NEW YORK, NY.- Bortolami will present an exhibition of new and recent works by Diana Al Hadid, Leonardo Meoni, Jonathan Okoronkwo, Claudio Parmiggiani, and Yunyao Zhang. The two-dimensional artworks produced by these five artists forego painting’s traditional materials; while their approaches vary, the artists’ practices are united by a shared turn toward more experimental modes of image-making. In their use of unexpected pigments and supports, the artists establish painting as an expansive field of possibilities in arrangement and form, marking the latest transformation in a long lasting technology. Hailing from and working across the globe, the artists’ materials conjure specific contexts of production, from national art historical movements to industrial trade.
One of the most prominent figures of postwar Italian art, Claudio Parmiggiani began his Delocazioni (Italian for “displacement”) series in 1970, under the eave of the crisis and subsequent reinvention of the visual arts in Italy. Now in its fifth decade, the series consists of works produced with only smoke and soot, which coat the surfaces of objects that, once removed, trace their outlines. Shelves of books, in this case, are compiled to simulate a library. This now iconic technique, resulting in these spectral impressions, recalls the twin shadows of art history post-World War II, Arte Povera and Minimalism, which are both defined by their own forms of asceticism and material restraint.
The gypsum, steel, and fiberglass materials employed by Syrian-born, New York based Diana Al-Hadid underline image-making as a literal act of construction. In the artist’s hands, this construction is a form of world-building which skirts the particularities of time and place; Al-Hadid’s abstracted forms have depicted sanctified sites, ancient civilizations, skyscrapers, and colonial expansionist projects alike. Her reticulated surfaces imply retrieved narratives, as quasi-legible interfaces are caught in moments of disintegration.
Italian artist Leonardo Meoni’s subtle and deft interplays are the result of velvet acting as both support and medium. Through subtle manipulations of the textile’s fibers, the artist reveals a poetic interplay of imagery emerging as a nuanced chiaroscuro. Eschewing paintbrushes, Meoni works with his hands and every day tools–from the backs of paintbrushes, to gardening tools, and hardware–caressing and directing the velvet’s nap to shape form. The resulting compositions form a theater of shadows; they appear as if transitory and delicate, but remain unwavering and steadfast in their presence.
Ghanaian artist Jonathan Okoronkwo repurposes industrial fragments—motor oil, metal paste, plywood—pollutant metals notably sourced from Suame Magazine, one of West Africa’s largest scrapyards in Kumasi, Ghana. Discarded at the end of global cycles of use, these salvages are granted a second life in Okoronwo’s hands, their surfaces registering the friction, endurance, and eventual decay from which they bear witness. In his compositions, machinery stripped of utility reemerge as surrogates for the human body, quietly mirroring cycles of invention, wear, and obsolescence tied to conditions of human mortality. Okoronwo’s titles, derived from snippets of pidgin overheard in the scrapyard, further situate his oeuvre within a site shaped by labor, translation, and shared, fragmented language.
Yunyao Zhang’s The Connector series investigates the transformation of material and perception through an extended process of drawing with graphite on felt. Repeated application gradually darkens the artist’s surfaces, producing fields of black and grey that foreground materiality as both a physical condition and a visual experience. Defined by organic forms, symmetrical structures, and a consistent scale, the series reflects an interest in rhythm, balance, and repetition emerging from material-driven processes rather than representation. The recent works draw from a fragment of an armchair designed by Patricia Urquiola in 2000, recontextualized within the meditative spatial atmosphere of On Kawara’s gallery at Dia Beacon. Flowing organic lines are counterbalanced by dispersed black rectangular elements, creating a stark black-and white contrast revealing a quiet, underlying force and inviting sustained, contemplative viewing.
