The Blog of Nicola Verlato

Exhibition In Milan the 1st of february

2012-01-27T14:02:00.003-05:00

this will be an amazing exhibition...!
unfortunately i won't be able to get there, but my works will be showed along the ones of the fantastic artists, and dear friends, Marco Mazzoni and Fulvio di Piazza.
if you are in Milan the 1st of February go to check it out at Fondazione Stelline, corso Magenta 61 at 6:30 pm!

2012-01-14T15:19:00.003-05:00

METALLICA Exhibition in Los Angeles!
great show with a lot of amazing artsists, each working on a different song.
I have chosen "Sad but True" and this is the result.

LA LUZ DE JESUS 25!!!!!!!!!!

2011-10-06T16:33:00.004-04:00

http://www.laluzdejesus.com/shows/2011/LaLuz_XXV_1/25.htm

this is the little painting i'm showing in this exhibition

MART

2011-06-22T22:39:00.008-04:00

i have an old painting ( "Fifty cent" 2003, image below) in an exhibition at MART ( Trento and Rovereto contemporary art museum) it will open the 1st of July, i think it'll be a good exhibition, it's basically about the art collection of the main donor of that Museum: Volker Feyerabend great German Collector of italian stuff, modern and contemporary, for sure somebody who really is helping many italian artists way more than how the italian, supposed to be , system has ever done...

Beautiful essay in the catalog of "The emergence of the Pop Imagist" by Carlo McCormick

2011-06-20T23:55:00.001-04:00

The Seduction of the Innocent: Youth Culture & The American Dream Machine
Catalog essay written by : Carlo McCormick

The land of mass mediation, America is torn between its global role as the preeminent purveyor of puerile popular amusements and its own puritanical tendencies. As the germinal home of youth culture, which erupted like an amped-up Technicolor blast of hot rods, board riders, graffitists, rock and roll, naughty girls and bad boys in post-World War II United States, America has simultaneously seduced and shocked itself (along with the rest of the world) by its capacity to generate the unholy carnal spectacle of desire in ever-more polarizing terms of alternately mesmerizing and mortifying seduction and shame. We make our violence so visceral, our lust so explicit, or cute so cloying, our happy endings so impossibly pat, and our morals so unrelentingly absolute it’s as if we need to super-size mythology itself into a corporate designed fast-food mall of commodity consumption whose overreaching market share subsumes the collective imagination in an obviating deluge of titillation and terror. And we do this not simply because it brings immeasurable joy to a vast many but because conversely it manages to piss off an almost equal number into an unreasonable outrage.

This ongoing and fluid tension between wanting and denial has engendered in the split psyche of the new world capital of western consumerism an ideologically charged culture war that- much like our other follies of faith such as prohibition or the war on the drugs, the war on terror or any other number of military conflicts whose vague and indeterminate ends have more often defined only their endlessness—continues on through successive generations over only nominally shifted points of contention. We bring such an odd historical tangent to bear here because, it would seem that these pictures speak most clearly to a culture war of long ago—before the lifetimes of any of these relatively young artists- one in which the righteousness of our hysteric moral indignation temporarily won over our equally zealous passion for pleasure. Amusing for its supreme absurdity by contemporary standards regarding what is now considered appropriate for kids, a war on comic books was launched in 1954 by a vitriolic psychologist named Frederic Wertham through his immensely popular fear-raising book called Seduction of the Innocents in which unsubstantiated anecdote and bizarre reasoning concluded that the sum of our social ills then were a rise in juvenile delinquency that was directly caused by the comics kids were reading.

Much like the Hayes Code of the generation before which caused repression through an industry induced self-censorship (in that case the movie business) or the nearly concurrent hysteria of McCarthyism that it rose its ugly head amidst, the blaming of comics for the unruliness of youth (as we have done so often for everything from rock to hip hop, or television to video games) crushed so much really good art and trashed a wealth of brilliant careers. This winding parable must be cited here for not only the obvious affinity that so many of the image makers in this show have to such a besmirched legacy, nor even for the evident abject lesson we must take that—convenient politics and punditry aside—easy enemies are the least of our worries and surely not the sum of our problems—but because essentially fine art, for all its avant-garde attributes and creative liberties practices its own version of sensual abnegation and intolerant orthodoxy. The art featured in The Emergence of the Pop Imagist resists the ratification of the ruling academy precisely because it embraces the vernaculars and energies of youth in ways that you may not find so easily in the rest of the fare being offered in this year’s Venice biennale season. It is denied membership in such an exclusive club because, well, it does not enjoy aficionados nearly so much as it is awash in real fans.

