Matteo Negri: Meanwhile

VERNISSAGE: 05.10 - 5:45pm
exhibition: 06.10 - 15.10 / we-sa 4pm-8pm

Les Nouveaux Riches and Aa Collections are pleased to announce the first solo exhibition of the Milan-based artist Matteo Negri in Vienna. “Meanwhile” explores the subject of time, and the time of the viewer in front of the artworks.

Since its beginnings, the artist has been analysing the perceptual role of the surface, colour, geometric aspects, chromatic variability, and reflection, which he employs as means of alienation for changing ordinary perceptions of volumes and planes. The media he employs span from sculpture and installation to geometric-abstract painting.

In the main gallery room, we have four large aluminium square format works, all 130 X 130 X 6 cm, conceived and produced for this show. In this series, Negri uses different materials and multiple layers applied on aluminium panels. The base of acrylic, shapes an intuitive and simple geometry of flat planes filled with gradients of colour. The artist fixes and saturates the new level on these surfaces with layers of coloured film. Up on it, the dichroic mirrored film shapes the definite geometry that leads the viewer to watch themselves on the artworks. It isn’t easy to classify whether these works are abstract paintings or sculptures. Negri plays with approaches, the approach of the viewer, the approach of the architecture, with new colours of iridescent films, unique cuts. It has been told that Octobers in Vienna has a distinctive lighting mood, the artist wants to activate and let his work be activated from this light. A kind of expansion from the inside to the outside, street.

A secondary room contains works with elements with the same language as the first room, this time on several smaller works. They give the viewer an exact time and date, such as “Meanwhile at 10:45 a.m. of the 29th March 2022” or “Meanwhile at 9.27 pm of the 15th April 2022”, they talk about similar aspects but they don’t establish definitive meanings. They constantly embark themselves on a relationship with the context and with the viewers, in a game of ongoing reflections and perceptions.
Matteo Negri (b.1982, St Donato Milanese) lives and works in Milan. He has been analysing the perceptual role of the surface, colour, geometric aspects, chromatic variability and reflection since the beginning of his artistic career, which he employs as means of alienation for changing ordinary perceptions of volumes and planes. The media he employs span from sculpture and installation to geometric-abstract painting. Recent years solo exhibitions include: Pezzi di questo mondo, Crag, Torino 2022; Ho mangiato un’idea, ArteA Gallery, Milano, 2021; Amori Estivi, Comune di Cannobio, 2021; I contain multitudes, Hong Kong, 2021; Ho le montagne negli occhi, MEB Arte Studio, Borgomanero, 2020; Antiretorica, Galleria Monopoli, Milano, 2019; RSVP, Fipaco - Galerie 208, Paris, 2019; Greetings from Mars, MAC Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Lissone, Lissone, 2018; Navigator Roma. Verrà se resisto a sbocciare non visto, Aranciera di Villa Borghese, Roma, 2018; Drop the dots, Axel Pairon, Knokke, 2017, Seventeen Sculptures in colors, Lorenzelli Arte, Milano 2017. His works are part of public and private collections.

Les Nouveaux Riches (LNR) is a Vienna based art platform that gives artists and cultural professionals the opportunity to present themselves to a broad audience in an authentic way. Since April 2019, more than 1.500 interviews, articles and 9 print magazines have been released. In the LNR cosmos, we curate international exhibitions, represent artists at international fairs, refer artists to galleries, organise and curate exhibitions and events, design and produce garments in limited editions. LNR is a platform that does not exclude anyone, seeks dialogue and wants to give more visibility to the Austrian and international cultural landscape.

Erka Shalari (*1988, Tirana, Albania) is a Vienna-based art author & curator. She studied Occupational Psychology at Tirana State University; Culture Management at MDW, Institute for Culture Management, Vienna and Curatorial Studies at Node Center Berlin. She focuses on discovering unique artistic positions, unconventional exhibition spaces, and galleries that have deliberately broken new ground in their working methods. Recent interviews & articles include: Adela Demetja, Gian Maria Tosatti, Maria Adele Del Vecchio, Kristina DESKA Nikolicć, SPARK Art Fair, Venedig Bienale, miart, Severin Dünser, Nives Widauer, Gallery Zeller van Almsick, Caro Jost, Renger van der Heuvel, Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, Collezione Taurisano, Sof:Art, Montecristo Project, Casa Cicca Museum, Matteo Negri, Pasquale Leccese, Sibylle Ciarloni, Alberto Tadiello. Editor at Les Nouveaux Riches Magazine since 2020 - https://linktr.ee/erkashalari