Roberto Almagno’s wood sculptures defy all sense of gravity
![A new solo exhibition by Italian sculptor Roberto Almagno](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/2ovzWom2u3AA3AwoYECW2S-415-80.jpg)
Italian artist Roberto Almagno returns to London for his second UK solo show, ‘Suspended in Space’, bringing with him a new brood of gravity-defying sculptures. Opening today at Rosenfeld Porcini gallery in Fitzrovia, the show focuses on recent sculptures, including a handful of earlier works.
Born in Aquino in 1941, the artist trained under sculptors Giuseppe Mazzullo and Pericle Fazzini at various fine art institutions. Almagno has long been interested in wood, sourcing raw materials from the forests surrounding Rome, where he is based. The artist is known for his dark timber sculptures that are often mistaken for metal.
'Tremula', 2004
Last year marked a significant turn in Almagno’s practice, when he produced a gargantuan installation that mimicked painted string. ‘I realised that art was, above all, humility,’ Almagno once explained of his sculptures. ‘I want to make sculptures which seem to rise into the sky with force yet remain full of harmony; works that express the prayer and sacrifice of men when faced with time and infinite space.’
To wit, the Rosenfeld Porcini exhibition explores the contrast between his past and present works. On the one hand, his older sculptures command the space with their boldness, on the other hand, his newer pieces are looser and freer, as though the artist has drawn in mid-air. At their core however, these two threads of work are tied by Almagno’s continuing interest with lightness; it’s a breath of fresh of air to see an artist embracing creative duality with such finesse.
Col guinzaglio tra le dita 2, 2015
Installation view of 'Suspended in Space' at Rosenfeld Porcini
Col guinzaglio tra le dita, 2015
Scettro, 2015
Frontiera, 2011
Velario, 2009-2010
INFORMATION
‘Suspended in Space’ runs until 13 February 2016. For more information, visit the Rosenfeld Porcini website
ADDRESS
37 Rathbone Street
London W1T 1N
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
The Mercury Prize nominees for 2024 have been revealed
Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Beth Gibbons are amongst this year's nominees
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
‘Mental health, motherhood and class’: Hannah Perry’s dynamic installation at Baltic
Hannah Perry's exhibition ’Manual Labour’ is on show at Baltic in Gateshead, UK, a five-part installation drawing parallels between motherhood and factory work
By Emily Steer Published
-
Francis Alÿs plots child play around the world at the Barbican
In Francis Alÿs' exhibition ‘Ricochets’ at London’s Barbican, the artist explores the universality of play, even in challenging situations
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
At Glastonbury’s Shangri-La, activism and innovation meet
Glastonbury’s south-east corner is known for its after-dark entertainment but by day, there is a different story to tell
By Rhian Daly Published
-
‘I am almost an anti-sculptor’: Dominique White on her Whitechapel Max Mara Art Prize show
The artist mines the ocean to explore Afrofuturism in ‘Deadweight’, opening at London’s Whitechapel and detailed in a new film
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
Remembering Rusty Egan's Blitz Club: a place to 'avoid the mob and the homophobes', where the New Romantics were born
As he releases new vinyl boxset, 'Blitzed!', Wallpaper* meets DJ Rusty Egan to talk about London's scene-building Blitz club – the antidote to the late 70s punk scene and a hot-bed of experimental fashion
By Craig McLean Published
-
Suzannah Pettigrew's 'tender and ghostly' new show at Surrealist photographer Lee Miller's former home in East Sussex
London-based artist Suzannah Pettigrew's photographic stills create a snapshot of her Sussex coast childhood, conjuring up a hallucinatory world of memory
By Mary Cleary Published
-
The body, pleasure and play: Beryl Cook and Tom of Finland united in London
Tom of Finland’s homoeroticism meets Beryl Cook’s female-oriented camp as Studio Voltaire unites work by the two artists in a London exhibition
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Harlem-born artist Tschabalala Self’s colourful ode to the landscape of her childhood
Tschabalala Self’s new show at Finland's Espoo Museum of Modern Art evokes memories of her upbringing, in vibrant multi-dimensional vignettes
By Millen Brown-Ewens Published