We offer this observation not just as provocation suitable to the tenor of these artists themselves (for truth be told I have as many pals in the official selections as I do in this rambunctious symbiotic salon des refuses, and am surely just as proud of them) but merely as an excuse by which we might take a moment to measure what this kind of art means to us. Like the lowbrow vitalities that inspired these artists it is almost mystifying to imagine how such pictures could not appeal to us one and all. The problem it would seem is rather that as a culture we inherently distrust the pleasures proffered here as somehow too facile—as if humor, eroticism, beauty, fun and a taste of the nasty are all too recognizable and obvious to mean anything significant anymore. Well, the actual problem is that we have too long doubted the virtues of such exaggerate terms, never willing to speak clearly to one another with our tongues so firmly in our cheeks, and have missed the inescapable truth that these debased, slapstick tropes of representation matter above all because on the street, in the clubs, or wherever fresher minds congregate outside the realm of authority, these lapses in decorum represent emotions and understandings that speak most dearly to who we really are rather than to what those who are less sure of cultural identity pretend to be.

"The emerge of the Pop Imagist"

2011-06-20T23:51:00.000-04:00

and if you are in Venice don't miss "The emerge of the Pop Imagist" curated by Jonathan Levine and Giovanni Bonelli...(Scuola dei mercanti, near Madonna dell'orto)

next exhibition curated by Paco Barragan, if you are, for some reason, in Salamanca don't miss it!

2011-06-20T23:47:00.001-04:00

DA2. Domus Artium 2002

2011-05-04T11:22:00.002-04:00

My dear Friend Manfred Manera will open soon his gallery-shop in Venice, if you are in that beautiful city check it out!

Press Release

Opening of "The Merchant of Venice " Gallery 07/05/2011 at 6 P.M.

Campo Sant'Angelo 3579 , Venice

( An initiative of the Venetian Multiversal Academy*)

On the 7th of May 2011 in the heart of Venice, in campo Sant Angelo, "The Merchant of Venice " Gallery will be

inaugurated as a space devoted to the renaissance of the ancient tradition of the Venetians merchants and with the aim of

bringing back Venice to its historical role of capital of the silk roads of which, the maritime city , had always been its most

western outpost. " The Merchant of Venice " Gallery, after Shakespeare play , will show the textile art collected by the

Venetian traveler Manfred Manera, who, since many years is following the steps of the Venetians Merchants in Asia, and

samples of traditional textile art from the silk roads of which the production is still alive and has survived at the impact of

industrial globalization. It will be a space devoted to the art of the Merchant in a Ruskian sense." To buy and sell is not only

a mercantile action, but also a moral one. From here the imperative for the buyer never to encourage exploitation which

mutilate or the monotony which corrupts."

The Gallery will be focused on textile art for its essential symbolic message and ornamental value, for its being a-

conceptual. In our always more virtual world, textile art has the great value of launching an appeal to come back to senses.

Textile art is in-fact essentially a tactile art: carpets, textiles, velvets are made to be caressed, touched; they are not just a

concept, an idea. The sensuality of this art melts harmoniously with the esthetics and cromatic tradition inherited from the

Venetian civilization.

The " Merchant of Venice " will offer also a space for conferences, book launches, documentaries projections and

photographic exhibitions about the silk roads. It will stage shows of contemporary artists who in their work explore the

borders between anonymous, traditional art and individualistic art in the western sense. Artist who are also artisans

according to the definition given by the philosopher Elemire Zolla : " An artist is a craftsman who experiences coincidences,

feeling of "deja vu...", during his activity") Artists who, positioned between two world, the Orient and the West, are

following Goethe's call to merge the best elements of each reality.

Last but not least, fundamental aim of the new space in Sant'Angelo will be on one side to oppose the progressive

desertification of the urban texture of Venice in the process of being suffocated by the overflow of international luxury

brands which have the tendency to standardize most of the historical centers of Europe, and, on the other, to resist the

invasion of cheap souvenirs often produced by sweat shops, if not by veritable slaves of our times. The intention is to

prevent Venice from becoming very soon one more alienating " Shopping Mall" as those which are mushrooming in the

megalopolis of the contemporary world.

The Merchant of Venice gallery will be a lively source of resistance to the desertification and standardization of our planet

and of human activities.

* The Venetian Multiversal Academy is a no-profit organization founded in Vienna in 2007 by the Journalist, Manfred

Manera and the philosopher Richard Weihe with the aim to sustain the biodiversity of human activities.

