PRISONERS OF MATTER
Extract from “a non-review essay by Jerry Cullum | Art Critic
_____
"Prisoners of Matter" at Bill Lowe Gallery | Atlanta
I have long expressed my bewilderment (it goes beyond bemusement) at the incapacity of theorists to understand the dialectic between personality type, historical circumstances, and cultural conditioning. Anyone who wants a shorthand look at this dialectic might consider the artistic career of Francis Picabia, who shifted seamlessly from Impressionism to Cubism to Dada to figuration to, bewilderingly to some critics, paintings copying photographs from pornographic magazines, then abstraction. The bewildered critics fail to note the dates during which Picabia produced paintings that reportedly adorned Algerian brothels during the dark Occupation years of 1940 to 1944, and the other extraordinary shifts in style and subject matter likewise reflect the response of an extraordinarily fluid and trickster-minded personality to the major cultural and political shifts of the twentieth century. I bring all this up at the beginning of an art nonreview (I shall, as I increasingly do, reserve ultimate judgment because I am not sure whether I
have any) because I deeply regret that we apparently do not have anything resembling a reliable personality test. It would be incredibly useful if we could say openly which personality types from which cultural and historical circumstances would be most likely to respond to a given body of work. The greatest art bridges centuries and circumstances, but even there, there are people who will never enjoy certain types of art no matter how much they come to understand its importance, and who will enjoy other types of art even after they understand why they should not find it enjoyable. All of this is more or less a necessary preface to any reflection on the extraordinarily titled duo of solo shows that Bill Lowe Gallery has, in the wall text, combined into the title and subtitle “Biology and the Baroque: Prisoners of Matter.” I attended the opening after an afternoon of perusing an online summary of the arguments made in a twoday conference at Rice University about “Gnostic Counter Cultures,” so I was primed to read the art
and its ideas in a certain way. The conference dealt with the inheritance and persistence of Gnostic ideas that we are, indeed, prisoners of matter, needing some means of liberation from what Emory University anthropologist Melvin Konner, who may be upset at being cited in the same sentence as Gnosticism, once called “biological constraints on the human spirit.” I use the subtitle of Konner’s early book The Tangled Wing to make the point that it is possible to believe that we have a spirit that is biologically constrained without believing that there is a transcendent dimension into which we can escape from those constraints. Human creativity is one of the traditional means by which we slip the surly bonds of earth (if I may quote John Magee’s treacly poem) without benefit of divine intervention. Those theorists who sneer at the notion that creative imagination exists are just plain being silly; it is an obvious behavioral fact even if one chooses to believe that it is a response to physical environment or history.
Modica’s paintings portray the faces of beautiful women semi-obscured by bluntly applied layers of paint. We are told that Modica regards this as a commentary on our imprisonment in bodily circumstances, but also as a commentary on the physicality of paint itself, and I see no reason to doubt this. However, the metaphor of prisoners of the body also suggests the imprisonment of beautiful women in the traditions of painting and in the male gaze generally, and after three generations of feminism it is difficult to read these paintings any other way. Modica approaches his subject matter from so many startlingly different stylistic angles, however, that the work eludes interpretation.
PRISONERS OF MATTER THE SHOW
Prisoner of Matter X Mixed Media on Canvas
55" x 48,5" | 2015
Prisoner of Matter IX Mixed Media on Canvas
55" x 48,5" | 2015
Prisoner of Matter VIII Mixed Media on Canvas
27,5" x 23,6" | 2015
Prisoner of Matter VII Mixed Media on Canvas
27,5" x 23,6" | 2015
Prisoner of Matter II Mixed Media on Canvas
37" x 37" | 2015
Prisoner of Matter XII Mixed Media on Canvas
78" x 39" | 2015
Gnosis: Composure Mixed Media on Canvas
37" x 37" | 2015
Gnosis: Loss Mixed Media on Canvas
59" x 59" | 2015
Gnosis: Liberation Mixed Media on Canvas
78" x 59" | 2015
Gnosis: Resolution Mixed Media on Canvas
37" x 37" | 2015
Gnosis: Oblivion Mixed Media on Canvas
59" x 41" | 2015
Persefone Kore Mixed Media on Canvas
104,3" x 78" | 2015
Young Chances Mixed Media on Canvas
59" x 56,7" | 2015
Gnosis - Wonder Mixed Media on Canvas
37" x 37" | 2015
Gnosis: Eagerness Mixed Media on Canvas
71" x 44,5" | 2015
Gnosis: Power Mixed Media on Canvas
63,8" x 57,9" | 2015
Faciem VI Mixed Media on Canvas
37" x 37" | 2015
Ophelia Mixed Media on Canvas
79" x 62" | 2014
Black Scarf Mixed Media on Canvas
59" x 41" | 2014
Faciem VII Mixed Media on Canvas
40" x 29,5" per panel | 2014
OTHER WORKS
Portrait Mixed Media on Canvas
59" x 59" | 2013
Reverie Mixed Media on Canvas
71" x 59" | 2014
