Axel Vervoordt Gallery is pleased to announce a new exhibition by Italian artist Marco Tirelli (°Rome, 1956). The exhibition features fourteen large-scale works created with different techniques: airbrush, stencils, ink and charcoal on canvas, lithography, and photography. It is the artist’s second exhibition at Kanaal and the gallery’s fourth exhibition overall.
Tirelli's work contains nothing of the claim to totality or finality that was characteristic of suprematism. Michelangelo's theory, which outlined that a block of marble holds every possible sculpture, every possible idea, is more apt in this regard. For Tirelli, he says, the Black Square is a place for mirroring the soul, with endless possibilities. Giorgio de Chirico's vanishing perspectives, the metaphysical cities where shadows refer to what is happening outside the canvas, show similar possibilities.
Yet, it is the Renaissance primarily that is more often a source of Tirelli’s contemplation. The exhibitions and showcases that Tirelli builds often take on the encyclopaedic character of a studiolo, a private room in a palace, a microcosm within the world, in which the owner could devote himself to cultural interests. The studiolo of Duke Federico da Montefeltro, another prominent figure of the Cinquecento, counts as Tirelli's example: he considers it a transparent self-portrait, in which all the elements of his mind, soul, and memory, were depicted on the walls. Various artifacts and elements thereby referred to Classical Greece, the time when a trained memory was vital — as during the rest of history before the development of the print.
Tirelli is aware of his role as an artist and the responsibility to interpret that he places on the viewer. The works he creates start from his memory, from found images from books, postcards, or geographical maps, but also from earlier work or photographs he takes. With airbrushes, rulers, and stencils he recreates a state between reality and falsity; a certain grain on the works imitates photography or the influence of light. The subjects are not objects but representations.
Artists: Marco Tirelli
