El Gato Chimney / Little Circus – Rafael Silveira

Mostra personale di El Gato Chimney dal titolo Preternatural History e il consueto appuntamento con Little Circus: protagonista l’artista Rafael Silveira con il progetto Un Giro nella Mente.

Comunicato stampa

Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea is proud to present Preternatural History, the new personal exhibition of the Italian artist El Gato Chimney, curated by Michela D'Acquisto.

Following the revelations of the era of great geographical discoveries, sixteenth-century Europe suddenly sees its borders expand and, aware of the fact that its knowledge of nature is now obsolete, begins to classify fauna and flora of the new and the old continent, driven by the desire to organize the world known so far.

If the collections of wonders – natural and otherwise – are the preserve of the aristocracy, thanks to the growing popularity of the press curious and scholars can now purchase books on the subject, complemented by engravings and watercolor tables.
The most prolific creator of such volumes is the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi, who in his "microcosm", a precursor natural history museum, includes an opera omnia containing thousands of watercolors depicting not only animals and plants, but also fantastic creatures, results of the speculations about what still lies beyond the oceans.
The taste for the mysterious and the suggestion dictated by the singular continue to fascinate humanity in the centuries to come, influencing Austrian Aloys Zötl, dyer of fabrics by his trade, who in the nineteenth century illustrates a veritable made up bestiary, uncovered decades later by Breton as an extraordinary example of Surrealist aesthetics.
El Gato Chimney follows their steps, those of men guided by the interest for science, but even more moved by the passion for all that creates wonder, and in turn appropriates the intrinsic symbolism of the animal kingdom to narrate a fictional universe that, while resisting rational explanations, answers to more instinctive and visceral needs.
El Gato Chimney's preternatural history, told by anthropomorphic creatures and hybrid beings, therefore wants to encourage a typically Foucaultian curiosity, “the care one takes for what exists and could exist; [...] a readiness to find strange and singular what surrounds us; a certain relentlessness to break up our familiarities and to regard otherwise the same things”.

In addition to large-format watercolors, in the gallery will be present works on canvas and a site-specific installation.

El Gato Chimney was born in 1981 in Milan, where he lives and works.
Self-taught, with a background as a street artist abandoned in favor of a more introspective exploration in the studio, he dedicates his time to the research of a wide variety of subjects: primitive and sacred art, esoterism and spiritualism, folklore, magical realism in literature.
He has exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, such as Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milan; Stephen Romano Gallery, New York; Thinkspace Gallery, Los Angeles; Musei Capitolini – Centrale Montemartini, Rome; Museo D'Arte Contemporanea MADRE, Naples; Museo Della Permanente, Milan; Summerhall, Edinburgh; Triennale Di Milano, Milan; and has participated in international art fairs, including Art Aqua, Miami; Arte Fiera, Bologna; The Metro Show, New York; Scope, New York.
Among the publications: Arte Contemporanea Volume 7 “Ambienti” (Electa per Repubblica – L’Espresso, 2008, Italy); The Encyclopedia Of Fernal Affairs (2015, France); Hunt And Gather (Mark Batty Publisher, 2010, Unite d States); Los Colores Del Underground (Astiberri, 2009, Spain).

Click here for a complete preview o the show

in Little Circus:

Rafael Silveira
Un Giro nella Mente

Antonio Colombo presents, for Little Circus, the special project space inside the gallery, the first solo show in Italy of Rafael Silveira, entitled Un Giro nella Mente.
Rafael Silveira says about this project:
"Imagine a man that over the years acquire the skill of explore his own mind, like a traveller by walk in a psychic jungle. Systematically, year by year, he walks by his mental landscapes, discovering and recording in sketches this new world like a 16th century traveller painter in a artistic-scientific mission.

It has been said that a person is big as our dreams. Our friend have big dreams, but only his two feet to explore an entire continent. That was when, in a unusual day, everything has changed. In one of his explorations he found something, what could enable him to go beyond his visual field: a Bicycle.
Un Giro della Mente bring to "Wakefulness" (how I named what our society call our "real world") a collection of portraits of the most interesting finds in his first journey at two wheels".
His paintings are like portals into an alternate dimension. A vintage aesthetic and various themes including lingerie, tattoos, skulls, music and food converge in a visual expression of Silveira’s stream of consciousness.
The exhibition will include a collection of six new oil on canvas paintings, plus a "bonus track" selection of prints and original drawings.

Rafael Silveira was born in 1978 in Paraguanà, Brazil. Since 1988 he lives and works in Curitiba.
Silveira’s imaginative work combines figurative classical painting, comic-inspired imagery and surreal subject matter, resulting in a universe where dreams are blended with waking life and the impossible appears commonplace.
The artist started doing alternative comics in the 90's, publishing in independent magazines and major publishers like Dark Horse. He also work as designer/art director. After this "bootcamp training time" in the graphic arts, he quit a ten years award winning career to became a full time artist. Since that, his fine art works have been exhibited in prominent galleries in Brazil, USA and Europe and are included in great private and public collections such as the Museum of Modern Art in Rio De Janeiro. The artist have two monograph books published in Brazil, and was featured in the cover of Zupi Magazine.
Among his recent solo shows: 2015 Mind’s Eye Funfair, Atomica Gallery, London, UK; 2014 Unforeseeable, Jonathan Levine Gallery, NY; 2013 Invisível Pittoresco, Choque Cultural Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil.