FLORENCE, ITALY – The Galleria Ca’ d’Oro in New York presents the extrasensory experience Beyond the Matter by the Florence born visual artist Michelangelo Bastiani.
Known for his use of kinetic images and video clips as an exploration of the illusory themes of liquidness and reality through technology, Beyond the Matter will showcase Bastiani’s volumetric and realistic video holograms, reflected through LED screens inside glass bottles.
Bastiani has held critically-acclaimed international exhibitions in Florence, Venice, Milan, London, Istanbul, Frankfurt, Kiev, Oslo, and in the US, at Context Art Fair, the Jim Kempner Gallery, C24 Gallery, Mana Contemporary Museum, and the Houston Art Fair. You’ll find all additional details below. Gallery owner, Gloria Porcella, and Bastiani will be present and available for pre-arranged interviews.
Michelangelo Bastiani uses technology in his representations of water to illustrate its dynamic nature and facilitate a direct connection and tangible interaction with the viewer. In his current exhibition, Beyond the Matter, which will be on view at Galleria Ca’ d’Oro in Chelsea from October 24th through the end of November, Bastiani showcases his hologram installations and interactive video projections on LED screens exploring the theme of liquidness, with water representing the constantly changing intrinsic nature of art.
Of his work, Bastiani says: «Water, and liquidness in general, is my preferred field of investigation. My favorite subjects are natural phenomena of different magnitude, from the most tumultuous storms to soft clouds, relaxing water lilies, cold icebergs, waterfalls, fountains, galaxies, travels to the center of the earth… For instance, an artificial lake might take shape in a room and, thanks to digital techniques, the spectator becomes an integral part of the work by simply passing in front of it, thus becoming a part of the kinetic process. Analog and digital blend in these holograms which are enclosed in transparent bottles and jars, and direct interaction from the viewer results in infinite variables. The relationship between work and observer become stronger transforming what we imagine as the traditional ‘passive’ visit into an ‘active’ experience.»
Florentine artist Michelangelo Bastiani graduated first from Florence’s Art Institute and later from the Academy of Fine Arts, where he majored in painting and photogray under Maestro Gustavo Giulietti. Bastiani lived in California and New York before returning to Tuscany, and has held critically-acclaimed exhibitions in the Italian cities of Florence, Venice, Milan, Capri, and Pietrasanta, and internationally in London, Istanbul, Frankfurt, Kiev, and Oslo.
In the United States, Bastiani has exhibited at the New York Context Art Fair, the Jim Kempner Gallery in New York, the C24 Gallery in Chelsea, the Mana Contemporary Museum of Jersey City, and the Houston Art Fair. He is represented by Liquid Art Systems Gallery in Capri.
Born in Rome, Gloria Porcella is the latest of a long lineage of curators, writers, and art critics. Beginning with her great-grandfather, Alpinolo Porcella who was a friend of Italian artists Filippo de Pisis and Giorgio de Chirico. The legacy continued with Gloria’s grandfather, Amadore Porcella, a writer for the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.
In conjunction with writing, Amadore founded Galleria San Bernardo in 1945 at the Piazza San Bernardo. In 1970, Gloria’s father, Antonio Porcella established Galleria Ca’ d’Oro first on Via Condotti, and then moved it to the Piazza di Spagna. Galleria Ca’ d’Oro is now located on Via Del Babuino. In conjunction with curating the gallery, Antonio helped to launch La Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico in 1990, where he is still an active member.
Gloria Porcella was born and raised in Rome, and then attended San Diego State University and University of California San Diego. Following university, she interned for Sotheby’s on New Bond street in London from 1995 to 1997 in the Impressionist and Modern Art Department. In 1997, Porcella returned to Rome to stage her first exhibition at Galleria Ca’ d’Oro, quickly becoming a prominent figure in the Italian art world, while serving as a Councilor of Cultural Commission, Head of the Cultural Center in Rome, and an advisor to the Ministry of the Environment in Italy. Gloria has staged exhibitions at the European Parliament of Brussels for Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico and is the European curator for American artist Seward Johnson.
Gloria expanded Galleria Ca’ d’Oro to Miami in 2010, where she began curating exhibitions linking Italian art with the United States, which was followed by a New York City gallery in Chelsea in 2014. Porcella works public art projects around the world and has staged shows in Berlin, Gstaad, Hannover, Milan, Monte Carlo, Palermo, Rome, Sardinia, Siracusa, and Turin. In 2017, Porcella was the first gallerist elected to the Board of Chasama, a charitable arts organization.
Galleria Ca’ d’Oro presents Beyond the matter
179 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY
Public opening from October 25th to November 25th, 2017
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