Provenance:

Galerie Beyeler, Basel

Galerie Buchmann, Basel

Galerie Neumann, Dusseldorf

The work ‘Sono qui’ (‘I am here’) was created in 1981 and belongs to the early period of the Italian artist group Transavanguardia, which established itself at the end of the 1970s. The movement was formed as a conscious departure from conceptual art and the analytical rigour of minimal art.

While some Transavanguardia artists, such as Francesco Clemente or Enzo Cucchi, worked with intense colours and gestural overdrawings, Paladino developed a more restrained, symbolically charged visual language. In ‘Sono qui’, earthy tones and a reduced composition dominate. A human figure is hinted at but not fully realised – it remains fragmentary, schematic and unclear in its function.

Paladino’s work is characterised by the interplay of various cultural references. Archaic forms and a deep rootedness in cultural symbolic systems characterise his motifs – from Greek antiquity to tribal art, from the Middle Ages to modernity. Symbolism is transformed, recomposed and placed directly in context with one another.

Personal experiences and current social issues also flow into his artworks. In our work, the space becomes the stage for an ambivalent expression: the figure appears simultaneously present and distant, the title asserts an active presence, while the depiction eludes the viewer.

Since 1986, his work has been regularly presented in solo and group exhibitions, including at the Paris, Sydney, and Venice Biennales as well as documenta in Kassel. Paladino lives and works mainly in Italy. His works can be found in numerous international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Tate Gallery in London.