RALPH HALL
limited edition n. __ of 100 numbered & signed by Ralph Hall
Cover TWINS RABBITS TURQUOISE [2016] ceramic, velvet, neon 3D led 28x70 cm. circ. 68 cm.
Graphic design Liberementi www.liberementi.it Publisher Biancoscuro www.biancoscuro.it all rights reserved © biancoscuro 2016
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[ Biography ] Ralph Hall was born in Verona to an Italian father and French mother. He dedicates himself to technical studies, only after this entering the world of art and self-taught, deepens his knowledge in an almost vendictive way without a sense of conscience to compensate for a troubled adolescence. He frequents different artistic realities, associations and charities. Travelling widely, mainly in North Europe and California. San Antonio of Port Bay in the Balearics, Elba, Monaco all leave their mark on the artist. Protected places such as the mountain of St. Moritz in summer, and living in Saint Jean Cap Ferrat and Los Angeles. Bound to Francis Bacon, Filippo de Pisis, Giuseppe Penone and Gina Pane, Hall also finds inspiration in writers such as Flaubert, Baudelaire and Huysmann, directors of the calibre of Pasolini and Marco Bellocchio with his masterpiece 'I pugni in tasca'. Various exhibitions both collective and personal, amongst the latest: 2014 Il contemporaneo a confronto, Meridiana Gallery, Verona; in 2013 Person'Hall, Queen Gallery, Desenzano del Garda; Krudelta ment'Hall, Elio Ferraro Gallery, Milano. Ralph Hall is the artist chosen in 2012 for Spazio Edit in Milan at Vogue's Fashion Night Out. Today he lives between Nice and Venice
RALPH HALL photographed by En-Ku ZEBRA [2014] ceramic,velvet,aluminium arrows 80x50 cm. circ. 70 cm.
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[Krudeltà Ment'Hall] Hall decides to free himself from the bonds of common artistic trends, following the aesthetic linearity of fashion. Art’s stylist, faces head-on the insane, illogical violence against animals following a made to measure sadistic style. “After having stabbed Jesus in the back, man turns with unnatural violence upon the perfect creatures, made by the same God in which they believe blindly. Essence of hypocrisy". - Hall The artist is exhausted of observing man’s violence upon animals. Now he decides to shout his disgust through the ceramic: a living material, human, archaic, natural. Suitable for realising Hall’s visual conscience. Hypnotic works of art with bright auras. They mutilate you. A terrifying sensation of beauty. First and foremost the knife represents the metaphoric object in which Hall infers a strong yet clear connotation with evident symbolic meaning. This perfect weapon has accompanied man along his route of evolution, remaining unchanged for centuries. It is perfect, despite its simplicity. Object of both defense and attack, chosen for sacrificial ceremonies, the knife itself becomes protagonist, passing from inanimate body to sacred linchpin. Weapon that kills but, victim of the hand that moves it. Born for survival and bred for extermination. A sought after and loved object, extension of the executioner. Jesus stabbed, dressed in blue velvet, (Blue stinger) gives life to the ceramic river that tells of the animal kingdom. Betrayed by man. The creatures eyes record Jesus’ chromatic scale as if they identify with the suffering of their creator. Impassibly, they observe the atrocious injustices generated by man. Everything appears innocent and pure. The perversion and evil hide in the depths of the soul. Only the beauty of art can redeem man from sin and elevate him to perfection. The sublimation of being art These are Ceramic items, soft clay, produced with chalk moulds and then rounded off by hand. They are exclusively manufactured in Italy, executed by highly-trained artists. After this first stage, items are baked in special ovens at 1065° and here they take the name of "biscotto" single-fired products. They are decorated using different techniques and tools like airbrush, paintbrush, sponge bath as well as the use of particular glazings. At the end the items are varnished with Crystalline finish and baked again at 995°. None of the products used contain any trace of lead or other substances harmful to the environment. Enrico Migliaccio
RALPH HALL TIME GOES BYE [2012] printing on pvc 94x134 cm. circ. 134 cm.
