Anatomy, Persona, and the Moment Exhibition

Anatomy, Persona, and the Moment

70‘s Experimental Photographs of Luigi Di Sarro

Curated By Giovanna Pennacchi & Allen Frame
Opening reception: Tuesday, May 25th, 6 – 8pm
Exhibition: May 25 – July 3, 2010

There will be a special screening of Oscar Riquelme‘s video, Painted Dance, at the opening reception.

Baxter St at CCNY and the Centro Luigi Di Sarro in Rome are proud to bring to New York for the first time the 1970‘s experimental photographs of Luigi Di Sarro, an Italian artist who died in 1979 at the age of 37 and is now being rediscovered. In this exhibition of his photographs, Anatomy, Persona, and the Moment, Di Sarro‘s exploration of time, space, motion, and the body is conveyed with sensual theatricality. Many of these photographs are self–portraits, including luscious Cibachrome color prints, a process that has now become almost obsolete. Di Sarro himself makes a striking model, as do his various girlfriends. Like Eadweard Muybridge, he depicts an everyday activity like walking as a fragmented multiple–exposure performance of his nude figure crossing the room, bringing a sense of magic to the mundane. In other images he ”writes“ with light, creating through long exposures a frenzied energy field of blinding illumination. His luminous world is one of instability, hypothesis, and desire.

Bios:

Di Sarro, whose body of work encompassed painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture, was a doctor and artist and taught Anatomy for Artists at the Academy of Art in Rome. After his death his family established the Centro Luigi Di Sarro, a space in the Prati section of Rome that houses his archive and serves as a venue for emerging art and photography. This exhibition is a selection from the Di Sarro archive and is co–curated by Giovanna Pennacchi of Rome and New York photographer Allen Frame and co–presented by the Centro Luigi Di Sarro and the Baxter St at CCNY.

Already in various museums and private collections in Italy and abroad, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome and Centre Pompidou in Paris, Di Sarro‘s work is gaining in exposure. In April, 2010, the MAM, Museo d‘Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Gazoldo degli Ippoliti–Mantua, presented an exhibition of his work at the Biennale d‘Arte Fotografica Postumia 2010. Now, for the first time, New Yorkers have the chance to encounter a significant part of his oeuvre.