Jan Fabre
Jan Fabre, visual artist, theatre artist and author, is considered one of the most innovative and significant figures in the world of contemporary international art. He is often described as an avant-garde genius in the different fields he works in.
His new exhibition at Studio Trisorio presents 3 coral sculptures and 18 drawings including studies of the works To Eusebia and The Number 85 with Angel Wings which entered the permanent Neapolitan collections of, respectively, the Real Cappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro and the Church of Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco in 2023.
In this solo show, the artist pays tribute to three women: Eusebia, the pious legendary woman who collected the blood of St. Gennaro in two ampoules after his martyrdom in 305 AD, the gallerist Laura Trisorio and Joanna De Vos, the artist's wife.
In the To Eusebia (Thinking Model) mosaic, the artist dematerializes the image of the saint and poetically depicts various objects related to the cult of his blood: the mitre, characterized by a magnificent garland of coral branches encircled by tongues of fire, two keys similar to those used to open the safe that holds the blood of St. Gennaro and two cruets. The background consists of an infinite chiaroscuro of red, a monochrome created by natural variations of hues and shapes in which one can recognize the expert hands of the carver and artist who laboriously assembled the small pieces of coral to pay homage to Naples, the “Urbs sanguinem”, the city where blood is the protagonist of miraculous wonders.
The sculpture The Organ of Love with the Tree of Life (Thinking Model) dedicated to Laura Trisorio, represents an anatomical heart composed of roses and coral beads, crowned by a cross metaphorical image of the tree of life.
The work The Number 85 with Angel Wings (Thinking Model) is inspired by the marble “winged skull” made by Dionisio Lazzari in 1669 for the high altar of the Church of Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco and consists of a human skull with long, tapered wings. On the front appears the number 85 whose numerological meaning is related to the souls in Purgatory and is directly connected to the cult of the dead or rather their souls characteristic of Neapolitan culture and Baroque poetics.
The exhibition includes a series of 18 collage-drawings made as preparatory studies for the creation of the sculptures. They take different variations of the symbols used in both works placed in sacred spaces and, for the artist, become small universes in their own right, like visionary dreams. The drawings are made on paper, with the artist's blood, colored pencils and a very fine brush that retraces the tiny shapes of horns, pearls, roses of the precious red Mediterranean coral.
The exhibition will be open to the public until 30 November.