This time, at the center of his research is the purest 24- karat gold, the alchemical symbol par excellence that has often been at the center of contemporary artistic debate, from Yves Klein to James Lee Byars. Even the price of the famous box of Artist’s Shit by Piero Manzoni had a price equivalent to the weight of 30 grams of gold. Matteo Negri realizes his own provocation on an aesthetic level, enhancing the iridescent and shining power of the work that is reflected in the gaze of the viewer, the artist’s involuntary accomplice.
In this game of mirrors, the jewel-work proposed by Negri takes on an infinite number of combinations and each piece of the Lego becomes part of a renewed three-dimensional abstract code where the color hides between the bricks and can only be grasped by approaching it from the side.
Matteo Negri, Artist Portrait in the Exhibition „Ho mangiato una idea“. Photographer: Elena Datrino
Matteo Negri, overturning the famous text by Giorgio Gaber, ate an idea and so did his revolution, explains Alberto Fiz. The use of gold is in itself a provocation and becomes the ironic mirror of an opulent society. The artist, however, does not allow himself to be seduced by appearance and uses the precious alloy to invent new solutions, poised between minimalism and Jeff Koons. The artist confirms his experimental vocation in the coherence of a research that on this occasion works in the rigor of the square format, focusing more and more attention on the dialogue between the external and internal space of the work itself.
Exhibition: Matteo Negri. Ho mangiato un’idea.
Exhibition Duration: 20.11.2021 – 15.01.2022
Address and contact:
ArteA Gallery
Corso Buenos Aires 5, 20124 Milano
www.arteagallery.it
