Curated by Greta Scarpa
4.02.2021 / 18.04.2021
BITCORP for ART
via Enrico Besana 11, Milano
Photos: Luca Matarazzo
BITCORP for ART presents Nicole Colombo’s (Monza 1991) first solo exhibition. Its title, SAM, introduces a fictional character – not well identified – created by the artist. Their body, void of gender traits and without a position in time and space, is deconstructed throughout the different areas of the exhibition, both through drawings and sculptural forms.
The artworks on display have an in-your-face approach, that, at times, can even become
aggressive and repulsive. It represents the initial relationship that the artist wants to create between the work and the viewer, underlined by a subtle violence, which reflects and refers to the omnipresent violence in our society. The drawings opening the show are the actual emotional introduction to a state of alertness. Those are parts, elements or fluids of SAM depicted by the artist. Some are veiled by an opaque surface, suggesting that the character is losing clarity of the character – as if SAM’s sight was slowly abandoning them. Some of the sculptures in the exhibition, like the cigarettes and the ashtray, are instead the manifestation
of the rhythm and rituality that characterized SAM before their collapse, and are also guiding us to the main works: Agitating chunks of matter in uncertain space and A friend of mine once told me something about a phantom limb. Nicole Colombo’s approach to sculpture becomes in these two works; it begins by questioning volume, structure, and the beauty of functional details, focusing clearly on the sensual handling of materials.
The concept of avatar, and the use and creation of fictional artwork-characters inside Nicole Colombo’s art-practice turns into a noble tool for the imagination. The body becomes a narrative surface, manipulated and brought to its extremes.
The artist asks viewers to interact with the story she begun, giving room to personal
memories and their interaction with the artworks’ identities, creating a continuous
juxtaposition where details, experiences, feelings and gestures are the common platform onto which this story is written.
Nicole Colombo, born in Monza in 1991. Lives and works in Milan. Among the collective exhibitions in which she tooks part we mention: SUV curated by Pane Project at BSMNT (Leipzig, 2018); First I Have To Put My Face On curated by Christina Gigliotti at Like a Little Disaster (Polignano a Mare, 2018); Jollies, at Officina 500 curated by Gelateria Sogni di Ghiaccio (Torino, 2017); Paradise on Mars , at OJ Art Space (Istanbul) curated by Erdem Çetrez (2017); Kodomo No Hi, at Sonnenstube, Lugano (2017); Bubble Tea, curated by Pane Project, Milano (2016); Academy Awards 2015 , at Viafarini (Milano). Also participates in several publications including The oranges of the Sunrise, in collaboration with Alberta Romano curated by Media Naranja (Marseille); The EPC* where she creates illustrations for the text written by Alberta Romano and curated by Sink (London); Takecare #2 curated by Roberta Mansueto.