Sergio Sarra Explained

Sergio Sarra
Birth Place:Pescara, Italy
Nationality:Italian
Known For:painting, sculpture, drawing
Spouse:Elisabetta Ruscitti

Sergio Sarra (Pescara 1961) is an Italian artist and former basketball player.

In 1985, at the age of 24, he retired from playing competitively in order to study at the School of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, concluding in 1987. Sarra took part in the Biennial of Young Artists from Mediterranean Europe[1] [2] (Barcelona – 1987), Venice Biennale[3] at the Corderie dell'Arsenale (1993) in Aperto '93,[4] [5] [6] at the Italian Pavilion (2011)[7] [8] and in the Havana Biennial[9] [10] (2000). Sarra curated the group exhibition Conversione di Saulo[11] [12] at Palazzo Chigi Odescalchi (Rome – 2000) and exhibited at the Muzeul Naţional de Artă Contemporană (Bucharest – 2007) and the WAX Winkler Art Xperience (Budapest – 2007) in Altered States – Are you experienced?, group exhibition curated by Nicolas Bourriaud and Paolo Falcone, and at Baths of Diocletian (Rome – 2008) at Cose mai viste[13] curated by Achille Bonito Oliva. In 2019, Sarra exhibited at 4th Festival del Paesaggio[14] in Anacapri.

Other group exhibitions at: Palazzo Rondanini alla Rotonda (Rome – 1989), Palazzo della Permanente (Milan – 1991) and Espace Pierre Cardin (Paris – 1992), 34 Spoleto Festival of 2Worlds (Fonti del Clitunno – 1991), Fondazione Orestiadi (Gibellina – 1992), Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome – 1992, 1995), Fondazione Volume! (Rome – 2000).

Sarra has held solo exhibitions at public and private institutions including the Faculty of Architecture of University of Palermo (1998), the Micromuseum for Contemporary Art and Culture (Palermo – 2004), Circolo Filologico Milanese (Milan – 2008), the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia (Rome – 2013), the Ewha Womans University (Seoul – 2016), the Benedictine Abbey of Propezzano (Morro d'Oro – 2018), Mattatoio Museo d'Arte Contemporanea (Rome - 2019).

From the beginning of his artistic career, Sarra worked almost exclusively with painting, drawing and sculpture. In 1997, the art critic and curator Lorenzo Benedetti wrote:[15]

Life and work

He played for the national youth teams, making his debut at sixteen in the Italian Series A basketball championship with the Fortitudo Bologna team.[16]

Upon completing his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna[17] (1987), Sarra then moved to Rome where he held his first solo exhibition at the Galleria Alice in 1990,[18] presenting an installation consisting of four painted sheets of glass and crossed by white light from industrial neon tubes. Such works – being glass – on which Sarra drew symbolic and enigmatic figures, went on to become a constant in his work. In this sense, two solo exhibitions – Trinacria dream[19] [20] (Oporto – 2007) and un ambiente, sei vetri[21] (Rome – 2013) – appear indicative. In occasion of the exhibition in Portugal, art critic Miguel Amado wrote:[22]

Over the next few years, he produced a series of paintings on emulsified canvas[23] – Primitive[24] – comprising zoomorphic figures that were almost always mirror images.[25] The artist was invited to take part in the Aperto '93 Emergency/Emergenza - 45 Venice Biennale, where he created an environment consisting of a long wooden platform[26] in chipboard with three paintings on the walls featuring: Iguane,[27] Paesaggio[28] and Autoritratto.[29] Clarity and essentiality become the dominant factors in his work.

In the paintings after 1997, the artist poses with his 'sign-drawing', being continuous and abstract, various elements – faces, zoomorphic groups, buildings with unknown geometries – that insist upon previous pictorial composition processes that are not entirely erased to reveal further combinatorial forms.[30] In Une correspondance sur les fantômes avec Sergio Sarra[31] between Sarra e Nicolas Bourriaud in May 2007, the French critic and theorist wrote:In 2000, in Rome, his works were exhibited at the Fondazione Volume!.[32] [33] In the same year, Sarra curated at Palazzo Chigi Odescalchi the group exhibition Conversione di Saulo that was developed around the painting of the same name, painted in 1600 by Caravaggio. Also in 2000, Sarra married Elisabetta Ruscitti in Amalfi, with whom he lived for a short time in Naples. In 2001, their son Gerolamo Papik Merlino was born. It was in Naples that he produced Table Sculpture (table projection on 12 points),[34] [35] a table/sculpture with a huge red Komodo dragon hooked underneath.