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[ Animal Liberation ] Animal Liberation by Ralph Hall, an italian-french artist who has always defended animal rights. A long trail of cultural and emotional growth has carried Ralph Hall to this new series of sculptures that are born from a profound introspective research regarding society and its violent relationship with nature and animals. The title of the exhibition refers to the omonimous book by Piter Singer "Animal Liberation" published in 1975, which opened a vast movement of literatura opposing vivisection and animal cruelty with both direct and indirect repercussions for society, legislation and non-violent culture. Hall wishes to accompany his public on a journey of reflection and redemption of an authentic rape of nature. A call for help, and a scream to awake the sleeping consciences to a way of lire that unknowingly generates pain. With Blue Stinger work from 2011, the famous ceramic Christ covered in blue velvet, stabbed in the back with a steel knife, Ralph starts to observe and be observed. A sort of implosion followed by a re-birth with a second soul cleaner and truer. The artist explains that "after having stabbed Jesus in the back, man unleashes an unnatural violence against the perfect creatures created by the same God in which he blindly believes. Juice of hypocrisy". Experimenting new artistic techniques to interpret the world with an alternative language. The exhibition, cured by Enrico Migliaccio and Ralph Hall, occupies the location with a video location, “The Last” (2012), Time goes bye (2012) printing on pvc, Blue Stinger (2011) and inedited works presented here for the first time:13 sculptures composed of 16 pieces. The works of art, produced in ceramic and hand-finished, are baked in special ovens at 1065 to obtain the 'biscuit effect'. After comes the velveting, a technique which consists of applying flock, fibres of a uniform length of a few mm, to obtain the effect of velvet. During their creation, the animals are re-interpreted by the artist who feels their pain and transforms it into metaforic sculptures capable of symbolically comunicating the suffering they endure. Hall uses fishing nets, laboratory instruments, electrodes, steel cages, cords, pins, muzzles, to force the spectator to question the existence of circuses, bullfights, zoos, and vivisection but also the pain that animals experience daily. Here velvet is sinonimous with warmth and protection, it is an element which makes a strong visual impact, as shiny as varnish. Velvet transmits a sense of softness in sharp contrast with the decisive comunicative aim of the exhibition. These are real tactile sculptures. We reflect on how sight follows the sense of touch here. Babies learn first with their hands then their eyes, in the same manner the delicate nature of the flock in all its colours wakes our inner child to help us to finally understand right from wrong. «A harder collection - underlines Ralph Hall - because once again it has evolved, progressing with a new creative sprint that has however, kept faith to the first collection. Bitten by the hunger to know, to open myself to dialogue. I believe even more that contemporary art today should be less instinctive, not point-blank, knee-Jerk reactions but should be decanted through years of research and dialogue, reading and documentation». Enrico Migliaccio
RALPH HALL CECIL THE LION [2002-2015] 107x42 cm. circ. 82 cm. ceramic velvet, rifle
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[ New On ] The continuous study and the untiring pursuit of more and more images burdened of significance pushes Ralph Hall to confront himself with the concept of light. In Genesis (1.3/1.4/1.14) is written that God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light; God saw that the light was good: and God divided the light from the darkness; God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; be signs for festivals and for days and years. This is referred to a good, healthy, benevolent light. Humanity has been able to distort also the light; Hall speaks of the light that pierces, wraps the animals in a container, in a slaughterhouse, in an intensive rearing. His works bear witness of animals soaked by the hybrid and perfect light of our technological age, of the diabolical slave perfection of capitalist liberal matrix. And to represent this violence the Artist uses neon, meant as the beginning of torture and animal slavery: neon gives off a light that arouses feelings of fear, emptiness, anxiety and total solitude! In this new collection, Hall disengage himself from the use of archaic and ferocious barbarians blunt objects used in previous works in order to embrace a more spiritual image: the consciousness of light! In the work “From David to Koons”, for example, the Artist pierces the work “Sculpture” of Taschen! The new artistic products, which are sometimes charged with bright colors, sometimes with subdued pastel colors (a tribute to Fiorucci and Ken Scott), lead the artist to reflections on energy consumption, on global warming, to the new categorical imperative ... “stop pollution”! The collection is also enriched by Siamese sculptures directed to denounce the widespread abuse of experiments on animals, while the use of colored velvet (typical pop 70s) consists of noir games that illustrate a super contemporary near future: 25 new works that represent the light and the shadows, the color and the dark tones of the Artist disdain towards the human race, the plaudits to the animal beauty and the regret for today’s society. Liz Brest
RALPH HALL GREAT DANE [2016] ceramic, velvet, neon 3D led 110x50 cm. circ. 90 cm.
