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
FOTO di Nicola Carignani
Da destra
A Quiet Flow of
Touch, 2013
River Grave Caffè
(Was there “legionary” equipment
?), 2013
|
A Quiet Flow of Touch, 2013 |
Mid-August
Sentimental, 2012 |
Throwing Stones at Nightingales, 2013 |
Paleface Coltello, 2013 |
English Gruel And African Watermelon, 2012 |
Targhetta, 2012 (con Andrea Orlandini) |
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)
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