MIART 2023

MIART 2023

Allianz MiCo, Viale Lodovico Scarampo, Padiglione 3, Milano Milan, Italy Friday, April 14, 2023–Sunday, April 16, 2023

For MIART ART FAIR 2023 edition, Galleria d'Arte Contini proposes a selection of artworks by internationally renowned artists: Manolo Valdés, Igor Mitoraj, Pablo Atchugarry, Park Eun Sun, Julio Larraz and Fernando Botero.

senza titolo / untitled by pablo atchugarry

Pablo Atchugarry

Senza Titolo / Untitled, 2022

Price on Request

archivio basquiat by enzo fiore

Enzo Fiore

Archivio Basquiat, 2006

Price on Request

appropriazione donna che legge una lettera davanti alla finestra by enzo fiore

Enzo Fiore

Appropriazione Donna che Legge una Lettera davanti alla Finestra, 2021

Price on Request

triple butterfly  by manolo valdés

Manolo Valdés

Triple Butterfly , 2017

Price on Request

el dibujo como pretexto iii by manolo valdés

Manolo Valdés

El Dibujo Como Pretexto III, 2016

Price on Request

The focus for this edition will be on sculpture. Impressive plastic artworks in marble and bronze by the artists represented by the gallery will dialogue with each other in a harmonious concert of different forms. Park Eun Sun's minimalist geometries characterise the totem sculptures entitled "Accrescimento" (Growth) or "Generazione" (Generation), skilfully composed of precise layers of marble or liquid bronze. Pablo Atchugarry's work, on the other hand, is more naturalistically inspired; his artwork is reminiscent of floating seaweed, ancient stalactites and, at times, stylised human figures. The suggested but never overt representation of human faces, enriched by the citation of the great artists of the past, is the stylistic hallmark of Manolo Valdes, who uses not only the classic noble materials, but also wood, glass and recycled materials. His 'heads' confront the roundness and abundance of Fernando Botero's iconic bronzes. Completing the orchestra of sculptures are the splendid and poetic marbles and bronzes by Igor Mitoraj, which need no introduction, their moving beauty filling the soul of those who contemplate them.

Considered among the most significant Masters of the 21st century, Manolo Valdés, co-founder of Equipo Cronica, is an eclectic artist whose innovative expressive research is rich in quotations from the history of art. The influence of Velázquez, Picasso and Piero della Francesca shines through in the artwork, which communicates in an artistic vocabulary that is at once familiar and original. The reference to the masterpieces of the past is associated with careful technical, material and compositional research that makes his style immediately recognisable. 

Reference to the past can also be found in the sculptures of the famous Polish artist Igor Mitoraj, inspired by classical iconography updated in a personal key. Bronze and marble are moulded to create fragmented, bandaged, mutilated bodies and faces: typically Hellenic subjects are reinterpreted in order to reflect on profound themes such as life, death, time and the past. 

The Uruguayan artist Pablo Atchugarry is internationally recognised for his creations that blossom, sometimes turning into bronze and supple tongues of fire, painted with vivid paints, and sometimes into soft waves of white marble. The sculptures, projected vertically and metaphorically into the future, suggest a return to nature as a source of creative inspiration.

Purely sculptural is also the work of the Korean artist Park Eun Sun, characterised by precise geometries, skilfully moulded and polished, but marked by cracks that symbolise the opening of the human interiority and at the same time the destruction of matter. Twisted columns and spherical shapes in stone or bronze achieve refined balances, merging in their essence the oriental culture of origin and the western culture of adoption of the artist.

Julio Larraz, an artist of Cuban origin, addresses current political and social issues in his figurative paintings. Through his dreamlike and metaphysical style, open to other dimensions, he denounces injustice with underlying irony in a playful and grotesque manner.

In the proposal of Italian artists, the Milanese Mario Arlati and Enzo Fiore stand out, who share a predilection for using different materials in their creative process, which they skilfully transform into artwork; the Venetian artist and philosopher Andrea Valleri, who combines in his style the symbolic power of ancient myths and scenarios from the classical world with Pop-Art drifts; Paolo Vegas, known for his photographic clones made unique by collage.