Exhibition View © the Artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA
Galleria Continua presents Traces of Wind, an exhibition by renowned Italian artist Giovanni Ozzola, at the beginning of a new year. Giovanni Ozzola has transformed Galleria Continua into an island, bringing the starry sky above the Canary Islands in Spain and the surface of the Atlantic Ocean to the gallery space. The viewers will find themselves immersed in the scenery, experiencing the sunrise and sunset on the Atlantic Island, feeling the winds of time blowing through life.
Traces of Wind is not just about breezes. The wind at sea is sometimes violent, sometimes gentle, and only the gravel on the seashore knows about it. Obsessed with the traces of life in time, Giovanni Ozzola always depicts the existence and nothingness embodied in these traces most properly and poetically, be it the graffiti on the walls of empty ruins or the blooming and fading of flowers.
Exhibition View © the Artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA
Giovanni Ozzola is interested in juxtaposing objects full of tension and contradiction, such as the sun and the moon shining in the same sky or the words "I love you" written on a mottled and abandoned wall. The artist captures the most soul-stirring moments within tension, leading to the awareness that things are as precious as they are fugitive. The potential of the scenery is brought out to the maximum. The images are imbued with the inherent energy of objects, hence rich and powerful, and able to resist the wear and tear of time and the lasting gaze.
Rather than proficient in capturing the boundaries between humans and nature, whether it's the convergence of ruins and the sea or the interior space where quicksand spreads, Giovanni Ozzola is more adept at capturing the moments when time freezes. When we look at the images he created, the hustle and bustle of reality seem to be shut off suddenly. Ozzola's works are a gateway to what is happening beneath the world, those deep in the sea, high above the sky, deep in the soul.
Exhibition View © the Artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA
What is touching is that Giovanni Ozzola remains warm in the face of eternity. In Counting Stars with You, although distance appears part of the work, it is not about cheap romance, but the feeling of longing behind loneliness, the awe and love of existence.
Giovanni Ozzola created a theatre-like space in this exhibition, an island full of light, shadow, and wind. "It's better to go to this exhibition by yourself." This is Giovanni Ozzola's advice to the audience. In the theatre of images created by Giovanni Ozzola, we will confront the world and feel the loneliness constant as new.
About the artist
Giovanni Ozzola was born in 1982 in Florence, Italy and currently lives and works in Tenerife, Canary Islands. He is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily in photography, as well as video and sculptural installation. Ozzola's practice demonstrates a deep sensitivity towards the phenomenon of light and its various physical characteristics. His main thematic interests lie in conceptualising and representing infinitude and exploration, both geographical and introspective.
Starting his career in 2001 as part of the group show, Happiness: A Survival Guide for Art and Life, curated by David Elliott and Pier Luigi Tazzi, at the Mori Art
Museum of Tokyo in Japan; Ozzola has since exhibited worldwide. His 2021 solo exhibitions include: Giovanni Ozzola Invites Kiki Smith at Galleria Continua in
San Gimignano, Italy; Contando Estrellas at Gazelli Art House in London, United Kingdom; In 2019, Ozzola made If I Had to Explain, You Wouldn't Understand at
Fosun Foundation in Shanghai, China; In 2017, He made Wrecks and Rooms with Stars at Untitled Association in Berlin, Germany; Sistemi di Visione/Sistemi de
Realtá at the Centro Espositivo per le Arti Contemporanee, San Michele Degli Scalzi (SMS) in Pisa, Italy; adrift at the District Six Museum Homecoming Centre
in Cape Town and SMAC Gallery in Stellenbosch, South Africa; as well as Scars at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa.
Ozzola took part of (RE) BIRTH, curated by Fabrice Bousteau for Abu Dhabi Art 2016, UAE, and Teoria della nuvola/ Theory of Cloud, curated by Davide Ferri at
Galleria Marcolini in Forli, Italy. Group exhibitions include: Earth and Ever After, an exhibition for the 21,39 Jeddah Art event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and 'YOU +
ME = US' at Galleria Continua in Havana, Cuba.
Previous solo exhibitions include Naufragio, curated by Ludovico Pratesi at the Centro Arti Visive Pescheria in Pesaro, Italy in 2011; Routes and Stars at Galleria
Continua in San Gimignano, Italy and Castaway Depot: 41° 7'31" N16° 52' 0" E - In a Sentimental Mood at Doppelganger in Bari, Italy in 2012 and La Théorie des
Comètes at Galleria Continua in Beijing, China in 2013.
Notable group exhibitions include: Maintenant Ou Jamais! at Galleria Continua ad Ardian in Paris, France and The Tides Of The Century, Curated By Mr Wang
Chunchen at Ocean Flower Island Museum in Hainan, China in 2021; WunderMoRE, MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo di Roma and RECTO VERSO at Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris, France in 2018; On Another Scale, curated by Ricardo Sardenberg at Galleria Continua in San Gimignano, Italy in 2014 and the international touring exhibition LANDSEASKY: Revisiting Spatiality in Video, curated by Kim Manchan and presented at Artsonje Center in Seoul, South Korea; OCT Contemporary Art Terminal in Shanghai, China; Guangdong Museum of Art in Guangzhou, China; Grifth University Art Gallery and MAAP SPACE in Brisbane, Australia during 2014 - 2015.
In 2015, Ozzola made his South African debut with Dove Nasce Il Vento in Johannesburg. This exhibition was first shown at Gazelli Art House in London, UK. That year, he also exhibited in MoRE Spaces at the Palazzo Pigorini in Palma, Italy; Tu Dois Changer Ta Vie, curated by Fabrice Bousteau at LILLE 3000 in Lille, France, and took part of Follia Continua!, under direction of José- Manuel Gonçalvès, at Le Cenquatre- Paris, in Paris, France. Among Ozzola's awards are the Premio Cairo (2011), Premio Terna (2008) and Seat Pagine Gialle (2007). Most recently, Ozzola featured in X: PART I, a group exhibition celebrating SMAC Gallery's 10 year anniversary.
About the exhibition
Dates: Opening: January 15 th , 2022 - April 24 th , 2022
Venue: Galleria Continua
Address: #8503, Dashanzi 798 Art Factory, 2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang Dst. 100015 Beijing, China
Courtesy of the Artist and Galleria Continua.
