IAGA Contemporary Art is pleased to inaugurate the first solo exhibition signed by Michele Savino (1989), young artist from Bergamo (Italy).
The exhibition Erosioni sospese | Suspended Erosions is the culmination of Michele Savino’s selection by IAGA Contemporary Art as the winner of the Gallery Prize, awarded on the occasion of the fourteenth edition of the Combat Prize in July 2023 in Livorno, which included, precisely, a personal exhibition in the gallery spaces. The choice was possible thanks to the work Gabinetto Archeologico (Archaeological Cabinet) (2018), nominated in the Graphics section, which stood out among the eighty finalists, also receiving a special mention from the jury in its category.
Exactly one year after the Prize was awarded, the exhibition focuses on the artist’s most recent body of work, with a preponderance of works made in 2023 and a few examples from 2024, most of which have never been exhibited before. Besides, the work that gave rise to this project could not be missing, placed in the opening as a manifesto of this partnership.
Even before being an artist, Michele Savino is a collector, a tireless researcher of history and what has come down to us – hence his curiosity about science and the processes of transformation of matter that are reflected in the definitions he uses.
His research also reflects this fascination for objects that have been corroded but restored by time, witnesses of a more or less distant past, which, from simple tools, have taken on a privileged role as relics.
As the title suggests, his subjects are eroded, undefined to the point where they approach abstraction, but suspended, frozen in the moment of their pictorial representation. The artist is entrusted with the task of exalting their degenerative process, contrary to traditional painting which would like to preserve their flourishing appearance: he consumes them more sharply, acting upon them as the relentless time – despite his intention to keep them away from it – and he colours them with acid tones, different from reality, to remind us that we are not looking at the object itself, but at its representation, as René Magritte recalled in one of his famous works.
Together with sketches in oil colours and bands of contrasting colours, these elements highlight the presence and importance of painting, in an attempt, even in figuration, to represent painting itself and to reflect on what it means, today more than ever, to make painting.

Curated by Camilla Remondina

An exhibition realized by IAGA Contemporary Art

Exhibition venue
IAGA Contemporary Art, Strada Cloşca 9-11, Cluj-Napoca, RO

Visiting hours
Tuesday –Saturday 2:00-6:00 pm, and by appointment

Period
4 – 27 July, 2024

Opening
Thursday 4 July, 2024, from 6:00 pm

PRESS RELEASE