Splendide Creature
SECCI Gallery, at its Pietrasanta location on Via Giuseppe Garibaldi 10, is pleased to announce the exhibition “SPLENDIDE CREATURE”, a group show curated by Chiara Guidi, opening on Friday, July 11th at 7:00 PM.
SPLENDIDE CREATURE is a tribute to Dora Maar—the photographer, innovator, and poet of biomorphic visions—and more specifically to the Dora Maar of 1934’s Untitled Hand-Shell, where she celebrates the iconic female and marine creature, opening up to a metaphorical, allusive figuration.
The exhibition traverses historical bestiaries, from medieval ones to those rooted in literary sources, and to imaginary ones enriched with mythologies reinterpreted in our time.
In unexpected ways and through the diverse techniques of the participating artists, SPLENDIDE CREATURE offers a renewed sense of humanity within a domesticated category of both real and fantastic animals. After a century of Surrealism, these beings have found their place in details, in new configurations, in altered dimensions—forming a chapter of an ethology not yet written, but already practiced in contemporary art.
If Leonardo, through his art and science, left us both anatomical studies and fantastical creatures from the animal world, Julio Cortázar, in Animalia, compelled us to grasp the stillness of the axolotl, as he himself, through their shadowy movements, became one of them. In the same way, SPLENDIDE CREATURE allows us to practice both Leonardo’s approach to knowledge of each individual creature and a still, attentive observation that leads to our identification with the very animals being portrayed.
Participating artists: Atelier Biagetti, Cosimo Casoni, Liam Lee, Marcello Jori, Anastasiya Parvanova, Ottavia Plazza, Barbara Prenka, and Francisca Valador.
With a selection of great masters: Giorgio de Chirico, George Condo, Chico da Silva, Aldo Mondino, and Filippo De Pisis.
SECCI Gallery, at its Pietrasanta location on Via Giuseppe Garibaldi 10, is pleased to announce the exhibition “SPLENDIDE CREATURE”, a group show curated by Chiara Guidi, opening on Friday, July 11th at 7:00 PM.
SPLENDIDE CREATURE is a tribute to Dora Maar—the photographer, innovator, and poet of biomorphic visions—and more specifically to the Dora Maar of 1934’s Untitled Hand-Shell, where she celebrates the iconic female and marine creature, opening up to a metaphorical, allusive figuration.
The exhibition traverses historical bestiaries, from medieval ones to those rooted in literary sources, and to imaginary ones enriched with mythologies reinterpreted in our time.
In unexpected ways and through the diverse techniques of the participating artists, SPLENDIDE CREATURE offers a renewed sense of humanity within a domesticated category of both real and fantastic animals. After a century of Surrealism, these beings have found their place in details, in new configurations, in altered dimensions—forming a chapter of an ethology not yet written, but already practiced in contemporary art.
If Leonardo, through his art and science, left us both anatomical studies and fantastical creatures from the animal world, Julio Cortázar, in Animalia, compelled us to grasp the stillness of the axolotl, as he himself, through their shadowy movements, became one of them. In the same way, SPLENDIDE CREATURE allows us to practice both Leonardo’s approach to knowledge of each individual creature and a still, attentive observation that leads to our identification with the very animals being portrayed.
Participating artists: Atelier Biagetti, Cosimo Casoni, Liam Lee, Marcello Jori, Anastasiya Parvanova, Ottavia Plazza, Barbara Prenka, and Francisca Valador.
With a selection of great masters: Giorgio de Chirico, George Condo, Chico da Silva, Aldo Mondino, and Filippo De Pisis.
Kevin Francis Gray was born in Northern Ireland in 1972. He currently lives and works between London and Pietrasanta.
Kevin Francis Gray has generated bodies of work which address the complex relationship between abstraction and figuration. At the core of the artist’s practice is an interrogation of the intersection of traditional sculptural techniques and contemporary life. Rather than working towards ideals of beauty or memorial, Gray attends to the psychological effects, often relying on textural surfaces rather than facial or bodily expressions. Furthering Gray’s decade of working with marble, his new work pushes the possibilities of the artist’s sculptural practice into new territories of physical and psychological expression.
He received his BA from the National College of Art & Design in Dublin (1995) and the School of Art Institute in Chicago (1996), and then went on to earn an MA in Fine Art from the Goldsmiths College in London. He works closely with the Giannoni marble studio in Pietrasanta, renowned for its use of sculpting techniques that date back to Canova and Michelangelo. His works have been included in exhibitions at the Royal Academy, London, UK; Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, UK; Museum of Contemporary Art of the Val de-Marne, Paris, France; Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam; Palazzo Arti Napoli, Naples, Italy; Musee d’art Moderne, Saint-Etienne, France; ARTIUM, Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel; and Art Space, New York, USA.
Kevin Francis Gray was born in Northern Ireland in 1972. He currently lives and works between London and Pietrasanta.
Kevin Francis Gray has generated bodies of work which address the complex relationship between abstraction and figuration. At the core of the artist’s practice is an interrogation of the intersection of traditional sculptural techniques and contemporary life. Rather than working towards ideals of beauty or memorial, Gray attends to the psychological effects, often relying on textural surfaces rather than facial or bodily expressions. Furthering Gray’s decade of working with marble, his new work pushes the possibilities of the artist’s sculptural practice into new territories of physical and psychological expression.
