SAM BORNSTEIN - Cosmic joke
Opening September 24 from 6.30pm
Martedì 24 settembre la Galleria Richter Fine Art apre la nuova stagione espositiva 2024/2025 con Cosmic Joke, la prima personale in galleria dedicata a Sam Bornstein (1983, New York). In mostra un gruppo di opere realizzate a New York che affrontano temi su cui l’artista si confronta da diverso tempo, realizzate in tecnica mista su tela, invocano un umorismo trascendentale, facendo riferimento alla realtà contemporanea in composizioni narrative inventate, dove l'ordinaria esistenza terrena incontra la sfera del miracoloso.
Il titolo Cosmic Joke fa riferimento a un idioma, secondo cui esiste un umorismo implicito nell'idea di cosmo come un flusso preordinato di eventi. L’artista, ispirandosi all’ idea di “fantastico” del filosofo strutturalista Tzvetan Todorov, indaga la scelta tra la credenza e l'incredulità nel soprannaturale, considera ciò come un’intersezione, dove si possono ampliare i confini e le possibilità rispetto a quanto normalmente avviene in un dipinto.
Ciò che accomuna le opere in mostra è che esse nascono dalla particolare sensibilità e condizione dell'artista, il quale si è lasciato liberamente influenzare da molteplici interessi, canoni e dall'eclettico melting pot delle sue origini newyorkesi degli anni Novanta. Di conseguenza, le opere attingono anche a questa composita miscela di esperienze culturali, da cui Sam Bornstein ha scelto con sensibilità gli affetti su cui costruire la sua ricerca pittorica, intrecciando miti, archetipi, il senso del bizzarro e del sacro.
Piuttosto che affrontare temi legati al contemporaneo o varie forme di determinismo da una prospettiva realistica, l'artista si concentra su come gli eventi vengano filtrati attraverso l'immaginazione individuale e collettiva. In questo processo, l'immaginario viene liberato da una rigida funzione narrativa, così l'artista interpreta situazioni comunemente banali con un occhio di riguardo verso la sensibilità, l'assurdità e all'arguzia.
Frequentemente i soggetti delle opere di Bornstein sono gruppi di persone impegnate in attività lavorative e ricreative strane e indefinibili, appaiono come immagini mentali e fugaci, intrise di un forte senso ultraterreno e di giocosità. Nei suoi lavori Bornstein alterna una pennellata grezza, sbiadita e incompiuta - tanto che superficie assomiglia a pagine consunte - a una tecnica mista, in cui pittura spray inchiostro, poliuretano, acrilico colato, stencil, gesso e grafite danno vita a una texture atmosferica.
La mostra è accompagnata dalla terza edizione del libro d’artista ‘Quaderno’ della Galleria Richter Fine Art, edito da Aniene Publishing di Alessandro Dandini de Sylva. La pubblicazione raccoglie dei disegni inediti dell’artista ad inchiostro su carta, rivelanti la traccia di una mano che lavora in senso diaristico e dialogante con il tempo, diventando altresì strumento per proiettare sogni, idee e narrazioni oniriche.
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Sam Bornstein (1983, New York) vive e lavora a New York. Si è diplomato presso il MFA, Hunter College, 2018 ed il BA, Bard College, New York, 2005. Fra le mostre personali si segnalano: Spiel Room, Charles Moffett Gallery, New York, 2023; Astral Blue, Embajada Gallery, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2023; Variety Lofts, Charles Moffett Gallery, New York, 2022; Daydream Workshop, Charles Moffett Gallery, New York, 2018-2019. Fra le collettive: Not Too Late, Charles Moffett Gallery, New York, 2024; The Veil, Twelve Ten Gallery, Chicago, 2024; Jorn, Og Nye Kunstner På Vej, Galerie Moderne, Silkeborg, Danimarca, 2023; Fantomas, Salon 8, Amburgo, Germania, 2023; NADA NY and Miami, Charles Moffett Gallery, 2023; Kansas, Salon 8, Amburgo, Germania, 2022; Tamo Aquí (We Here), Embajada, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2022; Out of Place, Monti8, Latina, Italia, 2022; Brooklyn Bridge, McBride Contemporain, Montreal, Canada, 2022; Transmissions, Underdonk, Brooklyn, New York, 2021; The Neighbors, The Catskills, New York, 2021; Something Reassuringly Hopeless, Bass & Reiner San Francisco, California, 2020; Familiars, George Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, 2020; Quarantine Copy, Kunstverein Miagao, Filippine, 2020; Baby MOMA, At Peace Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, 2020; Pungent Dystopia, Freight & Volume, New York, 2020; Purple, Underdonk, Brooklyn, New York, 2020. MECA Art Fair, Embajada, San Juan Puerto Rico, 2019; Original Copy, Alta, Malmö, Svezia, 2019; Think In Pictures, Amelchenko, 32 Orchard Street, New York, 2019; The Joke Is On You, Embajada, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2019; Group Exhibition, Contra Gallery, Zagabria, Croazia, 2018; Sommer Udstilling, Galerie Moderne Silkeborg, Silkeborg, Danimarca, 2018; Ærø Kunsthal Museum of Modern Art, Ærø, Danimarca, 2018; Bathers, Bass & Reiner, San Francisco, California, 2018; Points of Light in a Nocturnal World, Metro Pictures Project Space at 7Herkimer Place, New York, 2018; A World of People, Underdonk, Brooklyn, New York, 2018; Fugue, Honey Ramka, Brooklyn, New York, 2018; Hunter College MFA Exhibition, 205 Hudson Street Gallery, New York, 2017; Everything You've Ever Wanted, Agency, New York, 2017; American Visual Art, Marina Tsvetaeva Museum, Mosca, 2013; Dürer's Rhinoceros, LeRoy Neiman Gallery at Columbia University, New York, 2010; Artist's Choice, Lohin Geduld, New York, 2009. Tra le opere in collezioni pubbliche: Ærø Kunsthal Museum of Modern Art, Ærø, Danimarca; Marina Tsvetaeva Museum, Mosca.