Over the same period, he produced the performance Life drawing no. 2,[36] representing the connection between the manual creation and collective fruition[37] in which Sarra coerces the public's perceptive nature, using a strobe light to produce a decisive intermittence between darkness and light. This is the same direction in which Sarra heads when painting 'from real life' inside the WAX Kultúrgyár in Budapest and the Muzeul Naţional de Artă Contemporană in Bucharest for the exhibition Altered States – Are you Experienced?[38] [39] (2006–2007). Between 2006 and 2009, Sarra worked on a series of paintings entitled Psichedelyc garden, in which he reiterates the same design, altering the chromatic impact each time.

In 2011, Sarra published perché la spiaggia si assottiglia dopo le Nàiadi,[40] [41] a book in which he collates a series of drawings and writings focused on the city of Pescara. In 2012, he designed Handrail for Cubist Films,[42] inspired by Fernand Léger's 1924 film Ballet Mécanique, and the diptych Involuntary Commitment, which was exhibited at Galleria Cesare Manzo[43] in Rome and at Fuori Uso 2012 in Pescara.

In June 2016, Sarra was invited to exhibit at the Ewha Womans University in Seoul, where he presented a series of drawings and paintings entitled iceberg rosaspina,[44] accompanied by a short text written by the artist:

Traces of the theoretical processes underlying his works can be found in the short film My Painting Technique (2009, 2015).[45]

