For NADA New York 2024 Cooke Latham Gallery presented a site-specific installation by Italian multidisciplinary artist, Norberto Spina. An adaptation of Spina's installation 'Arcadia' first showcased at the Royal Academy Schools in London in 2023.
Spina's practice draws from a range of personal and historical sources ranging from family photographs and iPhone imagery to religious iconography and mementos of Italy's darker historical epochs. His process layers marker pen and paint resulting in works that are highly textured, producing an optical vibration of colour and image.
Comprised of seven small densely worked paintings punctuated by a series of hand-painted monochrome columns, 'Arcadia' 2024 depicts a cast of seemingly unrelated and contradictory subjects: cryptic fragments of a classical frieze, a blade in hand, a religious icon, a pair of kneeling feet, a sty of pigs. Cropped and cross-hatched, the images invite multiple readings. Seen next to one another an icon can appear animated, while living flesh can assume an almost sculptural immobility. Reminiscent of both classical and fascist architecture, the installation speaks to the layered reality of ancient Italian cities, in which contemporary life rages around the classical forms of the past.
A nod to the architectural tropes of power and order, the columns provide a perspectival stage set for the small densely worked paintings. This architectural framework implies a didactic reading of the imagery, however, in their fractured subject matter and technique, the paintings elude the comfort of a comprehensive narrative. Instead, they speak to 'the complexity of reality, commenting on the intricacies of our history and its continual links with our present.' NS
