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Pietro RoccasalvaLa Sposa Occidentale2023acrylic on canvas70 x 50 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaMerrymusk2022acrylic on canvas120 x 84,5 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaStudy for Giocondità2022oil on canvas48 x 64 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaFrom JMM2022oil on canvas40 x 68,2 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaStudy from Just Married Machine2020acrylic on paper49,8 x 65,5 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaThe Argon Welder X2019oil on canvas65,5 x 52,7 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaThe Argon Welder XIII2019oil on canvas54,5 x 76,3 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaThe Argon Welder XI2019oil on canvas49,4 x 37,2 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaThe Argon Welder I2019oil on canvas68,8 x 45,4 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaFrom Just Married Machine2019acrylic on canvas55,5 x 90 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaUntitled2018oil on canvas70,5 x 88,5 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaUntitled2017oil on canvas26,8 x 34,5 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaStudy from Just Married Machine2017oil on canvas144,6 x 117 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaStudy for Il Traviatore2017acrylic on paper69,8 x 43,1 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaIl Traviatore2017acrylic on canvas95,5 x 69,5 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaRear Window2015Moleskine notebook, acrylic on paper35 x 40 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaIl Traviatore2015acrylic on canvas60,5 x 45,5 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaFanfaro2014painted wood, fried rice ball (edition of 3 + 1 AP)121 x 73 x 127 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaStudy from Just Married Machine III2014charcoal and acrylic on canvas129 x 301 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaIl Traviatore2014acrylic on canvas195 x 100,1 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaStudy for Il Traviatore2014charcoal on paper54,8 x 27,2 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaStudy from Just Married Machine I & II2014acrylic on canvas2 x (272,7 x 198,2 cm)
Pietro RoccasalvaStudy for Just Married Machine II1999 - 2014oil on canvas58 x 78,3 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaIl Traviatore2014charcoal and pastel on paper on panel112,8 x 80,5 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaStudy for Il Traviatore2013charcoal on paper12 x 15 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaStudy for Il Traviatore2013charcoal on paper12,3 x 16,5 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaStudy for Il Traviatore2010acrylic on paper69,5 x 47 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaStudy for Il Traviatore2008acrylic and graphite on paper14 x 8,9 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaStudy for Il Traviatore2007charcoal on paper32 x 41 cm
CHI É CHE RIDE
Published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at Collezione Giancarlo e Danna Olgiati by Mousse Publishing, 2022
CHI È CHE RIDE
Collezione Giancarlo e Danna Olgiati, Lugano, Italy September 18 - December 18, 2022
PIETRO ROCCASALVA
Fürstenberg Contemporary, Donaueschingen, Germany September 12 - November 30, 2019
WHO SHOT MR. BURNS?
The Power Station, Dallas, United States of America October 21 - December 12, 2016
Pietro Roccasalva, b. 1970 in Modica (IT), lives and works in Milan (IT).
Pietro Roccasalva thinks of himself primarily as a painter, although he often uses other media such as installation, sculpture, performance, film and photography. In his work, painting is indeed the constant centre of an ever-expanding constellation of different elements. These elements can be seen as formally autonomous stages but that are also part of a greater situation or process: in the context of the development of the Western painting tradition, it corresponds to the setting, the first phase of a process that leads to the creation of a painting.
An internal logic in his oeuvre makes the switching between different media inevitable. It also makes it possible for certain themes and images to be recycled: a work will often bear traces of something that has preceded it, in a constant referring to iconographies that repeat themselves in various ways and generate new situations. Roccasalva’s work embodies multiple references – ranging from art history to philosophy and from literature to cinema – in relation to the circumstances and contingencies that he encounters in each new context.
Pietro Roccasalva has had solo shows at The Power Station (Dallas), Kölnischer Kunstverein (Cologne), Le Magasin (Grenoble), GaMeC (Bergamo), Fondazione Querini Stampalia (Venice) and Fürstenberg Contemporary (Donauschingen).
Pietro Roccasalva has participated in the Venice Biennale (2009), the Turin Triennial (2008), Manifesta 7 (2008) and the Prague Biennale (2007). His work has featured in group shows at the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), MCA Chicago, MoMA PS1 (New York), MAXXI (Rome), David Roberts Art Foundation (London), Centre for Contemporary Art (Warsaw), Bonniers Konsthall (Stockholm), Kadist Art Foundation (Paris) and S.M.A.K. (Ghent).
Pietro Roccasalva joined the gallery in 2014.
Zeno X Gallery is pleased to present The Argon Welder, the second solo exhibition of Pietro Roccasalva (b. 1970 in Modica).
