LONDON.- Want to feel better? How about taking a good dose of art? The four artists in this show are all fighting for the belief that there is a better future, but the route there is unclear or at best glimpsed in broken pieces. One painting by Linda Carrara could be a window or a door but it is impenetrable. Others evoke memories of easier, dreamier times. Pavel Pepperstein and Jeanne Susplugas let us snatch at snippets of floating existence. Susplugas is looking to find temporary relief from ‘Disorder’. She wants to reorder our chemical make-up with the aid of a few mind-bending books and pills. Carlos Noronha Feio has adopted a traditionally feminine reproach to masculine violence. His rugs seem like an attempt to mend time with stitches. He has looked at Afghan rugs of the 1970s and 1980s which literally depict ultimately doomed Soviet aggression in the mountains that refuse to be conquered. He has examined his own Portuguese roots and the 17th century Arraiolos, the makers of which were escaping the Catholic Inquisition. Their tapestries look back to the glorious days when Muslims, Jews and Christians lived happily side by side. Pavel Pepperstein gives us a Suprematist Napo Leon. Pepperstein explains that ‘Napoleon comes as the blue-faced Shiva – the god of destruction, war and of something which is really fucked up’ and is ‘reincarnated in at least two forms – a cake and cognac.’ By deconstructing the French dictator, we can take shards of a brilliant legacy, but he had to be defeated first – and luckily the Russians did that. So let us hope that our visitors enjoy their dose of medicine and get high on ‘The Highest Degree of Human Wisdom.’ Or in the reputed words of Marie-Antoinette ‘let them eat cake.’ Above and beyond this let us mend the world.
Text by Alistair Hicks
Linda Carrara (Bergamo, 1984) graduated from the Brera Fine Arts Academy in Milan, then continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in Gent. She was a studioassistant for Vincenzo Ferrari (2006-2012) and for MichaëlBorremans in 2015.
Lives and works in Milan and Brussels.
Her works have been exhibited at Triennale Milano (2023), PublicService Gallery, Stockholm (2023) Boccanera GalleryTrento/Milan (2023-2019-2016), MAC Lissone (2023), ICA Foundation Milan (2022) Centrul de Interes a Cluj-Napoca, Romania (2022), Palazzo Reale, Milan (2021) Floris-RomerMuseum of Gyor, Hungary (2021) Rizzuto Gallery Palermo (2020), Istituto Italiano di Bruxelles (2018) Blanco Space Gent (2017), L.A.C. Center d'Art Contemporaine Sigean, France (2015) andmany others.
Winner of the Terna Award in the Painting section (2014).
She participated to different residencies such as MOMENTUM Berlin (2015), LKV Trondheim Norway (2016), NCCA St. Petersburg (2017) and soon at Le Manoir Center d' ArtContemporain in France..
Jeanne Susplugas (France, 1974) ihas an Art History PhD from the University Paris I-Panthéon Sorbonne (Paris).
Alienation and addiction are recurring themes that she explores in her work. She uses various mediums: video art, photography, installation, drawing. Her work has been exhibited around the world at KunstWerke, Berlin (G), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (F); Villa Medicis, Roma (I), Muséed’Art Moderne, St Etienne (F), PAN, Napoli (I), Kunstverein Nuremberg (G), MOCCA (Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art), Toronto (C), Alexandria and Shangai Biennales, among others.
Her films have been projected in numerous places as the 59 International Film Festival (Locarno), 9e Festival Traverse video, In/Out festival (Prague), Miami International Film Festival, Hors Pistes (Centre Pompidou, Paris) among others.
Her work has been reviewed in magazines and newspapers as New York Times, Art Pulse, Dare, Art Press, BT, Art in America, Le Monde, Libération, UN, La Libre Belgique among others..She participated to different residencies such as MOMENTUM Berlin (2015), LKV Trondheim Norway (2016), NCCA St. Petersburg (2017) and soon at Le Manoir Center d' ArtContemporain in France..
Pavel Pepperstein (Moscow, 1966) studied at The Academy of Fine Arts in Prague from 1985 to 1987. He is famous as co-founder of an art group Inspection Medical Hermeneutics, which marked a new stage in development of Moscow Romantic Conceptualism.
His works have been presented in numerous solo exhibitions: in Sprovieri Gallery in London (2021), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2019), Kunsthaus Zug (2017), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Saint-Etienne (2015), etc. He participated in group shows such as at Musée de l’Armée -- Les Invalides in Paris (2021), Centre George Pompidou in Paris (2017), Pera Museum in Istanbul (2017), Castello di Rivoli in Turin (2012), Musée du Louvre in Paris (2010).
Pavel Pepperstein represented Russia at 53th Venice Biennale in 2009 and participated in Manifesta 10 (2014). Selected collections: Centre Georges Pompidou, Albertina Museum, Kunstmuseum Basel, TretyakovState gallery.
Carlos Noronha Feio (Lisbon, 1981) graduated from Royal College of Art in London (PHD).
Noronha Feio's diverse practice includes actions, performance, video, drawing, painting, photography, rug works and installation. He consumes, manipulates, juxtaposes and performs or re-sites media as research into cultural, local and global identity. He frequently adopts culturally significant images, locations and symbols as a form of creative interference with meaning, and demonstrates the almost arbitrary nature in which cultural significance is adopted or interpreted.
His works have been exhibited at SE8 Gallery, London (2023), Centro de Arte Contemporânea de Coimbra, Portugal (2023), narrative projects gallery, London (2019), 3+1 Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon (2019), Biblioteca de Arte Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2018), and many others.
Selected public collections include Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea — Museu do Chiado, Portugal, MAR-Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saatchi gallery, London and many others.
Shtager&Shch
The Highest Degree of Human Wisdom: Carlos Noronha Feio | Linda Carrara | Jeanne Susplugas | Pavel Pepperstein
March 6th - April 12th, 2024
Curated by Alistair Hicks
