Limited Edition Print – Matheus Chiaratti, Lunch Poems, 2020
Matheus Chiaratti is an artist based in Sao Paulo, working with painting, textiles, photography, ceramics and literature. Shared and hidden desires, memories and journeys real or imagined, explorations into romances, religious artifacts and ornaments all coexist within the pictorial frame of Chiaratti’s unique practice.
During his time at Villa Lena, Mathues invoked the presence of the American poet Frank O’Hara (1926-1966). His experience of reading the City lights-published book “Lunch Poems” guided Chiaratti on a private and religious journey that resulted in the Southern Poet – a disorderly, intuitive and religious installation that charted the artist's experience with the poetry of Frank O’Hara in the light of Palaia. This print edition depicts the cover of the “Lunch Poems” pocketbook, he says ‘that lithography could be the summary of Southern Poet in a direct and simple way, I recreated the cover of O’Hara’s Lunch Poems in a quick drawing, marked by deep scratches and light carvings of crooked letters…’. A work that speaks of an admiration and understanding that transcends time.
Select exhibition history include: Quadra, Rio de Janeiro; Galerie21, Livorno; arte_passagem, São Paulo; Mana Contemporary, Jersey City,; Palazzo Monti, Brescia,; Galeria Sancovsky, São Paulo,); Convoi, Buenos Aires.
Villa Lena Foundation Print Editions- The Traditional Art of Printmaking with contemporary artists
Each year the Villa Lena Foundation works in collaboration with II Bisonte and a selection of contemporary artists on the Villa Lena residency programme in order to develop and produce a series of limited edition prints. Artists work with expert technicians to explore new techniques and push their practice into exciting and uncharted territory. A number of these unique prints are now available to purchase online.
Il Bisonte is a print-workshop for graphic arts founded in Florence in 1959 by Maria Luigia Guaita. Many artists – both Italian and non – accepted the invitation to work at Il Bisonte. including members of the Futurist movement -Gino Severini, Carlo Carrà, Alberto Magnelli, and such international stars as Pablo Picasso, Jacques Lipchitz, Helen Chadwick, Alexander Calder and Henry Moore. In 1983 Il Bisonte became a non-profit Cultural Centre and opened an international school, with the focus to preserve the teaching and printing of the traditional engraving techniques.
ALL PROCEEDS FROM PRINT SALES WILL GO TOWARDS SUPPORTING THE VILLA LENA FOUNDATION.