Renato D’Agostin — 7439 — (and special guest...) — Bigaignon Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: May 13 → September 9, 2017

Renato D’Agostin — Galerie Thierry Bigaignon Du 13 mai au 9 septembre, la galerie Thierry Bigaignon accueille le photographe Renato D’Agostin qui présente l’essentiel de sa sér... 1 - Pas mal Critique

7439 Miles to (Re)discover America!

No American road trip looms larger in our collective consciousness than the one bound west, and has been both the favorite subject and a formidable challenge for most artists, from Robert Frank to Jack Kerouac. In 2015, Italian-born photographer Renato D’Agostin took the challenge and travelled the 7,439 miles from New York to Los Angeles on his 1983 BMW motorcycle, developing film in hotel sinks along the way. This initiatic journey gave rise to a series of bright and contrasted images, overwhelming with beauty, subtlety and grace, entitled “7439”.

Renato D’Agostin was born in Venice, Italy, in 1983. He began his career in photography in 2001 by exploring his daily world with his father’s camera, and thereby discovered new ways of transcending the beauty of the Most Serene Republic of Venice. Finding his inspiration in urban life, he traveled through the capitals of Western Europe, and after a period in Milan where he worked with the production studio Maison Sabbatini, he moved to New York. In 2005, he attended Fine Print courses at the International Center of Photography (ICP) and soon after became assistant to Ralph Gibson.

Dislocating subjects from their realities, Renato D’Agostin opens new portals in the viewer’s imagination by reinterpreting the relationship between space, architecture and people. Thierry Bigaignon comments: « Renato D’Agostin is an explorer-born photographer. He captures visual elements that most of us won’t even notice, and leaves his singular mark on every picture
he takes and makes. Mastering every aspect of his silver gelatin photography, Renato D’Agostin knows better than anyone how to imbue a classical black and white picture with a contemporary cut". He adds: “Renato’s photographs, laden with abstraction and surrealism, are strong and powerful yet delicate”.

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Renato D’Agostin’s work has been published in numerous books, the most recent of which, “Proxemics” (The(M) éditions), having just won the award for best photography book during the « Nuit du Livre 2017 » in Paris. His prints have become part of prestigious public collections, such as the Library of Congress and the Phillips Collection in Washington, the Center for Creative Photography in Arizona, and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris. Renato D’Agostin’s photographs have been exhibited in major galleries in the United States, Europe and Asia for the last ten years.

The “7439” series will be presented for the first time in France from May 13 to September 9, 2017.
28 original black and white silver prints, numbered, printed and signed by the artist (format 32×48 cm, limited edition of 25 and 67×100 cm, limited edition of 5).

Special guest: Vittoria Gerardi

In Confine, Italian photographer Vittoria Gerardi presents her perception of the landscape, a visual and mental experience through Death Valley. Located in the eastern Californian desert, Death Valley is the lowest, driest
and hottest area in North America. 139 miles long, the valley varies from massive mountain formations to expanses of ground covered with salt, revealing a martial scenery where no human being deserves to live.

The dazzling light, therefore the incapability of seeing is portrayed by the photographer by selecting portions of the negative, distilling fragments of the landscape and making them become symbolic lines between inconsistency and matter, almost as scars of light and time.
By using an alternative process in the darkroom, the photographer emphasizes the elements that make the landscape violent and extreme. The synergy of chemicals and the sensitive nature of paper give shape to peculiar tonalities. A balancing act between chance and control creating unique and irreproducible photographic prints.

Vittoria Gerardi states: « Confine, or Horizon, is the intangible line that makes man reveal his limit and the illusion
of going beyond it ». And Thierry Bigaignon adds : « Vittoria is merely 21 years old and already proves to be very mature through the mastery of the darkroom techniques, the stunning composition of her images and her ability to reveal concrete emotions through her abstract creations. I’m particularly proud to exhibit her works in this new formula that will be launched as of May 13th ».

More than 15 silver-gelatin signed prints. Various sizes and single editions only