Carol Rama stars in an exhibition at Florence's Il Ponte Gallery

Galleria Il Ponte(Florence) presents, from Nov. 23, 2018 to Feb. 9, 2019, an extensive exhibition dedicated to artist Carol Rama (Turin, 1918 - 2015) whose nonconformist work, autonomous from any academic teaching, emerges in the artistic-cultural context of Turin in the 1930s and 1940s, and then spans the entire century, up to the early years of the new millennium, with the same passion and vitality as her beginnings.

With a selection of some 38 works created from 1942 to 1997, the exhibition traces Carol Rama’s relentless experimentation with techniques, materials and iconographic subjects through the highlights of her artistic and life journey.
From the early drawings and etchings on paper of the 1940s, linked to Surrealism, Dubuffet andart brut, which already denote great maturity in technique and conception, the exhibition includes some rare works from the 1950s that attest to Carol Rama’s abstractionist experience within the Turin-based MAC-Movimento d’Arte Concreta group.

The works from the 1960s, on the other hand, document the decisive turning point in her modus operandi: on patches of color of informal ascendancy are applied everyday objects such as medical instruments, metal shavings, and doll’s eyes that themselves become form and color.

A large nucleus of works in the exhibition dates from the 1970s when the two extra-pictorial materials for which Carol Rama is best known became part of her compositions: inner tubes and rubber gaskets, used instead of color and applied to canvas or hung there with a metal hook.

Concluding the exhibition are important specimens made during the 1980s and 1990s that are emblematic of a voluntary and heartfelt return to figuration. Bodies, dentures, tongues, genitalia, shoes inhabited by phalluses, fantastic figures and animals, outlined on pre-printed papers (often technical drawings of architects and engineers used as support), express Carol Rama’s perennial desire to merge art, life and imagination, confirming what she revealed in 1985 to Lea Vergine: “I always loved objects and situations that were rejected” since “creating scandal around me was almost a must then.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a portfolio with texts and images, with a critical essay by Bruno Corà and an in-depth look at the works on display by Ilaria Bernardi. The exhibition will be open from November 23, 2018 to February 9, 2019. To learn more you can visit the official website of Il Ponte Gallery, call +39 055 240617 or send an email to susy@galleriailponte.com.

Pictured: Carol Rama, Forgive Me the Conjunctions (1969; mixed media on canvas)

Carol Rama stars in an exhibition at Florence's Il Ponte Gallery

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