RALPH HALL ORANGE HORSE [2016] ceramic, velvet, Neon 3D led 80x65 cm. circ. 105 cm.
RALPH HALL TWINS RABBITS TURQUOISE [2016] ceramic, velvet, neon 3D led 28x70 cm. circ. 68 cm.
RALPH HALL FLAMINGOS [2016] ceramic, velvet, neon 3D led 90x63 cm. circ. 106 cm.
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P H I L O S O P H Y [ RALPH HALL GREYHOUND [2016] ceramic,velvet, 90x 55 cm. circ. 90 cm.
[ Angel ] New collection Cooming soon 2017
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[ Ralph Hall Basel 2015 ] Every year since 1970 Basel has staged Art Basel - the most anticipated event in the art world. This impressive modern and contemporary art fair, called with good reason “the Olympics of Art”. Art Basel undoubtedly represents the excellence in the sector of modern and contemporary art and while there is certainly great expectation for the Unlimited section, which displays large works that are unfit for the traditional stand, since 2009 it has been enriched with the section Parcours, which has intended to position environmental sculptures, installations and performances around the heart of Basel, inviting collectors, curators and art lovers to get out from the stands of the fair to admire art in its many forms. During the four days of Art Basel, Ralph Hall will give life to “The Last 2.0”, a spectacular performance, particularly important for the message he wants to convey and which will take place among the stands of the fair as well as the streets of the city. The artist, not new to intense and eccentric performances (think “Tooth Brush” and “The Last Video”, both of 2012), will first visit the fair and - while brushing his teeth – will kneel in front of the works that impress him most. He will then travel the galleries of Art Basel with his head locked in a cage – all this wearing an elegant black overall and a fine coloured cape, dark glasses and wigs decorated with blackberries. By observing the world through the eyes of alienated animals in cages, Hall intends to reiterate his philosophy, which he expressed also in previous shows in Milan, Brescia and Nice, namely that: “There was once a world where man lived in harmony with nature, in balance with all species on our planet”. During this performance “I want to squeeze myself, live in close contact with the cold metal of a net - says the Artist - discover and accept a new madness, the state of being entrapped, a helpless object in the hands of others.” Hall will remain for hours lying on the ground with eyes that scan the landscape of Basel and its people through the grilles of the cage, breaking reality in a multitude of checkered visual icons, micro images distorted by the claustrophobic situation induced by the performance. “By remaining with the face in the cage and moving my arms and legs in a vain attempt to get rid of it, - continues Hall - I want to express the sense of suffocation experienced by animals locked up in the holds of ships, in aviaries, in any narrow space delimited by bars, and their desperate and futile attempt to break free from this constraint”. The only comforting company in this performance is music, especially that of Mozart and Madonna, thanks to which - in an almost mystical catharsis - the Artist is estranged from reality, reaching a state of empathy with the animals’ status and their condition which will lead him to bang his shoes on the floor, crawl with his body, cry, writhe, kiss the soil itself, lean forward as if the animal that he personifies is desperately trying to resist capture. “This performance – reiterates Hall - wishes to describe contemporary reality and show the cruelty that distinguishes the human being at the height, perhaps, of his evolutionary process: there is no more room for any value, everything is massacred by the claws of marketing, everything is compressed, boxed, caged, hastily sold, bought, discarded, in the name of the god of money, trampling every right - of animals but also of human beings themselves!”. With his performance Hall once again forces us to reflect on the brutality of common gestures, of actions veiled by false love, hypocrisy and vanity, and on the urgency of interrogating ourselves on the future of our planet. Liz Brest
RALPH HALL photographed by Mattia Benetti Basel 2015
