- Giovanni Kronenberg
Solo show
Renata Fabbri is glad to announce Giovanni Kronenberg’s second solo show at the gallery. The exhibition includes a series of new drawings and sculptures, most of which have been conceived specifically for this project.
Since the early stage of his career, Kronenberg’s work has been characterized by a tight relation between sculpture – interpreted through a deeply physical approach – and drawing, which anticipates, re-iterates and expands upon its peculiarities as well as its ergonomic, tactile and transcendental features. Throughout the years his drawing practice has become more and more important in the work of the artist: since his use of pure graphite, which used to define the works on paper until few years ago, recently Kronenberg has started to explore colour in compositions of sinuous forms, suspended and free from spatial connotation.
These mysterious figures and the sculptures share an ungraspable materiality, caught in a dimension that is abstracted from time and space. Hard to identify, some of them recall natural structures in progressive ramification – like crystals, gems, sea sponges or precious granites – all materials that Kronenberg has often used in his sculptures, drawn to their properties of self-germination and extension into space without following any narrative direction or chronological handholds.
In recent years, the artist has started using the 22-carat gold leaf, as a characteristic element of the drawing and the sculptures. This passage seems natural considering Kronenberg’s frequent use of precious materials such as silver, malachite, ivory, agate, rock crystal and porcelain. The gold leaf brings his drawings closer to the immobility of the Byzantine aesthetic and in particular to the icons, sharing with them the isolation and the centrality of the image, as well as iconographic timelessness and transcendental characteristics.
Renata Fabbri is glad to announce Giovanni Kronenberg’s second solo show at the gallery. The exhibition includes a series of new drawings and sculptures, most of which have been conceived specifically for this project.
Since the early stage of his career, Kronenberg’s work has been characterized by a tight relation between sculpture – interpreted through a deeply physical approach – and drawing, which anticipates, re-iterates and expands upon its peculiarities as well as its ergonomic, tactile and transcendental features. Throughout the years his drawing practice has become more and more important in the work of the artist: since his use of pure graphite, which used to define the works on paper until few years ago, recently Kronenberg has started to explore colour in compositions of sinuous forms, suspended and free from spatial connotation.
These mysterious figures and the sculptures share an ungraspable materiality, caught in a dimension that is abstracted from time and space. Hard to identify, some of them recall natural structures in progressive ramification – like crystals, gems, sea sponges or precious granites – all materials that Kronenberg has often used in his sculptures, drawn to their properties of self-germination and extension into space without following any narrative direction or chronological handholds.
In recent years, the artist has started using the 22-carat gold leaf, as a characteristic element of the drawing and the sculptures. This passage seems natural considering Kronenberg’s frequent use of precious materials such as silver, malachite, ivory, agate, rock crystal and porcelain. The gold leaf brings his drawings closer to the immobility of the Byzantine aesthetic and in particular to the icons, sharing with them the isolation and the centrality of the image, as well as iconographic timelessness and transcendental characteristics.
Giovanni Kronenberg, Untitled, 2020Agate, 22k gold leaf, variable dimensions. Ph. Cosimo Filippini.
Giovanni Kronenberg, Soluzione del cubo di Lemarchand, 2019Iron, 22K gold leaf, 18x21x19 cm. Ph. Alberto Fanelli.
Giovanni Kronenberg, Untitled, 2020Vicenza stone, ash, Ø 43 cm. Ph. Cosimo Filippini.
Giovanni Kronenberg, Untitled, 2020Colored pencils, 22k gold leaf on paper, 43x31 cm. Ph. Cosimo Filippini.
Giovanni Kronenberg, Untitled, 2020Colored pencils and 22K golden leaf on paper, 31x24 cm. Ph. Cosimo Filippini.
Giovanni Kronenberg, Untitled, 2019Colored pencils on paper, 43x21 cm. Ph. Cosimo Filippini.
Giovanni Kronenberg, Untitled, 2019Colored pencils on paper (left) and colored pencils and 22K gold foil on paper, 37 x 27 cm (each), Ph. Cosimo Filippini.
Giovanni Kronenberg, Untitled, 2020Blocks of agate, chestnut shell, 41x20,3x14 cm. Ph. Cosimo Filippini.
Giovanni Kronenberg, Untitled, 2020Vinyl, Iranian turquoise, 32,5x31x19 cm. Ph. Cosimo Filippini.
Giovanni Kronenberg, Untitled, 2020Colored pencils and pastel on paper, 31x23 cm. Ph. Cosimo Filippini.
Giovanni Kronenberg, Untitled, 2020Colored pencils and pastel on paper, 31x23 cm. Ph. Cosimo Filippini.
Giovanni Kronenberg, Untitled, 2020Colored pencils and pastel on paper, 31x23 cm. Ph. Cosimo Filippini.
Giovanni Kronenberg, Untitled, 2019Colored pencils and 22K gold foil on paper, 32,5x24,5 cm. Ph. Cosimo Filippini.
