Renato Nicolodi’s hermetic and deterring, brutalist and classicistic sculptures are based on what he himself likes to call archetypical forms of architecture. His theatres, squares, palaces, bunkers, staircases, gates, temples, halls, basilicas, ministries of power, ramparts and stadiums are ahistorical universalia; they never refer to existing buildings. They are almost always shells of an impenetrable dark space, a void. A space where Renato Nicolodi’s and our memories come to the fore. “The spectator cannot physically enter the dark space, so he is invited to approach this space mentally.”

In OMNIUM MEMORIA II, his first solo exhibition at Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Renato Nicolodi will show new works that were especially developed for his gallery debut. One of these, the principal work Purgatorium II, was even made with the gallery dimensions and specifics in mind.