Milan, Vi.P. Gallery unites two exhibitions in a virus cause. By two moreover irreconcilable artists

A double solo exhibition of sculpture, painting and visual arts entitled Iconic / Aniconic, which compares the work of painter Vito Carta (Milan, 1957) with sculptor Rinaldo Degradi (Milan, 1940), has opened at Vi.P. Gallery in Milan, Alzaia Naviglio Grande, 4.

This is a merger of the fourth and fifth of the exhibitions postponed due to coronavirus closure. Of the other four postponed exhibitions three have been recovered in the past weeks(Orsenigo, Comotti and Ritorno) and a last one will be recovered at the end of this one(Fiorella Manzini), in a completely reorganized calendar. Moreover, with all these post-Covid19 exhibitions, new modes of access are being experimented with, both for the opening and the subsequent normal public opening. First, the actual exhibition will be accompanied by a video and a “virtual” exhibition that will be viewable and visitable online by those who find themselves unable to travel to Milan’s Navigli.

The pairing of these two artists was not a free curatorial choice. Vi.P. Gallery does not hide behind a finger, does not attempt forcings, and sincerely declares that it was a necessity, having to make up as many as six exhibitions by August within an already busy schedule. Consequently, pairings were necessary wherever possible, and, of course, the pairing of a painter and a sculptor was the easiest one, since the works of one did not take away space from the works of the other. And, in fact, the solution was also adopted for two other exhibitions.

In this case, however, the diversity, the “distancing” between the two artists is absolute and irreconcilable. We are at the antipodes of expressive possibilities, and the title is intended precisely to emphasize this opposition. However, precisely the juxtaposition of two parallel and seemingly irreconcilable universes can help to better understand what the “lowest common denominator” of contemporary art is, regardless of superficial distinctions such as “figurative” and “abstract” or, even better, “iconic” and “aniconic.”

On one side is Vito Carta, a visual artist who comes from photography and works on the reworking of images, starting from photographic shots that are synthesized, reworked, superimposed, in search of a definition at once personal and universal of visions with a strong symbolic and evocative character, in a process of layering and condensation that transforms the realistic starting image into a kind of icon.

In contrast, Rinaldo Degradi works by subtraction and abstraction, programmatically and systematically removing every figurative reference to reality, every possible narrative or icastic representation, in search of an aniconic expression with archaic references, strongly ancestral and evocative. His sculptures thus often end up resembling post-modern totems or archaic-contemporary stelae or menhirs.

Ultimately, both of these artists arrive at a great power and evocative capacity, bordering on the “sacred,” but through opposite creative processes: one strongly “iconic,” the other decidedly “aniconic.”

The exhibition is on view through July 7, 2020, Tuesday through Saturday, 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 7 p.m. Closed Monday. Free admission.

For all information you can visit www.zamenhofart.it.

Pictured: Rinaldo Degradi, Poetry-Black marble of Lovere (20 x 30 x 35 cm).

Milan, Vi.P. Gallery unites two exhibitions in a virus cause. By two moreover irreconcilable artists

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