“13 Most Beautiful Avatars” and “The Trilogy: Drawings” - November 30 - Premio New York Exhibition at the Italian Academy
The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies
in America at Columbia University
invites you to the Opening Reception for
the Fall, 2006 Premio New York Exhibition
“The Trilogy: Drawings”
Paolo Chiasera
“13 Most Beautiful Avatars”
Eva and Franco Mattes (aka 0100101110101101.ORG)
(Online Exhibition sponsored by Rhizome.org and the New Museum of
Contemporary Art)
The Italian Academy
1161 Amsterdam Avenue just south of 118th Street
www.italianacademy.columbia.edu
For reservations, please contact wb2149@columbia.edu
Exhibition open to the public: November 30-December 19
9:30 am-4:30pm Monday-Friday
The Premio New York is sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, the Italian Academy
and the Italian Cultural Institute of New York
P R E S S R E L E A S E
The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University
and the Italian Cultural Institute of New York are pleased to present the
PREMIO NEW YORK Fall 2006 EXHIBITION
PAOLO CHIASERA
The Trilogy: Drawings
EVA and FRANCO MATTES (a.k.a. 0100101110101101.ORG)
13 Most Beautiful Avatars
Opening: Thursday, November 30, 2006, 6-8pm at the Italian Academy
1161 Amsterdam Avenue (just south of 118th Street), New York, NY 10027
Subway #1 to 116th Street
The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia
University, together with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(Directorate General for Cultural Promotion and Cooperation) and the
Italian Cultural Institute of New York, sponsor the Premio New York (New
York Prize), a residency program for emerging Italian artists. The
artists in residence for the fall semester of the Fifth Edition of the
Premio New York are Paolo Chiasera and Eva Mattes.
PAOLO CHIASERA presents “The Trilogy: Drawings” as part of his ongoing
video and multi-media project entitled “The Trilogy: Vincent, Cornelius,
Pieter” in which he explores the relationship between personal and
collective mythology. The show at the Italian Academy consists of works
in ink and gouache on paper, a “storyboard” for the larger project of
three videos in which the artist uses masks to investigate the
possibilities in being a contemporary artist. In three separate videos
Chiasera casts himself as the three renowned painters, Vincent Van Gogh,
Cornelius Escher and Pieter Brueghel, donning simple hand-crafted masks
and embarking on a mysterious quest. “Somewhere between conscious
attack of the mechanisms of the social and aesthetic induction of a
clearly ineffective form of mythology, and a blind faith in the myth as
a representation of contemporary history and power, is the ambiguity
that Chiasera strives for and which allows him - as an artist - both to
toy with contemporary myths and judge them at the same time.” (Andrea
Viliani, Curator, MAMbo Museo Arte Moderna Bologna). Paolo Chiasera has
exhibited extensively throughout Europe and is currently affiliated with
the Massimo Minini Gallery in Brescia, Italy. Chiasera’s works
incorporate traditional artist media such as painting and sculpture
within a performance and video format. His 2005 video “The Following
Days” records a hallucinatory performance of three persons encountering
the Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini (as a 15-foot-high plaster
sculpture) in the countryside near Bologna.
EVA and FRANCO MATTES (a.k.a. 0100101110101101.ORG) present “13 Most
Beautiful Avatars,” a portrait series at the Italian Academy and in an
online exhibit organized by Rhizome and co-presented by the New Museum
of Contemporary Art. Highlights of the online exhibition will be
projected in the Italian Academy’s Teatro during the opening reception.
The Matteses have been living in the virtual world, Second Life, for
over a year, exploring its terrain and interacting with its peculiar
inhabitants. The result of their “video-game flanerie” is a series of
portraits, entitled “13 Most Beautiful Avatars.” Not unlike Warhol’s
entourage of stars, captured in the “13 Most Beautiful Boys” and “13
Most Beautiful Women” portrait series, the Matteses’ “13 Most Beautiful
Avatars” captures the most visually dynamic and celebrated “stars” of
Second Life.
The portraits reflect Second Life aesthetics, featuring the bright
colors, “artificial” light, broad flat areas, 3D shapes, and surreal
perspectives that are typical of this virtual world. Overall, the series
draws on the technological developments which allow the creation of
alternate identities within simulated worlds. Despite the relative
newness of using video game-derived source materials, the avatars’ icons
recall questions common to earlier eras of portraiture, including the
cultural and psychological context of the images, and the relationships
between high art and subculture, between contemporary art and
“traditional” art forms, and between art and life itself.
Eva and Franco Mattes are known for their controversial artworks, such
as staging high-profile hoaxes and defeating the Nike Corporation in a
legal battle over a fake advertising campaign. Their works have been
shown worldwide including the Venice Biennale, Manifesta and Postmasters
Gallery, New York.
Concurrent with the show at the Italian Academy is an online exhibition
co-presented by the New Museum of Contemporary Art and Rhizome. The
exhibition, in Second Life’s increasingly popular Ars Virtua gallery,
mirrors the Italian Academy’s art gallery. The online show is open
November 15 - December 29, and is visible here:
http://rhizome.org/events/timeshares
The show will run from Nov. 30-Dec. 19, 2006,
Monday through Friday, 9:30 am to 4:30 pm.