ARTISTS
Romana Loda E L'arte Delle Donne: Il Volto Sinistro Dell'arte
Apalazzo Gallery is proud to announce the opening on Saturday 3 October of the exhibition Il volto sinistro dell鈥檃rte. Romana Loda e l鈥檃rte delle donne (鈥楾he Left Face of Art: Romana Loda and the art of women鈥�) curated by Raffaella Perna, conceived to shed light on the pioneering activity in the promotion of female artists carried forward throughout the 1970s by Romana Loda, gallerist and curator, who passed away ten years ago. Founder of the Galleria Multimedia, based initially in Erbusco and then in Brescia, Loda represented an original figure on the Italian panorama and a key cultural point of reference across the Brescia territory for a whole generation of female artists, who found a figure ready to support radical exhibition projects, given over 鈥� especially between 1974 and 1978 鈥� exclusively to women鈥檚 research.
The exhibition intends to recount Loda鈥檚 experience, in particular her commitment alongside female artists, starting from the exhibition Il volto sinistro dell鈥檃rte, which she herself organised in 1977 at the Galleria De Amicis in Florence. The exhibition featured the work of sixteen female artists, from or resident in Italy and active in the 1960s and 鈥�70s, operating in many different areas of research, from kinetic art to the 鈥楽cuola di Piazza del Popolo鈥�, from visual poetry to conceptual art. Today these artists are brought together once again: Marina Apollonio, Mirella Bentivoglio, Valentina Berardinone, Tomaso Binga, Renata Boero, Dadamaino, Giosetta Fioroni, Lucia Marcucci, Libera Mazzoleni, Verita Monselles, Stephanie Oursler, Lucia Pescador, Sandra Sandri, Suzanne Santoro and Grazia Varisco.
Right from the title of the exhibition, Loda set out to dismantle the stereotype that historically attributes the feminine sphere to the left side of the body 鈥� symbolically linked to intimacy, passivity, sentiment and witchcraft 鈥� and the male sphere to the right-hand side 鈥� associated instead with action, rationality, scientific knowledge and the public sphere. Although it was held in a gallery in Florence which had only recently opened, the exhibition attracted the attention of the press: along with the positive comments of the more learned critics, out-of-hand condemnation came from articles in La Nazione and Paese Sera, which in Loda鈥檚 exhibition project saw 鈥渁 feminist and not an artistic operation,鈥� thus deeming the two terms antithetical per se. At the time, this show and more in general Loda鈥檚 curatorial work contributed to fuelling the debate 鈥� still raging 鈥� on the ambivalent statute of shows held only by female artists, drawing attention not only to the discrimination suffered by female artists, but also the difficulty in identifying new exhibition models and new canons of critical interpretation unlike those of the male approach.
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Apalazzo Gallery is proud to announce the opening on Saturday 3 October of the exhibition Il volto sinistro dell鈥檃rte. Romana Loda e l鈥檃rte delle donne (鈥楾he Left Face of Art: Romana Loda and the art of women鈥�) curated by Raffaella Perna, conceived to shed light on the pioneering activity in the promotion of female artists carried forward throughout the 1970s by Romana Loda, gallerist and curator, who passed away ten years ago. Founder of the Galleria Multimedia, based initially in Erbusco and then in Brescia, Loda represented an original figure on the Italian panorama and a key cultural point of reference across the Brescia territory for a whole generation of female artists, who found a figure ready to support radical exhibition projects, given over 鈥� especially between 1974 and 1978 鈥� exclusively to women鈥檚 research.
The exhibition intends to recount Loda鈥檚 experience, in particular her commitment alongside female artists, starting from the exhibition Il volto sinistro dell鈥檃rte, which she herself organised in 1977 at the Galleria De Amicis in Florence. The exhibition featured the work of sixteen female artists, from or resident in Italy and active in the 1960s and 鈥�70s, operating in many different areas of research, from kinetic art to the 鈥楽cuola di Piazza del Popolo鈥�, from visual poetry to conceptual art. Today these artists are brought together once again: Marina Apollonio, Mirella Bentivoglio, Valentina Berardinone, Tomaso Binga, Renata Boero, Dadamaino, Giosetta Fioroni, Lucia Marcucci, Libera Mazzoleni, Verita Monselles, Stephanie Oursler, Lucia Pescador, Sandra Sandri, Suzanne Santoro and Grazia Varisco.
Right from the title of the exhibition, Loda set out to dismantle the stereotype that historically attributes the feminine sphere to the left side of the body 鈥� symbolically linked to intimacy, passivity, sentiment and witchcraft 鈥� and the male sphere to the right-hand side 鈥� associated instead with action, rationality, scientific knowledge and the public sphere. Although it was held in a gallery in Florence which had only recently opened, the exhibition attracted the attention of the press: along with the positive comments of the more learned critics, out-of-hand condemnation came from articles in La Nazione and Paese Sera, which in Loda鈥檚 exhibition project saw 鈥渁 feminist and not an artistic operation,鈥� thus deeming the two terms antithetical per se. At the time, this show and more in general Loda鈥檚 curatorial work contributed to fuelling the debate 鈥� still raging 鈥� on the ambivalent statute of shows held only by female artists, drawing attention not only to the discrimination suffered by female artists, but also the difficulty in identifying new exhibition models and new canons of critical interpretation unlike those of the male approach.
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