beyond Exhibition by Louise Manzon Advantage Première Art Fund beyond presents Louise Manzon’s exhibition Beyond, held in New The project York City at Gallery 61 at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT). In the exhibition, the artist expands on one of her most creative themes: the archetypes of Greek mythology. Manzon’s work explores various aspects of these classic symbols, including the female figure and its role as the watchful guardian of life’s secrets, sea creatures, the vitality of natural environments, and the perils that threaten those creatures and the hope for their preservation. Curator: Jennifer Mitchell-Nevin Gallery 61 New York Institute of Technology 16 West 61st Street 11th floor New York From April 12th to June 3rd 2016 Introduction NYIT and the School of Architecture Her personal exhibitions in 2015 and Design, in conjunction with included Rust, at the Fondazione Advantage Premiere Art Fund, in Cini in Venice, Italy and Personal New York and Milan, are pleased Structures-Crossing Borders, to host the artist Louise Manzon hosted by the European Cultural and introduce her unique, artistic Centre at the Palazzo Mora in body of work to the community. conjunction with the 2015 Venice Biennale. In 2015 she was invited Message in the Bubble, Rust, to exhibit her work, Dialogus as a Personal Structures-Crossing part of the special program Death Borders, Dialogus, and now, in Venice at the Sixth Moscow Beyond identify Manzon’s Biennale of Contemporary Art. exhibitions and allude to all of the Beyond, the exhibition NYIT essential attributes which is hosting, is her first major show characterize her art. In 2014 she in North America. created a site installation at the historic Villa Necchi Campiglio, I first met Manzon, at a special in Milan, Italy. The exhibition event in Monaco. Those of us Message in the Bubble, highlighted gathered all had a common goal: her incredible virtuosity with form to celebrate mutual acquaintances. and theme through her highly As the festivities were coming to original and magically created an end, she came forward with a environment for ceramic sea translucent-like box. With creatures ‘swimming’ above the out-stretched arms, she handed pool in the Villa’s formal gardens. the box over to the guests of honor. The box was opened and the female figure that emerged was so exquisite and beautiful that I had to catch my breath. It was the beauty of it, not only its fineness and figural quality, but also its abstractedness that caught me off guard and alerted me to take close notice. The female figure was created from clay sediment, and then transformed into glazed ceramic with a most confident, textured color palette; it was the work of an artist in command of her media. Proto Nereid Glazed ceramic, cement, natural pigment h. 51 cm / h. 20 1/8 in. Speio Nereid Glazed ceramic, metal mesh, natural pigment h. 58 cm h. 23 in. The renowned architect John What I came to realize about her Galatea Hejduk, former dean of The Cooper themes, the archetypes of Greek Nereid Ceramic, cement, Union’s School of Architecture, mythology; the female figure; natural pigment told me that one always knows aquatic creatures; and her h. 58 cm/ 22 3/4 in. when they are in the presence of materials of choice is that they all true works of art and creation, belong to or are an assemblage «because without control or of the four elements: earth, water, thought, you gasp.» I gasped when air and, of course, fire--the kiln of I saw Manzon’s work, and I knew intense heat that dazzles. I needed to know more about As an architect and educator Manzon and her art. with a highly developed visual Manzon was born in Brazil, and sensibility, and an in-depth spent her formative years in the knowledge of architecture and art United States and Europe. history, I am often called upon as She received her master’s degree an “expert witness” to evaluate in Industrial Design from Pratt formal compositions. This explains, Institute. Her father was the in part, my intensity when renowned photographer and film considering Manzon’s art. Whether maker, Jean Manzon (1915-1990). one is aware of her themes or not, Manzon’s exposure to her father’s her compositional sense and her art, most certainly, played a part ability to transform the earth into in the refinement of eye, hand and exquisite three-dimensional mind that her artistic creations ceramic figurations is phenomenal. disclose. Her sensibility goes The aquatic creatures are full, fluid beyond what one sees before them. and slippery. They pulse with life. It demonstrates an inner passion They glisten as if wet. and commitment to the natural environment from whence her subjects derive, and remind us to preserve and sustain