Selected exhibitions

Main readings

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.bjcem.org Biennal of Young Artists from Mediterranean Europe (BJCEM)
  2. Maragall, Pasqual; Truñó, Enric; Dijan, Jean-Michel; et al. Biennal'87, exhibition catalogue. Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona, p. 211.
  3. Giannattasio . Sandra . 17 December 1992 . La Biennale di Bonito Oliva annuncia a Venezia le tendenze di fine secolo . Avanti! . 97 . 296 . 18. Verzotti . Giorgio . October 1993 . Aperto '93 – The Better Biennale . . 32 . 2 . 104–105.
  4. Aperto '93 Emergency/Emergenza, 45 International Art Exhibition: Punti cardinali dell'arte, La Biennale di Venezia, Corderie dell'Arsenale, Venice, June – October 1993. Project: Achille Bonito Oliva; Curators: Helena Kontova (Coordinator), Francesco Bonami, Nicolas Bourriaud, Antonio D'Avossa, Jeffrey Deitch, Mike Hubert, Thomas Locher, Kong Chang'an (Lauk'ung Chan), Robert Nickas, Rosma Scuteri, Berta Sichel, Matthew Slovoter, Benjamin Weil.
  5. Book: Bonito Oliva . Achille . Achille Bonito Oliva . Jünger . Ernst . Ernst Jünger . Perniola . Mario . etal . 1993 . Punti cardinali dell'arte exhibition catalogue, Vol. I . Marsilio Editori s.p.a. . . 303, 311 . 832241900 . 88-208-0378-X . OPAC IT\ICCU\RAV\0225285 . registration . Book: Bonito Oliva . Achille . Achille Bonito Oliva . Kontova . Helena . Helena Kontova . Daney . Serge . Serge Daney . etal . 1993 . Aperto'93: Emergency/Emergenza: Flash Art International, exhibition catalogue . Giancarlo Politi Editore . . OPAC IT\ICCU\LO1\0323441 . 8878160539 . 832241900 . 217, 396–397. Di Matteo . Gabriele . Silvestro . Franco . vedovamazzei . Vedovamazzei . 1993 . Ad Aperto novecentonovantatre si scambiarono per se stessi/The name of player playing the part . E IL TOPO magazine . 4 . 56, 81.
  6. Sarra created an environment consisting of a long wooden platform in chipboard (1266 x 211 x 30 cm) with three paintings on the walls featuring: Iguane (1993), Paesaggio (1993), Autoritratto (1993).
  7. Moro . Michela . 8 June 2011 . Speciale Biennale di Venezia – 54° Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte . Cool Tour Arte, RAI5, rai.tv.
  8. Sarra exposed Pettino, planimetria di Contrada Selva, 2011, acrylic paint on board, 220 x 170 cm.
  9. http://universes-in-universe.de/car/habana/bien7/prog/english.htm Los últimos dibujos del siglo
  10. Book: Zerynthia Associazione per l'Arte Contemporanea . 2001 . window onto venus – ventana hacia venus – finestra su venere, conference publication and exhibition catalogue . De Agostini Rizzoli Arte & Cultura . . 54086561 . OPAC IT\ICCU\TO0\1065885 . 71, 79.
  11. Conversione di Saulo, ideated by Vittoria Odescalchi, Palazzo Chigi Odescalchi, Rome, 21–23 September 2000. Artists invited at the exhibition: Stefano Arienti, Vanessa Beecroft, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Shay Frisch Peri, Avish Khebrehzadeh, Wolfgang Tillmans, Grazia Toderi, Jane and Louise Wilson, Francesca Woodman.
  12. Book: Sarra , Sergio . Conversione di Saulo, exhibition catalogue . 2000 . Edizioni Arte Nova . . OPAC IT\ICCU\TO0\0918995 . 80725368. Pratesi . Ludovico . 29 August 2000 . Guardando Caravaggio . La Repubblica . 199 . XII–XIII. De Venere . Lia . 17 September 2000 . Caravaggio a confronto con i nuovi realismi . Il Sole 24 Ore . 253 . 34. Moro . Michela . October 2000 . Conversione di Saulo . Start, RaiSat Art. Di Las Plassas . Lorenzo . October 2000 . Conversione di Saulo . Imago, RAI3.
  13. Book: Bonito Oliva , Achille . Achille Bonito Oliva . Cose mai viste 1, exhibition catalogue . 2008 . The Road To Contemporary Art . . OPAC IT\ICCU\RMS\2007233 . 908550606 . 86. Piccoli . Cloe . 23 February 2008 . Cose mai viste: a Roma . La Repubblica delle Donne . 586 . 124.
