gallery rosenfeld presents Within and Beyond – Looking into the Infinite,
featuring the works of Riccardo Guarneri, Marianna Gioka and Min Woo Nam.
Each of these three artists are very different, both in the language they use in their art and in their very different ages, yet they are connected by their subject matter.
None make any political, economic, or social declarations, but instead unite in a metaphysical search for meaning both deep within us and beyond us in the unfathomable universe.
Guarneri’s delicately refined artworks are blossom from a range of materials – pencils, coloured crayons, rulers and rubbers, adopting a childlike sensitiveness much like those who are first exploring the capabilities of creativity.
Riccardo Guarneri, ‘Una rivisitazione in rosa’, 2022
Titles of his works are a literal descriptions of the initial appearance of each canvas – but the ambience of the works themselves also hold a tranquility and peacefulness, inviting us to reflect on our inner being and the wider universe beyond our world as seen through our eyes.
Guarneri’s latest works have transitioned towards a palpable sense of things disappearing into pure empty space. However, there is no drama, merely a reinforced sense of gradual peace. He creates a simplicity and purity which inspires a meditative observation in viewers.
Gioka’s works, by contrast, are extraordinarily complex, full of minute marks made with a bewildering array of pens. She begins each piece with a background of creams or darker shadows, depending on the atmosphere she wishes to create with the finished work. This increases the composition’s richness.
Marianna Gioka, Untitled, 2021
As viewers, we gaze and get lost in this most elaborate of spider webs of marks, the richness of the finished picture revealing itself gradually as we progressively lose ourselves in her universe that is saturated with mystery.
The paintings of the Korean artist Min Woo Nam on the other hand immediately present us with a metaphysical landscape. Nam’s works have a hypnotic quality where the elements of light, darkness and colour stand boldly at the forefront, the protagonists.
Mystical light which is so fundamental to Nam’s vision appears not to be of this world, but something more far-reaching and profound, making our journey a spiritual one life’s eternal questions, the richness of their answers as rich as his paintwork. Although the mystery and wonder of light has been a constant exploration over the centuries, there is a quality to Nam’s painting which feels very original.
Min Woo Nam, ‘Vernal Equinox’, 2023
Together, all three artists open a window for us to meditate on our own deepest feelings and impulses, encouraging us to embark on an emotional dialogue
with ourselves about the great metaphysical questions of life and their infinite mysteries.
The exhibition runs through to 16 February 2024.
All images courtesy of the artists and rosenfeld.
