EXPLOSION

Ben Grasso, Anna Visani

MEET THE ARTISTS
Wednesday May 2 2007 6.30 pm
Vittoria Coen and Viola Emaldi interview the artists
Auditorium Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center Via Belmeloro 11 Bologna

May 3 – June 22 2007
Agenzia04 is proud to announce the opening of Explosion, a two person show by Ben Grasso and Anna Visani.
The project presents the work of the New York based artist, Ben Grasso (1979), and the Italian artist, Anna Visani (Faenza, 1973). Using painting and installation, they differently represent moments of shock or chaos determining a revolution on human life. Their works explore the sense of instability and fragility of all things around us due to natural and artificial events like explosions, car accidents, tornados.
In Ben Grasso the idea of apocalypse and destruction is always occurring, his work is not presenting something impossible or particular but instead representing something contingent, a re-imagining of what actually exists, a re-alignment of logic that makes plastic the anxiety underlying objects in the world. Referring sometimes to our current social and political climate, he tries to show a personal viewpoint by re-inventing the relationship between destructions and day by day life.
Anna Visani’s installations represent tri-dimensional explosions entering the viewer space.
Drawings, pictures and abstractions together with objects of different textures and types, become elements of the work site-specific. The artist wants to create a real physical relation with the architectural structures and the aesthetic elements that already exist in a place. She tries to make perceivable a certain atmosphere, to give a sense of freshness and energy.

With this second exhibition related to the American contemporary art, after the last year show New York New Work, Agenzia04 intends to continue in its aim of creating a special connection between Bologna and New York, and giving collectors the opportunity to become familiar with and the new trends in contemporary research.
In the occasion of the artists’ coming to Bologna it will be held as a preview a round table in cooperation with the Association Friends of the Johns Hopkins University of Bologna. Vittoria Coen and Viola Emaldi will interview the artists and give the public the possibility of knowing this last generation of artists in depth.

Ben Grasso
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, 1979. Lives and works in New York. 2006 MFA, Hunter CUNY, New York. 2003 BFA for Painting, The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland. 2006 Solo show at Sixtyseven, New York. Group shows: Monumenta Art: Benifit 2006, Monumenta, Brooklyn, NY and White Columns, New York; The Witching Hour, Bucketrider Galley, Chicago, IL. He has been presented in international fairs in the U.S. and Europe: Pulse, Scope, Art Chicago, Fiac, Kunst Zurich.

Anna Visani
Born in Faenza1973, lives and works in Faenza and Berlino. Solo and group shows: Ouverture, Artisti in residenza, curated by Daniela Lotta, Ex Eggs Gallery, New York; EuroStar, curated by Dede Auregli, Spazio Aperto, Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna; Gemine Muse, curated by Alberto Zanchetta, Museo Civico Archeologico, Bologna. Awards: selected for the Carmen Silvestroni Award catalogue, ForIì; selected for the Iceberg competition, photography section, Bologna; winner for RAM visual arts section, Ravenna; winner of the Fondazione Zucchelli competition.

Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday 3 – 7 pm or by appointment

For further information please contact Giulia Allegri ph +39 333 3781246 e-mail gallegri@agenzia04.com

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