Piero Manzoni - Lévy Gorvy

Piero Manzoni

Piero Manzoni

Self-taught Italian artist Piero Manzoni, born in 1933, can deservedly be called the grandfather of Conceptual Art. Masterfully and humorously critiquing the rampant consumerism of the postwar Western world, the artist is best known for a series of 1960s sculptures that commodifed his own bodily residue, such as cans of his excrement, balloons filled with his breath, and eggs featuring his fingerprints. Manzoni made a joke, and also a career, out of the fetishization of the artist. He also organized numerous experimental exhibitions at the Gallery Azimuth in Milan, which he co-founded with artist Enrico Castellani in 1959. In 1963, at only 30 years old, Manzoni passed away of a heart attack. Artist and friend Ben Vautier signed his death certificate and fittingly declared it an official art work. Since then, Manzoni’s momentous and incisive body of work has been the subject of exhibitions at venues including as the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, and the Serpentine Gallery, London.

Selected Works

  • PIERO MANZONI

    Achrome
    1958
    Kaolin on canvas
    15 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches (40 x 29.8 cm)
    © DACS 2015

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'Sotto Voce' at Dominique Lévy London

April 1, 2015

February 9 - April 18, 2015
Dominique Lévy Gallery is pleased to present Sotto Voce, the second show at its London space. This exhibition will connect artists from around the world, united by a common medium: the abstract white relief. From the earliest unfoldings of figuration by Henri Laurens produced in Paris to the harmonious constructions of the Brazilian Sergio Camargo, Sotto Voce will map the progression of the abstract white relief geographically and through time, with a focus on the 1930s to 1970s.

Exhibitions

Selected Press

Blouin Artinfo | Works by important Italian Postwar Avant-Garde artists at Lévy Gorvy New York

July 26, 2017

Works by artists like Alighiero Boetti, Alberto Burri, Enrico Castellani, Jannis Kounellis, Piero Manzoni, Giulio …

Berlin Art Link | Exhibition // Socle du Monde: Denmark’s Oldest Contemporary Art Biennial

April 27, 2017

Considering that the Socle du Monde biennial art event in Herning, Denmark only began in 2002, it’s …

Huffington Post | Sotto Voce: The Best Art Show in London Today

March 12, 2015

At some era, different artists from different parts of the globe seem to be working on the same wavelength, …

The Arts Desk | Sotto Voce, Dominique Lévy

February 14, 2015

Sotto Voce is a collection of white paintings, sculptures and reliefs made by European, British and North …

Apollo Magazine | Pure abstraction: ‘Sotto Voce’ and the appeal of the abstract white relief

February 10, 2015

‘Abstract white relief’ is not an easy term to get your head around. It can sound highly technical, …

TimeOut London | Sotto Voce

February 10, 2015

Everything’s all white in this group show of big names including Jean Arp, Ben Nicholson, Lucio Fontana …

Architectural Digest | Abstract White Reliefs are the Subject of a London Gallery Show

January 31, 2015

The abstract white relief, as envisioned by artists from diverse locations, generations, and affiliations, …

Aesthetica | Sotto Voce, Dominique Lévy Gallery, London

January 9, 2015

The second show at Dominique Lévy’s new London space will map the progression of the abstract white …

Artists

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