~FRANCESCO SIMETI . . ‘REFUGIUM’ / ASSEMBLY ROOM
I caught the last weekend . .
& found myself lost – in an enchanted forest.
it was not all . . magic / a sense of impending global doom prevaded the earthly delights,
all our wondrous & diverse . . fauna & flora might just not be around – next decade.
FRANCESCO SIMETI: ‘REFUGIUM’
CURATED by YULIA TOPCHIY
SEPT 13 – OCT 20, 2019
ASSEMBLY ROOM, 191 HENRY ST., LOWER EAST SIDE / CHINATOWN
“In this site-specific installation consisting of ceramics and digital prints on linens that are ever complex, exotic and decorative, Simeti creates a tension between reality and fiction and nature and the artificial through rendering decorative frameworks that emerge from his appropriation of ready-made imagery of printed mass media.
Furthermore, Simeti builds on this work to create artificial habitats where living organisms are trying to adapt to fast changing environments challenged by war and destruction, chaos and climate change, and seek refuge in a new, foreign flora fighting to preserve their own natural beauty and harmony.”
~Assembly Room
read more: ‘REFUGIUM’ – ASSEMBLY ROOM
PIX FROM THE ARTIST-LED WALK-THROUGH . . . . FRI OCT 18, 2019
Brooklyn-based Italian artist FRANCESCO SIMETI . . .
with Assembly Room co-founder, and curator of this show . . YULIA TOPCHIY.
“Inspired by his native Sicilian landscape, and the intensely personal, spiritually charged paintings of Charles Burchfield, Simeti collages images of old herbariums from a rich archive of botanical illustrations that he has been assembling for years, weaving them together through a layering process & further digitally manipulating its landscape with images found in newspapers and magazines.”
~Assembly Room
detail, FRANCESCO SIMETI
a sense of aggression, powered more by survival instincts than anything else, does comes across within the details, and the sharp ‘cut’ edges of the collaged compositions / emphasizes this momentum.
detail, FRANCESCO SIMETI
I really liked, and deeply respect that the artist, and his curator . . were not afraid to use the word: DECORATIVE !!
not too long ago, a ‘bad’ word in high art jargon / no longer . . today, esp with a new-found respect for all things craft / both as in serious skills & DIY / including the big role . . creative design & graphics play in our ever more visually-ruled world, esp on social media with its huge ‘image’ sharing capacity / it’s not just text, that’s driving this world . . forward.
speaking of ‘digital’ . . a careful observer will note the manipulated ‘referencing’ to earlier forms of print-making, including engraving & etching, dot matrix etc / re those old ‘herbiums’, etc.
whether conscious of them or not / these details add a sense of seriousness, a sense of ‘history’ / a contextual ‘weight’ . . to the overall effect.
a graphic ‘deepness’ to the overall visual plane.
the show is site-specific . . in that it’s a narrow space, so to allow for more works, and a sense of depth / the stretched ‘canvases’ are free-standing and stacked against each other (lightly), with the added support of some really simple, but well designed wooden wall supports, which you can see towards the bottom.
front row, at right:
FRANCESCO SIMETI, ‘Helleboraster’, 2019.
Digital print on linen / 57-9/10 x 44-1/10 in.
($8,000)
note: the dominant, strong-looking, (ghostly gray) rigidly upright plant at center, it’s from . . Afghanistan / enough said.
the ceramics are botanical in nature, but very fantastical. and forceful.
at right:
FRANCESCO SIMETI, ‘Palmata’, 2019.
Anagama Kiln porcelain / 15-7/10 x 11-4/5 x 15-7/10 in.
($10,000)
detail, hanging sculpture / it slowly tapers off at the bottom.
FRANCESCO SIMETI, ‘Drifter II’, 2019.
Glazed ceramic / 60 x 25 x 25 in.
($9,000)
and sometimes: erotic, exotic, and . . tempermental !!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH