Federico Solmi
The Grand Masquerade, 2018
Description
New York-based artist Solmi exploits the virtual architecture of video games to create a phantasmagoric world of whirling space, jerking movement and oscillating facades. Solmi’s art investigates the contradictions and inaccuracies of historical narratives that have led society into a chaotic era of misinformation. His nine-channel opus, “The Great Farce,” having its North American debut at Open Spaces, A Kansas City Arts Experience unmasks core hypocrisies in contemporary society, merging art with political and social commentary.
Dan Cameron, Artistic Director of Open Spaces, Kansas City, 2018
For the 2019 Armory Show, Ronald Feldman Gallery will exhibit multimedia works by Federico Solmi, a New York based, Italian born artist newly represented by the gallery. Solmi takes as his subject the abuse of power from a historical perspective to the present. Combining bright colors and a satirical aesthetic with emerging technologies, Solmi presents a dystopian world view that aims to reveal and disrupt the power structure of our technological age. Stylistically, his work can be seen in the tradition of the painters George Grosz, Otto Dix, and James Ensor, and the silent films of expressionist cinema.
The booth features Solmi’s video paintings in which beloved and infamous leaders become idolized celebrities as they rewrite, fabricate, and contradict historic and contemporary events. George Washington, Hernán Cortés, Christopher Columbus, General Robert E. Lee, and many others are seen dancing, parading, and dueling for their own entertainment. The propagandistic imagery, composed from paintings scanned into a video game engine, extends from the videos onto the splendidly painted frames. Complementing the videos are new paintings by Solmi which are animated by the same flickering effect through shifting layers of texture. They contain cutout shaped wood which stands in relief, providing a new space for his 3D computer models to exist.
Other works on display include Solmi’s artist books, each comprised of up to 12 bound paintings in two sizes: 12 x 18 or 24 x 18 inches. The larger ones contain alternate historic narratives, while the smaller books contain the original scanned paintings used in his video works.
Federico Solmi is a visiting professor at Yale University School of Art. In 2009, he was awarded The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in the category of Video & Audio. Survey exhibitions of his work will be mounted in 2019 at Tarble Art Center, Charleston, Illinois, and at Kunstkraftwerk, Leipzig, Germany. Solmi has been featured in solo museum exhibitions including Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, New York (2018), the Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel (2016), and the Centro Cultural Matucana 100, Santiago, Chile (2015). His work has been included in several international Biennials, including: Frankfurt B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, Frankfurt, Germany (2017, 2015), and The Beijing Media Art Biennale, Beijing, China (2016).
For press inquiries: contact Vince Ruvolo at vince@feldmangallery.com or (212) 226-3232
Press link: https://bit.ly/2XtzG4m
Federico Solmi
The Affectionate Fathers, 2019
View Gallery
Counterfeit Heroes, 2019
View Gallery
Ronald Feldman Gallery has been at the frontier of contemporary art since 1971. The gallery is located in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City and exhibits performance, photography, new media, film, painting, drawing and sculpture.
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