The animal kingdom as we conceive it in our liberal, cosummerist minds is a perpetual competition between one another, an unforgiven fight to stay at the top of the chain. This is how we have managed to justify our barbarous behaviour towards other species, the environment or even among ourselves.
Instead of interrogating over and over again the human condition, the Italian painter Lorella Paleni shifts her attention to animals in an effort to show the similarities we share with them, evincing once and for all that what we assume to be “animal behaviour” is a biased interpretation of otherness.
Gilles Deleuze in his book Francis Bacon: Logic of Sensation speaks about what makes Bacon’s characters so akin to animals. According to the philosopher, in Bacon’s work, there’s what he calls a “zone of indiscernibility” where man becomes an animal and the animal transforms into man’s mind. The face is replaced by a stroke, there’s no way to discern the nature of what we see, except that it is flesh.
Animals on the other hand possess neat faces and may look straight at us like the monkeys in her series Dwellers. “I feel drawn to animals because of their uncanny similarities with the human and the way we tend to look at them. Because a lot of my work, when I deal with animals, has to do with the animal gaze and with meeting this other being as a being per se and not as an object.” The meeting point is indeed the face, more specifically the eyes, the windows through which we recognize ourselves in others.
This takes us to the Anthropocene, the so called new geological era where humans have triggered the current climate crisis having obliged us to see beyond to assess the impact of exploiting the earth. It is more and more common to see creators turn their attention to other species to decolonize our gaze. Jacov Von Uexküll in his book A Foray into the world of animals and humans: with a theory of meaning introduced his readers to what he called “umwelt”, a concept explaining that living beings perceive the world through a subjective perspective influenced by the environment surrounding them, each way of seeing the world is different for each species. Paleni’s work seems to take this into account as she creates environments where animals live in a different time-space zone, we share our existence with them but communicate with them not via a specific language but through the body or the relationships we develop with them. “With a lot of other representations of animals, they’re often not subjects, they’re objects. Even historically in painting, which is very similar in the case of women, women are represented like a body to please, their body is seen through the male gaze … Animals, they are disposable, they represent something else, an allegory of something but they never are subjects themselves or very rarely so I was interested in them as subjects.”
Despite not being political at first sight, Lorella Paleni’s paintings unbosom as subtle statements on women’s position, animals and the Anthropocene as well as painting itself. Nostalgic at times, Paleni’s compositions zones of indiscernibility connecting us with the animal kingdom and bringing us closer to unexplored layers of our existence.
Milena Estrada
Solo Exhibitions:
2019 Untamed, Galerie de L’OpenBach - Paris (FR)
2017 Dwellers, E.Tay Gallery - New York, NY (USA)
2016 OTHƎRWISƎ, Magic Beans Gallery - Berlin (DE)
2013 Out loud, Kunstalle 1, HB55 Kunstfabrik - Berlin (DE)
Select Group Exhibitions:
2019 Expolaroid, Galerie de l’OpenBach – Paris (FR)
2019 Prix de dessin Pierre David-Weill - Académie des beaux-arts, Cité Internationale des Arts – Paris (FR)
2019 Ensorcelés, curated by Joanna Wong & Marie C. Mendes, L.A.R.O. – Paris (FR)
2019 Listening to the Anthropocene, curated by Douglas Cushing, Sarofim Fine Arts Gallery - Georgetown, TX (USA)
