Federico Solmi: From the Uterus to the Grave with No Happy Ending
Combining luridly hand-drawn animations, paintings, mechanical sculptures and more, 2009 Guggenheim Video Art Fellow Federico Solmi continues to explore his controversial interests in sociopolitical affairs—last year his native Italy charged him with obscenity, blasphemy and offense to religion—in his second solo exhibition "From Uterus to Grave With No Happy Ending," which opens tomorrow at NYC's LMAK gallery.
The entrance to the show, marked with a warning to "Please abandon all your hopes and dreams before you enter this gallery. You are in the reign of Evil and you will burn in hell with me," sets the tone for Solmi's darkly ironic critique of how we trust the fragile foundations of contemporary postmodern culture and society.
Working with long time collaborator and 3D artist Russell Lowe, the focal point of the show, an animated short called "Douche Bag City," (pictured above and below) satirizes the current economic crisis with a heavy-handed voiceover narrating a blood-spattered send-up of video game "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City."
"Douche Bag" uses the same meticulous process, both long- and real-time animation technologies and immense numbers of hand-drawn frames, that the New York-based artist employs to create his other graphically irreverent works, like his 2006 short King Kong and the End of the World, a composition of 1,100 drawings also in the upcoming exhibit.
Other past videos, including Rocco Never Dies, The Giant and The Evil Empire—the video that features the provocative image of the pope and inspired all the hubbub—will also show at LMAK.
From Uterus to Grave with no Happy Ending
Opening reception: 9 January 2009, 6-9pm
9 January-14 February 2010
LMAKprojects
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New York, NY 10002 map
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