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On Tuesday 24th September, Richter Fine Art opens the new 2024/2025 exhibition season with Cosmic Joke, the first solo gallery exhibition dedicated to Sam Bornstein (1983, New York). On display are a group of works made in New York dealing with core themes that the artist has been engaged with for quite some time. Created in mixed media on canvas, they invoke a transcendent humor, referencing contemporary life in invented narrative compositions where ordinary earthly existence meets the sphere of the miraculous.
The title Cosmic Joke refers to an idiom, the idea that there is implicit humor contained in the notion that the cosmos might appear to affect us as a preordained flow of events. Taking inspiration from the Structuralist philosopher Tzvetan Todorov’s theory of the “fantastic”, the artist investigates the choice between belief and disbelief in the supernatural, he considers this as an intersection, where boundaries and possibilities can be expanded of what can normally happen in a painting.
The exhibition works are united by a particular sensibility and condition of the artist, who has allowed himself to be freely influenced by multiple interests, canons, and the eclectic melting pot of his 1990’s New York origins. Consequently, the works also draw on this composite mixture of cultural experiences, from which Sam Bornstein has sensitively chosen the affections on which to build his pictorial research, interweaving myths, archetypes, the sense of the odd and the sacred.
Rather than addressing the subjects of contemporary life or various forms of determinism from the perspective of Realism, the artist is concerned with how these are filtered through individual and collective imagination. In this process, imagery is freed from strict narrative function, and we witness the artist interpreting commonly mundane situations with an eye for sensitivity, absurdity, and wit.
The subjects of Bornstein's works, often groups of people engaged in strange and ambiguous work and leisure, appear as mental, fleeting images imbued with a strong sense of otherworldliness and playfulness. In his work Bornstein alternates rough, faded and gestural brushstrokes - so that the surface resembles worn pages - with a mixed technique, in which ink spray paint, polyurethane, poured acrylic, stencils, chalk and graphite create an atmospheric texture.
The exhibition is accompanied by the third edition of Richter Fine Art’s artist book 'Quaderno’, published by Aniene Publishing by Alessandro Dandini de Sylva. The publication collects unpublished drawings by the artist in ink on paper, revealing the trace of a hand working in a diaristic sense and dialoguing with time, also becoming a tool for projecting dreams, ideas and dreamlike narratives.
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Sam Bornstein (1983, New York) lives and works New York. Graduates MFA, Hunter College, 2018 and BA, Bard College, New York, 2005. Solo exhibitions include: Spiel Room, Charles Moffett Gallery, New York, 2023; Astral Blue, Embajada Gallery, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2023; Variety Lofts, Charles Moffett Gallery, New York, 2022; Daydream Workshop, Charles Moffett Gallery, New York, 2018-2019. Among the group exhibition: Not Too Late, Charles Moffett Gallery, New York, 2024; The Veil, Twelve Ten Gallery, Chicago, 2024; Jorn, Og Nye Kunstner På Vej, Galerie Moderne, Silkeborg, Denmark, 2023; Fantomas, Salon 8, Hamburg, Germany, 2023; NADA NY and Miami, Charles Moffett Gallery, 2023; Kansas, Salon 8, Hamburg, Germany, 2022; Tamo Aquí (We Here), Embajada, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2022; Out of Place, Monti8, Latina, Italy, 2022; Brooklyn Bridge, McBride Contemporain, Montreal, Canada, 2022; Transmissions, Underdonk, Brooklyn, New York, 2021; The Neighbors, The Catskills, New York, 2021; Something Reassuringly Hopeless, Bass & Reiner San Francisco, California, 2020; Familiars, George Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, 2020; Quarantine Copy, Kunstverein Miagao, Filippine, 2020; Pungent Dystopia, Freight & Volume, New York, 2020; Purple, Underdonk, Brooklyn, New York, 2020. MECA Art Fair, Embajada, San Juan Puerto Rico, 2019; Original Copy, Alta, Malmö, Sweden, 2019; The Joke Is On You, Embajada, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2019; Group Exhibition, Contra Gallery, Zagabria, Croatia, 2018; Sommer Udstilling, Galerie Moderne Silkeborg, Silkeborg, Denamark, 2018; Ærø Kunsthal Museum of Modern Art, Ærø, Denmark, 2018; Bathers, Bass & Reiner, San Francisco, California, 2018; Points of Light in a Nocturnal World, Metro Pictures Project Space at 7Herkimer Place, New York, 2018; A World of People, Underdonk, Brooklyn, New York, 2018; Fugue, Honey Ramka, Brooklyn, New York, 2018; Hunter College MFA Exhibition, 205 Hudson Street Gallery, New York, 2017; American Visual Art, Marina Tsvetaeva Museum, Moscow, 2013; Dürer's Rhinoceros, LeRoy Neiman Gallery at Columbia University, New York, 2010; Artist's Choice, Lohin Geduld, New York, 2009; Among the artworks in public collections: Ærø Kunsthal Museum of Modern Art, Ærø, Denmark; Marina Tsvetaeva Museum, Moscow.
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