Marilyn Mixed Media on Canvas
37" x 24" | 2013
Scarlett - Ode to Modigliani Mixed Media on Canvas
55" x 51" | 2014
The Tenth Man Mixed Media on Canvas
71" x 59" | 2014
Marilyn Mixed Media on Canvas
63" x 47,2" | 2013
Melanie Mixed Media on Canvas
23,5" x 31,5" | 2009
The Mask Mixed Media on Canvas
39" x 27,5" | 2009
Abandoned Circe Mixed Media on Table
19" x 23" | 2009
Single Mother Mixed Media on Table
19" x 23" | 2009
BIOGRAPHY
Fabio Modica was born in Catania in 1978. An apprentice to well-known Italian painters Alberto Abate and Antonio Santacroce, he was soon inspired by the classical Renaissance, occasionally drawing on Greek and Latin mythology. In his early years as a painter, the human figure wrapped up in a Caravaggesque light was his major subject matter and oil paint his favorite medium. His versatile spirit has led him to incorporate many different styles and mediums into his later works, including watercolors, acrylics and chalks. The encounter with Santacroce in 2002 marked a departure from the representational style towards a semi-abstracted texture. Modica's enduring realism was gradually dismantled by a compelling drive for sheer lines and thick smudges of color. Over time, Modica has grown a genuine passion for nude art, which has recently inspired a series of black&white paintings on the commodification of the human body and its spiritual decay. In this series, called "Mercification", the absence of color enables the painter to rely entirely on the force of his brushstroke and the gesture of scratching and carving the pictorial surface. Modica's distinctive mark is seen in his ability to lay down
"multi-layered coats of vibrant paint spread over a tortured canvas with vigorous spatula strokes, as if the painter were action painting". His most celebrated artworks are close-in portraits of female faces whose gaze "directs itself to the viewer like a darting arrow". As it has been put, "the meaning of everything is condensed in faces inhabited by beauty or imbued with suffering, all tied up together by a thin red string: the eyes. Hypnotic eyes, of a persistent crystal blue in the intimate fabric of matter and thus as deep as the soul. Eyes, guardians of truths, capable of pulling in the viewer in the fullness of their openness. Eyes interrogating and scrutinizing. Eyes speaking to us." Fabio Modica's "faces" shape fragments of memories, enigmatic moods, and modernist "moments of being". They have become part of two parallel series titled "Gnosis" and "Prisoners of Matter", both widely acclaimed in the US art galleries where most of Modica's artistic output has been shown since 2013. The term "Gnosis", Greek in origin, means "knowledge", but not so much theoretical as embedded in action and experience. The painter strongly believes that Art is the most effective means to enhance self-awareness. The Gnosis series captures individuals experiencing a state of
epiphany and self-revelation which suddenly generates a truly eye-opening emotion. The feelings explored are, inter alia: wonder, oblivion, eagerness, elevation, regret, self-denial, loss, composure and liberation. In the Prisoners of Matter series the subjects are constrained within the material world, symbolized by the painting "matter". Modica skillfully catches the brief instant in which a kind of illumination, which film director Werner Herzog calls "the ecstatic flash, from which Truth emerges", breaks his subjects free from their self-made traps and barriers, so they can awake into a higher level of consciousness. Fabio Modica has frequently partaken in art events promoting the importance of recycling in Art. A successful cycle of works entirely made of trash materials earned him the third prize at the 2012 international competition called “STOP ALLO 048 degli oggetti” and hosted in his hometown, Catania. Here Modica's portraits arise out of multicolored nails, screws, pins, plastic tools, clipped wires and whirling cables, all of which contributing to a more vivid imagery. His latest artwork of this series is a massive three-piece portrait of a woman’s face forged with used-up denim.
At present, in the United States, Modica is being represented by "Lowe Gallery" in Atlanta, “Sorelle Gallery” in Albany (NY) and New Canaan (CT), and “Aberson Exhibits” in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His work has also been included in many art shows throughout Europe, especially in England, Spain, France and Italy. Up until 2011, he cooperated with two modern and contemporary art galleries in London, East End “Brick Lane Gallery” and Covent Garden “Opus Gallery”. In Italy he is currently working with “Il Borgo” Gallery in Milan, "Spazio d’Arte l’Altrove" in Ferrara, and "Side A Gallery" in Catania. The cultural association “SpazioVitalein” and “Ideattiva”, both based in Catania, have been promoting him for years, the latter being especially active in the field of recycling. In Nice, France, Modica’s paintings are permanently displayed at the “Villa Magdalena” Art Gallery.
EXHIBITIONS
• 2016 “Carnaval” - Lowe Gallery – Atlanta - USA
d’Autore”
• 2015 “Glimpses of Light” – Aberson Exhibits –
• 2013 SpazioVitalein Art Gallery – “Face not only”
Tulsa – OK – USA
– Catania.
