Grazia Varisco – If…

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Cortesi Gallery is delighted to present, for the first time in London, a solo exhibition by the Italian artist Grazia Varisco.

Following the successful exhibition Grazia Varisco: Filo Rosso 1960/2015 at Cortesi Lugano in Switzerland, the gallery is now pleased to introduce Varisco’s body of work to the London audience.

Born in Milan in 1937, Grazia Varisco has been a key representative of programmed and kinetic art throughout her artistic career. Together with Giovanni Anceschi, Gianni Colombo, Davide Boriani and Gabriele De Vecchi, she was a member of the Italian Gruppo T (T Group, where "T" refers to the concept of time as a new content of art). Founded in 1959 in Milan, Gruppo T was one of the most important collectives of kinetic art in Europe, introducing innovative forms of art through the creation of perceptual experiments and interactive environments designed to encourage and generate different and unexpected reactions in the viewer.

Varisco was one of the earliest artists who explored concepts such as motion and changes in time, while seeking a direct interaction with her audience. Through the use of simple geometric signs, her artworks inhabit the space around them, creating different spatial dimensions that challenge the viewer’s perception and disorientate the senses.

The London exhibition will give the visitors a unique opportunity to experience a comprehensive overview of Varisco's research, with works spanning from the early ‘60s to recent years. From Tavole Magnetiche (Magnetic Boards, 1959­61), where magnetic elements based on elementary dialectic polarities like order/disorder, empty/full, open/closed, and symmetrical/asymmetrical, are arranged on metal surfaces and can be moved around, to Schemi luminosi variabili (Variable Luminous Schemes, 1962–64), a series of kinetic objects that use the rotary motion of the overlapping screens is used to produce continuous variations and repetitions, capturing the unconditional attention of the viewer.

The show will also include more recent works, such as Quadri Comunicanti in acciaio (Communicating Paintings in Steel, 2011). Formally minimal, the works nevertheless manage to dominate the surface on which they appear, simultaneously providing a glimpse of continuity and instability.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by Mousse Publishing and edited by Michele Robecchi.

Grazia Varisco

Grazia Varisco (Milan, 1937) attended the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, Milan, and was a student of Achille Funi. Since 1960, she has been an active representative of Gruppo T. She has participated in the exhibitions Miriorama, in the arte programmata and in exhibitions organised by the international movement Nouvelle Tendance. Her collaboration with Gruppo T ended in the mid­sixties, after which she continued to experiment and exhibit independently. Varisco participated in important exhibitions such as: Biennale of Venice, 1964 and 1986; Quadriennale of Rome, Triennale Toyama Now at the Museum of Modern Art of Toyama, 1990; Force Fields. Phases of the Kinetic, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona and Hayward Gallery, London, 2000; Beyond Geometry, Los Angeles County Museum and Miami Art Museum, 2004; Gli ambienti del Gruppo T Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna of Rome, 2005; Lo sguardo del collezionista. Opere della Fondazione VAF, Mart of Rovereto, 2005; Op art, Schirn Kunstalle of Frankfurt, 2007; Arte cinetica e programmata, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna of Rome, 2012. Her works are exhibited in museums and collections in Italy and abroad, including the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna of Rome, the Museum of Modern Art of New York, the MAMbo of Bologna, the Fundación Museo de Arte Moderno Jesús Soto of Ciudad Bolivar, the Museum im Kulturspeicher of Würzburg, the Galleria d’Arte Moderna of Gallarate, the Museo of Villa Croce Genova, the Museo del Novecento of Milano and the Museum Ritter of Waldenbuch among others. Grazia Varisco is based in Milan.

Cortesi Gallery, Lugano / London

Cortesi Gallery was founded in 2013 in Lugano by collector and art dealer Stefano Cortesi. Alongside his experience as an entrepreneur and manager in the financial sector, Stefano Cortesi has developed a passion for modern and contemporary art, assembling a major collection that has been the starting point of the activity of the gallery. Since the first exhibitions, Arte Italiana 60­90 ­ with works by Italian artists from the 1960s to the 1990s, ranging between Conceptualism, Arte Povera and the Transavantgarde ­ and OUT OF THE BLUE ­ that included artworks by internationally renowned artists of our era ­ Cortesi Gallery has been proposing a research on the art of the last fifty years. “The idea behind Cortesi Gallery is to build a meeting ground for collectors, scholars, and art lovers, striking a balance between the cultural world and the market” (Mousse Magazine). Supporting Stefano Cortesi in running the gallery are his sons Lorenzo and Andrea Cortesi, who share the same passion for contemporary and modern art and bring their own experiences in this field to the gallery. In May 2015 Cortesi Gallery inaugurated a new space in London with the exhibition titled Great Expectations #2, an overview of the Zero movement. Cortesi Gallery London continues and complements the gallery’s successful work in Switzerland.