JIGSAW OF IDENTITYLuca Indraccolo and Mauro Molle

Jigsaw of Identity9th - 30th July 2015

Luca Indraccolo and Mauro Molle curated by Miguel Mallol

What is Identity? It could be defined as the distinctive characteristics belonging to any given individual, or those shared by members of a particular society or group. The definition is open because this term goes from private to general, encompassing a vast spectrum of faces in the same prism. However, I found in Luca Indraccolo and Mauro Molle two complementary artists for whom the concept of identity is a key part of their research. Combin-ing them was the creation of my personal jigsaw of identity.

Luca Indraccolo is an artist who, despite his twenty years spent in the UK, maintains a deep love for his hometown. His paintings not only represent a controversial locality through several interesting aspects, but maintain a Caravaggesque style which definitively reinforces these aspects. When asked about the chiaroscuro treatment of his paintings, he simply answers, smiling: “It’s Naples”.

In his works, Luca Indraccolo presents a geographical identity. The personality that builds your charac-ter throughout the years is a conglomeration of culture, religion, food, traditions, language, manners and habits that become the ingredients for Luca’s expression. He wants people to see his complex city through his eyes. Each painting tells a subtle and different story of local culture or personal experiences through his distorted memories. However, he does not present only his city, but also the citizens of any place in the world who can identify symbolically with the places they represent. In a world where migration is becoming more common, the importance of roots is crucial to avoid forgetting where we come from and why we miss the land of our birth. Naples is a territory of mystery and tales and Luca evidences this in the titles. He gives numbers to the words or images that pop into his mind randomly when he considers the pieces. These words become the title for him according to the numbers, but no one knows their real meaning because he aims to ignite the imagination in

‘Jigsaw of Identity’

order to avoid banalities.

Mauro Molle’s research addresses the reconstruction of the body a concept that has lost value. More weight has been given to the plastic surgery that recreates the appearance of youth and causes people to lose touch with their identity. His characters are faceless and their expressions come only from their body language. They are stereotypes depicting contorted positions and warning the spectator about the world in which we live. He represents the vital energy that comes from the interior as though an explosion. His works are huge polyptycs where every single piece is independent yet is assembled to complete the larger action. His identity is physical, however it is not only linked to the body but to a synchrony between presence and absence of the main part of us that makes each of us unique, our face. It is replaced by expressive apendages which underline the senses.

I proposed an intentional game to the spectator where they can consider themselves, guided by Luca and Mauro’s paintings; through this they will be transported to other dimensions where it may be possible to re-discover their own identities.

Miguel Mallol

Curator and Art Critic

Miguel Mallol is a curator and art critic based in London. After earning a degree in History of Art at the University of Valencia and at the Lancaster University, he worked at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia collaborating with curator Chiara Bertola, both for the Conservation and Exhibition Departments. Among other exhibitions, he was involved in the organization of the exhibition “Where is our place? By Ilya & Emilia Kabakov”. After this experience he worked at the Venice Biennale 2003 and in January 2004. The same year, he became director at Matteo Lo Greco’s Art Gallery, where he collaborated at the organisation of the exhibition “L’Aoristico by Matteo lo Greco” at Galleria Internazionale di Ca’ Pesaro in Venice. In 2005, he moved back to Spain where he curated several private exhibitions. Among them, he worked together with cu-rator Carlos Pérez, at the exhibition “Dos siglos de industrialización en la Comunidad Valenciana” displayed at the MUVIM in Valencia, where he also started a collaboration as writer and art critic at El Mundo newspaper.

In 2007 he returned to Venice where he worked with artists such as Gaspare Manos for the solo exhibition “Urbis” at the Diocesan Museum of Venice; with Marco Tagliapietra at the installation “L’Isola dei Ciclopi” at Container Art and in 2008, at the Venice Architecture Biennale where he worked for the Spanish Pavilion. He collaborated with Mausi Viladomiu and the Fundació Ramon Llull for the Official Opening of the first Catalan Pavilion at the Visual Arts Venice Biennale 2009.

