Ceci n’est pas une caisse

Carl D’Alvia

28/06 to 21/09/2014

« Open the crate » he said with a curious smile.
« How? I don’t have a screwdriver » replied the other.
« Here take this », as he handed over a drill.
The other began drilling away.
« No ! Unscrew the screws you screwball ! »
« Uh…yeh…right ! », the other started.

But he couldn’t manage it. The screws weren’t really there. The two boneheaded art handlers were both severely mistaken. It wasn’t a crate at all. It was a faux wood zig-zag thing – a sort of David Smith sculpture meets a Philip Guston painting. The illusory screw heads were one with the body of the thing- an assembled structure of wooden planks with all the details showing like a comic book. Knots, grooves, grains, screw and nail heads, incised and drawn precisely into the surface, then arranged and combined like a piece of living furniture that had no purpose, other than to be. It appeared alive, from its base elevating into a zig-zagvertical form, as if unfolding itself and achieving heightened awareness. Like a wooden Neolithic creature preserved from a distant time, it stood in perfect suspended animation.

Carl D’Alvia is an American artist of Italian descent. He is the recent recipient of the Rome Prize (2013/14) and will exhibit at the Museo di Ascoli Piceno (Galleria D’Arte Contemporanea «O. Licini») in Central Italy this summer. D’Alvia works in two and three-dimensional modeled figures of various scales, mediums and color. Even his inspirations, Constantin Brancusi, Tony Smith, Carroll Dunham, Richard Artschwager or Phillip Guston may chuckle at the work, due to Carl’s darkly comical, head on approach to history. He melds modern world conundrums in socio-economical, ecological and evolutionary status, with that of being. D’Alvia’s work requests, but does not command, the viewer to recognize the depths of the figure’s innermost disposition covered by satirically fabled coats of feathers, wood grain, hair, scales or noodles. Their lack of gesture suggests a certain incongruous relationship with the environment around them, yet they attract the eye of passers by to enter their space and feel their humility.

Plank, 2013,  detail of clay version,  edition of 2 (one resin, one bronze)
128 x 67 x 28 cm, Signed and dated “D’Alvia 2013”

Exhibited: The Idea of Realism, American Academy of Rome (AAR Gallery), curated by Christian Caliandro and Carl D’Alvia

Literature: Caliandro, Christian. The Idea of Realism, American Academy of Rome (AAR Gallery) pp. 64-69 (ill.)

https://www.dalvia.com