"Tommaso Durante: A Solo Exhibition"
2003-10-29 until 2003-11-23
Dickerson Gallery
Melbourne, VI, AU Australia

Tommaso Durante will be exhibiting his new works at Dickerson Gallery in Melbourne from 29 October to 23 November 2003. The exhibition will be opened by the Consul General of Italy on Wednesday 29 October 2003 (6-8pm). Dr Simonetta Magnani Director of the Italian Institute of Culture will also address the exhibition audience. Six impressive ceramic installations, three big mysterious bronze wall sculptures plus several works of various size: this is the synthesis of the first, unique, solo exhibition of Tommaso Durante* in a private Australian gallery after his arrival from Europe two years ago.

Tommaso Durante, a painter and sculptor, was born in Italy in 1956. A free thinker, Durante constantly expresses his artistic theories in an intensive way. Art critics in Europe have often him as a ‘peintre-philosopher’, for his production of both art works and short theoretical-reflective texts about art. These reflective texts have more recently focused on the concept of image today and the destiny of art in the digital society. Durante has exhibited his works since the early 1970s, but it was in 1978 that his first solo exhibition at - Basel Art Messe in Switzerland, arranged by Studio Trisorio, Naples, Italy - propelled him to international recognition.

In his interpretation of the world in Durante’s work tries to destroy the imitation of the ideas by transposing them into other forms: sculptures, installations, paintings and artist books. He was always attracted by metaphisical polarities. Dark and light, presence and absence, solid and intangibile, are themes that often inspired his works. Furthermore the recent artistic production is strongly connected to the misterious land of Australia.

His installations often give the viewer a sense of disorientation and evoke a mistery that, for the artist, offers a connection to the real world. *For the past two years Tommaso Durante has been living and working in Melbourne. He graduated in Modern Arts at Salerno University in Italy. His artworks were shown in many solo exhibitions in Italy (Alessandria, Capri Island, Ferrara, Florence, Leghorn, Milan, Naples, Rome) and internationally (Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Spain, Switzerland and U.S.A.). In 2003, the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne has hosted Tommaso Durante as visiting artist.

Tommaso Durante maintains a Free Artist's Portfolio at absolutearts.com. View more of his works at absolutearts.com/portfolios/t/tommaso.

Tommaso Durante
Untitled
2002
Bronze Sculpture
165 mm x 70 mm x 300 mm

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