Glen Brown: Piaceri Sconosciuti
Florence has finally accepted and welcomed with open arms contemporary art and the recent exhibitions are proof of it. Just like "Piaceri Sconosciuti" (Unknown Pleasures) by contemporary artst Glen Brown, that opened last week at the Bardini Museum.
The famous British artist, in the past has held exhibitions in London, Vienna, Arles, Amsterdam and Turin, and has now arrived in Florence with his singular and sophisticated works.
The exhibition features about thirty pieces, including paintings, sculptures and drawings; figurative artworks, that fit in perfectly with the art collections of the Bardini Museum.
Bright colors, sinuous brush strokes and unsettling images are characteristic of his experimental type of painting.
Brown takes inspiration from the past, from different historical periods and different artistic currents such as the Renaissance, Impressionism, and Surrealism which blend together in a surprising contemporary reinterpretation.
Abstract, rational, grotesque and beautiful at the same time, Brown's creations never cease to amaze the viewer who's inevitably drawn to the ghostly, otherwordly images and deep, rich colors that vortex on the canvas or accumulate in thick layers of paint that become sculpture.
He was defined the "plastic surgeon of art" for his ability to cut, distort, rielaborate and reshape the masterpieces of the past. By stealing their souls he gives them new life like a modern Doctor Frankenstein, but what he creates is far from being monstruous.
Many viewers of his work decalare to have felt the impulse to "lick" and "touch" the paintings, attracted by the tridimentional look of them, produced by the curls and twists he creates using thin brushes. His trompe l'oeil illusion of turbulent paint application is caracteristic of his oniric images.
Unespectedly, Brown's works integrate perfectly in the halls of the Bardini Museum, house of several Medieval and Reinascennce masterpieces, now displayed next to very unusual companions: eerie and enigmatic art pieces that somehow, look like they belong here.
A very unusual and surprising exhibition that will leave you mystified and mesmerized.
Stefano Bardini Museum
Via dei Renai, 37
Tel.055 2342427
Opening hours: Monday / Friday / Saturday / Sunday: 11 am-5pm
Full ticket € 6,00 - Reduced ticket € 4,50 - Free ticket: under 18
http://musefirenze.it/en/mostreeventi/