NEW INTERVIEW ( in Italian)

2011-04-21T12:57:00.004-04:00

very nice interview on Grazia, weekly Italian magazine for women.

http://www.grazia.it/Stile-di-vita/arte-e-design/A-10-anni-parlavo-solo-di-Caravaggio

the title is nice and also true:

" At 10 years old i was talking only about Caravaggio"

i should have been really a weird kind of kid...

2011-03-21T19:04:00.002-04:00

here's the last painting i made for a show at Roq la Rue Gallery in Seattle.

It's the first of a new series which take back the core idea of the Mothers series but with a "twist"...

New Work

2011-01-19T14:18:00.002-05:00

"IF"

2010

Oil on Wood Panel 36" x 48"

This Painting will be in exhibition at "Battle of the Brush" in Bryant Park, New York, NY from the 20th of January through the 2nd of February, and then it'll be part of "Suggestivsm" at the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, California from the 5th of February through April 17th.

2011-01-18T18:37:00.005-05:00

Battle of the Brush: Bryant Park
70 W 40th St New York, NY
January 20 - February 2
Opening Reception January 20th 6pm

Battle of the Brush

In an attempt to playfully reconsider the historic painterly debate between realism and abstraction, "Battle of the Brush: A Civil Reenactment of Two Painterly States" draws upon Bryant Park's history as an encampment for soldiers during the Civil War. In using this little known historical fact about Bryant Park as a conceptual theme, the exhibition takes a tongue-in-cheek look at how one of the painting community's most persistent antagonists in the 20 century was itself; specifically, the aesthetic and ideological divide between realist and abstract painters. More than just a question of style, this polemic has historically symbolized the tension between tradition and innovation. One such example was the boycott of the metropolitan Museum's 1950 exhibition titled "American Painting Today – 1950" by eighteen abstract painters who claimed the show's jury was "hostile to advanced art." Their ardent opposition earned them the name 'Irascible Eighteen.' These days, we are much more civil than irascible. Therefore in the same way that Civil War Reenactors come together to imitate a moment in history when they stood apart, so too does this exhibition in order to reveal some of the more interesting directions realism and abstraction are being taken today.

Participating artists include:

REALISM REGIMENT: Alison Blickle, Tom Sanford, Nicola Verlato, and Eric White

ABSTRACT REGIMENT: Justin Adian, Anoka Faruqee, Patricia Treib, and Roger White

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Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem (MMKA),

Arnhem, The Netherlands

29 January - 18 May, 2011

Opening Reception January 29th 3pm

The End of History.. and The Return of History Painting

The End of History... and the Return of History Painting references a long line of theories on "Ends of History" by thinkers such as Hegel, Kojeve and Fukuyama. InFukuyama's thesis "The End of History", 1989, he proclaimed the end of all ideological evolution and the world-wide triumph of liberal democracy. Departing from his thesis this exhibition analyzes the return of painting as both a consequence of a more conservative zeitgeist and as a response to historical events like September 11. Within this painting 'revival' there's a return among a group of artists, engaged in a critical analysis of today's society, to a kind of 'history painting'.

The artwork in The End of History... and the Return of History Painting reflects on the relationship between painting and our historical moment as well as investigating paintings' relationship to photography, video and television - the media that usurped its role as documenter of history.

Exbiting Artists:

Miguel Aguirre (Peru), Pablo Alonso (Spain/Germany), Matthias Koster (Germany), Ignacio Goitia (Spain), Ronald Ophuis (The Netherlands), Pedro Barbeito (USA), Tomas Espina (Argentina), Maryam Najd (Iran/Belgium), Nicola Verlato (Italy), Trevor Guthrie (Canada), Simeon Saiz (Spain), Pascal Danz (Switzerland), Gamaliel Rodriguez (Puerto Rico), Carlos Salazar (Colombia), Sandra Gamarra (Peru), Inaki Gracenea (Spain), Judy Sirks (Norway)

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CSUF Grand Central Art Center
125 N Broadway Santa Ana, California
February 5 - April 17, 2011

Opening Reception 7-10pm
2nd Reception March 5th 7-10pm
Closing Reception April 3rd 7-10pm

SUGGESTIVISM

Main Art Gallery Suggestivism features over fifty contemporary artists whose work is inherently ambiguous, and organic in process. Curator Nathan Spoor believes they follow the ideals of "Suggestivism." The term Suggestivism in art was first used in the late nineteenth century describing the organic process of making art, the loose mark-making, and the ambiguous narrative. Early modern art can be seen as examples of Suggestivism. However, Spoor's contemporary examples begin with the organic process and follow through with ambiguous narratives, but the artwork is tightly rendered, and illustrative.