[ Ralph Hall - Artour-o 2015 ] And: “ There was once upon a time a world where the man lived in harmony with nature, in equilibrium with all species of our planet”. The loss of Eden is the obsession of RH. His persevering thematic down to obsession is the search for Paradise lost. Dismay, anguish, despair for the cruelty involved in our day to day activities are sublimated in his elegant, refined, cold works, that denounce our reality, precisely made of horror and brutality. Animals are his paradigm and his preferred medium. Locked in ”postcard” sculptures, in a paradoxically serene silence, the animals are slaughtered, in a moment that goes on forever, by the sharpened blades, hitting them to death, to the heart and brain. However they do not surrender, they are not slumped to the ground, but proud and in elegant positions, they show in all its anachronism the knife that stabs them, which nevertheless does not affect their elegance and their beauty that alone “will save the world” . Tiziana Leopizzi ellequadro@me.com
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[ Gaby Achilles ] I was lucky to meet and associate with Gabriele, a name that in Germany is attributed to both males and females. Here is the uniqueness of Gaby, a charming female that has developed a lot of experience in many countries around the world. In particular, she started attending the New York art world through one of the most known manager of the art gallery: Annie Plumb. Subsequently she accomplished professional experiences in other areas, such as the world of high fashion. Back to Verona she had a chance to be chosen by a well known business man, a fan and collector of art’s works that asked her to join him in the management of his first art gallery based in Piazza Erbe in Verona. This allowed Gaby to attend some of the most established worldwide artists (Marc Quinn, Mat Collishaw, Patricia Piccinini...). I therefore asked to Gaby to accompany me in this new adventure in the world of art. Thanks Gaby Ralph Hall Gaby Achilles gaby.achilles59@gmail.com
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Man and Nature: a difficult coexistence, sometimes dramatic, only rarely an expression of harmony and beauty. That is the theme dear to Ralph Hall, who in his works has always testified with force and passion the deep contradictions which bind Human being to the environment. Contemporaneousness Pop Metaphors, even his works live of contrasts and shocking truths, telling with bright, lively colors, sometimes even in soft focus, a truth which has very little happiness. This is how his imaginary animals are created, like the flamingos drowned in black oil and stabbed with a neon sign, which can be read as a symbol of obtuse and blinding progress, or as the artist’s attempt to defeat the darkness of a society sunk in the darkness of nihilism and ecological anarchy. His zoo, unfortunately not imaginary, is then populated by elephants with chained feet, victims of the poachers searching white gold, a blood-stained ivory, of strut and noble geese in their austere posture, to whose neck hangs a funnel-necklace, tragic vision of a destiny wanted by star-chefs and common patrons without respect for animals. One of the things that helps to make unique the works of Ralph Hall is also the technique used to represent these animals: the ceramic, sometimes it is colored, other times it is covered with layers of fake fur, but still a fragile material, molded by the artist, that undergoes a transformation in the working process, as to indicate, even in this case, the manipulation of nature by man. Ralph Hall makes us think and he does it with the power of art, a provocation that, for once in the contemporary world, is never an end in itself, but rather full of evocative power and deep awareness. Guido Folco info@italiaarte.it
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[ interpreting the discomfort of landscape through art conceptual for sustainable development of societ y and territory ] With this contribution we intend to continue the analysis started at the XIX International Interdisciplinary Conference “The turning point in the landscape-cultural mosaic: Renaissance Resilience Revelation” held in Naples in 2015 edited by IPSAPA in which the authors have undertaken a reflection on conceptual art as an expression of the landscape discomfort. Rereading “Animal Liberation” the work written by Piter Singer in 1975 and reinterpreting it in a particularly original way the artist