Della declinante ombra (Of the declining shadow)

The exhibition, from 8 March to 9 June 2019, is promoted by Roma Capitale, Department of Cultural Growth – Capitoline Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, where Scolamiero is a lecturer in Painting, and in collaboration with the Edieuropa-QUI arte contemporanea Gallery. Museum services by Zètema Progetto Cultura.

Taking its cue from the forms in the making and in transit towards the mystery that characterise Scolamiero’s works, some of which were created for the occasion, the exhibition will also propose a partial change to the spaces involved. Spread out and arranged across the first floor of the Bilotti Museum, specifically in the three small rooms, the project room and the corridor that connects them, the exhibition will also include the Ninfeo room on the ground floor for the first period, with the diptych on canvas entitled “Mutevole canto” (2018) and the paintings from the cycle “Lascia
parlare il vento” (2015).

Scolamiero’s painting is evocative, refined and synaesthetic, and is always traversed by a melancholy, restless wind that is first and foremost a breath and an inner exhalation. As Simongini writes, in his works there emerges “a poetic nature suggested through small,
anti-heroic remains and artefacts in a microcosm made up of minute things, twigs, dry leaves, tufts of grass, pebbles, reeds, nests, the real equivalents of which the attentive and patient visitor can find in the surrounding Villa Borghese, before or after visiting the exhibition. But it is an “other” nature
‘other’ nature is the one sought by Scolamiero, immersed in an almost amniotic dimension that often becomes shadowy and visionary”. It is no coincidence that the title of the exhibition and of a cycle of works presented here, “Della declinante ombra” (“Of the Declining Shadow”), takes the observer by the hand,
leading them back to the path of interiority, of poetic illumination, on a journey towards the origins that goes back to Rilke, Celan and Hölderlin, to mention just a few of Scolamiero’s lyrical references. As the curator further notes, ‘the “declining shadow” refers to a descending itinerary, towards nothingness or towards Hades, in the chthonic world (“Everything here below is symbol and shadow”, warns Pessoa with his oracular tone), evoking that path that Eurydice will have to retrace after being tragically looked at by Orpheus, the emblem of the Poet’. Also
Also noteworthy are the rust or blood reds of his recent paintings (from the cycles “In un giro di vento” and “Come l’aria alla terra legati”), some of which were created for the occasion, which carry with them traces and memories of Scipione’s incandescent and visionary reds, paying homage to him.

On the occasion of the exhibition, the catalogue will be available, published by De Luca Editori d’Arte, which will contain, in addition to the curator’s essay, texts by Pietro Roccasecca and Raffaella Salato, a poem by Robertomaria Siena and an interview by Nicola Davide Angerame on the artist’s book (exhibited in the exhibition) created jointly by Scolamiero and the composer Silvia Colasanti and taken from his score for the String Quartet “Ogni cosa ad ogni cosa ha detto addio”, Ed. Piero Varroni-Libri d’Artista. The performance of the String Quartet is scheduled together with the exhibition of the book-works and preparatory sketches, at a later date, in the rooms of the Galleria Edieuropa – Qui arte contemporanea, in Rome.

During the exhibition, there will be workshop sessions for schools, workshops and events that will involve the interested public, students from schools and the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome.

Biography
Vincenzo Scolamiero is a lecturer in Painting at the Department of Visual Arts of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, the city where he lives and works. He began his artistic career with the solo exhibition presented by Antonio Mercadante at the Galleria Ferro di Cavallo in Rome in 1987. Since then, he has taken part in numerous solo exhibitions and national and international exhibitions: from the Rome Quadriennale to the Venice Biennale, from the Biennale d’Arte Sacra curated by Maurizio Calvesi, to the exhibition The return of the cadavre exquis at the Drawing Center in New York, and the exhibition Italia_Giappone-venti artisti a confronto at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, curated by Augusta Monferini. He has been invited several times to the Premio Michetti, where he won first prize in the summer of 2014, and has also exhibited at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome and at the Chiostro del Bramante, also in Rome. He was invited by Marco Goldin to exhibit in various museums: from the Casa dei Carraresi in Treviso and Palazzo Sarcinelli in Conegliano Veneto, to Palazzo Fava in Bologna and Castel Sismondo in Rimini. He exhibits his works at the Art Museum in Phoenix and The China Millennium – Monument, China World Art Museum, in China. In 2014, he took part in the XLVII Premio Vasto d’Arte Contemporanea – L’Icona Ibrida, curated by Gabriele Simongini, Vasto, Chieti. His solo exhibitions have been hosted in important public as well as private spaces, such as the exhibition La piuma e la pietra in the National Gallery of Contemporary Art of the Republic of San Marino, in the rooms of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro – Rome Headquarters at the Galleria d’Arte Comunale d’AC in Ciampino, and in the Pinacoteca Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea in Gaeta. His works have been exhibited in shows in New York, Seoul and Busan in Korea, Beijing and Feng Huang in China. He is currently represented in Rome by the galleries Porta Latina, Edieuropa-Qui Arte Contemporanea and Galleria Lombardi, in Ferrara by the Fabula Project gallery, and abroad by the Kips Gallery in New York and Seoul.