There is plenty of time until January 15 to visit Imi Knoebel’s solo exhibition “Paint Color Space”, curated by Giorgio Verzotti, at DepArt Galley spaces, which “celebrates one of the most famous artists dedicated to building and construction. […] An anthology of 27 works created by the German painter from the late 1970s, from Messerschnitt VI in 1977, to the famous Anima Mundi in 2019”, stated the exhibition.
Applied Art GalleryAlso opens a file new headquarters Solo exhibition of Alberto Biasi, in a funky place, an alternate stage, in the Etria Valley, in Apulia. Trullo, the true Puglia symbol of the world, has become a place out of the ordinary. Dep Art Gallery goes to the countryside between Sigli Mesabica and Martina Franca. This is how I was born Art department outside.
Dep Art Out is a place where art presents itself in a different way, with a new look and new panorama, for a unique and exclusive experience.
Speech by Antonio Adamano
The catalog I created on Imi Knoebel’s work has finally seen the light after a long and not so simple detail. Can you tell us how you made it?
“Since the gallery’s first exhibition, it has always been my goal to accompany each exhibition to a publication which, through the curator’s text, will be able to leave an imprint over time and thus establish a historical course for the exhibition. For Imi Knoebel, the goal was the same: starting with 27 works housed in Dep Art Gallery, I wanted to create a catalog that better expresses the centrality of this exhibition to the gallery, thus strengthening the international path that began with Carlos Cruz-Dies (2019). At first, it wasn’t easy to get attached to catalog drafting: the impossibility of traveling and talking about it in person made all decisions made over the phone or email more complicated than usual, not forgetting the amount of effort required in printing to arrive at an honest color scheme for the original works. About a month after opening, taking advantage of the Art Cologne opportunity, I went to Düsseldof to meet Imi Knoebel and his wife Carmen in person and to determine the final details that led to the final version. It was a moment of great engagement that strengthened our professional bond.”
How is the catalog organized? What is the weight of this work of the Italian jigsaw?
«Imi Knoebel He is one of the most famous artists on the international level: his history, his presence in the museum and his power in the world market are clear evidence of this. It was important to make the exhibition accessible to the general public which was the epitome of his work with works from 1977 to 2019: the catalog, through large-scale installation displays and highly accurate close-ups, completely recreates the dialogue between the collection of works above in space. The work, that of Imi Knoebel, has been seen by many foreign publications but lacks a text close to the Italian public. Not to mention that the exhibition at Dep Art Gallery is temporarily located exactly thirty years after the great exhibition at PAC in Milan. In order to give a sense of continuity, I chose to assign curation to Giorgio Verzotti, former curator of the exhibition at the Milan Museum in 1991 with Marco Mignuzzo. It is important that there are tangible connections, both within the exhibition and in the surrounding cultural environment.”
These days the artist’s solo show ends at the gallery in Milan. What was this offer? After seeing her “live” for several months, what do you think of her greatest strengths?
«From the point of view of the exhibition I think it gave we The power of a wonderful experience. It is an achievement that has allowed us to consolidate the relationship that began in 2017 during the German artist group “Der Zerkel”, curated by Alberto Zanchetta.
We have received a lot of positive feedback from the audience. It is important to view Knoebel’s work in real life to appreciate his greatest strengths: form, color, and how this relates to the exhibition. Then, to offer the possibility, even from a distance, to get into as much of a relationship with Imi Knoebel’s work as possible, we made a few videos for Dep Art Gallery’s YouTube channel: one that replayed the gallery; The other contribution of the curator and critic Gianluca RanziWho analyzes and talks about Aimee Knoble’s painting.
Being a Gallery Owner Today: What aspects of your business have changed the most since the start of the pandemic?
“Flexibility has, in the past two years, become a key feature of Dep Art Gallery, as well as of many colleagues. The alternation of opening and closing to the public has forced us to structure work in unprecedented ways, always looking for alternative ways to reach and approach our audience, developing a reactionary pace that is essential today. One of the strategies adopted was to collaborate with professionals who can create video content to share on our various social channels. Despite the difficulties, between the opening and closing periods, I could still organize exhibitions of existing foreign artists: a group exhibition on the Korean avant-garde in 2020; Regen Schumann The current Imi Knoebel exhibition began in 2021. It opened 2022 with the conclusion of the Knoebel solo exhibition, which will be followed by the retrospective exhibition of Valerio Adami.”
Talking about planning and the future at this moment is somewhat risky, but nonetheless necessary. How did you plan your work for the next few months despite the general uncertainty?
“With the postponement of the 2022 edition of ArteFiera Bologna, I have decided to focus the gallery’s efforts to produce digital contents in support of the Valerio Adami Gallery. We are also working on a short documentary about the career of Pino Benelli. I am now in the waiting phase in terms of exhibitions, the art gallery calendar is full of dates in Italy and abroad, but I am optimistic about it and believe that the release of miArt (which will probably be the first Italian exhibition for 2022) will endorse a new revival, on the wave of enthusiasm for collectors, enthusiasts and operators in this sector”.
Dep Art Gallery’s new office is about to open in Puglia. Where did the choice of the new venue come from, why in Puglia and what fairs will be opened?
“I’ve always wanted to move a part of my work into a different context than the main exhibition space. Puglia was a choice ‘from the heart’: it’s an area I’ve always valued, and when thinking about the project, I had no doubts about it. Ideally, it combines two diametrically opposed sides: on the one hand, the rural area and the trullo, a symbol famous throughout the world; On the other hand, contemporary art. Dep Art Gallery turned into Dep Art OUT, a place that presents a new panorama, Out of the ordinary. After all, the structure in which the works are inserted has no equal, which makes the context that is created unique and exclusive. The first artist I wanted to show was Alberto Biasi, professor of visual kinetic art, who was also one of the first artists in the Dep Art Gallery. We have already prepared the exhibitions Pino Deodato and Natale Addamiano who will be the protagonists of the spring exhibitions, while the summer program will be developed (hopefully) in the presence of the artist, his collectors and all the guests of the Temple. I love this experimentation, weaving new relationships, broadening the horizons of previously untested discourses.”