Giovanni Kronenberg
Solo Show
The solo show by Giovanni Kronenberg (Milan, 1974. Lives and works in Milan), with a critical text by Antonio Grulli, is entirely centered on his recent production on paper. Known for his sculptures - characterized by the use and transformation of artefacts, natural finds and objects that are difficult to catalog and resist interpretations or narrative approaches - over the years the artist has combined his sculptural research with a dense graphic production. Parallel and complementary, the works on paper reveal a particular sensitivity for the conception and transformation of forms which, if on the one hand they recall the configurations of the sculptures, on the other they distance themselves from them due to the strong and unexpected colors and freedom of sign. In his exhibitions, the artist puts the sculptures in dialogue with the language of drawing, trying to expand and test the installation dynamics and their consequent dialogic relationships. If in the previous trials, the relationship between the sculptures installed on the floor and the drawings displayed on the wall created a short circuit, now, by subtracting the three-dimensional forms, the ambiguity - which has always permeated and substantiated Kronenberg's research - intensifies in the sole two-dimensionality of paper. The figure-ground polarity, central to his drawings, becomes a continuous formal dispute, which he does not find and does not want to find a simple or predictable solution. The use of different techniques - from pastel to charcoal, from colored pencils to watercolor - make the action of drawing closer to a pictorial sensibility, where saturated colors dialogue with more diaphanous and softer tones. All small format, Kronenberg's works on paper are also peculiar for the skill in handling and juxtaposing the different materials used for the backgrounds: copper leaf, silver and 24-karat gold, precious metals that add suspension, timelessness and remoteness to its graphic proofs.
