, 2006EXHIBITION PRESS RELEASE
LORIS CECCHINI: CLOUDLESS
October 29, 2006 through January 8, 2007
P.S.1 Opening Day Celebration: October 29, 2006 from noon to 6
(Long Island City, NY – October 4, 2006) P.S.1 is pleased to present Cloudless (2006), a large-scale installation by Italian artist Loris Cecchini. For this project, the artist will suspend an enormous biomorphic white form high above the floor in P.S.1’s Duplex gallery. Cloudless is on view from October 29, 2006 through January 8, 2007.
Comprised of thousands of plastic balls surrounding an internal framework of aluminum ladders, the work continues Cecchini’s investigation of how space is defined. Utilizing a formal vocabulary and lines of inquiry reminiscent of architects like Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, Cecchini creates a nearly abstract, voluminous mass, evoking a weightless body of epic proportions. The resulting form refers specifically to a cloud but, as such, is also open to a wide variety of other interpretations. With Cloudless, Cecchini investigates the borders between the natural and the artificial, and the relationships that human perception and cognition have to these divisions.
Loris Cecchini (b. 1969) works in a variety of media including photography, sculpture, drawing, and installation. His work re-examines the broad notion of “model” by reworking familiar, everyday forms into a modified vision that challenges the viewer’s perceptions. Trained in Siena, Florence, and Milan, Cecchini began exhibiting internationally in 1995 and has since had numerous solo shows in Italy and elsewhere in Europe and in Asia. He lives and works in Prato and Beijing.
Organized for P.S.1 by Director Alanna Heiss, Cloudless was previously installed at Galleria Continua in Beijing and at the Shanghai Duolun MOMA. It will travel in January 2007 to the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and in May 2007 to the Villa Medici in Rome.
This exhibition is made possible by FENDI and the support of Rosa and Gilberto Sandretto.
Exhibitions at P.S.1 are made possible by the Annual Exhibition Fund with support from Peter Norton and the Peter Norton Family Foundation, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Lawton W. Fitt and James I. McLaren Foundation, Marie-Josèe and Henry Kravis, Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley, Philip Aarons and Shelley Fox Aarons, Kathy and Richard S. Fuld, Jr., Lily Auchincloss Foundation, J. Christopher Daly and Sheldrake Organization Inc., Rosa and Gilberto Sandretto, David Teiger, Michel Zaleski, Enzo Viscusi, Sue & Edgar Wachenheim Foundation, The Broad Art Foundation, Mimi and Peter Haas Fund, Dennis W. LaBarre, Julia Stoschek, Pamela and Richard Kramlich, Richard Anderman, Paul Beirne, Douglas S. Cramer, L. Matthew and Elizabeth Quigley, Mathis-Pfohl Foundation, SilverCup Studios, Yellow Book U.S.A., The Friends of Education in honor of Peter Norton and Gwen Adams, and The Contemporary Arts Council and The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art.
Time Out New York is the official print partner of exhibitions and public programs at P.S.1.
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
Background:
P.S.1 was founded in 1971 by Alanna Heiss as The Institute of Art and Urban Resources Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to the organization of contemporary art exhibitions in abandoned or underutilized buildings. P.S.1 became an affiliate of The Museum of Modern Art in 2000 and now operates two internationally acclaimed spaces for contemporary art: P.S.1 in Long Island City, featuring museum-quality galleries, and The Clocktower Gallery, which now contains the radio studio for P.S.1’s online radio station WPS1.
P.S.1 is one of the largest and oldest arts organizations in the United States solely devoted to contemporary art. Recognized as a defining force of the alternative space movement, P.S.1 stands out from major arts institutions in its cutting edge approach to exhibitions and direct involvement of artists within a scholarly framework. P.S.1 acts as an intermediary between the artist and its audience. Functioning as a living and active meeting place for the general public, P.S.1 is a catalyst for ideas, discourses and new trends in contemporary art. With its educational programs, P.S.1 assists the public in understanding art and provides the tools to appreciate contemporary art and its practices.
