Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam

Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam is very proud to host artist Giorgio Andreotta Calò (1979, lives and works in Venice and Amsterdam) for his second show at the gallery, which will also be the inaugural exhibition for our new venue.

La Scultura Lingua Morta

The opening will be Saturday, August 30, 5pm-8pm.

The show runs till Sunday, September 27th and will coincide with the opening of Homing a group show taking place in the context of the gallery program 4th Floor.
Opening times: Friday to Sunday from 1-6 pm or by appointment

For information and visuals, please contact the gallery: office@wilfriedlentz.com or + 31 (0)10 4126459.

click here to download press release as pdf
The show consists of sculptural pieces, prototypes made of wood and clay, showing us possibilities for a new series of sculptures in bronze and ceramic.

Giorgio Andreotta Calò is interested in the existential relation of man with his environment. Water, wood and fire often play an important role in his work. They stand for the processes of nature which are conditions for human life, but can also be the source of uncontrollable forces causing catastrophes that we can still witness today. The related esoteric and Biblical aspects, expressed throughout centuries by artists and writers in works of art, are also a source of inspiration. His work often ritualizes these existential relationships through visual symbols and metaphors of time, life and death. In the materialization he uses natural materials like wood, stone or bronze, as in his earlier series of Clessidras, which were ‘sculptured by nature and time’ in the form of an hour glass. (Read more about Scolpire il Tempo in a beautiful text by Marco Pasi). Through this way of working Calò can be placed in an Italian tradition of art making from the Renaissance up to modern movements like the Art Povera.

The new sculptures are prototypes produced in the last three months at Calò’s studio in Vignole, an artificial island made of clay, near Venice. The wood sculptures are made from huge remnants of deteriorated oak structures for marine engineering and the clay is extracted in small columns from the seabed in the laguna in Venice. They are formed by the artist in a process of experimenting, to develop potentialities for new series of work.

Calò’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions. In recent years he has had solo exhibitions at Peep-Hole, Milan (IT), SMART Project Space, Amsterdam (NL), the Fondazione Galleria Civica, Trento (IT). Some Biennials and group shows he participated in recently are: Premio Italia Arte Contemporanea 2012 (laureate), Maxxi, Rome (IT), the Venice Biennial (2011), the XIV Carrara Biennial (2010), The Wight Biennial, in Los Angeles (2010), Sindrome Italiana at Le Magasin, Grenoble (FR), Nocturnes at Museion, Bolzano (IT). He has orchestrated public interventions in Rome (Temporaneo 2011 – Nomas Foundation) and Bologna (Monumento ai Caduti, 2010). Calò has won numerous prizes and he has had residencies at Villa Arson, Nice (FR) and the Rijksakademie Amsterdam (NL).