Sergio Ragalzi | IENE
From 11/04/2024 To 30/05/2024
On the occasion of the Milan art week, the Raffaella De Chirico Contemporary Art Gallery inaugurates a new space in Via Monte di Pietà 1A, a place that will remain the only location of the gallery, which after many years closed the doors of the historic Turin location. The new space, in the Brera district, opens to the public with a solo exhibition dedicated to the artist Sergio Ragalzi (Turin, 1951).
The title of the exhibition "Iene" refers directly to the cycle of paintings of the same name exhibited in the gallery spaces, dating back to the 1980s and almost totally unpublished. This series of canvases is characterized by the essential portraits of the wild mammal, whose head - without a defined physiognomy but recognizable due to the presence of the white teeth - dominates the entire pictorial surface. Alongside the pictorial works, the exhibition will also feature sculptures depicting the skeletal heads of monkeys, a theme dear to the artist and investigated since the 1990s: among those on display, one is of very recent production, made of painted Corten steel, and is part of a broader cycle that will be presented by spring and of which we want to give a preview here.
This exhibition thus offers a double story through two distinctive symbols: the hyena head and the monkey skull, images that evoke aggression and reflect the tragic moments of violence present in the social context of the contemporary world.