Conceptually speaking, the term suggestivism refers to the ability of an individual to pursue their purpose with an amplified understanding and sensitivity. The artists involved represent precisely this - a wave of purpose, working within the more fluid aspects of narrative or figurative arenas. Through the mere power of suggestion, the magic is transferred from one to another, engaging the world at large from the most vivid and evocative of visual realms. - Nathan Spoor, Curator

Featured Artists: Esao Andrews, Carrie Ann Baade, Sandow Birk, Michael Brown, Nicoletta Ceccoli, Dave Cooper, Bob Dob, Thomas Doyle, Ron English, Alex Gross, Robert Hardgrave, Naoto Hattori, Femke Hiemstra, Gregory Jacobsen, Audrey Kawasaki, Andy Kehoe, Kris Kuksi, Darren LeGallo, Kris Lewis, Francesco LoCastro, Jason Maloney, Mars-1/Mario Martinez. Chris Mars, Dalek James Marshall, Dan May, Elizabeth McGrath, Jeff McMillan, Tara McPherson, Mia, David Molesky, Brendan Monroe, Scott Musgrove, Nathan Ota, Michael Page, Kevin Peterson, James Roper, Chris Ryniak, Bob chneider, Todd Schorr, Greg Simkins, Skinner, Jeff Soto, Nathan Spoor, CR Stecyk III, Heidi Taillefer, Joe Vaux, Nicola Verlato, Oliver Vernon, Eric White, Robin Williams, Martin Wittfooth, Chandler Wood, Chet Zar

Press Contact: Krystal Glasman. kglasman@fullerton.edu 714-567-7235

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Bologna

On January 28th I will be participating in Panel Discussion
about Pop Surrealism, with the participation of Jonathan LeVine
(of JonathanLevineGallery) and Julie Koegler (Curator and Art Critic)

My work will also be dislayed at the fair in the Bonelli Arte Galler

(Hall 18 Booth C-51 - B-54) and the Antonio Colombo Gallery

(Hall 15 Booth D-32).

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Laguna Art Museum Art Auction 2011

February 12, 2011

Auction Preview: February 5-11, 2011

Post-Auction: February 13, 2011

Laguna

Laguna Art Museum and Auction Chairs Sara Heeschen, Michele Monda, and Sarah Thorne-Markman invite you to celebrate Valentine's Day in style this year at Laguna Art Museum's annual Art Auction. This exciting event will feature works of art by premier California artists, with proceeds benefiting the education and exhibition programs at Laguna Art Museum.

This year's event will include delicious food courtesy of local restaurantsWatermarc and Pelican Hill, wine by Columbia Crest, an ice bar by Ketel One Vodka, floral design by Roger's Gardens, and live music. There will also be a fast-paced live auction as well as a silent auction during which guests will have the chance to mix and mingle with fellow collectors and artists.

New Works

2010-12-08T16:39:00.004-05:00

"The Demons of Mississippi"
1065x1065mm, Oil on canvas

"P.O.V."

455x610mm, Oil on wood panel

Three Amigos
November 27, 2001 - Jannuary 23, 2011

Featuring:

Tom Sanford

Nicola Verlato

Eric White

Galleri S.E Kalfarveien 76 5018 Bergen, Norway

2010-08-10T23:58:00.000-04:00

2010-08-10T23:57:00.000-04:00

2010-08-10T23:56:00.001-04:00

2010-08-10T23:54:00.003-04:00

Sequence

2010-08-10T23:45:00.006-04:00

this is a series of steps in the making of one of my last paintings, in an older post there's a drawing on the same subject matter.
The model for this painting is a sculpture that i made some months ago,
then you can see some steps in the process: from the sketch in charcoal and acrylic on canvas to the more precise drawing with conte' pencils, and also a digital passage in order to obtain an accurate foreshortening of the electric guitar (i used Maya in this case) .
In the last picture there's some work in acrylic for the highlights, i have already started to paint in oil, next post will be about that.

