Thierry Goldberg is pleased to present Aren’t We Lucky, an online exhibition of works by Carlo D’Anselmi. The exhibition will be on view from July 8th to August 5th, 2021.
Carlo D’Anselmi employs vivid colors, dramatic lighting, and warped perspective to construct pictorial spaces of his own making. Working across painting and drawing, the artist’s practice has a dreamlike quality, whereby figures, flora, and fauna all coexist in the same illusory universe. Plants and wildlife take over the page or canvas, while D’Anselmi’s subjects appear somewhat statuesque, engrossed in their personal realities. Cityscapes encroach upon nature, and vice versa, highlighting the ongoing tension between humanity and the environments that surround us.
The works presented in Aren’t We Lucky were all created during the summer months of 2020, when New York was under lockdown and the city’s streets were eerily empty. The artist turned to drawing as a meditative process, producing new work on an almost daily basis. Contrasting the bright, lush settings that characterize D’Anselmi’s paintings, there is a sense of isolation and despondency that can be felt throughout his drawings. Illuminated windows offer glimpses into the private lives of their inhabitants, while slivers of light cast ghostlike shadows across kitchen tables, living rooms, and vacant foyers. D’Anselmi’s works appear to occupy a liminal space between night and day; a city abandoned, a world in waiting.
D’Anselmi incorporates a number of art historical references into his drawings. In Writer’s Block (2020), A Poison Tree (2020), and Sebastian(2020), we find reproductions of renowned paintings subtly positioned by a window, behind a bouquet of flowers, or captivating the attention of an indoor cat. Conjuring scenes from memory and situating them within these semi-fictional spaces, D’Anselmi blurs the boundary between reality and imagination. In Stepping Out (2020), a young boy stands in front of an open door, which allows a stream of sunlight into an otherwise dark interior. The threshold – a remembered image of the entrance to the artist’s childhood home – appears to radiate outwards, casting a golden reflection onto the floor beneath it. Through these recollections and visualizations, D’Anselmi explores the architectures of our minds. The works presented in Aren’t We Lucky not only pay homage to a tumultuous and introspective time, but they offer a portrait of the people and places that we transport ourselves to when faced with the overwhelming stillness of our lives coming to a halt.
Carlo D’Anselmi (b. 1991, New York, NY) lives and works in Ridgewood, Queens. He holds an MFA in Painting from The New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting & Sculpture, New York, NY and a BA from Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH. D’Anselmi has had solo exhibitions at The Cabin, Los Angles, CA; Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, NY; Kent Place Gallery, Summit, NJ; and Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH. He has participated in group exhibitions at Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY; Moya Rowe Gallery, New York, NY; Public Swim, New York, NY; Galerie Kornfeld, Berlin, Germany; Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, NY; Auxier Kline, New York, NY; Catherine Fosnot Gallery, New London, CT; Danese/Corey, New York, NY; ROOM Artspace, Brooklyn, NY; M. David and Co., Brooklyn, NY; and The Painting Center, New York, NY among others. This is D’Anselmi’s second exhibition at Thierry Goldberg Gallery.
For more information please call or email the gallery at + 1. 212.228.7569 or info@thierrygoldberg.com.
