Artissima

Sophie Ko (Tbilisi, 1981) lives and works in Milan. At the core of her artistic practice lies the concept of time, which is explored in its intense symbolic interaction with the materials she employs – mostly ashes of burnt images and pure pigments – and the images created. The change and instability of materials in relation to the flow of time are some of the constants of her artistic research. The Temporal Geographies, for example, provide an exemplification of a series of works eternally suspended between the act of creation and that of destruction, where the image is constantly subjected to a continuous process of modification through the slow and relentless collapse of the material of which it is made. Conceived through a conceptual and formal negotiation between sculpture and painting, these works stage “a bond made of weight, pressure, gravity, and the destruction of time on images, but also of formation, depth, return, and rebirth with respect to the passage of time.” Meaningful  metaphors of the caducity and mutability of existence, her works recall the trajectory of life that we trace, parallel to a slow but persistent collapsing movement.

Recent solo shows include: Postmasters Rome, with Marta Kucsora (2023); Museo Marino Marini, Florence (2022); EAST Galerie, Strasbourg (2022); Galleria de’ Foscherari, Bologna (2016 and 2021–22); BUILDINGBOX, Milan (2021); BUILDING Gallery, Milan (2020); Ca’Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art, Venice (2019); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2015 and 2018); and The OpenBox, Milan (2018). She has participated in group exhibitions at Palazzo Ducale di Gubbio (2022); Fondazione Malvina Menegaz, Castelbasso (2021); Albergo delle Povere, Palermo (promoted by RISO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Sicily, Palermo) (2021); Palazzo Barbò Torre Pallavicina, Bologna (2021); MAC – Contemporary Art Museum, Lissone (2021); and Renata Fabbri, Milan (2020), among others. In 2016, Sophie Ko won the Lissone Prize for Painting organized by MAC – Contemporary Art Museum, Lissone. 

Matthieu Haberard (Toulouse, 1991) lives and works in Paris. He received a BA in Fine Art from the ISDAT, Toulouse, in 2013, and a MA in Fine Art from the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, in 2016. Moving between heterogeneous languages, Matthieu Haberard’s artistic practice investigates the threshold that separates childhood from adulthood. It is in this limbo, ambiguous and full of potential, that Haberard’s poetics becomes concrete, poised between childish fantasies – fights, metamorphosis, titanic enterprises and feats – and the ironic representation of reality. Through a playful and attentive look at the contemporaneity, Haberard gives life to sculptures that recall the mystical and warlike imagination of the Middle Ages: masks, swords, shields and armour meticulously decorated and handcrafted with materials such as wood or cardboard. Intended as relics of bygone eras and fictitious battles, his works –desemantized and stripped of their defensive function – remind us of the blurred boundary between play and violence, innocence and malice, childlike desire and disillusionment that inevitably looms with maturity. His drawings are often inspired by traditional Chinese and Japanese martial patterns, distilled down to their most minimalist reduction.

Recent solo exhibitions include: Gianni Manhattan, Vienna (2017, 2019 and 2022); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2021); L’assaut de la menuiserie, Saint-Étienne (2021); and École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Paris (2016). His work has been featured in group shows at Palais des Beaux Arts, Paris (2020); Galerie Hussenot, Paris (2020); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2020); Minimarket, Paris (2019); Bwa Gallery, Warsaw (2019); Gianni Manhattan, Vienna (2019); Halle de la Villette, Paris (2019); Fondation Emerige, Paris (2018); DOC, Paris (2020); Wendy Gallery, Paris (2018); and Fondation d’entreprise Pernod Ricard (2017). In 2022 Haberard was artist in residence at Maroquinerie de Guyenne in Saint-Vincent-de-Paul (Gironde) in the context of the Artists’ Residencies program promoted by Fondation d’entreprise Hermès.

Lulù Nuti (1988) lives between Rome and Paris. Expanding from sculpture and installation to drawing, Lulù Nuti’s practice is based on a strong belief in the intelligence of matter, in its power of being a vehicle for sensitive information, which go beyond the limits of words and language. Her work depicts the feeling of responsibility and powerlessness that are engendered by the age we live in and affect human beings. She experiments with various construction materials, creating sculptures and installations that dialogue with space.

After graduating from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris in 2012, Lulù Nuti has exhibited in Italy and abroad in public and private institutions including Biwako Biennale (Fairy Tale, Japan, 2012);  La Panacée (MFW, MO.CO., Montpellier, 2018); Istituto Italiano di Cultura in New Delhi (Living in the Chtulucene, India, 2019); Museo CAMUSAC (Rilevamenti 2, Cassino, 2020) and in private galleries including Galleria Alessandra Bonomo (Part 1, Rome, 2017); Galerie Italienne (La Musée, Paris, 2020); Galleria Renata Fabbri (SOTTO, Milano, 2022). In 2022 her sculpture Too much heat, nothing to eat travels around the world ( IIC New-York, USA; IIC Seoul, Corea; Changijang Museum of Contemporary Art, China ) with We Love Art, vision and creativity Made in Italy, a project promoted by Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and CDP, curated by Ludovico Pratesi and Marco Bassan.

Solo shows include the site-specific exhibition Sistema, at archeological site Case Romane del Celio (Rome, 2015) and Calcare il Mondo at Galerie Chloé Salgado (Paris, 2018). In 2018 she founded the artistic duo LU.PA together with Pamela Pintus, an artistic identity that operates through performance actions and site-specific works.