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Beatrice Caracciolo @ Charles Cowles Gallery |
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Written by Joe DiRosa
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Beatrice Caracciolo
Shelter Lines
January 20 - February 26, 2005
Artist Reception: Friday, January 21, 6 - 8 pm
Charles Cowles Gallery: 537 West 24th Street, between. 10th & 11th Avenues in Chelsea
Hours: 10am to 6pm, Tuesday - Saturday
Beatrice Caracciolo's latest exhibition brings together two monumental sculptures constructed of salvaged zinc, formerly roofing material. Shelter is a 20 foot long freestanding screen from 1996 that seems to fortify the wall while echoing the purposeful lines of Caracciolo's works
on paper. This piece comes as her response to the destruction in
Sarajevo and the displaced peoples of the former Yugoslavia's need to
cobble together shelter, however humble, for protection. The other, a
new work titled Shelter in Space, is evocative of a ship's sail
filled with wind and appears both weightless, yet materially
substantial. While of the same reclaimed metal, this new work is less
earthbound and indeed hangs from the ceiling defying its weighty
appearance. A series of small zinc wall pieces will also be shown.
Caracciolo's works on paper continues to explore the potential of line, to record the expressiveness of motion. "Line is born from the impossibility of being traced in any other manner,"
she explains. She uses crayon, charcoal and graphite on paper, wet
with a mixture of glue and pigment. As the surface dries, her gestural
lines become fixed to the paper, capturing the immediacy of a distinct
presence that imbues the shadowy space in her drawings. Unlike the
serenity of her earlier works, these latest drawings are rigorous with
the poetry and more frenetic with layered markings.
In his catalogue essay, Paul Ardenne likens Caracciolo's working method to the "mental discipline associated with 'spiritual exercises'." Her drawings have also been called "compromises between the controlled and the uninhibited," and they indeed combine a refined sensorimotor intelligence with a fearless artistic hand.
Born in Italy, educated in New York, she currently lives and works in Paris. Caracciolo's works have exhibited and are included in private collections both in Europe and the United States. Shelter Lines is her third solo show at the Charles Cowles Gallery.
*An illustrated catalogue including an essay by Paul Ardenne is available in conjunction with this exhibition. $15
For further information or photographs, please contact the gallery. |
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