Ralph Hall in 2011 begins to make ceramic works that disconnecting themselves from the common artistic trends, following the aesthetic linearity of fashion, express the insane and illogical violence operated by men on animals. The will to denounce the aggressions carried out on nature yesterday and today, in different forms and ways , becomes an instrument , updated and enhanced of current competences, to rediscover the landscape and its most hidden meanings, making it become the basis on which to burst a new artistic expression. The reading and interpretation of the signs that man has imprinted on the planet over time allows to review the landscape not only in a conservative sense, but also making it part of our present activities. Useful to analyze how, while the society changes, the landscape changes with it, both at a formal and structural way and the elements that make up it get deformed and irreparably degrade. The landscape changes as the roles - i.e. the meanings, the functions of its elements - change, due to the modification in the relationships (or ties) existing among men, things and between people and things. In view of this, a study of the landscape that can capture the different life spans is justified, where their reconstruction allows to identify the sense of the landscape also through the works of conceptual art. In the last century the pressures caused on the landscape from the rapid urban, industrial and infrastructural growth have produced dramatic changes in the use of soils and situations of deep crisis for the survival of many animal species. The speed of this processing, possible thank to the ever greater input of external energy to the system, produces an immense loss of information; these transformations are accomplished by ignoring the starting environmental and landscape system , its history, its resources. There is a remixing of the classic elements that constitute the landscape, the disorder increases and the elements in it are unable to interact positively among them. There is a real deconstruction of the environmental system and the disappearance of the elementary relationships between the ecosystems that form it. If societies perceive such situations in terms of disorientation, excesses of visual and auditory stimulus, difficulty in decoding messages transmitted by the landscape, for the animals, the situation becomes even more dramatic, but for both it is tied to the survival probabilities of living beings, of ALL living beings on the planet. Pappalardo Maria Laura maria.pappalardo@univr.it
T C E J O R P
Ralph Hall and Isabella Ramonda met in 2012 at the Milan Vogue Fashion Night in the space Edit where the artist, chosen by the Italian Vogue with Carla Sozzani and Guido Talarico, presented installations and works in scotch of the trend “ 2010 atheism, the ring of fashion and the latest catwalk” and showing in the performance “ tooth brush”. The relationship of esteem started since thent brought Ralph and Isabella to work together in this new project of Masterpieces from the cycle NEW_on. Also the opening of a contemporary art gallery is being planned. Isabella Ramonda
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[ Petra Lossen - ZĂźrich ]
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www.petralossen.com
[ Saatchi Gallery - London ]
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www.saatchigallery.com
[ Galerie Ferrero - Nice ]
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www.galerieferrero.com
[ Artifact - New York ] www.artifactnyc.net
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[ SPRMRKT - Amsterdam / Ibiza ] davide.house@yahoo.co.uk / nellekestrijkers@me.com - www.sprmrkt.nl
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[ Biancoscuro - Pavia ] artshop.biancoscuro.it
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[ Meridiana - Verona ] www.gallerialameridiana.com
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[ Queen Gallery - Desenzano del Garda ] www.studioprince.it
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[ Independent Artists Gallery - Busto Garolfo ] www.expo-independentartists.it
thanks to: Gaby Achilles, Vincenzo Chetta, Dott. Guido Folco, Dott.ssa Tiziana Leopizzi, Dott.ssa Maria Laura Pappalardo, Davide Ramonda, Isabella Ramonda, Nelleke Strijkers. biancoscuro
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