Baton Rouge, Louisiana, verrà presentata la mostra personale e conferenza pubblica dell’artista Walter Bortolossi

Le sue caleidoscopiche composizioni dissezionano con sguardo ironicamente critico gli idoli delle società post-industriali: i mass media, la tecnologia informatica, il progresso scientifico, il consumismo compulsivo, l’onnipresente sottocultura dell’intrattenimento, e i conflitti relativi al potere economico ed alla globalizzazione. L’ambientazione più frequente per queste sue investigazioni sono i parties, sia all’interno di edifici costruiti sia fuori nelle strade. Commentando il processo di lavoro di Bortolossi, Darius Spieth, storico dell’arte presso LSU e curatore della mostra, precisa che ‘Bortolossi distorce deliberatamente le immagini di questi settings utilizzando pattern ondulati che fanno apparire fluidi e privi di spina dorsale le forme solide ed i corpi, come orologi di Dali che danzino un ritmo Dance. Sotto uno strato appariscente di esuberanza scintillante e gioiosa, stanno in agguato descrizioni dettagliate delle strategie potenzialmente letali della società globalizzata.

Le composizioni di Bortolossi sono contemporaneamente avvertimenti e feste che affermano la vita’. Saranno in esposizione alla Glassell Gallery dieci recenti tele di ampie dimensioni, con titoli del tenore di John Rawls and Robert Nozick on the David Letterman Show (2007), Subcultures (2008), The Wheel of Fortune (2010), J. P. Morgan’s Ladder (2010), Three Focal Points (2010) e All That Happened Had to Happen (2010/2011). Nella sua conferenza Bortolossi descriverà l’evoluzione della sua arte dalla fine degli anni ’80, e le ispirazioni sottostanti a quella che egli chiama il suo stile Post-Pop ‘ultra-barocco e anti-minimalista’ ben rappresentato nelle opere in mostra in centro città a Baton Rouge.
Dal 1991 Bortolossi ha esposto in più di un centinaio di sedi pubbliche e private, tra cui il Museo di Arte Moderna Cà Pesaro di Venezia (Italia), la Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venezia, Musei Civici di Torino (Italia), il Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art a Budapest (Hungary),Palazzo Pigorini (Parma),Il Castello di Rivara (Torino), le gallerie La Giarina a Verona, Mondo Bizzarro a Bologna, Antonio Battaglia a Milano, Egbert Baqué, a Berlino (Germania) e La Luz de Jesus, Los Angeles.Inoltre recentemente si è classificato tra i primi in due importanti concorsi svoltisi a Londra: nel 2007 al Sovereign Art Prize e nel 2009 al London International Creative Competition.Lo scorso maggio ha esposto in personale alla Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Udine per il ciclo “Questo l’ho fatto io”.
Questa conferenza della LSU Art + Design Distinguished Lecture Series è sponsorizzata da Paula G. Manship. Sia la confernza che la mostra sono ad entrata libera ed aperte al pubblico. Crediti professionali AIA e ASLA per l’educazione continua sono disponibili per questa conferenza.
Il catalogo della mostra ricco di immagini delle opere con un saggio critico di Darius Spieth, pubblicato congiuntamente da LSU School of Art e LSU Press, sarà a disposizione in occasione della esposizione di Bortolossi e della sua visita alla università.
Ulteriori informazioni sono disponibili nel sito web dell’LSU College of Art + Design www.design.lsu.edu, alla pagina Facebook del College of Art + Design http://www.facebook.com/pages/Baton-Rouge-LA/LSU-College-of-ArtDesign/158963976092?ref=ts  o contattando Debra Langlois, a dlanglo@lsu.edu  o (225) 578-5868.

English version

Solo Exhibition and public lecture of the Italian artist Walter Bortolossi
Louisiana State University College of Art + Design Distinguished Lecture Series, Baton Rouge (USA)

The LSU College of Art + Design Distinguished Lecture Series presents painter/artist, Walter Bortolossi, Wednesday, February 23 at 5:00 p.m. in the first floor lecture hall (RM.103) of the Art + Design Building. The lecture will accompany Mr. Bortolossi’s first one-man show on the American continent entitled All That Happened Had to Happen, held at the Glassell Exhibition Gallery in the Shaw Center for the Arts from February 19 to March 27, 2011 (artist’s reception at the Shaw Center on February 26, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.).
The foremost representative of Italian Post-Pop Art, Bortolossi was born in Basel, Switzerland, in 1961 to Italian parents. After graduating from the Art Academy in Venice in 1985, he settled in the northern Italian town of Udine, where he teaches painting at the Liceo artistic. His kaleidoscopic compositions critically and ironically dissect the sacred cows of post-industrial societies: mass media, information technology, scientific progress, addictive consumerism, omnipresent entertainment, and the struggles over economic power and globalization. The most important venues for carrying out these investigations are parties, whether inside built structures or out on the streets. Commenting on Bortolossi’s working process, LSU art historian and curator of the exhibition, Darius Spieth elaborated that “Bortolossi deliberately distorts these settings optically by means of undulating patterns that make solid forms and bodies appear fluid and spineless, like Dali watches dancing to a Disco beat. Behind the veneer of superficial gloss and joyful exuberance, informed commentaries about the potentially fatal strategies of globalized society are lurking. Bortolossi’s compositions are at once warnings and life-affirming celebrations.” Ten recently completed large-scale canvases, carrying titles such as John Rawls and Robert Nozick on the David Letterman Show (2007), Subcultures (2008), The Wheel of Fortune (2010), J. P. Morgan’s Ladder (2010), Three Focal Points (2010), and All That Happened Had to Happen (2010/2011), will be shown in the exhibition at the Glassell Gallery. In his lecture, Mr. Bortolossi will comment on the evolution of his art since the late 1980s, and the inspirations underlying what he calls his “ultra-baroque and anti-minimalist” Post-Pop style seen in the works on display in downtown Baton Rouge.
Since 1991, Mr. Bortolossi has exhibited in more than one hundred public and private venues internationally, including the Museum of Modern Art, Cà Pesaro, Venice (Italy), Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation/Piazza San Marco exhibition space (Venice), Musei Civici in Turin (Italy), Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest (Hungary), Palazzo Pigorini (Parma), Il Castello di Rivara (Torino), and in the galleries La Giarina, Verona, Mondo Bizzarro, Bologna, Antonio Battaglia, Milano, Gallery Egbert Baquè, Berlin (Germany), and La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles (USA). Recently Bortolossi was shortlisted in two international art competitions in London: Sovereign Art Prize (2007) and London International Creative Competition (2009). In May 2010 Bortolossi had a solo exhibition at the Modern Art Gallery, Municipality of Udine (Italy).
This presentation of the LSU Art + Design Distinguished Lecture Series is sponsored by Paula G. Manship. Both the lecture and the exhibition are free and open to the public. Professional AIA and ASLA continuing education credit is available for this lecture.
A richly illustrated exhibition catalog with an analytical essay by Darius Spieth, published jointly by the LSU School of Art and LSU Press, will be available on the occasion of Mr. Bortolossi’s exhibition and visit to the university.
Additional information is available on the LSU College of Art + Design website at www.design.lsu.edu, the College of Art + Design Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Baton-Rouge-LA/LSU-College-of-ArtDesign/158963976092?ref=ts  or by contacting Debra Langlois, at dlanglo@lsu.edu  or (225) 578-5868.