New Exhibition to Open at the Litvak Gallery
“Whitegray” – Michele Bubacco
The Litvak Gallery is proud to present the first comprehensive international exhibition of the Italian painter Michele Bubacco, showcasing more than 30 of his works from different series. The Gallery has been working with the artist for the past several years
Exhibition dates: Thursday, June 28, 2012 – Wednesday, August 31, 2012
As part of Tel Aviv’s White Night events, the Litvak Gallery is opening its exhibition of the Italian artist Michele Bubacco. The artist’s first solo exhibition in Israel, the show focuses on works from various series he created over the past five years, including works that were painted during his stay in Israel during the months preceding the exhibition. Bubacco’s works will also be featured in the Litvak Gallery’s stand at this year’s Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair in September.
“Michele Bubacco is an Existentialist. The young Italian painter is anguished about mankind, recognizes its wretched condition and laments this condition in his paintings, a lamentation that is also a song of rage against the misery of the human creation, man’s flesh and its transitory nature. In his work, man is drenched in constant anguish, dread about existence and death.” So opens the essay that accompanies this exhibition.
The exhibition revolves mainly around the theme of the myth of Prometheus, who was punished for helping mortals in defiance of the gods’ will. Within this myth lies the key to reading Bubacco’s work and understanding his creative universe. The painting Prometheus (2009), from the eponymous series in the exhibition, depicts a man bent over backwards, alone in the space, while on his stomach perch two doves. One bird is waiting, while its companion is gnawing at the hero’s flesh, wounding it. Also in the exhibition are works from the series Meals, which centers on abstract paintings within which the observer can discern the pound of red flesh sitting on a round plate. Here, Bubacco adds another link to the chain of artists who have taken part in this “celebration of flesh,” including Rembrandt van Rijn, Francisco Goya, Chaim Soutine, Francis Bacon and Jenny Saville. In another series,Portraits, the artist portrays modern man as detached from himself and his surroundings.
One of Bubacco’s crowning achievements – the colossal (13 meters long and 2.20 meters high) painting Crimson Orchestra (2011) – will be displayed in the Project Room built especially for this exhibition. The complex composition depicts almost 50 male figures crowded together in varying attitudes – standing, sitting, kneeling, lying down, falling – and engaged in various occurrences that revolve around the act of eating.The painting was first shown at the exhibition “Paint it Black on the White Night,” which was held at the Ikona Gallery in Venice as a satellite exhibition accompanying the Venice Biennale, 2011.
Over the past few months during his stay in Israel, Bubacco has sketched hundreds of studies for a series of four huge paintings based on a black-gray-white palette on natural fabric. The paintings’ title, Girotondo III (2012), meaning “wheel,” is taken from the name of an Italian folksong for children. Part of the ongoing work for this series will be mounted in the exhibition.
Exhibition curator: The Litvak Gallery
The exhibition catalogue contains an essay by Ron Bartos, which can be found in the press kit.
Exhibition of Glass Inspired by Venice
Occupying another space in the Gallery will be the exhibition “Glass Works Inspired by Venice” from the Gallery’s collection, highlighting a selection from Dale Chihuly’s series, theVenetians, which was created following the artist’s stay in Italy in 1968. These works, displayed in a special installation in the Gallery’s Black Room,include both rare vintage creations and more recent works.
Alongside the works by Chihuly, the Gallery is showing works by some of its other artists representing various facets of glass creation on the island of Murano in Venice. The work of master glassblower Lino Tagliapietra blends the American Studio Glass movement with traditional Venetian production and decorative techniques. The glass creations by Davide Salvadore combine foreign sources of inspiration with the Venetian tradition. And Yoichi Ohira, a Japanese glass artist who lives in Venice, fuses Venetian technical heritage with influences from his native land. This marks the first showing of his work at the Litvak Gallery.
Litvak Gallery
Museum Tower
4 Berkovits Street
Tel Aviv
TEL: (03) 695-9496
Gallery hours
· Special opening hours for Tel Aviv’s White Night, June 28 from 17:00 – 00:00
Monday through Wednesday: 11:00 – 19:00
Thursday: 11:00 – 20:00
Friday: 10:00 – 14:00
The gallery is closed on Saturday and Sunday.
Entrance is free
