London,
38 Dover Street, London W1S 4NL
24 February - 3 April 2018
St. Moritz Art Masters, Moncler, Robilant+ Voena and Studio Geuna present Contemporary White, a group exhibition that brings together a selection of works by contemporary artists under the theme of the colour white. The visually engaging monochromatic works, presented across the imposing central body of the Protestant church, trace a fluid navigation through the symbolism of the colour white. Artists across different regions, continents and cultures explore the colour white in a diversity of languages and materials. Within the exhibition the restrained palette of the works create an aesthetic around which the ‘a-chrome’ becomes the primary instrument of expression. The blankness and purity, together with the neutrality of white, are explored in a variety of forms and materials awaiting the viewers’ contemplation. The spiritual abstraction of Y.Z. Kami’s White Dome is juxtaposed to the ethereal transcendence of Adel Abdessemed’s Landscape. As an echo of nature, Giuseppe Penone’s Pelle del Monte resembles the surface - the skin, as the artist puts it - of a mountain with its quarried block of Carrara marble. The rigid white exterior of Franz West’s immense snowball enhances its circular sculptural presence, while Ernesto Neto’s tactile and softer shape creates a counter-balance on the opposite side of the church. Within the rough surface of chalks of Pascale Marthine Tayou’s White Spirit, white flowers emerge as a sign of hope. Adel Abdessemed’s The Travelling Players luminous white carved marble stands out throughout the exhibition because of the stillness of its subject matter. In contrast with the immediacy of the previous images, words appear in Jenny Holzer’s engraved footstool and Tracey Emin’s neon that work as prayers within the pristine sacred location. The sober elegance of the Protestant church becomes a greater space for meditation and spirituality where the complete silence of colours draws the viewer’s attention towards the airy and dreamlike qualities of the artworks. Presenting works by international living artists working with a multiplicity of forms, Contemporary White seeks to focus on the essence of the work, putting aside the chromatic spectrum.