GENEVA.- Gagosian Geneva presents an exhibition of recent paintings by Alberto Di Fabio.
For over twenty years, Di Fabio has investigated the imagery of biology, astrology, and other natural systems through painting. The son of an artist and a scientist, he drew mineral and floral structures from textbooks from an early age. Taking the microscopic and the cosmic as subjects, he imbues neurons, photons, stars and galaxies with sublime gestural dimensions, and seeks to impart optical energies that transcend the physical artwork. His portrayal of these universal building blocks and celestial bodies—which he characterizes as "the heartbeat of our planet, the movement of the cosmic dance"—comprises an alternative realism, augmented by sophisticated flourishes which echo painterly impulses from Vorticism and Op art to Abstract Expressionism. Di Fabio has also experimented with digital photomontage and environmental actions. In 2000 he purchased an entire valley on the island of Ponza, where he planted approximately two hundred trees, converted a cave into a liveable home, and has since hosted exhibitions and concerts.
Di Fabio's latest works are inspired by recent research conducted at CERN in Geneva, where scientists discovered the elusive Higgs boson or "God particle" in 2012, which is thought to give mass to all matter. Meticulously painted magnetic fields drift through spattered monochromatic atmospheres, fusing deliberate representation with expressionist improvisation. Neurons, photons, stars and galaxies overlap in fluid conflations of microscopic and astronomical subjects that evoke extrasensory kinetic visions, while intricate symmetries allude to familiar forms such as seeds, tentacles, and branches. In Specchi della mente / Mirrors of the Mind (2012), viscous blue neurons swirl through a neutral grey background speckled with black and white, while Campi magnetici / Magnetic Fields (2013) depicts brilliant purple bursts suspended in a starry black void. Evincing lyricism out of the invisible foundations of life, Di Fabio continues to project ecstatic gesture through natural form.
Alberto Di Fabio was born in Avezzano, Italy in 1966, and lives and works in Rome. Solo exhibitions include Museum der Moderne Rupertinum Betriebsges, Salzburg, Austria (1996); Magazin 4, Bregenzer Kunstverein (1997); Palazzo Collicola Arti Visive, Spoleto (2011); Galleria Nazionale D'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome (2012); Mairie du 4 arrondissement, Paris (2013); and Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London (2013). Selected group exhibitions include "The Return of Exquisite Corpse," The Drawing Center, New York (1993); Beijing International Art Biennial (2005); National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi (2007); XV Esposizione Quadriennale d'Arte di Roma, Palazzo delle Esposizioni Roma (2008); "Elevazioni e permutazioni" Museo Ebraico di Venezia (2011); National Gallery, Dublin (2011); and Procuratie Vecchie, Venice (2013).
A major exhibition of Di Fabio's work will be on view at Castel Sant'Elmo, Naples from May 15–June 5, 2014.
It is a magnification and transformation of the microcosmic, of the microcellular, of micro-organisms. I look to the great abstract artists like Motherwell, Kline, Pollock, De Kooning, but all my work comes from a vision of real nature. —Alberto Di Fabio
