The Paolo Erbetta Gallery is pleased to present Michele Giangrande’s first solo exhibition in Germany, entitled URWEGE. (Urwege is a neologism made up of the prefix Ur-, meaning ancestral, primordial and native, and the word wege, suggesting the idea of a path, a route.) Born in Bari in 1979, Giangrande currently lives and works between Bergamo and Bari. An artist with great flexibility, endowed with biting irony, Giangrande transforms reality by playing with two concepts: being and seeming. Since his first research, the artist has elevated his chosen objects – mainly everyday objects – to a new identity.

In Urwege, Michele Giangrande, displays his new series, Ceramics. This series consists of research on the archaic and primitive, through painting, sculpture, handicraft, installation and architecture. Starting from his origins, the artist decides to travel back in time to the lore and history of humanity, to reach genuine artistic works, thus catching the fundamental spark.

The exhibition is therefore designed as a unique specimen where the only subject is creation. The exhibition displays pottery manufactures, depicting basic forms with elements of ancient memory (a heart and brain on the scales, reproductive organs, a skull in a brazier with burning coal, to mention a few), and an exhibit celebrating the brick, the basic element of architecture. This choice is not accidental: the brick recalls the primordial and basic shapes of geometry and building. One of the solutions adopted, for instance, is the trilith system, the foundations of architecture itself. These works feature typical Apulian pottery decoration, chosen by the artist as a reminiscence of his own traditions, as a starting point for his research. The decoration is made on a white ivory background, studded with recurring basic patterns of six or five cobalt blue dots, matching the traditional image of a rooster, a very strong and archaic element. Giangrande’s artistic research stands out as an attempt to find, in former times, a contemporary way of communicating, projected into the future, through a playful-analytical journey, starting from his own memories and lightly, carefully exploring the genesis of making.

Paolo Erbetta Gallery
Potsdamer Str. 107
Berlin 10785 Germany
Ph. +49 (0)30 95625868
Mob. +49 (0)157 78945846
info@paoloerbettagallery.com
www.paoloerbettagallery.com

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From 12pm to 6pm and by appointment

Related images

  1. Michele Giangrande, Genesis, 2013, ceramic real dimensions. Courtesy Paolo Erbetta Gallery, Berlin.
  2. Michele Giangrande, Brain, 2013, ceramic real dimensions. Courtesy Paolo Erbetta Gallery, Berlin.
  3. Michele Giangrande, Brick, 2013, ceramic real dimensions. Courtesy Paolo Erbetta Gallery, Berlin.