News/Blog — KELLY ROBERT

Title of show: Guarda oltre (Look Beyond)

Double Solo Exhibition of Luca Moscariello and Kelly Robert
Dates: Saturday June 26 – Sunday August 1

The works presented in the show Guarda oltre are united in how they tease the viewer. The paintings of Luca Moscariello play with the eye and make the viewer work to understand how the color panels of the two-dimensional surface seem to recede inwards or jut out of the surface. Kelly Robert’s sculptures tease us in the way the forms of the figures curve, sometimes gently while other times suddenly, yet create the softness of the human form. The slightest curves make subtle shadows. As the viewer, both artists require us to look further than what we see at the first glimpse. We must look beyond to understand more.

This idea of looking beyond what is first seen is the curatorial link between these two artists. For Moscariello, very little narrative is given in his paintings yet they are engaging. The manner in which he plays with color, light and shadows stops the viewer and makes us want to study the forms; examine the shadows. We are compelled to want to find out more. With Robert’s sculptures, the viewer follows the lines and the curves to see how they join, to see where they take the eye as it flows around the form. A strong angle of the back may slowly roll into a subtle line in the shoulder forming the slightest shadow. The viewer’s eyes flow over the body wanting to see what is yet to come.

In this show, Moscariello will present works from his Puzzle series. These paintings, in vibrant shades, primarily in oil and enamel on wood panel, trick the viewer’s eye; they are not what they first seem. As the artist explains: “They are a visual deception that undermines perception and leads us to delve carefully beyond what we see”. For Moscariello, his paintings are also more generally a metaphor for the human need to look deeper; to look beyond what is first presented to us.

Robert’s sculptures, created in Italian white clay and painted with enamel, with their twisting forms and curving shapes ask the viewer to follow the lines of the forms. It is these lines and curves that the viewer uses to see the sculpture and to understand the forms. However, there is more to the sculptures than the forms.

For Robert, her sculptures are figures coming out of a struggle and emerging forth. As she explains her female forms: “I am consistently enamored by how incredibly rooted in strength she is.” Her works are about a single moment, after a period of struggle, when the person emerges and is stronger. It is this moment that the artist wants us to see. She wants us to look beyond the sculpture itself and appreciate the power and strength from which she has come.

The two artists in Guarda oltre are asking us to look beyond what is seen at the first glance, to look further than what is obvious. The artists encourage and challenge us to see more than what is initially apparent. It is when we take this step beyond that we fully engage with the works and actually see them: when we see them as was meant by the artists. When our eyes roll over a sculpture’s curves and twists or when we struggle to see from where a shape is emerging from a painting, we are looking past what is given to us. It is this moment the two artists are asking us to reach...the moment when we look beyond.

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Moscariello will be showing 11 works in both “oil and enamel on wooden panel” and “oil, enamel and gesso on wood panel”. Dimensions range from 50 x 50 cm, 50 x 70 cm, 70 x 100 cm, 100 x 100 cm, 100 x 150 cm and 180 x 180 cm. This is Moscariello’s first exhibition with Accesso Galleria.

Robert will be showing 8 sculptures in Italian white clay and enamel. Dimensions range from 45 to 80 centimeters in height. This is Robert’s first exhibition in Europe.

Luca Moscariello was born in San Giovanni in Persiceto (BO) in 1980. Moscariello graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna in 2004. Since then, he lives and works in Sala Bolognese (BO).

Moscariello has always endeavored to have the viewers of his paintings look beyond what they first see. He wants the viewers to pause and try to understand what is in front of them rather than simply having all the information presented in a glance.

To achieve this, in Moscariello’s earlier works of interior spaces or landscapes, he filled the painting with information; its entirety bursting with images. He did this to force the viewers to stop and look beyond their first impression in order to completely see what the painting was about.

Recently, however, Moscariello has pushed this idea further but with less information. He has eliminated the narrative completely and the viewer is left with color, shapes and shadows. It is this series he calls Puzzles: a more subtle approach to the same idea of forcing the viewer to stop and ponder the painting.

Moscariello’s Puzzles do just that: they puzzle the viewer. Not only are the paintings representative of a puzzle as they seem to be pieces fitting together but they also confuse the viewer with three-dimensionality and the use of trompe l’oeil: blocks of color seem to be coming forward from the surface or may be receding into a wooden box, a subtle variation of a tone appears to create a fold in the panel, shadows create recessed spaces.

Moscariello has exhibited extensively in Italy including Museo delle Arti di Catanzaro (MARCA) and Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, in Lissone. His works are included in numerous significant collections, both public and private.

Kelly Robert was born in Newport Beach, California in 1976. She lives and works in Carrara Italy and Brooklyn, New York.

Robert studied sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2001. In 2020, she completed her Masters of Fine Art at the New York Academy of Art (NYAA). During her time at NYAA, Robert received several merit-based scholarships as well as two sculpture residencies in Carrara Italy.

Created in clay then fired and painted, Robert’s sculptures are poses of strength. Her inspiration is people who, after facing intense personal adversity and struggles, pull through the difficulty of the moment and arise with confidence and strength. She purposefully exaggerates the twisting poses beyond the natural form to emphasize the energy and the power that are released in this moment of hope.

The figures are angular yet curvaceous. These undulating surfaces and gently pointed edges are reminiscent of nature itself. Robert feels these elements and the shadows they create allow the viewer to visually travel the piece similar to how one observes a rolling sand dune or a mountain range.

The sculptures are supported internally by a clay structure and then Robert meticulously sands the surface to smooth, stone-like finish. The colors chosen for each sculpture symbolically represent the action the figure is making in that pose: teal blue can represent a figure in the sea, yellow could be a moment of electric excitement.

Robert has exhibited her sculptures in numerous exhibitions and they have been placed in several important collections.

La Donna Forte arrived at the New York Academy of Art where she will be on view and auctioned off at the annual “Artists for Artists” event (formerly known as Take Home a Nude) supporting scholarships and programs at the New York Academy of Art. On view at the Academy from October 1st through the 26th the bidding starts on Oct 6th on Artsy.net

It was a long journey to arrive to this gallery. Born from an incredible block of Carrara Statuario marble and carved by hand with a view of the Apuane Mountains at Studio Corsanini in Carrara Avenza, Italy, Kelly roughed out the sculpture for four weeks while on residency sponsored by ABC Stone and the New York Academy of Art. The marble was then crated up and shipped across the Atlantic arriving in Long Island, New York, where Kelly completed the sculpture at the North American Sculpture Center.

But look at the company she has the honor of keeping! In the front gallery of the Academy, La Donna Forte is positioned as though she’s on guard to protect the works of Kiki Smith, Shepard Fairey, Hunt Slonem and Scott Avett among several exquisite academy alumni.