  14. Giulia Ronchi, Ha aperto il Festival del Paesaggio 2019 a Capri e Anacapri. Le immagini dell'inaugurazione, 22 settembre 2019.
  15. Benedetti, Lorenzo. Il sacro di Fusi e il segno di Sarra, critique of the exhibition Segno Senso Suono Sacro: installazioni di Mario Airò – Federico Fusi – Sergio Sarra, curated by Zerynthia Associazione per l'Arte Contemporanea, Serre di Rapolano (Siena), Centro Civico per l'Arte Contemporanea La Grancia and Musei Senesi, May – June 1997.
  16. http://195.56.77.208/team/73/alco_bologna Alco Bologna – Team
  17. In 1986, Sarra has collaborated in the realization of the Wall Drawing 462 by Sol LeWitt at Galleria Studio G7 in Bologna.
  18. Nardone . Domenico . May 1990 . Sergio Sarra (press release). Encyclopedia: Pratesi . Ludovico . Pratesi . Ludovico . Sergio Sarra, exhibition catalogue . The Power of Fate . 1990 . Galleria Alice arte contemporanea . . OPAC IT\ICCU\IEI\0285597 . 1004344143.
  19. Sergio Sarra: Trinacria dream, MCO Arte Contemporânea, Oporto, March – April 2007.
  20. Encyclopedia: Scuderi . Massimiliano . Pinto . Sílvia . Laranja . Ana Rocha . Bernandes . Marta . etal . MCO Arte Contemporânea – Livro 2 . Sergio Sarra: Trinacria Dream . 2008 . MCO Arte Contemporânea . . 959193042 . 43.
  21. Sergio Sarra: un ambiente, sei vetri, Rome, Conservatory of Santa Cecilia, May – June 2013.
  22. Amado . Miguel . 2 April 2007 . Sergio Sarra – MCO Arte Contemporânea . artforum.com.
  23. The surface treated with gel to render the surface photosensitive and permitting the reproduction of images on the canvas via a procedure similar to that of traditional photographic printing. Subsequently, the pictorial process thus becomes less detached. Sarra then painted the images reproduced in transparent red ink. Cf. Sergio Sarra (press release), Florence, Gentili arte contemporanea, January 1994. Vecere . Laura . March 1994 . I varani di Sarra e la Mori futurista mai vista . Il Giornale dell'Arte . 120 . 76.
  24. Cf. Urban, Carla (June 1991). "Sergio Sarra – Achille Bonito Oliva (L'arte fino al 2000 e Fuori Uso '91)". In Urban, Carla. TvDonna, TMC. Pratesi . Ludovico . 21 July 1991 . Senza confini . Panorama . 1318 . 28. Caruso, Rossella (January 1992). "Sergio Sarra: ateleta (press release)". Rome: Galleria Cecilia Nesbitt. Caruso, Rossella (January 1992). "ateleta". In Sergio Sarra: ateleta, video-catalogue, Rome: Galleria Cecilia Nesbitt Federici. Pratesi . Ludovico . 19 February 1992 . Sergio Sarra . La Repubblica . 42 . VIII.
  25. Pratesi . Ludovico . 1 February 1992 . La personale di Sarra e i fossili viventi . La Repubblica . 27 . IX. Cherubini . Laura . June–July 1992 . Sergio Sarra . Flash Art, no. 168 . 120–121. Encyclopedia: Cherubini . Laura . Apa . Mariano . Cherubini . Laura . Di Capua . Marco . etal . Giovani Artisti IV, exhibition catalogue . Giovani artisti IV . 1992 . Edizioni Carte Segrete . . OPAC IT\ICCU\RMR\0007183 . 88-85203-70-1 . 800726202 . 27–28, 37–39, 103.
  26. platform-container, 1993, wood chipboard, 1266 x 211 x 30 cm.
  27. http://asac.labiennale.org/it/passpres/artivisive/ava-ricerca.php?scheda=360913 Iguane
  28. http://asac.labiennale.org/it/passpres/artivisive/ava-ricerca.php?scheda=360911 Paesaggio
  29. http://asac.labiennale.org/it/passpres/artivisive/ava-ricerca.php?scheda=360909 Autoritratto
  30. Encyclopedia: Di Pietrantonio . Giacinto . Di Pietrantonio . Giacinto . Fuoriuso in Opera, exhibition catalogue . Sergio Sarra . 2012 . Edizioni Arte Nova . . 25. Cf. Encyclopedia: Di Pietrantonio . Giacinto . Sergio Sarra, exhibition catalogue . Oblique Archetypes . 1997 . Edizione Galleria Cesare Manzo . . OPAC IT\ICCU\TO0\1048791 . 1004344143 . 13–15. Visci . Giulia . June–July 1997 . Sergio Sarra . Flash Art, no. 204, Milan: Giancarlo Politi Editore . 109. Moro . Michela . 4 November 1999 . Sergio Sarra . Start, RaiSat Art. Martino, Adriana (December–January 2000). "Sergio Sarra". Flash Art, no. 219, p. 123. Milan: Giancarlo Politi Editore. Encyclopedia: Cherubini . Laura . Cherubini . Laura . Manzoni . Gian Ruggero . Sotto pioggia e sotto vento, exhibition catalogue . L'aure d'Abruzzo . 1997 . Umberto Sala Editore . . 7 .
