Paolo Gioli
Since the 1960s Paolo Gioli has conducted complex research on the genesis of images, the nature of aesthetic experience and the functioning of visual processes. Constantly engaged in technical and linguistic experimentation, his artistic practice shifts with ease between different forms of expression, from drawing to painting, film to photography, producing ongoing contamination that uses operations derived from cinema for photographic ends, and a pictorial approach to the use of materials and surfaces. His complex experiments have become a reference point in the fields of experimental cinema and contemporary photography: from the rediscovery and radical use of the pinhole camera to the application of self-designed tools or found objects to get away from any ties to optics and mechanics; from the unusual use of Polaroid materials transferred onto various supports like drafting paper, canvas, silk-screen, to investigations of the processes of developing or the photo finish technique.
Nevertheless, the complexity of his work is not limited to the sphere of cinema or photography. His continuous exploration of the infinite possibilities of obtaining images from spontaneous circumstances connected to nature, the body and existing objects is conducted in a wide field of study in which cinema encounters painting, painting intercepts photography, and vice versa. The exhibition presents a body of works dating from the 1960s to the late 2000s, representing the foundation nuclei and the recurring themes of the output of Paolo Gioli, through a selection that underlines the fundamental shift from painting to cinema and photography. Certain key series such as the Fotofinish, the Autoanatomie, the Naturae and theOmaggi pieces, are joined in the show by seldom seen works, including some paintings and drawings made in the 1960s in an itinerary that crosses the artist’s vast production in a transverse way, demonstrating how the passage from one language to another, one medium or technique to another, is always fluid, reciprocal, seamless.
Paolo Gioli (Sarzano di Rovigo, 1942. Lives and works in Lendinara, Rovigo) after studying at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice, moved to New York at the end of 1967, where he lived for about one year and began to approach cinema and photography. After returning to Italy in 1968 he settled in Rome, from 1969 to 1975. In 1969 he made his first film, while in photography he began to use the pinhole technique, followed by strip photography and Polaroid emulsion lifts transferred to different surfaces. Starting in the 1980s, he took part in many exhibitions and art events. Main solo shows: Istituto Nazionale della Grafica-Calcografia of Rome (1981), Musée Nicéphore Nièpce in Chalon s/Saône and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (1983), George Eastman House, Rochester (1986), Palazzo Fortuny in Venice and Museo Alinari in Florence (1991), Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome (1996), Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea of Cinisello Balsamo, Milan (2008). From 1974 to the present he has participated in the main experimental film festivals as well as important international events like the Venice Biennale. His works are included in the collections of the leading European and American museums, including Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Art Institute of Chicago, MoMA New York, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica in Rome, Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea Cinisello Balsamo (MI).
Peep-Hole would like to thank Paolo Vampa. Special thanks to Daniele Fragapane for curatorial consulting.
01. Paolo Gioli, exhibition view. From left: Toraci (Thoraxes), 2007, Polaroid 20x24’’, lens photograph; Vessazioni (Abuses), 2007, Polaroid 20x24’’ and transfers on acrylic, lens photograph; Toraci (Thoraxes), 2010, Polaroid 20x24’’, lens photograph; 1° Gruppo delle Creature (1st Group of Creatures), 1963, charcoal on paper
Ph Andrea Rossetti
02. Paolo Gioli, Vessazioni (Abuses), 2007
Polaroid 20x24’’ and transfers on acrylic, lens photograph
Courtesy the artist
03. Paolo Gioli, 1° Gruppo delle Creature (1st Group of Creatures), 1963, charcoal on paper