our precious environment. Bengala Indian Ocean Glazed ceramic Her female figures, which dominate Special thanks goes to Jennifer Dynamene the exhibition space, have robes Mitchell-Nevin, NYIT School of Nereid Glazed ceramic, metal that seem to flow and billow in the Architecture and Design’s events mesh, natural pigment wind. Her subjects, especially the co-ordinator and curator for h. 74 cm/ 29 1/8 in. sea creatures, are formally sensual Gallery 61, and Nancy Donner, in composition; the fish, undulate Vice President of Communications and move, and the females swirl and Marketing. and twist upwards with diagonal On the other side of the Atlantic, movement, as if freeing themselves I must thank Francesco Confuorti, from their flowing garments. Her founder of Advantage Premiere Art mixture of materials; mesh, stucco Fund and President of Advantage and cement mixed with pigments, Financial, for his generosity to both along with glazes highlighted NYIT’s School of Architecture and with paint, result in a tactile, Design and Beyond, which is an sumptuousness of color that dazzle exhibition of work that exemplifies and surprise. Indeed, she possesses his commitment to environmental an eye for both beauty and form sustainability. We would like of the highest order. to thank Rosy Iannone for her It is my honor to host Manzon, patience and help with this project. her art, her artistic message, and Finally, I would like to thank the her message of concern. NYIT Board of Trustees and NYIT President Edward Guiliano, Ph.D., for creating NYIT’s extraordinary and interdisciplinary milieu that makes all this possible. Thank you, Judith DiMaio, FAIA Dean, School of Architecture and Design, NYIT April 2016 Doto I have always looked at sculptors But music is immaterial, while Nereid Presentation with envy because there are not sculpture is the art form that is the Ceramic, cement, natural pigment very many of them and I would most material, the most concrete. h. 67 cm/ 26 1/2 in. have wanted their same talent! Sculptures are placed in parks, squares, gardens, churches, Why? Because sculpture is an museums, palaces, confident of extremely physical art in terms living through the centuries and of the artist who creates it, ravages of time, albeit perhaps the materials that are usually used, with some event as occurs when a and for the end result. tyrant is killed or when sculptures There is a vitality and a movement suffer damage like the Samothrace in sculpture that in a certain sense now in the Louvre. She has lost can also be found in music. her head, but not her wings. So, gazing at some of the marine forms, some of the fish, they make me think of Balla’s speed. It occurs to me that Louise Manzon’s work is a pearl that belongs to the long string of pearls that is sculpture. A Brazilian artist, who has experienced North America and the works of Louise Nevelson, who has known Paris and the works of Camille Claudel and Rodin, who looked upon the works of Brancusi and Moore, has been able to find her own materials and turn them into voluptuous, restless forms that seem to want to flee, to break through, to look for the light. But the sculptures can not escape Moluche because they are immobile, and Pacific Ocean Glazed ceramic therefore it is fascinating that the artist knows how to give them a Alboran sense, the illusion of movement, by Mediterranean Sea using forms she models in Glazed ceramic materials that are sometimes rough and difficult to shape. I enjoy imagining an initial sketch, and then the transition to the transformation of the material in its form. Louise Manzon has her recognizable cipher that is carried along with faded memory, the memory of those who came before her. Calder worked with wire and colorful metal plates inspired by the works of Mondrian and he was able to reproduce the world of the circus that so fascinated him. Giacometti invented those slender a strong desire to live, to breathe bodies that were inspired by the fresh air of the early morning primitive totems. That same and feel happiness of what is newly primitive art was to inspire found, a fabulous unknown that sculptors like Brancusi and her fish look at with eyes wide painters like Picasso – who also open. Her forms to some seem tried his hand at sculpture. Baroque; to me they call to mind futurists such as Balla or Medardo Louise Manzon is not intimidated Rosso. But the colors produced by her illustrious predecessors by the artist bring us back to an because she has her own poetic older, submerged world. They are world and creates its forms in the colors of the vases found on the green, red, blue, fish or in the seabed or the chains and anchors depiction of a young blonde girl of the galleons sunk by pirates.