Senigallia City of Photography dedicates anthology to Sandy Skoglund

From Nov. 23, 2023 to June 2, 2024 Palazzo del Duca in Senigallia hosts the anthological exhibition Sandy Skoglund. Imaginary Worlds of Photography. 1974 - 2023, curated by Mario Trevisan and Paci Contemporary, organized by the City of Senigallia with the support of Regione Marche, the collaboration of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio and Galleria Paci Contemporary.

The exhibition aims to trace the career of Sandy Skoglund, an artist who has chosen photography as her medium of choice to immortalize the environmental installations she creates using everyday objects, materials she designed and fabricated, and small- and medium-scale sculptures made specifically for her imaginative landscapes. The artist spends months, sometimes years, studying and recreating every minute detail of the installation that will then be photographed, using the stylistic signature of strong color contrasts that make the scene even more fantastic and surreal.

“Without photography, conceptual art would be erased from human memory. In this form, my art can be received as a painting, as an open window to another world. This on the other hand is the reason why I work with the camera. The large format fits well with the burlesque aspect of my work,” explained Sandy Skoglund.

The exhibition presented by Senigallia City of Photography aims to retrace all stages of Sandy Skoglund’s activity, from when in the 1970s he began photographing as a self-taught artist, passing through the first great public and critical successes of the 1980s, such as Radioactive cats and Revenge of the goldfish with their iconic fluorescent animals, and through the celebrated works of the 1990s, such as Atomic Love and The cocktail party, where the installations became increasingly rich and complex with human figures and statues coexisting in close dialogue.

Finally Winter, the latest work created by the artist, a work begun in 2008 and finished in 2018 whose elaboration took years of trial and error, in which he experimented with new techniques and digital processes focused on the image of the snowflake, “a hybrid of techniques and concepts that were captured together by the camera on December 22, 2018. In opposition to the quick snapshot, Winter is a study of perseverance and persistence, an artificial landscape celebrating the beautiful and frightening qualities of the coldest season,” Skoglund says.

Winter itself is the focus of a focus in the Senigalli exhibition: in addition to the photograph of the same name, the making setting will be recreated, with backgrounds and some of the original sculptures Skoglund used, allowing visitors to literally step inside the work and discover up close the minutiae of detail and work behind an only seemingly instantaneous shot.

“It is a real pleasure,” comment Senigallia Mayor Massimo Olivetti and Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Culture Riccardo Pizzi, “to host in the rooms of the Palazzo del Duca the exhibition of Sandy Skoglund, an artist of unquestionable charm, who fits well into the international programming we are proposing for Senigallia City of Photography. Our City continues to distinguish itself more and more in the sophisticated search for new photographic techniques and languages to bear witness to the contemporary world of this ancient technique, with the work of renowned artists and with projects specifically designed for our exhibition halls. A further piece that goes to compose and enrich the cultural carnet of Senigallia confirming and strengthening its image on the national and international level.”

Image: Winter, 2018 © Sandy Skoglund. Courtesy Paci Contemporary Gallery.

Senigallia City of Photography dedicates anthology to Sandy Skoglund

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