Courtesy the artist
04. Front, from left: Cristo morto (Dead Christ), 1965, oil on canvas; Grande nudo coricato sul lato destro (Large nude reclining on right side), 1965, oil on canvas. Rear: Scomponibile (Decomposable), 1970, oil on canvas, decomposable elements in charcoal and pastel, black and white photographic prints
Ph Andrea Rossetti
05. From left: Schermo-schermo (Screen-screen), 1974, oil on canvas, black and white photographic prints; Immagini disturbate da un intenso parassita (Images Disturbed by an Intense Parassite), 1970, film 16 mm black and white, sound, 24 ftg/s, 45’; Schermo-schermo (Screen-screen), 1975, screen-printing canvas with manual interventions
Ph Andrea Rossetti
06. Front: Schermo-schermo (Screen-screen), 1975, screen-printing canvas with manual interventions. Rear: 1° Gruppo delle Creature (1st Group of Creatures), 1963, charcoal on paper
Ph Andrea Rossetti
07. Front, from left: Scomponibile (Decomposable), 1970, oil on canvas, decomposable elements in charcoal and pastel, black and white; Schermo-schermo (Screen-screen), 1974, oil on canvas, black and white photographic prints. Rear: Grande proiezione orizzontale (Big Horizontal Projection), 1969, oil on canvas
Ph Andrea Rossetti
08. From left: Grande proiezione orizzontale (Big Horizontal Projection), 1969, oil on canvas; Trittico blu (Blue Triptych), 1966, oil on canvas; Schermo-schermo (Screen-screen), 1974, oil on canvas, black and white photographic prints
Ph Andrea Rossetti
09. From left: Grande sviluppo rosso (Big Red Progression), 1966, oil on canvas; Grande proiezione orizzontale (Big Horizontal Projection), 1969, oil on canvas
Ph Andrea Rossetti
10. Paolo Gioli, Scomponibile (Decomposable), 1966, oil on canvas
Courtesy the artist
11. Front, from left: L’ombrello e l’Angelico (The umbrella and the Angelico), 1965, oil on canvas; Scomponibile (Decomposable), 1966, oil on canvas; Utensile Scomponibile (Decomposable Utensil), 1967, charcoal on paper; The Big Lens, 1968, charcoal and pastel on paper. Rear: Schermo-schermo (Screen-screen), 1975, screen-printing canvas with manual interventions
Ph Andrea Rossetti
12. Paolo Gioli, The Big Lens, 1968, charcoal and pastel on paper
Courtesy the artist
13. Paolo Gioli, Volti attraverso (Faces Across), 1987-2002, photo finish, black and white print
Ph Andrea Rossetti
14. Paolo Gioli, Volti attraverso (Faces Across), 1987-2002, photo finish, black and white print
Courtesy the artist
15. Paolo Gioli, Figure dissolute (Dissolute Figures), 1974-78, photo finish, black and white print
Ph Andrea Rossetti
16. Paolo Gioli, Autoanatomie (Self-Anatomies), 1987, Polaroid on silk, acrylic, pencil, paper
Courtesy the artist
17. Paolo Gioli, Autoanatomie (Self-Anatomies), 1987, Polaroid on silk, acrylic, pencil, paper
Courtesy the artist
18. From left: Autoanatomie (Self-Anatomies), 1987, Polaroid on silk, acrylic, pencil, paper; Vulva, 2004, black and white print, enlargement of a contact print from a paper negative; Vulva, 2004, black and white print, enlargement of a paper negative exposed by reflection
Ph Andrea Rossetti
19. Paolo Gioli, Naturae, 2009, Polaroid 20x24’’, acrylic, lens photograph
Courtesy the artist
20 From left: Vulva, 2004, black and white print, enlargement of a contact print from a paper negative; Vulva, 2004, black and white print, enlargement of a paper negative exposed by reflection; Naturae, 2009, Polaroid 20x24’’, acrylic, lens photograph
Ph Andrea Rossetti
21. Paolo Gioli, Sconosciuti (Unknowns), 1994, black and white print
Courtesy the artist
22. From left: Volto sorpreso al buio (Face surprised in the dark), 1995, film 16 mm black and white, silent, 18 ftg/s, 6’; Sconosciuti (Unknowns), 1994, black and white print
Ph Andrea Rossetti
23. From left: Eakins/Marey - L’uomo scomposto (Eakins/Marey - The decomposed man), 1982, Polaroid Polacolor type 59, silk, pencil paper; Cameron Obscura, 1981, Polaroid Polacolor type 89, silk, pencil, paper; Omaggio a Nièpce (Homage to Nièpce), 1983-89, Polaroid Polacolor type 88 and type 89, on paper
Ph Andrea Rossetti
24. Paolo Gioli, Cameron Obscura, 1981, Polaroid Polacolor type 89, silk, pencil, paper
Courtesy the artist