In the spaces of Street Levels Galleryto Florencegot underway Dinosauria 2024- The prehistoric imagination in the oldest country in the world, a collective show that compares 29 male and female artists of different generations through the declination of a common subject, dinosaurs. The exhibition, which will be open to the public until June 21, 2024is edited by Hogre.
The curator’s choice to create a comparison through dinosaurs, the true protagonists of the exhibition, derives not only from the great popularity that they have received in mass culture, emerging in comics, films, TV series, gadgets and many other expressive forms that transform the emblem of an old and distant world in the subject of a thousand children’s games, but also by the parallelism between human and pre-human that these figures pose. Plus, the theme makes it work Dinosauria an opportunity for dialogue between the artists on display: the curatorial choice combines the works of those who are already established and have been collaborating with street art galleries for decades and those of those who are taking their first steps in the art world. This is a fact that also implies a generational comparison.
“Dinosauria”, an exhibition on the contradictions of the present
The Florentine collective exhibits works on paper, canvas, fabric and a sculpture, signed by Alleg, Awer, Br1, Cecilia Kiwi, DEM, Doublewhy, Doctor Pira, Ema Jons, Emotamenteconfusa, Ferretti Cattivi, Giga, Gio Pistone, Guerrilla Spam, Hitnes, Hogre, Illustre Faccia, Judy Rhum, Lisa Gelli, Miles, Molecole, Nene , Ninjaz, NOVA, Pax Paloscia, Percy Bertolini, Rame13, El Rughi, skk and Tropidelia. Through the works and languages of the artists, dinosaurs take on different shapes and meanings. They can be an ironic metaphor of the old, as in the oil canvas Godfathersaurus by Hogre, which takes up the iconic Duke of Urbino painted by Piero della Francesca, or in Lisa Gelli’s Andreotti saurians. They become an element of political satire, as in the Northern League dinosaur created in stencil by Illustre Feccia, or they are the playful element within a coming-of-age story in the framework of Pax Paloscia or the monstrous reflection of an otherness in which we reflect, as in the work of Gio Pistone.
In the exhibition the dinosaurs express a primitive subversive force inscribed in a non-conforming body in Doublewhy’s dinosaur sex worker, or again, they become witnesses of the absurd war between two archaeologists thirsty for success in DEM’s work Bone wars, inspired by true events . Every birth is a death sentence, yet the drama that we perceive in the lack of a higher sense is revealed in all its candor in Hitnes’ watercolor painting.
The collective exhibition at Street Levels Gallery thus compares humans and dinosaurs through the contrasts that inspired the artists. Their works in fact become bearers of messages and interpreters of timeless comparisons: between the ancient world and that of childhood, between the state of nature of the prehistoric world and the tragicomedy of human progress, between the remote past of our planet and its near future, which manifests itself through the creation of a fantastic imagination. This is an exploration that aims to open a window on the contradictions of contemporary life, highlighting the absurdity of the pursuit of technological updating to the detriment of collective well-being and creativity.
info: streetlevelsgallery.com
