Slewe Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the second duo exhibition in a row this spring with new works by two Italian artists Domenico Bianchi and Nunzio. They are both internationally well-known artists of the same generation and have been friends for a long time. Especially for this joint exhibition they made together works in ceramics. It is the first time that Slewe Gallery shows work by Nunzio. Bianchi has had several solo presentations at Slewe Gallery before. The exhibition opens Saturday 2 April and will run until 7 May 2022.
Domenico Bianchi is known for his paintings made with his own developed technique of mixing wax and oil paint, sometimes combined with Palladium leaf. His images with a perpetuum mobile motive derive from computer program stills. In the exhibition he will show some new paintings made with this technique as well as some small new water colours on paper.
Bianchi, born in 1955, lives and works in Rome. He studied at Fine Art Academy in Rome. His career started in 1977 with his first solo show at Ugo Ferranti in New York. In the eighties he became known as one of the emerging artists of the so-called La Nuova Scuola Romana and exhibited his work alongside Arte Povera artists, such as Kounellis and Mario Merz. He had his first show in the Netherlands at Riekje Swart in 1980. Several European museums made solo shows of his work, such as at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1994, and at MACRO in Rome in 2003. He participated in several Venice Biennials, in1993 as a solo artist. Since 1998 he shows regularly at Christian Stein in Milan. Slewe Gallery shows his work since 2009.
Nunzio is known for his abstract sculptures made of lead and burnt wood. In sculpture he explores the language of form and its relationship to space. Forcing the limits of the visible, he tries to create works of architectural breadth that weave substance, body and void into a rhythmic balance. The exhibition will feature three new lead bas-reliefs and three burnt wood sculptures along with the ceramics made in collaboration with Bianchi
Nunzio di Stefano was born in 1954 in Cagnano Amiterno, L’Aquila. He studied at the Fine Arts Academy of Rome, taking his diploma on the course held by Toti Scialoja. In 1973 he set up a studio at the former Cerere Pasta Factory, in the Roman quarter of San Lorenzo, where Bruno Ceccobelli, Gianni Dessì, Giuseppe Gallo, Piero Pizzi Cannella and Marco Tirelli would also work. After his first solo show in 1981, at the Galleria Spatia in Bolzano, in 1984 he exhibited large size sculptures in plaster at the Galleria L’Attico in Rome. Works in plaster and burnt wood were brought together in 1987 for a solo show held at the Galleria Civica in Modena. In 1995 Nunzio was invited to the Venice Biennale with a personal room that received Honourable Mention. Since then, he exhibited worldwide. Nunzio currently lives and works in Rome and Turin.