"Layered Realities", group exhibition at Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Kanaal

Описание: The starting point for a group exhibition on view at Kanaal’s Escher Gallery is a painting by the Italian post-modern pop artist Mario Schifano (1934-1998) who utilised and mirrored elements of daily life in a growing capitalist and urban society.

The universe Schifano created with paint and brush is fragmented, often flirting with the abstract. This is especially the case for the landscape paintings he made in the 1960s. With compositions that were often left half-finished, showing the bare paper or canvas underneath, there remains much left to be imagined. It shows the painting as just an interpretation of reality, rather than reality itself. The viewer is often given a clue through text, as is the case for “Mare” (1963), where the title (Italian for sea) is visible at the bottom of the work. Upon closer inspection, various elements emerge, such as a boat or thick sea foams created by crashing waves. The conscious and subconscious are layered into a complex web of possibilities.

The group exhibition, Layered Realities, features artworks alongside Schifano’s painting that similarly confront reality, peeling and adding layers to our understanding of the world.