Giovanni Kronenberg, Untitled, 2019Colored pencils on paper, 44x31,5 cm. Ph. Alberto Fanelli.
Giovanni Kronenberg, Untitled, 2019Colored pencils on paper, 44x31,5 cm. Ph. Alberto Fanelli.
The work of Giovanni Kronenberg (Milan, 1974, lives and works in Milan) comprises essentially sculptures and drawings: unusual or rare objects and natural artifacts – like rocks and stones, minerals and precious crystals, horns, bones, furs, sea sponge and ostrich eggs – which the artist defines as “not worn out by gazes”. Often collectible objects, Kronenberg operates on them with minimal insertions and transformations that bring together distant times, often unreachable. Through actions like twisting, occluding, replacement, and superimposition – but also, on the contrary, using slight and temporary interventions – the artist crafts unexpected objects with an eccentric, magnetic, and at the same time disturbing presence. The creation of a “combinatorial grammar” is the operation at the core of his work: a language that effects the slow sedimentation of the evocative qualities inherent in objects, on their subsequent alteration, through forms of intrusion. This relation between objects and reality, mostly ambiguous and elusive, also represents a key to Kronenberg’s drawings. Here, the image, suspended in an abstract dimension, gives rise to a space without references that seems to translate the figure’s presence into a kind of epiphany or apparition.
Among his recent solo shows: Renata Fabbri, Milan (2024, 2017 and 2020); Rizzuto Gallery, Palermo (2023); z2o Sara Zanin, Rome (2016, 2019 and 2022); Quartz Studio, Turin (2020); Galleria Fuoricampo, Siena/Brussels (2014); and Studio Guenzani, Milan (2006, 2007 and 2012). Recent group exhibitions include: Museo Civico Villa La Rinchiostra, Massa (2021); Museo Diocesano, Foligno (2021); z2o Sara Zanin, Rome (2020); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2020); Civic Medieval Museum, Bologna (2020); Basilica Palladiana, Vicenza (2013); MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (2012); The Polish Institute of Rome (2012); Nomas Foundation, Rome (2012); Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2011); Castello Colonna di Genazzano, Genazzano (2010); Peep-Hole, Milan (2009 and 2010); Museum of Contemporary Art, Lugano (2009); MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome (2007); Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone (2008); Arte all’Arte X, San Gimignano (2005); Viafarini, Milan (2004 and 2005); and Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como (2003).
The work of Giovanni Kronenberg (Milan, 1974, lives and works in Milan) comprises essentially sculptures and drawings: unusual or rare objects and natural artifacts – like rocks and stones, minerals and precious crystals, horns, bones, furs, sea sponge and ostrich eggs – which the artist defines as “not worn out by gazes”. Often collectible objects, Kronenberg operates on them with minimal insertions and transformations that bring together distant times, often unreachable. Through actions like twisting, occluding, replacement, and superimposition – but also, on the contrary, using slight and temporary interventions – the artist crafts unexpected objects with an eccentric, magnetic, and at the same time disturbing presence. The creation of a “combinatorial grammar” is the operation at the core of his work: a language that effects the slow sedimentation of the evocative qualities inherent in objects, on their subsequent alteration, through forms of intrusion. This relation between objects and reality, mostly ambiguous and elusive, also represents a key to Kronenberg’s drawings. Here, the image, suspended in an abstract dimension, gives rise to a space without references that seems to translate the figure’s presence into a kind of epiphany or apparition.
Among his recent solo shows: Renata Fabbri, Milan (2024, 2017 and 2020); Rizzuto Gallery, Palermo (2023); z2o Sara Zanin, Rome (2016, 2019 and 2022); Quartz Studio, Turin (2020); Galleria Fuoricampo, Siena/Brussels (2014); and Studio Guenzani, Milan (2006, 2007 and 2012). Recent group exhibitions include: Museo Civico Villa La Rinchiostra, Massa (2021); Museo Diocesano, Foligno (2021); z2o Sara Zanin, Rome (2020); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2020); Civic Medieval Museum, Bologna (2020); Basilica Palladiana, Vicenza (2013); MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (2012); The Polish Institute of Rome (2012); Nomas Foundation, Rome (2012); Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2011); Castello Colonna di Genazzano, Genazzano (2010); Peep-Hole, Milan (2009 and 2010); Museum of Contemporary Art, Lugano (2009); MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome (2007); Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone (2008); Arte all’Arte X, San Gimignano (2005); Viafarini, Milan (2004 and 2005); and Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como (2003).
- Giovanni Kronenberg
Palazzo Maccafani, Palazzo Iannucci and the streets of Pereto, L’Aquila
July 14 – August 18 2024
Opening Saturday July 13, 5pm-8p
- Sophie Ko,
- Serena Vestrucci,
- Giovanni Kronenberg
Museo del Novecento, Milan
April 10 – June 30, 2024
Curated by Mariuccia Casadio
- Giovanni Kronenberg
Curated by Vincenzo de Bellis and Alessandro Rabottini
- Giovanni Kronenberg
