“anche OPAŁKA 1958-1965/1 – ∞,” Roman Opałka

Michela Rizzo Gallery, Venezia
23.09 – 18.11.2017

The Gallery Michela Rizzo hosted the exhibition “anche OPAŁKA 1958-1965/1 – ∞,” dedicated to the great Polish artist Roman Opałka, in the gallery’s new spaces in Venice, in collaboration with the Estate of Roman Opałka.

Unlike the first exhibition dedicated to the artist in 2011 at Palazzo Palumbo Fossati, which coincided with the Biennale of Visual Arts and focused on Opałka’s most renowned works, this new exhibition delved into a more obscure and introspective aspect of OPAŁKA’s art. The exhibition highlighted the artist’s avant-garde experiments before he fully committed, until his death, to his major project on time.

Twelve paintings, signed between 1958 and 1965, were displayed in the renovated spaces of the former Dreher factory in Giudecca. This collection of works, previously unseen, features Greek letters and compositions. The Greek letters represent the language of signs and their movements sculpted on the canvases, while the compositions were presented as large three-dimensional structures made of fabric, wood, and other materials.