At the origin of sculpture lies a crumpled sheet of paper that moves towards something else, until it assumes another form in space. At the root of painting, on the other hand, there is a pigment moved by the skill of the hand, a tracing of signs, a multiplication of layers that make visible the complex route of action.

For his first solo exhibition in Italy – in the spaces of the Galleria Furini Arte Contemporanea – Gabriel Hartley (London, 1981) is proposing a journey that takes us between painting and sculpture, connecting the manual experience of a spontaneous thought with a pictorial vocabulary that, between abstraction and figuration, brings to mind artists like Boccioni, Fautrier, Kirchner or Paul Nash...

Crimping refers to the act of folding and suggests the idea of thoughts that wind around themselves, but also an ability, a way of thinking that holds a dialogue with tradition and culture. Thus the paintings are born from freely traced signs that amalgamate, forming clots of coloured material arranged on the surface around centres of visual tension, or alluding to an expansion beyond the edge of the canvas.

Both sculpture and painting arise from an aniconic conception of art. The figures of the world and its objects are lost, evading representation, and leave free traces of the indeterminate in space or on the painted surface.


Biography - Gabriel Hartley (London, 1981) lives and works in London. He holds a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (2005), and a Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Art from the Royal Academy Schools, London (2008). Solo exhibition: Gabriel Hartley, Foxy Production, New York, 2010; Liste 15, Basel, 2010; Gabriel Hartley, Swallow Street, London, 2009. Selected group exhibitions: Newspeak, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2010; Abstract Abstract, Foxy production, New York, 2009; Jerwood Contemporary Painting Prize, Jerwood Space, London, 2009; Studio Voltaire Presents, Boltelang, Zurich, 2009; Royal Academy Schools Summer Show, Royal Academy, London, 2008; Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Liverpool, Manchester, Walsall, London (2007-2008); Touch, Chelsea