The authors are all emerging young people who live and work in London today; the exhibition presents over 40 works, of which 5 are unpublished site-specific works commissioned by the exhibition. The works come from the collections of the British Council, the Arts Council and galleries and artist studios.
Norman Rosenthal says: «that in spite of all the huge problems young artists face, and have always faced, today in London and elsewhere, the beautiful thing is that the creativity and originality of art continues to flourish in interesting and even startling ways. This exhibition, I like to think, will be a beautiful manifestation of this truth coming from London».
Harry Woodlock writes: «As a show London Art Now explores the realities of contemporary art in one of the most developed centres of global capitalism today. Over the last forty years, life for the young metropolitan artist has become increasingly hard: they are subject to free market demands, ever-rising costs of living, and disintegrating social bonds. This has accelerated, and instituted with it a state of vital exhaustion that is both urgent to the future of cultural production and relevant to anyone with an interest in artistic expression».
With Breathless Ca ’Pesaro once again re-establish its intention to continue being a museum of the present and reaffirm its commitment as a centre for contemporary art in Venice.
The artworks encompass disciplines as diverse as painting, sculpture, video, installation and performance, and will be in many cases seen in Italy for the very first time. Exhibition design and identity will be by the REAL foundation, a London-based cultural institute and architectural practice founded by Jack Self. A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the opening of this exhibition.
CURATORS FOREWORD
Norman Rosenthal says: «that in spite of all the huge problems young artists face, and have always faced, today in London and elsewhere, the beautiful thing is that the creativity and originality of art continues to flourish in interesting and even startling ways. This exhibition, I like to think, will be a beautiful manifestation of this truth coming from London». Harry Woodlock writes: «As a show London Art Now explores the realities of contemporary art in one of the most developed centres of global capitalism today. Over the last forty years, life for the young metropolitan artist has become increasingly hard: they are subject to free market demands, ever-rising costs of living, and disintegrating social bonds. This has accelerated, and instituted with it a state of vital exhaustion that is both urgent to the future of cultural production and relevant to anyone with an interest in artistic expression».
With Breathless Ca ’Pesaro once again re-establish its intention to continue being a museum of the present and reaffirm its commitment as a centre for contemporary art in Venice.
CA’ PESARO
The grandiose palace, now seat of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, was built in the second half of the seventeenth century for the noble and wealthy Pesaro family, a project by the greatest Venetian baroque architect, Baldassarre Longhena, who also designed the church of the Salute and Ca’ Rezzonico.
The gallery has a remarkable collection of works from nineteenth-century Venice. In the 1960s the De Lisi bequest enriched the gallery with works by Morandi, De Chirico, Carrà, Kandinsky, Mirò and Matta and in 1990, the gallery received the valuable Wildt donation. As well as this, contemporary exhibitions have been held in the gallery showing works by artists such as Arshile Gorky, David Hockney and Cy Twombly.