Over the past 15 years, Pietro Roccasalva has pursued an ongoing process of experimentation involving a vast array of media with the sole purpose of questioning and challenging the language of painting. His formal and conceptual research reveals a highly distinctive idiom that combines personal visions with cultural references, the imaginary with the real, intertwining the traditional genres and techniques of painting with the most contemporary digital shifts.
This exhibition presents 14 paintings, each representing the same subject: a bread roll and a chalice. The reiteration of the same motif in the gallery space resembles the different stations of the journey that this image undertakes across the still-life genre, before trespassing into the portrait genre in the viewer’s imagination.
Several years ago, Pietro Roccasalva built a set with these two objects as a model for paintings. The bread roll is a ‘rosetta’ (a small rose) or ‘michetta’ (a small crumb). This white, Italian bread is recognizable by its bulging shape, the same used by Piero Manzoni in his late series of ‘Achromes’, in which the bread rolls were dipped in kaolin. Roccasalva made the ceramic chalice from the cast of that bread, thus with the same form but as a negative, like a male element and a female element, the color of which also respectively evoke the sun and the moon.
Since then, Roccasalva has every so often painted this subject in different arrangements. In this new cycle of works, the two objects appear in a brand-new composition that reveals every single detail of the original set. The bread roll is fixed to an iron wire tied to a metal stand and suspended above the chalice, the latter resting on a cloth lying on a table. Roccasalva depicts the objects in a lifelike manner to make them recognizable, nevertheless arranging them in compositions that erase their ordinariness and turn them into unusual figures. These still lifes, whose objects also recall the Eucharist, the most important still life in Western culture, at once become ‘almost portraits’.
Among the array of imagined characters populating Roccasalva’s universe, the tiniest element, still capable of activating a visionary world, is a ‘crumb’, which turns into a bread roll and then into a chalice, their combination evoking biomorphic semblances. A crumb that ‘puts on airs’ through the rhetoric of painting.
Pietro Roccasalva has had solo exhibitions at Fürstenberg Contemporary, Donauschingen; the Power Station, Dallas; the Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne; Le Magasin, Grenoble; GAMeC, Bergamo; the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice. His work has been shown in group exhibitions at, among others, the David Roberts Art Foundation, London; the Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw; MoMA PS1, New York; Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; MAXXI, Rome; the Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; S.M.A.K., Ghent. He was invited to participate in the Venice Biennial (2009), the Torino Triennial (2008), Manifesta 7 (2008) and the Prague Biennial (2007).
Zeno X is proud to announce the first solo exhibition of Pietro Roccasalva (b. 1970, Modica). The Italian artist grew up in Sicily but has been living and working in Milan for a long time. Roccasalva sees himself mainly as a painter, yet he has also produced installations, sculptures, performances and films. The internal logic of his oeuvre is such that working cross-media becomes an almost unavoidable given for the artist. Every work refers to a previous work, but also contains a seed for future pieces. All of his works are both formally autonomous and part of a larger whole. The work of Roccasalva cannot be understood as a linear and chronological sequence but rather as a huge hall with mirrors. The whole functions as a simulacrum of sorts: a reflection, a representation; it shows similarities to an existing image but is still unique. But then where is the original or its origin? Is it to be found in reality or does it only exist in an imaginary intermediate zone? Time and space are determining factors in this respect, even if they reveal little more. Roccasalva is specifically attracted to the time that exists between time, which he describes as a void, yet one with a particular potentiality. Roccasalva’s thinking about time is especially grounded in Fernando Pessoa’s (1888-1935) ‘Book of Restlessness’. This Portuguese poet and philosopher writes about a time that he describes as ‘nostalgia for what never was’. Roccasalva plays with many paradoxes, including the idea that oneness can be formed in emptiness, or that the sum of all equals emptiness.
Roccasalva is a well-read artist with keen interests in literature, philosophy, art history and etymology. As an Italian artist, he can obviously not ignore the legacy of the Christian art tradition, which leads him to Russian icon art and the reverse perspective, as manifested in the elaboration of the estranging image of ‘Il Traviatore’.