He moved in London in 2011, where he worked in collaboration with several galleries. He has curated independent projects and participated curating three rooms at Artrooms2015, International Contemporary Art Fair. Since December 2014, he is Exhibition Curator at Le Dame Art Gallery at Meliá White House Hotel.

Miguel Mallol

Born in Naples, Luca Indraccolo left Italy to pursue a career in advertising. This 15 year long career took him from Germa-ny, to New York and eventually London. He gave up a position as a creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi London to pursue a new career as a fine art painter. Having started his art training in New York, Luca moved first to Florence then London to study painting. He is now based in London working as an artist.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS2015 ArtRooms 2015 Fair, London2014 Are you sitting comfortably? Simmons Contemporary, London2013 Annual Exhibition, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Mall Galleries, London2013 Apéritiv, An Exhibition of Emerging Contemporary Figurative Artists, London2012 Peeps: Paintings by Luca Indraccolo and Sally Jane Fuerst, Netil 000, London 2012 The Other Art Fair, London2012 Group exhibition, T5 Gallery, London2012 Cork Street Open Exhibition Prize Winners’ Show, London2011 London lives Exhibition, Bankside Gallery2011 Cork Street Open Exhibition, London2011 Annual Exhibition, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Mall Galleries, London2010 Cork Street Open Exhibition, London

Luca Indraccolo

SMF •68•3•77•48•10, 2015Oil on canvas140x250cm

SMF•75•1•7•76, 2013Oil on canvas75x140cm

SMF•80•17•8•90•37, 2014Oil on canvas90x140cm

SMF•89•50•6•79, 2014. Oil on canvas.80x140cm

SMF•85•34•48•81,2014. Oil on canvas. 80x140cm

Born in Rome in 1977. In 1995 he graduates at the Art School IV Alessandro Caravillani in Rome. After this experience, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, where he began his first painting experiences and experiments with etching, until 2001, when he graduated in Artistic Anatomy evolution and deformation of the human figure. For three years he followed the course of the Scuola dell’Arte della Medaglia in Zecca dello Stato, meanwhile he begins his collaboration at the Printing House of the Art of Etching Luigi Ferranti, which still often visits. Since 1998, there are many exhibitions in which he participates both collective and personal, in Italy and abroad. He still lives and works in Rome

Featured solo exhibitions :“Il peccato” , Galleria Studio S , Rome (IT) , 2006“La maschera ed il gioco” , Galleria Triphe , Cortona (IT), 2010“Mauro Molle” , David Hocquet Gallery , Charleroy (Belgium) , 2011“Decostruzioni” , Galleria Horti Lamiani Bettivò , Rome (IT), 2011“In-Personale”, Mondrian Suite Gallery , Rome (IT), 2013“Stop E-motion” , Galleria Spazio Cima , Rome (IT), 2014

Featured collective exhibitions :“Ombre,Uomini” , Palazzo Ruspoli , Cerveteri (IT), 2011“Sintassi del 3” , Galleria Archè , Rome (IT), 2012“Effetti Speciali” , S. Maria Gualtieri , Pavia (IT), 2013“Accrochage” , Galleria Spazio Unico , Bologne (IT), 2013 “Cambio di stagione”, Galleria Edarcom Europa , Rome (IT), 2014“Aliens” ,Casa di Ludovico Ariosto , Ferrara (IT), 2014

Mauro Molle

“A 5” , Domus Art Gallery , Atene , 2015

Actor, 2015Oil and mixed technique on canvas160x180 cm

Atterraggio, 2015Oil and mixed technique on canvas150x190 cm

Ego, 2015Oil and mixed technique on canvas140x160 cm

La Vittima, 2014Oil on canvas140x200cm

Il Carnefice, 2014Oil on canvas180x150cm

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