• 2015
• 2013
“Gnosis” – Galleria Civica “Pippo
SpazioVitalein Art Gallery - “The Mutual
Giuffrida” – Misterbianco – CT
Shapes”) - Catania
• 2015 “Prisoners of Matter” – Bill Lowe Gallery –
•
Atlanta – GA - USA
“Stopallo048degliOggetti”
• 2015
Recycling Art & Group Exhibition, Catania.
Listening Life, for a Civil Commitment -
2012
Le
Ciminiere -
Art
Gallery
Competition
on
Auditorium Nelson Mandela - CT - Italy
• 2012 Opening of the Museum of Contemporary
• 2015 “Materia e Luce” – Officina della memoria e
Art (Museo del Presente), Nicosia (Enna, Sicily).
dell’immagine – Fiuggi
• 2012 MAS Art Gallery - “Il Colore Demiurgo” -
• 2015 “Prisoners of Matter” – Bill Lowe Gallery –
Catania.
Atlanta – Georgia – USA
• 2012 Pennisi di Floristella Castle - “Symphony of
• 2014 “Percezioni Nascoste” – Galleria Studio A –
Lives”- Acireale (Catania).
Catania.
• 2012 Artisanship Fair, Acireale (Catania).
• 2014
Mediterranean Portraits - Officina della
• 2011 CAL CAUCADE - “Peintures & Poesies aux
memoria e dell’immagine - Fiuggi (FR) -
couleurs de l’Italie” - Nice.
• 2014 Sperlinga Castel - Mediterranean Portraits -
• 2011 Brick Lane Gallery –“Art in Mind”, London.
Sperlinga (EN), Sicily
•2011 Nike Academy of Fine Art and Restoration,
• 2013 Sicily Outlet Village – Dittaino (EN) “Jeans
Catania.
• 2011
ESART Gallery – “Art Nou - XII Salone
Gaze, Mirror or Soul?”) - Ferrara.
d’Inverno” – Barcellona.
• 2009 Brick Lane Gallery , “Art in Mind” Group
• 2010 Art Nou – International Group Exhibition of
Exhibition - London.
Contemporary Art – Leon – Spain.
• 2003 Convitto Cutelli Contemporary Art Gallery,
• 2010
“2nd Biennal of Sacred Art” - Catania.
L’altrove Art Gallery – “Portraits of
memories” – Ferrara.
• 2003 Viagrande’s Communal Villa, “The souls of
• 2010
a young artist”) - Catania.
“Celeste Prize”, Selected for publication
(painting: “Abandoned Circe”). • 2010
“Art Gallery Prize” Finalist at the First
• 2003 “Event’s art” – Stage Designing, Catania. •
2003
Le
Ciminiere
Art
Gallery,
“2nd
Edition – Milan.
Mediterranean Exhibition on the Restoration and
• 2010 Brick Lane Gallery , “Art in Mind”, London.
Conservation of the Cultural and Environmental
• 2010 Villa Magdalena Art Gallery – “Couleurs de
Heritage”, Catania.
l’art, Couleurs de l’ame” – Permanent Exhibition
• 2001
• 2010 Il Borgo Art Gallery – “The Art of Nude” –
Barocco di Militello” (tr: “Painting Militello’s
Int. Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Milan.
Baroque”), Catania.
• 2010 Il Borgo Art Gallery – “Fuori Salone 2010” –
• 2001
Int. Exhibition of Contemporary Art – Milan.
Fair”, Catania.
• 2010
• 2000
Villa Magdalena Art Gallery - “Voyage
Dans la Couleur” - Nice. France • 2009 “L’Altrove” Contemporay Art Gallery, “The
Impromptu Art Exhibition, “Dipingi il
Impromptu Art Exhibition – “IV Spring Impromptu Art Exhibition – “III Spring
Fair”, Catania.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
REPRESENTED BY
• 2009-2011 | University of Bologna – Master’s Degree in History and Preservation of Works of Art, Bologna- Ravenna, Italy. • 2003-2005 | Palazzo Spinelli Fine Art and Restoration Institute, Master’s Degree in Drawing, Painting and Trompe l'Oeil decoration, Florence. • 1999-2003 | Nike Academy of Fine Art and Restoration, Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art and Restoration, Catania.
• 2016 - Bender Gallery - North Carolina - USA
•
Diego - California - USA
2001 | Nike Academy of Fine Art and Restoration, Training Course in Restoration of old books, drawings and printed images, Catania. • 2000 | Nike Academy of Fine Art and Restoration, Training Course in Restoration of paintings, Catania.
• 2013 - 2016 Lowe Gallery - Atlanta - USA • 2014 - 2016 Aberson Exhibits - Tulsa - USA • 2014 - 2016 Sorelle Gallery - New Canaan (CT) - Albany (NY) - USA • 2009-2016 Villa Magdalena Art Gallery Nice - France • 2014 - 2015 Studio A Gallery – Catania - Italy • 2014 SCAA Gallery - Rancho Santa Fe - San • 2013 Spazio Vitale In - Catania - Italy • 2013 Besharat Gallery - Barbizon – France • 2009-2011 Opus Gallery - Covent Garden London - England • 2011 L’altrove Art Space – Ferrara - Italy
www.fabiomodica.com