Opening Reception: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 11 amDates: November 20 – December 4, 2021Location: PUNTO SULL’ARTE II, Via San Martino della Battaglia 6, Varese | 0332 1690569 I info@puntosullarte.it Visiting hours: Tuesday – Saturday: 9.30am-1.30pm | 2pm-5.30pm. On Saturday, November 20, at 11am PUNTO SULL’ARTE art gallery will hold – at its second gallery in the historical centre of Varese, Via San Martino della Battaglia – the Opening Reception of Marika Vicari’s and Jernej Forbici’s double solo show. The artists will be present. The exhibition, which marks PUNTO SULL’ARTE Gallery’s 10th year of activity, is a tribute to the Gallery’s long and intense history, to nature and to art. In November 2011 the gallery opened its doors in its historic venue on Viale Sant’Antonio in Varese-Casbeno with a solo show by the Slovenian artist followed by an exhibition of the work of the Vicenza painter at the beginning of 2012. Leading artists of the Gallery since its inception, Marika Vicari and Jernej Forbici have been presented at all the art fairs in which PUNTO SULL’ARTE participated, in Italy and abroad, receiving much interest for their work. The show and unexhibited project Cyan-IDE, created by the artists for the Gallery’s new spaces situated in the heart of Varese, combines the presentation of new works – which in some ways seem somewhat distant between themselves – and opens new perspectives. A fantastical journey into culture and beauty, because only in this way, understanding together how to look at the world with wonder, will we be able to conserve the roots of our future. Nature enters our everyday lives in many different forms, spaces and moments, and art increasingly takes on the task of expressing and recording reality, like a sphere of action on the dynamics of the transformation of the earth, the world and of man. The transformation of the landscape, the process of environmental mutation that man has triggered like a point of no return, are not only the fundamental themes of Jernej Forbici’s artistic endeavours, but are, metaphorically speaking, the results of one of the many poisons with which we are destroying the world. Cyanide is rather well-known and powerful. It is already present in nature, in some plants and kernels and if inhaled is capable of blocking cellular respiration in just a few seconds, preventing the release of oxygen. Paradoxically that oxygen, which is a part of numerous chemical compounds and is by its very nature indispensable for life, regenerates in the small and large tables of Marika Vicari between the cracks, the fissures, the bubbles of cyan coloured water, elevating the trees and the forest upwards. The colour of fantasy, of travel, Vicari’s cyan is the complementary of Forbici’s red because, as in his personal, artistic and everyday life, everything is reabsorbed in a warm, red light, lively and real. Everything is arranged before our eyes in this strange intricate journey within the exhibition; picture-windows that open or become part of another place, a new sphere of growth that, integrated with new codes and written lines, is to be deciphered. The event is organized in compliance with the health regulations issued by Italian Government and the Green Pass will be necessary to take part in the event (it will be necessary just during the opening reception, while during the regular exhibition dates not). JERNEJ FORBICI: He was born in Maribor (Slovenia) in 1980. He graduated with honours in Painting (chair Prof. Carlo Di Raco) at the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, then specialising in Visual and Performing Arts. The exhibition Genesis, in 2002, was his first solo show. In 2005 he was invited to IBCA International Art Biennial in Prague and in 2009 the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice dedicated him a retrospective of his works at the Magazzini del Sale. He then took part in the 54° Biennale di Venezia, Standing in the edge in Vienna and the artistic residences in Berlin, London and Paris. Sleep now in the fire, Blurry Future, Auri sacra fames, Welcome to the final show and Long gone are the latest important solo show in which he exhibited in Luxembourg, Italy, Slovenia and New York. With his work Jernej Forbici has gained the interest of the contemporary art market and his paintings are exhibited in important shows, art fairs, private and public collections all over the world. He lives and works between Kidričevo, Ptuj (SI) and Vicenza (IT).
MARIKA VICARI: She was born in Vicenza (Italy) in 1979. Graduating with Honours in Painting (professorship Prof. Carlo Di Raco) from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in 2003, she then graduated in 2005 in Design and Production of Visual Arts at the Faculty of Design and Arts at the Venice University of Architecture. The subjects of her works are filiform trees suspended in indefinite and dreamy mountain landscapes. Her technique, which is constantly evolving, has involved the production of works on poplar boards while, starting from 2019, she began experimenting on cotton paper with an increasing watercolour presence. This new medium adds grace to the forests she portrays by feeding the metaphor with the human being and its fragility, transience. She has studied and worked on site-specific projects with international artists, curators and photographers including: Hans Ulrich Obrist, Mona Hatoum, Antoni Muntadas, Armin Linke and Angela Vettese. Since 2000 she has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Canada and China. For years her works have been presented at sector fairs in Italy and Europe. She lives and works in Creazzo (Vicenza)
