It is an immersive project, in which Party has given life to an alienating universe, characterized by strong chromatic contrasts, enveloping architectural forms and unexpected trompe-l'oeil decorations, within which its magnetic works are staged: large site-specific wall paintings, intriguing polychrome sculptures and bright pastel paintings.
An ambitious exhibition project, which the artist conceived specifically for the large exhibition hall, in the basement of the MASI, an imposing architecture with a central plan, divided into five distinct environments, dedicated to as many recurring themes in Nicolas Party's work: still life, portrait, rocky views, caves and landscape.
The mural paintings
Outside this structure, Party has created four large pastel murals inspired by as many works by Arnold Bocklin (1827-1901), a Swiss painter and one of the leading exponents of symbolism, depicting enigmatic views of decaying buildings to which the title of the exhibition. These monochromatic and decadent scenarios welcome the viewer in an environment in stark contrast to the chromatic riot that distinguishes the works and the interior spaces of the architecture. As is his custom, the artist has in fact further modified the exhibition space through backgrounds of contrasting colors and polychrome marble decorations, created in collaboration with Sarah Margnetti.
The setting-up
The exhibition features thirty-one pastel paintings and four painted sculptures (one of which is large located outside the museum), works created between 2013 and today, some of which are presented to the public for the first time. This careful selection highlights the artist's preference for an extremely lively chromatic range and simplified figuration. His subjects are outlined by circumscribed and contrasting color backgrounds, according to a strategy that can be partly traced back to his singular artistic apprenticeship, which began with the creation of graffiti.
Party's compositions are not born from the observation of the real date (he does not use models and does not create landscapes en plein air), but are exclusively the result of his imagination. Sano characterized by an extremely simple setting and without any temporal or environmental reference. Although his subjects have no direct relationship with reality, they contain in their essential forms the lowest common denominator that leads the viewer to associate them with clearly recognizable entities such as faces, fruits or trees. And it is precisely the possibility of elaborating a universal and timeless language that fascinates Party and guides his artistic research.
Party places his creative universe in constant dialogue with the history of art, of which he is an attentive and tireless explorer. If in his paintings it is easy to hear the echo of surrealist painting or of the chromatic choices of the Fauves, the artist's references range far beyond, from the search for an ideal perfection of classical art, to the scientific minuteness of the Dutch still lifes of the Six hundred. Party is also passionate about the work of famous artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe (1887- 1986) or Ferdinand Hadler (1853-1918), as well as that of lesser-known figures, such as the Belgian symbolist William Degouve de Nuncques (1867 -1935) or the portraitist Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757), whose name is inextricably linked to the history of pastel, Nicolas Party's favorite medium.
Nicolas Party
Born in Lausanne in 1980, Nicolas Party lives and works in New York. Her her unique artistic training path starts in early adolescence when she is passionate about the creation of graffiti, an experience that she will carry on for over a decade. Later he oriented his interest towards 3D animation and completed his training by obtaining the Master of Fine Arts at the Glasgow School of Art. Over the last ten years Party has won the consensus of critics and audiences and his works have been presented in important institutions, including the Musee Magritte (Brussels, 2018), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington DC, 2017), the Dallas Museum of Art (2016), the Center Culture! Suisse (Paris, 2015) and the Swiss Institute (New York, 2012).
The catalog
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog published by Scheidegger & Spiess and Edizioni Casagrande with contributions by Tobia Bezzola, Michele Robecchi and Francesca Bernasconi.
All the works in the exhibition, photographed in situ, are reproduced in the publication together with views of the exhibition that document the exhibition project as a whole; The catalog will be published in the month of July.
Graphics by Studio Marie Lusa Trilingual edition (Italian, English, German).
