ORSO River Grave (No Rush Before Dawn) - Nicholas Hatfull







27 - 4 - 2013
27 - 5 - 2013






Nelle opere di Nicholas Hatfull, le forme, derivate da imballaggi di uso quotidiano, sono inserite in conversazione con materiali più esoterici, come un bassorilievo evocato da un coffe bar, un dettaglio del giornale dei sogni di Fellini o la frase sinistra di un graffito. Costituiscono un’associazione effervescente di motivi adottati (sempre preesistenti), che sono filtrati attraverso visioni associative, totalmente depurate da tutto tranne che da una scheggia del loro carattere originale, e riformulate con un senso di composizione libero.
In pezzi idiosincratici, che fanno uso di disegni digitalizzati, calchi di terracotta e/o targhette, l’artista, alla ricerca di proprietà metafisiche, prende gli scarti dei consumi metropolitani di ogni giorno , facendo elisioni disorientative tra modi distinti di espressioni, i cui diversi toni dovrebbero apparire senza senso, ma finiscono per cantare.
Negli ultimi bassorilievi a parete, Hatfull presenta ingrandimenti di imballaggi industriali e tracce stilizzate di vegetazione in composizioni enigmatiche e suggestive che prendono forma dall'interesse di Nicholas per la differenza tra la cultura italiana del caffè e la sua controparte americanizzata e orientata alla praticità di Londra .
In English Gruel e African Watermelon, un grande coperchio di bicchiere da caffè da passeggio galleggia davanti a fronde esagerate, che sembrano adottare le caratteristiche del coperchio; lo slogan Caution Hot!, i punti esclamativi e i dettagli del logo SOLO sono stati ulteriormente ingranditi e trasportati in uno sfondo fertile.  Per complicare maggiormente la situazione, la superficie è imbellita, o imbruttita, con RIVER GRAVE, parte dello pseudonimo dell’autore del graffito: una frase che ricorre come a marchiare questi lavori. 





In the work of Nicholas Hatfull, forms derived from everyday packaging are ushered into conversations with more esoteric material, which might be a bas-relief remembered from a coffee bar, a detail from Fellini's dream journal or an ominous graffiti'd phrase.
These constitute an effervescent pool of adopted (always pre-existing) motifs, which are filtered through associative reverie, entirely relieved of all but a sliver of their original character, and reformulated with a raffish sense of composition. In idiosyncratic pieces, that take recourse to computer-aided design, cast terracotta, and sign-making, the artist taps the waste of everyday metropolitan consumption for metaphysical properties, making disorienting elisions between distinct modes of expression whose varied tones should equal nonsense but end up singing.
Hatfull's recent wall-based reliefs present enlargements of industrial packaging and stylised suggestions of vegetation in enigmatic, suggestive compositions. In English Gruel and African Watermelon, an enlarged takeaway coffee lid floats before exaggerated fronds, which seem to be adopting characteristics of the lid – Caution Hot! Slogans, exclamation points and details of the recognisable SOLO logo have been further enlarged and transplanted into this fertile background.

To complicate matters further, the surface is embellished, or defaced, with part of the graffiti'd legend RIVER GRAVE, a phrase that recurs like branding throughout these works. Informed by an interest in the gulf of difference between Italian coffee culture and its americanised, convenience-oriented counterpart in London, the artist creates contrasts between their visual trappings. 

FOTO di Nicola Carignani


Da destra
A Quiet Flow of Touch, 2013
River Grave Caffè (Was there  “legionary” equipment ?), 2013
Frontier Coltello, 2013


A Quiet Flow of Touch, 2013

Mid-August Sentimental, 2012
Solo River Karma, 2012



Throwing Stones at Nightingales, 2013

Paleface Coltello, 2013


English Gruel And African Watermelon, 2012

Targhetta, 2012 (con Andrea Orlandini)




--> CV
Born 1984, Tokyo  www.nicholashatfull.com
Sainsbury Scholarship in Painting and Sculpture, British School at Rome  2011-12
Royal Academy Schools Postgraduate Diploma, 2008-2011
Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, 2003-2006

Solo Exhibitions
ORSO River Grave (No Rush Before Dawn), Margini Arte Contemporanea, Massa 2013
Solo River Grave, Peles Empire, 2012
Il Bagno, Peles Empire, 2011
Ignorant with the Suncream (Seafroot Delivery),  Karsten Schubert,  2009

Performances
Hallo Bagno Hallo Sommelier, Royal Academy schools, 2011
Fusilli Jerry takes a Mysterious Bath, Fold Gallery 2010

Selected Group Exhibitions
2013
Art Los Angeles Contemporary, with Josh Lilley
Cyborgs, Hybrids and Chimeras, curated by Isobel Harbison, Hayward Touring
Drawing Biennial 2013, The Drawing Room
2012
Something New,  Josh Lilley
Re-generation, MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art,Rome 
D'Après Giorgio, curated by Luca lo Pinto, Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico
Sprezzatura, OK gallery, Perth
Wher you live now – British School at Rome
 Spazi Aperti, Romanian Academy, Rome
2011The Call, Peles Empire in Cluj, Romania
Egocentric Space Lines, curated by Shama Khanna, Event Gallery, London
Royal Academy Schools Show 2011, Royal Academy, London
Drawing 2011, The Drawing Room, London
Ready Meal, The Sunday Painter, London
2010 Newspeak - British Art Now, Saatchi Gallery
Premiums, Sackler galleries, Royal Academy, London
2009 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition  London
2008 20eventi, Sabina, Italy – proposal selected by Richard Wentworth
2006 The Heat is Rising, Modern Art Oxford

Publications
Nicholas Hatfull, 'Il Bagno', by Isobel Harbison,  Frieze Jan-Feb 2012 2006
Re-generation, MACRO, Quodlibet (forthcoming)
Briefy Noted (serviette-ish evil eye), was published with www.xym.no
Britart's new wave, Laura Maclean-Ferris, The Independent, 2011
Newspeak – British Art Now , Saatchi Gallery/ Booth-Clibborn editions 2010
Collections
Include Saatchi Gallery, Franks-Suss Collection , Stanley and Gail Hollander, Karen Fox