2018 Indo-European Residency Project 2018, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan - Kolkata (IN)
2018 Death Dive, Launch 18, New York, NY (USA)
2017 Anthology, Charlie Smith London, London (UK)
2017 Magic + Love x Art, Magic Beans Gallery, Berlin (DE)
2017 Virtual to Physical: thepostdigitalprintmaker, Manhattan Graphics C., New York (USA)
2016 I Sky You, Magic Beans Gallery, Berlin (DE)
2015 Imperfect Containers, E.TAY gallery, New York, NY (USA)
2015 Commedia: New Prints 2015/Autumn, International Print Center, New York, NY (USA)
2015 Floating Point, Judith Charles Gallery, New York (USA)
2015 MFA Thesis Exhibition, Fisher Landau Center of the Arts, LongIsland City, NY (USA)
2014 The Portrait Show, The LeRoy Neiman Gallery, New York (USA)
2014 Biennale d’Arte Giovani, MAM museo d’arte moderna e contemporanea, Mantova (IT)
2014 MFA First Year Show, Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, New York (USA)
2014 “Networking Tips for Shy People”, Livingston Street Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (USA)
2013 OCEANS – under the skin of the sea, kunstfabrik HB55, Berlin (DE)
2013 A.I.R. (Art - Industry - Recycling), Pescheria Nuova, Rovigo (IT)
2013 "Me, My Sphere, and I", Fellini Gallery, Berlin (DE)
2013 Run, Rabbit, Run, SVA's Westside Gallery, New York (USA)
2013 Tarptautinio Tapybos Plenero Paroda, Communications History Museum, Kaunas (LT)
2013 Summer Show – Generazione anni ottanta, Federico Rui Arte contemporanea, Milan (IT)
2013 Lost in Chaos, Institut français Milano | Palazzo delle Stelline, ArtGallery, Milan (IT)
2012 Memorie, WhiteLabs, Milan (IT)
2012 Premio Francesco Fabbri, Francesco Fabbri Foundation, Villa Brandolini (IT)
2012 W.A.C. Wells Art Contemporary Prize, Wells & Mendip Museum, Wells (UK)
2012 Return to Rattlesnake Mountain, Maxon Mills, Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY (USA)
2012 “Inside Me” PulsArt, Palazzo Fogazzaro, Schio (IT)
2012 ArtGallery Prize 2012, Galleria Campari, Milano (IT)
2012 Combat Prize, Museo Civico G. Fattori ex Granai di Villa Mimbelli, Livorno (IT)
2012 “I”, No Title Gallery’s project, A+A – Slovenian Exhibition Centre, Venice (IT)
2012 Cloud Nine, Front Room Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (USA)
2012 UP_nea ’12 – FABULA, Fabbrica Borroni, Bollate, Milan (IT)
2011 Premio Internazionale d’arte Citta’ di Bozzolo, Chiesa di San Francesco, Bozzolo (IT)
2010 ONELAWFORALL - UNIT 24 Gallery, London (UK)
2010 Archiviarti 2010, Fabbrica Borroni, Milan (IT)
2010 Il mito del vero _ il ritratto,il volto, Arcadia Association, palazzo Durini, Milan (IT)
Selected Honors, Awards and Residencies:
2018 Indo-European Residency Project Kolkata, Alliance Française du Bengale, Goethe Institut, Cima Gallery, and Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University Santiniketan - Kolkata (IN)
2018 Catwalk Art Residency, Catwalk Institute - Catskill, NY (USA)
2016 2nd prize, Artist Residency Grant award, Le CouveNt - Auzits (FR)
2015 Grant Nominee, Rema Hort Mann Foundation - New York (USA)
2014 TOMS Visual Arts Scholarship, Columbia University - New York (USA)
2014 Painting Grant, Robert Gambling - (USA)
2014 AZ West - Andrea Zittel Institute of Investigate Living - Joshua Tree, CA (USA)
2013 Visual Arts Graduate Fellowship, Columbia University - New York (USA)
2013 Residency Grant, Italian Cultural Institute in Vilnius - Vilnius (LT)
2013 Menas senuosiuose Lietuvos dvaruose residency - Kaunas (LT)
2011-12 Wassaic project, winter resident - Wassaic, NY (USA)
2011 Public Jury Prize- International Art Prize Bozzolo - Bozzolo (IT)
Education:
2015 MFA Visual Arts, Columbia University School of the Arts - New York, NY (USA)
2012 Advanced Painting Intensive, Columbia University School of the Arts - New York (USA)
2011 Summer residence, SVA, School of Visual Arts - New York (USA)
2010 BFA Painting, Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia - Venice (IT)