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"By recovering the aesthetic and identity value of the materials she uses, most of them of natural origin without substantial chromatic manipulations, and by re-enacting the sapiential properties of plants and other life forms that populate the Earth, Gaia Fugazza demonstrates how the idea of man’s predominance over nature derives from an ideological misunderstanding of the notion of intelligence, which for centuries has been tendentiously associated with purely human characteristics, such as thought and word."
- Emanuela Zanon
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Photo by David Bebber.
'Gaia FUGAZZA: Virginity is not a contraceptive' brings together a selection of works from Fugazza’s renowned Contraceptive series, depicting the more mundane aspects of female fertility, alongside works displaying the wonders of nature and the universe - constellations, childbirth and animal figures reminiscent of the traces found in the Lascaux caves. In presenting different female contraception’s methods, the artist is interested in addressing this subject from an artistic, psychological, botanical and scientific point of view. In Natural Response, 2019 she attempts to represent the many entities that populate a person, and the constant shift between the perception of the self as a unity and as an interconnected multitude. Linked to contemporary life, her “paintings” are inspired by archetypes of the past while possibly presenting themselves as propositions for the future. Quelli che si allontanano [The ones who walk away], 2019, shows how Fugazza’s research gives access to knowledge according to languages and meanings between common reality and altered states of consciousness. Visually, most of the work’s surface has undergone a process of paring away, and in some areas the paint is stripped back or burned to reveal rough wood: by reducing to the bare minimum, Fugazza reveals the elemental necessity of her subject matter.
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Gaia FUGAZZA
Virginity is not a contraceptive. Shooting star in Pisces, 2015Beeswax, Blanc de Meudon, rabbit skin glue, pigments, acrylic medium on carved wood60 x 40 x 3 cm -
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"In delicate drawings carved onto wood or paintings on glass with raw, hand-mixed pigments, Fugazza fuses stimuli from smartphones and laptops with narratives of everyday life that are at once deeply personal to the artist and universally understood."
- ARTSY'S '30 Emerging Artists to Watch This Spring'
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Gaia FUGAZZA
Mimosa Pudica - Hostages and partners, 2019Quilted maple plywood, beeswax, mineral pigments, rubber50 x 62 cm -
Gaia Fugazza, Gli indifferenti, 2019 (detail)
Working across the mediums of painting and performance, Fugazza is interested in experimenting with organic materials and ancient techniques, which she approaches in a performative way, to explore the troubled relationship of humans and the natural environment, plant knowledge, reproduction and transcendental practices. Works featured in the show were included in Antidotes and their Counterparts, a joint exhibition with Haroon Mirza, at Häusler Contemporary, Zurich in 2019 and in The London Open Live at the Whitechapel Gallery in 2016.
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Gaia FUGAZZA
A distant attempt and the present worms, 2019Carved and burned wood, beeswax, porcupine needles, copper oxide, iron oxide, graphite, oil colours, acrylic medium180 x 115 cm£ 7,000.00
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Photo by Jon C Archdeacon.
Gaia FUGAZZA’s (b. 1985, Milan) practice includes paintings and performance, exploring the troubled relationship of humans and the natural environment, plant knowledge, reproduction and transcendental practices. Recent solo and duo exhibitions of Fugazza’s work have been held at Häusler Contemporary; Zurich, Gallleriapiù; Bologna. Recent performances include Transcendence, Royal Academy of Arts, London; Super Nature in two Parts, Lisson Gallery, London; Baltic Triennial 13, South London Gallery, London; Star Messenger, LUX, London; Water from the Waist Down, Kunsthall Oslo.Her work has been featured in several Biennales and institutional shows such as the 13 Baltic Triennal, Glasstress, Venice, Mediterranea, Milan, The London Open, Whitechapel Gallery; Hrm 199 Ltd, Tinguely Museum, Basel.
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Gaia FUGAZZA
Plants like him - Cerulean Blue, 2020Mineral Pigments, Beeswax, Watercolours, Traditional Gesso on wood180 x 115 x 3.2 cm