CURA.

Exuding Denis Savary’s eclectic and versatile multifaceted practice, this new series of sculptures embraces his ability to push the material to its limits. In Ventimile, presented at Galerie Maria Bernheim LONDON, his new works represent a continuum in his overall sculptural projects, referencing art historical and literary heritage while actively responding to the environment of the gallery, with its striking floor and classical architecture. 

Multicolored blown glass works will hang like polymorphous chandeliers in the gallery space. Denis Savary employs the formal language of sculpture with an emphasis on geometry and colors through the traditional medium of glass, paying homage to artists such as Duchamp and Sophie Taueber Arp but also to a painterly conception of color field, where the sculpture exists outside of itself through the play on light and shadows. As often in his oeuvre, this series is simultaneously imbued with themes and images of old-world tales, where temptation and salvation represent two pieces of the same puzzle.

The play on light and transparency mixes kitsch with a romantic Raphaelite idea of landscape, whilst creating an immersive environment for the viewer, transporting them to a small village on the Italian coast.The clear references to the Memphis Group and Ettore Sottsass are less of an homage than a disassembly, pulling apart all the elements and recreating an extraordinary form. Whether they take different shapes as hanging installations or as intimate design sculptures, Savary’s sculpture imply secret narratives and always evolving histories.