Castiglioni has the pleasure to introduce Presente, the first solo show with the gallery by Giulio Bonfante .
The exhibition includes eight paintings made in the past two years between Milano and Frankfurt, where Giulio has just graduated from Städelschule.
Its title is a declaration of intents, assertive yet easygoing: like a student in class, with his first solo show Giulio answers “Present”.
Still, his presence is ambiguous and elusive, because the exhibited works have a deliberate outdated look, which comes from an instinctive aversion to trends and a conscious stand on what painting today means.
Giulio Bonfante has found the fundamental point of reference for his practice in the twists of painting’s recent history. He feels part of a tradition in which painting means trying to paint while wondering if it’s a good idea, caring about the destiny of painting despite being skeptical about its current relevance.
It’s an approach that doesn’t require clear intentions. It needs instead a sincere interest and an emotional involvement in painting’s evolutions, in its relationship with contemporary art and the contemporary world.
A tender look at what’s left today of the grand ideas and ideals that moved modernist painting, feeling in its artifacts the passion, the efforts and the doubts of all those who tried to take part in its history.