  31. English translate: A correspondence on ghosts with Sergio Sarra.
  32. http://www.fondazionevolume.com/index.php/it/la-fondazione Fondazione Volume! website
  33. Dafni&Papadatos . 2000 . Bruna Esposito Sergio Sarra Richard Van Buren . . Fondazione VOLUME!. Book: Magni . Paola . 2001 . Claudio Abate: VOLUME! Portfolio . Associazione culturale Francesco Nucci . . 54–55. Encyclopedia: Borriello . Marilena . Marsano . Silvia . Borriello . Marilena . Marsano . Silvia . VOLUME! 1998>2008 . Esposito/Sarra/Van Buren . 2008 . Edizioni VOLUME! . . OPAC IT\ICCU\TO0\1725777 . 978-88-95986-00-5. Book: Bonito Oliva . Achille . Achille Bonito Oliva . Eccher . Danilo . Danilo Eccher . Hegyi . Lóránd . Lóránd Hegyi . Benedetti . Lorenzo . etal . 2015 . VOLUME! 1997…TODAY . Silvana Editoriale . Cinisello Balsamo (Milan) . 913214444 . OPAC IT\ICCU\MIL\0901065 . 9788836631667 . 120, 122–123.
  34. https://www.sergiosarra.it/works/ Sergio Sarra – Works, sergiosarra.it
  35. Encyclopedia: Bonito Oliva . Achille . Achille Bonito Oliva . Bonito Oliva . Achille . Achille Bonito Oliva . Cose mai viste 1, exhibition catalogue . Table Sculpture (table projection on 12 points), 2004 . 2008 . The Road To Contemporary Art . . OPAC IT\ICCU\RMS\2007233 . 908550606 . 86. Piccoli . Cloe . 23 February 2008 . Cose mai viste: a Roma . la Repubblica delle Donne, no. 586 . 124.
  36. Encyclopedia: In Sergio Sarra, catalogue . Life Drawing no. 2, 2004 . 2007 . Galleria Cesare Manzo . . OPAC IT\ICCU\UBO\3622112 . 880870197 . 42–43 .
  37. Encyclopedia: Macrì . Teresa . Teresa Macrì . Macrì . Teresa . Teresa Macrì . Anomalie, exhibition catalogue . Anomalo Hotel . 2003 . Edizioni Arte Nova . . OPAC IT\ICCU\TO0\1282378 . 18. – English version: "Anomalous Hotel", in Literature, sergiosarra.it. Nicita . Paola . 24 June 2004 . Micromuseum si trasferisce e ospita la performance di Sarra . la Repubblica. Nicita . Paola . 8 July 2004 . Buglisi, design e pittura Sarra espone al Micromuseum . la Repubblica.
  38. Altered States – Are you experienced?, Fuori Uso 2006, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, Paolo Falcone, former COFA Pescara, December 2006 – February 2007 / WAX Winkler Art Xperience (former MEO), Budapest, May – June 2007 / Muzeul Naţional de Artă Contemporană (MNAC), Bucharest, June – August 2007 / Galeria Nouă, Bucharest, June – August 2007.
  39. Book: Bourriaud . Nicolas . Nicolas Bourriaud . Falcone . Paolo . 2007 . Altered States – Are you experienced?, exhibition catalogue . Edizioni Arte Nova . . OPAC IT\ICCU\URB\0638550 . 501423064.
  40. English translate: why the beach becomes narrower after the Naìadi.
  41. Book: Sarra . Sergio . 2011 . perché la spiaggia si assottiglia dopo le Nàiadi . Edizioni Sarra Varano . Silvi (Teramo) . OPAC IT\ICCU\TER\0036016 . 978-88-906766-04. Flash Art . April 2012 . perché la spiaggia si assottiglia dopo le Naìadi - Sergio Sarra . Flash Art, no. 301 . 22.
  42. Moro . Michela . 8 December 2012 . Sergio Sarra – Garage Carcani . Cool Tour Arte, RAI5.
  43. Ciglia . Simone . March 2010 . Sergio Sarra: The indifferents (press release) . exhibart.com.
  44. Lim, Ito . 2016 . Sergio Sarra: iceberg rosaspina . . Art and Real Movement .
  45. Carella, Andrea . 2015 . Sergio Sarra My Painting Technique . 2nd Edition . . Vario Edition .
  46. http://bibliothequekandinsky.centrepompidou.fr/clientBookline/service/reference.asp?INSTANCE=INCIPIO&OUTPUT=PORTAL&DOCID=0874837&DOCBASE=CGPP Library collocation of the Monograph – Centre G. Pompidou

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