Aspen Art Museum

Guglielmo Castelli

with works by Simone Leigh, chosen by Castelli

October 20–December 10, 2023

The fourth presentation of A Lover’s Discourse features two new large paintings by artist Guglielmo Castelli (b.1987, Turin). After a period of research into local collections in Aspen, with a focus on sculptural works, Castelli selected three sculptures of heads by Simone Leigh to be shown in dialogue with his canvases.

Based in a city whose rich artistic history contains the lives of Carol Rama and Carlo Mollino to the groundbreaking Arte Povera movement, Castelli belongs to a younger generation of Italian artists who are distinctively engaging with these inherited artistic narratives in an effort to forge new paths that shift them forward. Prior to becoming a painter, the artist trained as a set designer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Turin and worked as a set and costume designer for theatre and cinema—a past life that breathes through his current paintings, populated by fluid, at times slippery, bodies in dramatic arrangements. Language and literature continue to be important anchor points for the artist in the construction of worlds, characters, and spatial narratives that articulate and unfold through his canvases.

The juxtaposition of Castelli’s canvases—sharp intentions (2023) and A house is not a home (2023) – with Simone Leigh’s sculptures No Face (cobalt) (2016), No Face (Bronze) (2018) and The Village Series #11 (2019) accentuates the sense of performativity and personhood in the works of both artists while a teetering balance between figuration and abstraction envelops the room. Presented as a trio on a central plinth, and realized each in a different material including porcelain, terracotta, bronze, and stoneware, Leigh’s sculptures follow forms traditionally associated with African art and methods of craft. Their eyes are erased and at times their whole face vanishes into a void.

Brought in conversation for the first time in the context of A Lover’s Discourse, Castelli and Leigh’s works emerge from different trajectories of research and making, and narrate embodied experiences through the evocation of the human figure in their works.

ABOUT Guglielmo Castelli

Guglielmo Castelli (b. 1987) lives and works in Turin. Recent solo shows include Demonios Familiares, Mendes Wood DM New York, USA and The Cabin LA Presents: A Curated Flashback, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX, USA (both 2023); A knife with no blade, missing its handle / ΕΝΑ ΜΑΧΑΙΡΙ ΧΩΡΙΣ ΛΕΠΙΔΑ, ΠΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΛΕΙΠΕΙ Η ΛΑΒΗ, RODEO London-Piraeus (2022); Calm act in closed room, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels (2021); Ornate Impotence, The Cabin, Los Angeles (2020), Sia inteso come tutto ciò che non pesa, Fondazione Coppola, Vicenza (2019), Goodmorning Bambino, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2018). Selected group exhibitions include Andrew Kreps, New York (2021); Galerie Rolando Anselmi, Rome (2020), Atina (2020), Berlin, 2019. His work was featured in several institutional exhibitions and biennials including Pittura Italiana Oggi, Triennale Milano, Milan (2023); mutanti, sotto un cielo che implode, OGR Torino, Turin (2023); Diario Notturno, Maxxi L'Aquila, L'Aquila (2023); Expressioni at the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli (2022); the 17a Quadriennale di Roma (2020); Stasi Frenetica, GAM, Turin (2020); the Biennale Internazionale d’Art Contemporain de Melle (2018); Challenging Beauty, Parkview Museum, Singapore (2018); Recto/ Verso 2, Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2018); Intriguing Uncertainties, Museum of Contemporary Art of Saint-Étienne (2016); and Lo sguardo delle gallerie sulla grande arte italiana, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna (2016). His forthcoming exhibitions include a presentation at the Villa Medici (forthcoming 2024) and Improving songs for anxious children, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice (forthcoming 2024). In 2017, he was mentioned in the “30 Under 30, Europe” list by Forbes Magazine.