The exhibition ‘The Queen of Gaps’, whose title is derived from the poem ‘The King of Gaps’ by Pessoa, consists of one sculpture and five paintings. It is a first step toward a new pictorial iconography. Study from Just Married Machine I, II and III (2014) depict a scene of an installation and tableau vivant that Pietro Rocca Salva created in 2012 in the frame of his solo exhibition ‘The Strange Young Neighbours’. The work was based on a still from the short film ‘La Ricotta’ (1962) by Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975). Roccasalva translated a traditional ‘nature morte’ from the movie into real-life objects; a bowl is transformed into a mandolin-shaped boat, a basket into a hot air balloon, split garlic bulbs fit together to form a bizarre toilet and a bottle is reinterpreted as a woman. The eggs at the banquet are exchanged for a cock that keeps watch over the whole scene. The genre of the still life takes on a new meaning in the world of living things. The still life Study for Just Married Machine II brings together a cup and a traditional Italian ‘rosetta’ bread. The two dialoguing objects are linked to each through their matching concave and convex shapes, a contrast that is associated with the male and female element. The two large paintings focus on the male and female characters in the film and the tableau vivant, the married couple, while the third painting depicts the whole scene.
The painting Il Traviatore (2014) is part of a series that has a waiter carrying a juicer on an empty tray as its central theme. This figure is a metaphor for the messenger of emptiness. The character first appeared in 2002 in a tableau vivant realised during an exhibition at the Fondazione Ratti in Como. This full-length painted Il Traviatore (2014) refers to Jean-Antoine Watteau’s painting Gilles (1718-1719), a portrait of a character from the sixteenth-century Italian Commedia dell’arte: ‘Pedrolino’ or little Pietro. Pietro is also a derivative of the Italian word for stone, and can here be seen as a case of reverse transubstantiation.
The sculpture Fanfaro (2014) depicts a dragon lizard holding an ‘arancino’, an Italian fried stuffed rice ball, while a child is biting its tail. The scene evokes a wide range of associations and references, from Duchamp to Caravaggio with his ‘Boy Bitten By Lizard’, from Bernini’s sculpture ‘Child with Dragon’ to the typical Chinese dragon with sun. A large arancino and a real dragon lizard appeared for the first time together in the exhibition ‘De Morgen’ in 2006. If the arancino seems to refer to the dead sun – as has often been the case in earlier works by Roccasalva – and the lizard to prehistoric times, then the biting child can be seen as a metaphor for ‘nostalgia for what never was’, an impossible temporal dimension.
Pietro Roccasalva has had solo exhibitions at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (DE), Le Magasin, Grenoble (FR), GAMeC, Bergamo (IT) and the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice (IT). His work was part of group exhibitions at, among others, the David Roberts Art Foundation, London (GB), the Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, MoMA PS1, New York (USA), Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (SE), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (USA), MAXXI, Rome (IT), Kadist Art Foundation, Paris (FR) and S.M.A.K., Ghent (BE). He was invited to participate in the Biennale of Venice (2009), the Torino Triennial (2008), Manifesta 7 and the Prague Biennial (2007). MoMA in New York recently acquired one of his installations for its collection.
Martin MargielaBodypart b&w2018 - 2020oil pastel on projection screen123 x 222 x 8 cm
N. DashUntitled2022earth, acrylic, canvas, fabric, silkscreen ink, jute151,13 x 78,74 cm59,5 x 31 in
Kim JonesUntitled2001 - 2007acrylic and ink on photograph45,7 x 30,5 cm
Jenny ScobelAmanda (II)2011pencil, watercolour and wax on gessoed wood81,3 x 61 cm
Pélagie GbaguidiCare2020dry pastel and wool on paper21 x 29 cm
Pélagie GbaguidiCare2020dry pastel on paper29 x 21 cm
