Tile project space
Milano
Italy (IT)
2016
Ceiling n.1
For his solo exhibition at Tile Project Space, Erik Saglia responds to the observation of traditional Italian painting in which architecture and painting are one. The former provides height and monumentality, and the latter creates optical illusions, perspective, and narrative elements. Following an inspection of Tile’s architecture, Saglia projected a new space within the room resulting from the architecture-painting dialogue, avoiding the site-specific engagement of art with space.
It will therefore be possible to walk around, observe and admire the artwork as one walks along stairs, crosses large halls, and looks at the tops of the mountains. This study on the relationship between the disciplines generates a change of gaze, leading the viewer to readjust his normal perception of space, simulating a posture typical of observing nature, panoramas, or city skylines.
Erik Saglia’s formal process merges with his practice ritual. This favors the creation of a very specific visual code that makes his body of work highly recognizable. His abstract painting can’t be decoded if one looks into the artist’s biography or by means of the nowadays digitalization of imagery. It can be read through the systematic interweaving of processes involved in the creation of his pieces. In his quest for balance between colors, lines, and rhythm, Saglia achieves stylistic autonomy. The automatism generated by this almost “therapeutic” technique, allows the artist to distance himself. The artwork takes on and, particularly in this last intervention, underlines the container nature of the exhibition space.