He received his BA from the National College of Art & Design in Dublin (1995) and the School of Art Institute in Chicago (1996), and then went on to earn an MA in Fine Art from the Goldsmiths College in London. He works closely with the Giannoni marble studio in Pietrasanta, renowned for its use of sculpting techniques that date back to Canova and Michelangelo. His works have been included in exhibitions at the Royal Academy, London, UK; Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, UK; Museum of Contemporary Art of the Val de-Marne, Paris, France; Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam; Palazzo Arti Napoli, Naples, Italy; Musee d’art Moderne, Saint-Etienne, France; ARTIUM, Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel; and Art Space, New York, USA.
Omar Mismar (b.1986 Bekaa Valley, Lebanon; based in Beirut, Lebanon) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work probes the entanglement of art and politics and the aesthetics of disaster. Using material interventions, formal deliberations and translation strategies, Mismar explores conflict and its everyday representations.
Omar Mismar, lives and works in Beirut, pursued a degree in graphic design from the American University of Beirut before furthering his studies in the U.S. through the Fulbright program. He earned two master’s degrees, one in Fine Arts, focusing on social practice, and another in visual and critical studies from the California College of the Arts.
Mismar has exhibited internationally, participating in prominent shows in cities like New York, Paris, Berlin, and Venice. His recent participation in the 2024 Venice Biennale, where he presented a series of contemporary mosaics blending ancient techniques with modern sociopolitical commentary, earned critical acclaim for its nuanced exploration of war and heritage.
He has also been involved in prestigious programs like the Whitney Independent Study Program and has served as a visiting professor at institutions such as the Pratt Institute. Mismar’s work, which often merges ancient and digital media, comments on the “aesthetics of disaster” and the ways in which crises are represented and memorialized in art, particularly in the Middle East. He has received numerous awards and fellowships, cementing his role as a significant voice in contemporary art, both within the Middle Eastern and global contexts.
Omar Mismar (b.1986 Bekaa Valley, Lebanon; based in Beirut, Lebanon) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work probes the entanglement of art and politics and the aesthetics of disaster. Using material interventions, formal deliberations and translation strategies, Mismar explores conflict and its everyday representations.
Omar Mismar, lives and works in Beirut, pursued a degree in graphic design from the American University of Beirut before furthering his studies in the U.S. through the Fulbright program. He earned two master’s degrees, one in Fine Arts, focusing on social practice, and another in visual and critical studies from the California College of the Arts.
Mismar has exhibited internationally, participating in prominent shows in cities like New York, Paris, Berlin, and Venice. His recent participation in the 2024 Venice Biennale, where he presented a series of contemporary mosaics blending ancient techniques with modern sociopolitical commentary, earned critical acclaim for its nuanced exploration of war and heritage.
He has also been involved in prestigious programs like the Whitney Independent Study Program and has served as a visiting professor at institutions such as the Pratt Institute. Mismar’s work, which often merges ancient and digital media, comments on the “aesthetics of disaster” and the ways in which crises are represented and memorialized in art, particularly in the Middle East. He has received numerous awards and fellowships, cementing his role as a significant voice in contemporary art, both within the Middle Eastern and global contexts.
Born in Ancona in 1992, Edoardo Piermattei currently lives and works in To- rino, where, after opening the off-space SpazioBuonasera, together with other five artists in 2015, he opened his first studio in 2016.
His work origines from the shapes – pittorical first, architectural after – be- longing to the medieval and baroque imaginery, moving from the study of the missing fragments in the frescoes inside the Basilica of Assisi. The shapes that the artist traces through his works, mainly made of concrete and pigments, re- present suggestions of vanished or invisible images: the empty space fills itself, the absences become presences.
In April 2018, within the framework of the Italian Villages Project by Airbnb, Piermattei painted a vault with concrete and pigments and created a canopy for a house in Sambuca, Sicily. During Supersalone 2021 in Milan, he presented his first collection of rugs Dagallà in collaboration with the brand CC-tapis.Among his solo shows: Patroni, Galleria Brambilla, Bergamo (2017); Portici, pale, piaz- za, Arte Fiera Bologna (2018); Appunti per un miracolo permanente, Quartz Studio, Turin (2021). Among his group shows: Amore 200 Kulturbanhof, Kassel (2022); Sabaudade, Las Palmas, Lisbon (2019); Innesti, Studio Nucleo, Turin (2018).
Born in Ancona in 1992, Edoardo Piermattei currently lives and works in To- rino, where, after opening the off-space SpazioBuonasera, together with other five artists in 2015, he opened his first studio in 2016.
His work origines from the shapes – pittorical first, architectural after – be- longing to the medieval and baroque imaginery, moving from the study of the missing fragments in the frescoes inside the Basilica of Assisi. The shapes that the artist traces through his works, mainly made of concrete and pigments, re- present suggestions of vanished or invisible images: the empty space fills itself, the absences become presences.
In April 2018, within the framework of the Italian Villages Project by Airbnb, Piermattei painted a vault with concrete and pigments and created a canopy for a house in Sambuca, Sicily. During Supersalone 2021 in Milan, he presented his first collection of rugs Dagallà in collaboration with the brand CC-tapis.Among his solo shows: Patroni, Galleria Brambilla, Bergamo (2017); Portici, pale, piaz- za, Arte Fiera Bologna (2018); Appunti per un miracolo permanente, Quartz Studio, Turin (2021). Among his group shows: Amore 200 Kulturbanhof, Kassel (2022); Sabaudade, Las Palmas, Lisbon (2019); Innesti, Studio Nucleo, Turin (2018).
- Levi van Veluw
- Omar Mismar