Mircea SuciuStudy for "Empathy for Destruction"2022oil, acrylic, liquin, charcoal and varnish on linen70 x 50 cm
Marina RheingantzSexy X2022oil on canvas130 x 110 cm
Jockum NordströmCat Dog Cat2016collage, watercolour and graphite on paper40 x 50 cm
Hyun-Sook Song9 Brushstrokes2017tempera on canvas130 x 70 cm
Jan De MaesschalckImpersonation (based on a photo by Johan Jacobs)2022oil on canvas65,2 x 55,2 cm
Yun-Fei JiThe Dead Are also Moving2007mineral pigments and ink on rice paper89,5 x 97 cm
Grace SchwindtGuard2022ceramic and bronze (edition of 3 + 1 AP)53 x 9 x 9 cm
Kees GoudzwaardOn Display2022oil on canvas70 x 60 cm
Susan HartnettOct. 11 2011 #2, Blue-joint grass (Calamagrostis canadensis)2011charcoal on paper56,5 x 76 cm
Jack WhittenSilver Centerfold2015acrylic on panel3 x (30,5 x 30,5 cm)
Philip Metten2203222022oil and thread on canvas23,1 x 23,2 cm
Paulo MonteiroUntitled2016oil on bronze (edition of 3 + 1 AP)56 x 2 x 4 cm
Paulo MonteiroUntitled2018oil on bronze (edition of 3)16,6 x 10,5 x 4,8 cm
Paulo MonteiroUntitled2016bronze (edition of 2 + 1 AP)18,5 x 62 x 22,5 cm
Naoto KawaharaNaked Girl2022oil on canvas72,8 x 53,4 cm
Bart StolleUntitled (Heat upon Heat)2022acrylic on canvas40 x 40 cm
Photo: Peter CoxCourtesy Zeno X Gallery, AntwerpInstallation view
Photo: Agostino OsioCourtesy Collezione Giancarlo e Danna OlgiatiInstallation view
Pietro RoccasalvaThe Argon Welder II2019oil on canvas64,5 x 48,8 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaThe Argon Welder IX2019oil on canvas62,2 x 41,8 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaThe Argon Welder VII2019oil on canvas53 x 38,9 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaThe Argon Welder XIV2019oil on canvas44,2 x 58 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaThe Argon Welder VIII2019oil on canvas53,2 x 38,2 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaThe Argon Welder VI2019oil on canvas60 x 40,7 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaThe Argon Welder III2019oil on canvas58,5 x 43,2 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaThe Argon Welder IV2019oil on canvas62,2 x 47,8 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaThe Argon Welder XII2019oil on canvas52,9 x 41,2 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaThe Argon Welder V2019oil on canvas58,2 x 40,5 cm
Photo: Peter CoxCourtesy Zeno X Gallery - Antwerp
Dirk BraeckmanP.T.-B.R.-17 #22017gelatin silver print mounted on aluminium support120 x 80 cm (unique)
Kim JonesUntitled2008acrylic and ink on board50,8 x 76,2 cm
Kim JonesUntitled2008acrylic and ink on board50 x 76 cm
Mark MandersFalling Dictionaries2018offset print and acrylic on paper, chicken wire, aluminium
Marlene DumasThe Politics of Recognition / Onze Vaders1991ink on pape
Michaël BorremansThree Degrees2017pencil and ink on paper14,1 x 21,1 cm
Philip MettenC-1022017collage on paper53,5 x 49,5 cm
Philip MettenC-1012017collage on paper57,5 x 46 cm
Philip MettenC-1082017collage on paper54 x 50,6 cm
Philip MettenC-0572016collage on paper9,4 x 9,3 cm
Philip MettenC-1052017collage on paper20,9 x 20,4 cm
Patrick Van CaeckenberghDen Beggaard2018mixed media52 x 110 cm
Paulo MonteiroUntitled201322k gold and gouache on paper25,5 x 18,5 cm
Paulo MonteiroUntitled201622k gold and gouache on paper14 x 9 cm
Paulo MonteiroUntitled201722k gold and ecoline on pape
Paulo MonteiroUntitled2016gouache on paper31 x 27,5 cm
Hyun-Sook SongUntitled2013tempera on paper25,4 x 34,7 cm
Hyun-Sook SongUntitled2017tempera on paper26 x 32,2 cm
Hyun-Sook SongUntitled2015tempera on paper20,5 x 28,4 cm
Hyun-Sook SongUntitled2012tempera on paper34 x 23,7 cm
Jack WhittenLooking For Bin Laden #8 (Second Set)2008toner on rice paper61 x 82,6 cm
Jack WhittenSpace Flower #42006acrylic, pastel, powdered Mylar on rice paper20,3 x 19,1 cm
Jack WhittenSpace Flower #22006acrylic, pastel, powdered Mylar on rice paper21 x 19,1 cm
Luc TuymansUntitled2017graphite on pape
Jockum NordströmBjörnen sover (the Bear is sleeping)2017collage, watercolour and pencil on paper97 x 71 cm
Jockum NordströmSjukhusparken (Hospital park)2017collage, watercolour and graphite on paper72 x 104 cm
