“Tomoo Gokita. Gumbo” curated by Alberto Salvadori
Curated by Alberto Salvadori and installed on the second floor of ICA Milano, Gumbo is the first solo exhibition in an Italian institution by Japanese artist Tomoo Gokita (Tokyo, 1969).
Among the leading Japanese artists active on the international scene, Tomoo Gokita draws from the American subcultures of the 1960s and 1970s to compose a visual vocabulary that sees ballerinas, wrestlers and starlets merge into abstract compositions that create a unique imagery with a dreamlike atmosphere.
In Gumbo, Tomoo Gokita presents a selection of works that includes sixteen paintings, a body of drawings, and four sculptures made specifically for the show at Fondazione ICA Milano. The founding theme of the exhibition is the banality of everyday life, expressed in the depiction of ordinary subjects immersed in distorted and surreal settings. Emphasizing the psychological dimension and the emotional reading of colours and shapes, Tomoo Gokita ranges between figuration and abstraction and builds a universe populated by recurringelements such as female figures and scarecrows.
“Stefano Graziani and OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen. Picture Window Frame” curated by Cloe Piccoli
The project is the second iteration of an extensive commission by Finstral, a South Tyrolean company specialized in the production of window frames. Invited to observe the production process and the art collection initiated by company founder Hans Oberrauch in the 1970s, Stefano Graziani questions the specific genre of industrial photography, shining a spotlight on the very act of documenting.
At Fondazione ICA Milano, Stefano Graziani delves into the idea of observing, showing, documenting. To do so, he produces new photographs shot in Milan in artist's archives, academies and museums. These works dialogue with images made in Finstral's factories and offices in Alto Adige and Valsugana. A fundamental part of the exhibition project is represented by the display designed by the architecture studio OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, in tune with Stefano Graziani's research, with the aim of engaging the public to explore the space and reflect on the very idea of display. Picture Window Frame is a journey between very different contexts, where the subject is the complexity of photography itself as a tool for perception and research of the concept of the real.