12.12.2024-02.15.2025
Etere
Giuliano Macca
GOWEN is delighted to present a solo exhibition by Italian artist Giuliano Macca (b. 1988, Sicily). Following his inaugural solo show with the gallery at artgenève 2024, the presentation unveils a brand new body of work produced by the artist during a recent period in Modica, Sicily.
Etere borrows from the Italian language, its meaning ‘Ether’ alluding to Aether, the God of Light and a primordial deity born from Erebus and Nyx, in Greek mythology the personifications of darkness and night. Aether, relating to ‘kindle’ or ‘blaze’, or to ‘burn’ and ‘shine’, and thus to notions of the light generated by the darkness, becomes the purest and most uncontaminated light of the universe.
The mythological narratives which Macca routinely develops in his artistic process expand throughout the work which was originally conceived at the artist’s studio in Amsterdam and completed on the Mediterranean island. Dualities emerge, setting up a conflict found throughout world mythology: the duality of chaos and order, good and evil, light and dark, love and hate.
Taking inspiration from the past to create a contemporary vision for a new future, the artist draws parallels with his personal, as well as collective circumstances, casting bodies, faces and eyes that mingle on backgrounds that recall fire, water, earth and air. Macca paints the darkness and light passing through his figures, and through himself with intimacy and sincerity. Around twenty works are included in the presentation.
Image
Giuliano Macca, The dream of Zephyrus, 2024, huile sur toile, 79 x 126,5 cm