Somethings in the World
Furla Series
September 15–December 17, 2023
Fondazione Furla and GAM—Galleria d’Arte Moderna of Milan are proud to present Somethings in the World, an exhibition by Suzanne Jackson, curated by Bruna Roccasalva.
The artist’s first solo exhibition in a European museum institution, Somethings in the World is the new project of the Furla Series, the program promoted by Fondazione Furla and realized in collaboration with Italy’s foremost museums, with an all-female program designed to showcase women’s fundamental contribution to contemporary culture. The exhibition offers a glimpse of the research Suzanne Jackson has been carrying out for over fifty years and retraces the key moments of her career.
Suzanne Jackson is an American artist whose practice embraces a broad field of investigation exploring the potential of painting, nourished by her experiences in dance, theater, and poetry. Her initial figurative production—populated by a pictorial matrix of characters, animals, and references to nature—evolved over the years, progressively approaching abstraction, until reaching the elaboration of a very personal vocabulary in which painting takes on both a sculptural and environmental dimension.
Somethings in the World stems from the idea of presenting the various stages of Jackson’s production by outlining the recurring elements, from her debut to her most recent oeuvre, through a careful selection of the most representative sets of works. The twenty-seven works on display, including iconic pieces, previously unseen works and her most recent production, creates a narrative that accompanies the visitor through the artist’s universe, at the same time triggering comparison and dialogue with the GAM setting and the works in its permanent collection: from the sharp neoclassicism of Canova to the Divisionist paintings of Segantini, Previati, and Pellizza da Volpedo, as well as the extraordinary experiments in light and matter to be found in Medardo Rosso’s sculptures.
Suzanne Jackson’s entire career is marked by phases closely related to biographical events, and that flow into one another, continually mixing and blending over the years: a constant interweaving of the private and personal dimension with the artistic and professional sphere, which the show recounts along an exhibition path constructed not chronologically but by associations and correspondences, underlining the links and continuous cross-references between themes, techniques, and languages.
From her dreamlike paintings of the 1970s to the radical experiments of her more recent “anti-canvases,” which go so far as to do away with the need for a support, only to turn into pure color, the exhibition showcases the complexity and development of a research that has pushed back the limits of painting toward unexpected scenarios.
Suzanne Jackson: Somethings in the World is the fifth edition of the Furla Series project, and is the upshot of collaboration between Fondazione Furla and GAM: a partnership begun in 2021 to promote annual exhibition projects providing a unique opportunity for past masters and protagonists of the contemporary scene to come face to face.
For more info
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