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Mimmo
Roselli
(Rome 1952)
Mimmo Roselli was born in Rome in 1952; at the age of ten he moved to
Florence, where he lives and works. In the late Sixties he attended the
Liceo Michelangiolo classical secondary school, while at the same time
frequenting the studio of the sculptor Vanni Cortecci. This acquaintance
led him to devote himself to painting (the medium of his first expressive
experiences) and sculpture, transferring to canvas his passionate interest
in landscape and evolving the theme of “man and society” which was crucial
to his artistic career. From the Seventies – in the early years of which
he had his first one-man show in the Florentine territory – to the mid
Eighties he produced the cycle “Le acque - La terra” (Waters-Earth)
(1974-84) where the pictorial matter featured a highly dilute and delicate
colour verging on the transparent, distributed in just a few brushstrokes
through stratifications of glaze that characterise the surface, often
in shades of pink, blue and golden yellow, in the manner of Beato Angelico
and referring back – being sensitive to the antique – to the fresco technique
of Tuscan tradition.
In the second half of the Eighties he also worked in Venice, developing a relationship
with oriental culture, particularly in relation to the significance of the “void”,
in the pictorial cycle “Il vuoto-il pieno” (Empty-Full): voids of space and
voids of matter characterise his paintings, where the space itself refers back
to a mental mode of meditative potency. In 1986 he displayed at “il Traghetto”.
The exhibition at the Bund Deutscher Kunstler Galerie in Stuttgart in 1988 launched
a close-knit relation with the German artistic culture that distinctly appreciated
the quality of his research and its contemporary quality. He set to work on the
“Borderline” cycle, analysing the concept of border, the borderline of the void,
sign and background: “…what exists on the borderline is characterised by extreme
instability and possesses the capacity, the force of change”.
For Roselli, who assumed the concept of a moral valency in art, the artist’s
capacity and duty to work upon “conscience” through art, these were highly significant
years for the immense human experience which has always marked his life as an
artist. In his frequent journeys to South America (from 1985) he has come into
contact with marginal social realities, especially in Bolivia and Brazil, where
he not only displays his art but also performs voluntary work and actions of
international co-operation.
In both America and Italy he also devotes himself to mural painting, working
in an interactive manner with groups of people, and making himself the spokesman
for a social message through the creation and exploitation of the artistic work
itself. We ought to mention his work at one of the Guaranì communities in Bolivia
(1988) with the “Ascensione” (Ascension); and in the community of the
Favela of Santa Marta, in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil, 1991) with “Por uma favela”;
in Italy at the community of senior citizens in Villa Solaria in Sesto Fiorentino
(Florence, 1992) with “Flussi d’incontro” (Flows of meeting).
Roselli has always measured himself at international level with the most diverse
communities and cultures, travelling for the love of dialogue and exchange, seeking
to probe the depths of different styles and values. His activities and artistic
endeavours in the Brazilian favelas are proof of this, aimed as they are at establishing
relations, pointing up paths and possible routes.
The 90s found him devoting himself with constancy to the realisation of a series
of shows that took place not only in Europe (Italy, Switzerland, the Czech Republic
and Germany, also in collaboration with other artists such as Herbert Mehler
and Ivan Ouhel), but also in the United States (San Francisco, Chicago, Santa
Monica etc.) and in Latin America –mostly curated by Irma Arestizabal - (Bolivia,
Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela).
In these years his artistic progress was increasingly enhanced by projects, acquaintance
with artists from other countries, travels and artistic activities that were
not only practical, but also theoretical. He conceived the project “Artisti in
viaggio” (Artists on Tour), international artists in the studios (1994,
Bagno a Ripoli/ Florence). He also became increasingly engaged with the “Arte
e Ospedale” (Art and Hospital) relationship, which he explored also
in collaboration with artists such as Poul Gernes and Ettore Spalletti, both
directly through projects of artistic intervention, and by curating international
symposia such as that held in Florence in 1998, and publications (such as that
cited above published by Gli Ori), and holding seminars and conferences (for
example, “Arte visiva e Ospedali” (Visual Arts and Hospitals) in many
American cities (La Paz, New York, Buenos Aires).
In more recent years, as a result of repeated sojourns and shows in New York,
he has also intensified his frequentation of artists such as Michael Goldberg,
Lynn Umlauff, Robert Ryman, Taadaki Kuwaiama, etc.
He is present at the most important art fairs (Cologne, Chicago, Basle) and has
had a constant stream of one-man and collective shows in galleries and museums,
among which we would mention those of Munich (Kunstbunker Tumulka, 1998-99),Buenos
Aires (Centro Cultural Recoleta, 1999), Hyvinkaa (Contemporary Art Museum,1999),
La Paz (Museo Nazionale di Arte, 2001), Heidelberg (Kunstverein, 2002), New York
(Chelsea Art Museum, 2002), Bergamo (GAMeC, 2003), New York (Holland Tunnel,
2003), Lodz (I Biennale, 2004), New York (Kentler International Drawing Center,
2005), Berndorf /Vienna (Museum Arterra; Kunsthistorishe Museum, 2005), Prague
(Galerie Bayer & Bayer and Galerie 9, 2005), Vienna (Palais Epstein, 2006),
Nicosia (Artosfoundation, 2006), Tarija (Museo Francisco Miguel Marì, 2007),
Florence (Galleria il Ponte, 2007; Museo Archeologico,2007), which confirm the
position of Mimmo Roselli on the international art scene.
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