Mimmo Scognamiglio Gallery is pleased to present S'avreschida de su sambene, sas istellas de su coro (The dawn of blood, the stars of the heart), the first solo exhibition in Milan by Giuseppe Mulas (Alghero, 1995). Curated by Demetrio Paparoni, the exhibition presents a new cycle of works, including a large pictorial composition on tyre scales mounted on a concave steel panel. Entitled Manzànu (Morning), the work is displayed slightly detached from the wall. As a whole, the exhibition design tends to make the individual works and the gallery space perceived as an indivisible unit.
Mulas' work has autobiographical traits and is inspired by everyday life. In particular, the works in this exhibition stem from his recent experience earlier this year when he travelled for four months to the Amazon regions and shared his habits and experiences with members of an indigenous rainforest community for a month. Impressed by the indigenous people's use of discarded and recycled tyres to create everyday objects, upon his return to Italy, Mulas created The Vital Connection of a Creeper, a large sculpture made of recycled tyre rubber. A contemporary version of the snake enveloping Laocoon, the sculpture is composed of scale-like rubber cuttings. Installed in Syracuse at the Antico Mercatodi Ortigia, curated by Demetrio Paparoni, The Vital Connection of a Creeper also gave a twist to the artist's pictorial production, which in several cases replaced the canvas used as a support for his paintings with a weave made from recycled tyre scales. This technique plays a role in the perception of the painting, which is also recognisable in the way the artist combines charcoal, pastels, spray, enamel and acrylic and oil paint.
In the works on show in Milan, Mulas makes the recent experience he had in Amazonia interact with the rural world of his childhood spent in Sardinia. His figuration, often surreal, includes animals and objects, such as sinks or pots, inherent in domestic settings. In one of the paintings, Flew away beyond the sunset of the clouds with the whole load of milk, a donkey carries a barrel of milk from the clouds towards infinity; in Instellas, the hands of a Sardinian farmer emerge from the clouds to cut prickly pears growing in the sky. A recurring element in Mulas's figuration are the braided hair, which in the artist's imagination recalls the lianas that reach from above towards the earth. Yellows, reds and blues predominate in the artist's palette, always bright, recalling the colours of Matisse, the Nabis or the Fauves.
In Milan, works by Mulas were recently presented in the exhibition Five Young Emerging Artists, in the Intesa Sanpaolo Lounge at miart, curated by Luca Beatrice. Paintings by Mulas are also currently on display in the exhibition Sensing Painting. Works from the Fondazione CRC Art Collection, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Marcella Beccaria (until 28 January2024) at the Castello di Rivoli.
Press release courtesy Mimmo Scognamiglio Artecontemporanea.
Via Goito, 7
Milan, 20121
Italy
mimmoscognamiglio.com
+39 02 3652 6809
Monday – Friday
11am – 7pm
Saturday
By appointment only