An exhibition in Milan reflects on death and eternity through monochrome

From February 9 to March 25, 2023 BUILDING Gallery in Milan presents the exhibition Sean Shanahan. Sliced Heart, curated by Luca Massimo Barbero. The exhibition stems from a personal and intimate reflection by Sean Shanahan (Dublin, 1960) on the theme of death andeternity. A selection of paintings placed in a site-specific context characterized by a strong theatricality is displayed along the three floors of the gallery. The main themes are the unexpected, anticipation and surprise, through which three different readings of the relationship between the painting, the exhibition space and the real space are proposed.

Metaphorically and concretely breaking through the boundaries imposed by the structural elements of the gallery, the works, derived from monochromatic painting, physically inhabit the three-dimensional space in an arrangement that borders on installation.

The use of MDF(medium density fireboard) support, the artist’s stylistic signature, helps to enhance the ambiguous objecthood of the work, suggesting a perception of the painting as a concrete element that needs to make itself space and not just occupy it. The oil color, spread in flat monochrome backgrounds and absorbed by the wooden material, also becomes an integral part of the painting and not a mere covering of the surface.

The exhibition is divided into three closely interconnected moments and consists of a succession of unexpected situations, in which the environment is shaped and molded by the artist to allow the public to perceive the works from novel and different perspectives.

On the ground floor, the works interact with the exhibition space through a dramatic and conceptual use of color. A"dance macabre" originates from the mutual interpenetration between works and wall, which gives its name to the five large paintings that regularly punctuate the exhibition space. The visual fulcrum is located in the central hole that distinguishes all the works in the exhibition and with its presence-absence becomes the true thread of the exhibition. This square hole, whose visibility is accentuated by the beveled edges left deliberately untouched, becomes the focus on which one is invited to concentrate, before being able to extend one’s gaze to the painting in its entirety and to the immersive context of which it is an integral part.

The exhibition tour continues on the second floor with Histerical Aftermath. In the traditional context of the “white cube,” it is the painting-object that imposes itself, establishing a dynamic relationship with the white wall and its surroundings. Three large-scale works, entitled Flounder (2022), Float (2022) and Flight (2022), stand out in the exhibition space. The unexpected hues of oil colors absorbed by the MDF support, worked by the artist to be an actively visible structural part, radiate into the white space of the second floor.

The third and final moment of the path is freely inspired by the Latin locution “sub specie aeternitatis” and suggests a direct reference to the concept of the immeasurable and the eternal.

For info: www.building-gallery.com

Image: Sean Shanahan, Dance Macabre(1 ) (2022; oil on MDF, 180 x 180 cm) Photo by Luca Casonato

An exhibition in Milan reflects on death and eternity through monochrome

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