BLU

Walls around

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OPENING:  Saturday, 19 March 2007 – H 6.00 pm

21 March 2007 – 19 May 2007

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Text by ANNA LONGO

Artericambi gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition “Walls Around” of the artist Blu. Having got rid of the graffiti legacy that involved the creation of the now mannerist writings on the walls and renounced the tag, as an element of authorial recognition, Blu (1981) offers us a wider imaginary, full of contemporary symbologies that mix in a sign dance with a very personal style.

His work can be traced back, in a genealogical line, to that trend born with the graffiti art of the late 70s and reached the honors of critics and the market in the 80s with the most famous Haring and Basquiat, but the character at times raw and hybrid of the issues addressed, as well as the innovative relationship between sign and architecture, seems to provide new poles of interest towards street art and its presuppositions. For Blu, the intervention in urban space remains fundamental, as an expressive form that aims at a casual, but almost violent encounter, with a wider audience and a transfiguration of places often characterized by the monotonous grayness typical of the city suburbs. Instead, style and language appear renewed that reflect a contemporary background where comics and cartoons become important inspirational elements. It is not a question of the shouted affirmation of the self of the craftsman, as happened among writers, but of the elaboration of a universe of images which, traceable in different cities, countries and continents, themselves outline the profile of a nomadic existence. in continuous creative evolution. On the occasion of this person, therefore, an acknowledgment will be presented that can bring us closer to both the poetics and the way of working of this artist.

Blu, Untitled, 2007 – Watercolors and drawing on paper, 15,7 x 11,8 inch

Some drawings on paper from the sketch book will be visible, a visual notebook used as a preliminary phase of each ideation. Blu, in fact, proceeds by collecting his own repertoire of images on paper with the dual function of design and testimony for paintings whose permanence on the walls becomes rather ephemeral. However, the invitation will be to leave the exhibition space for an authentic encounter with an expressive form that must necessarily happen in the spaces of the city, in the encounter with the places and with those who find themselves passing through. Blu has taken part in numerous personal and collective exhibitions, in public and private spaces, both in Italy and abroad.

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Blu, Untitled (1,2,3,4), 2007 – Drawing on paper, 15,7 x 11,8 inch