Art Theory Article

2010-08-10T22:46:00.003-04:00

http://artpulsemagazine.com/how-many-of-you-saw-the-gorilla-or-the-return-of-mural-painting/

this is the link to the article i wrote about Graffiti art-internet and the art system
check it out, i'll post soon something about the new paintings I'm working on in these days

Greater New York

2010-07-12T10:26:00.003-04:00

i have still to go to see this exhibition at PS1, at this point i really want to go, it's an exhibition that is collecting some of the worst reviews i ever read, even worse than "Younger than Jesus" at the New Museum last year and worse of the last, completely useless, Whitney Biennial.
Nobody like these kind of exhibitions, mainly populated by installations, video projections and photography, but, curators are still insisting in propose this stuff as the best possible things that people, for some arcane reason, should learn to appreciate.

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2010/07/artseen/greater-new-york

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-06-01/art/ps-1-s-greater-new-york-2010/

Lowdown magazine

2010-07-12T09:40:00.002-04:00

I should have publish this post before, sorry,
maybe is still possible to find it in some library,
i got a very nice interview published on this German magazine based in Berlin
http://www.lodownmagazine.com/index.php?page=27&modaction=showItem&id=1489
check it out!

Mural Painting

2010-07-12T09:29:00.005-04:00

i have just published an article about "Mural Painting" on this contemporary art magazine,
http://artpulsemagazine.com/
i'm going to publish it soon also in this blog
I'm talking about how the different graffiti techniques are evolving toward a redefinition of muralism and public art

100 artists see Satan, again

2010-07-12T09:14:00.005-04:00

if you are in LA, try to pass by to see this exhibition at CSUF in Santa Ana: 100 Artists see satan
http://www.gcacfundraiser.com/
i'm showing this Drawing among the works of other 99 interesting artists of the pop surrealist, street art movement.
there's a nice review of the exhibition on Hi Fructose website
http://www.hifructose.com/the-blog/758-one-hundred-artists-see-satan.html

2010-06-14T23:04:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the late!
this is the picture of the finished painting, i hope you'll like it!

Progress

2010-03-24T00:11:00.002-04:00

As you can see I started to put some color, my method is monochromatic,

I work layer by layer until I reach full color.

Though it's hard to tell by this photograph I started to paint with a transparent blue in the shadows, the next step will be to add a transparent red, and subsequently a yellow, based on this combination of primary colors, I'll have very rich colors in the shadows.

More Progress Shots

2010-03-16T18:58:00.002-04:00

Sorry about the lapse between the updates, I hope the amount of work I put into the pieces makes the wait worth your while.

As you can see I polished the figures, rendered the objects and background.

The scenes are now taking life and both of them are finally ready for the next step in my process: COLOR.

On the bigger painting all the characters have finally made their appearance, as well as the background.

As soon as I'm done rendering their flesh, this piece will also be ready for some color.

Details

2010-02-19T18:49:00.004-05:00

I've been working steadily on this one, finally got to paint with black and white in acrylic which starts to give it life.

Here are some details of it so far.

And this is what it looks like all together.

Work in Progress

2010-02-10T23:15:00.006-05:00

Last night and today has snowed a lot, here's a picture Alessandro took of the snowfall on the rooftops next door.

And here are some more progress shots of the paintings for the April 10 show at Jonathan LeVine.

Still in Black and White, after having worked out some more details since last time,
~~but just about ready to add some color.~~

I'll keep you posted as the work develops.

RE:Vision

2010-02-02T19:54:00.008-05:00

April 10 Thru May 8, 2010

I will be part of a 3 Person show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in NYC

Alongside: Eric White and Jean-Pierre Roy

And in keeping my word about opening up my studio to you all here are some Photos by:Alessandro Echevarria of me in the studio working on the larger piece I'll have in the show.

Alessandro:"Is that going to fit out the door?"

Me:"What door?"

More to come: How do I even get to this point? More behind the scenes.

Nicola 2.0

2010-02-02T19:43:00.002-05:00

This is my second blog, but this time around I want to update more consistently to let you know what is going on in the studio and with my work.

More to come...

The Blog of Nicola Verlato

Exhibition In Milan the 1st of february

LA LUZ DE JESUS 25!!!!!!!!!!

MART

Beautiful essay in the catalog of "The emergence of the Pop Imagist" by Carlo McCormick

"The emerge of the Pop Imagist"

next exhibition curated by Paco Barragan, if you are, for some reason, in Salamanca don't miss it!

NEW INTERVIEW ( in Italian)

New Work

New Works

Featuring:

Tom Sanford Nicola Verlato Eric White

Sequence

Art Theory Article

Greater New York

Lowdown magazine

Mural Painting

100 artists see Satan, again

Progress

More Progress Shots

Details

Work in Progress

RE:Vision

Nicola 2.0

Tom Sanford

Nicola Verlato

Eric White