Founder of MaxMara Achille Maramotti’s public collection of contemporary art opens two solo shows this week, presenting the work of Italian artist Enrico David and Finnish photographer Esko Männikkö respectively.
Enrico David’s show ‘La Caduta’ (or ‘The Fall’) sees the gallery space filled with muddy-coloured painting and sculpture depicting unsettled faces, presented either suspended from the ceiling, set slightly apart from the wall, or standing in the centre of the room. The combination of these mediums naturally opens a dialogue between their different languages that is further highlighted in the show’s experimental layout.
David, whose imagination is filled with the aesthetics of crafts, folk art and design of the nineteenth century, has had recent solo exhibitions at Michael Werner Gallery and New Museum in New York, and at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in Venice.
‘Time Flies: A Highlight’ presents 50 career-spanning photographs by Esko Männikkö. The artist’s masterly use of light and extreme attention to composition have led some critics to comment on the similarities with Renaissance portraiture, though it’s Männikkö’s tangible warmth towards his subjects (often dilapidated if they are objects or places and humble and humorous if they are people) that really makes this show worthwhile.
Both shows open to the public at Collezione Maramotti on 17 May. Enrico David will run until 18 October and Esko Männikkö will run until 27 September.
www.collezionemaramotti.org