Jockum NordströmSent by Hand2008graphite on paper45 x 60 cm
Jockum NordströmStage Whisper2008graphite on paper42 x 30 cm
Susan HartnettOct. 8 2011 #3, Blue-joint grass (Calamagrostis canadensis)2011charcoal on paper56,5 x 76 cm
Susan HartnettNov. 25 2011 #2, Blue lyme grass (Leymus arenarius)2011charcoal on paper56,5 x 76 cm
Susan HartnettOct. 18 2011 #2, Blue-joint grass (calamagrostis canadensis)2011charcoal on paper56,5 x 76 cm
Susan HartnettDec. 12 2011 #1, Blye lyme grass (Leymus arenarius)2011charcoal on paper56,5 x 76 cm
John KörmelingNew Friend, Maasplein Utrecht1995pencil on paper29,7 x 21,0 cm
John KörmelingAutovrije Stad2002pencil on paper29,7 x 21,0 cm
John KörmelingWatertaxi, Hotel New York Rotterdam1999pencil on paper21,0 x 29,7 cm
John KörmelingDrive-In Wheel, Mobile Fun1999pencil on pape
John KörmelingBetter City, Better Life, Happy Street - Het Interieur is Buiten2006pencil on paper30,0 x 42,5 cm
John KörmelingMotel Vianen2012pencil on paper21,0 x 29,7 cm
Pietro RoccasalvaStudy from Just Married Machine2014charcoal and pastel on paper26,5 x 65 cm
John KörmelingSociale Weg (Socialized Road)2001pencil on paper29,7 x 21 cm
John KörmelingHet Nederlands Paviljoen 2010, Happy Street2006pencil on paper30 x 52 cm
Jack WhittenRadiator Drawing #22010graphite on rice paper49,5 x 68,5 cm
Jack WhittenRadiator Drawing #32010graphite on rice paper49,5 x 68,5 cm
Jack WhittenSyntax #112010dry pigment on rice paper17,1 x 59,7 cm
Jack WhittenSyntax #122010dry pigment on rice paper15,9 x 62,2 cm
Marlene DumasJ.H.1992ink and crayon on paper20,5 x 14 cm
Luc TuymansGood Advice2014gouache on paper40,4 x 29,7 cm
Luc TuymansAllo!2014watercolour on paper11 x 80,5 cm
Luc TuymansThunderbirds2014pastel on paper29,5 x 17 cm
Luc TuymansPanel2014gouache on paper42 x 29,7 cm
Jan De MaesschalckLes Doublures (The Understudies)2014acrylic on paper47 x 65 cm
Jan De MaesschalckLooking Back2014acrylic on paper55 x 36,5 cm
Jan De MaesschalckUntitled (Long Distance Call)2014acrylic on paper43 x 36,7 cm
Jan De MaesschalckUntitled (In Memoriam Card)2014acrylic on paper40 x 36,5 cm
Jan De MaesschalckTale of Chivalry2014acrylic on paper42,4 x 33 cm
Johannes KahrsUntitled2013graphite on paper72,4 x 54 cm
Johannes KahrsUntitled2013graphite on paper98 x 76,9 cm
Johannes KahrsUntitled2013graphite on paper61,8 x 74,9 cm
Johannes KahrsOT (Plan)2013graphite on paper51 x 51 cm
Marlene DumasPoging 8 tot het Verbeelden van Jan Hoet1992ink and crayon on paper20,5 x 13,5 cm
Marlene DumasPortret Jan Hoet1992ink and crayon on paper20,5 x 14,7 cm
Marlene DumasPortret voor JH1992ink and crayon on paper20,5 x 15 cm
Photo: Simon VogelCourtesy Kölnischer KunstvereinInstallation view
The Collezione Giancarlo e Danna Olgiati, part of the Museum Circuit of the Museo d’Arte della Svizzera italiana (MASI), Lugano, Switzerland Depart Foundation, Rome, Italy and Los Angeles, United States of America DRAF David Roberts Art Foundation, London, United Kingdom Fondazione Giuliani, Rome, Italy Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy Lafayette Anticipation, Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris, France Museion, Bozen, Italy Museo del Novecento, Milan, Italy MoMA Museum of Modern Art, New York, United States of America
“Pietro Roccasalva. Kölnischer Kunstverein” Frieze.com, article by Dominikus Müller (online) April 2014
“Pietro Roccasalva” Artforum, vol.50, no.10, article by Jan Tumlir (p.296-299) Summer 2012
“Through the Looking Glass. From tableaux vivants to Photoshop, the philosophical and optical enquiries of Pietro Roccasalva inevitably return to painting” Frieze, no.129, article by Jonathan Griffin (p.84-89) March 2010
“Belief Systems. Alessandro Rabottini connects with the complex installations of Pietro Roccasalva, taking a mind-boggling journey through the many narratives of this artist’s work” MAP, no.17, article by Alessandro Rabottini (p.68-73) Spring 2009
“Pietro Roccasalva” Exhibition Catalogue Venice Biennial, p.144 2009
Mousse PublishingMilan, Italy, 2022132 pages, ISBN 9788867495320
Mousse PublishingMilan, Italy, 2016288 pages
JRP RingierZürich, Switzerland, 200764 pages, ISBN 9783905770971