Francesco Arena
La lluvia no viene del cielo
Collegium, Arévalo
Sep 19 - Jan 26, 2025
Francesco Arena
Francesco Arena measures collective, national and personal histories to create his work, in particular from the political and social events that have characterized the recent past. Episodes which have often been hidden or silenced, take on a new life thanks to the synthetic and metaphorical forms of his sculptures.
Arena’s research is centered around ways of thinking about temporality, questioning the notion of history, by revealing irruptions in the course of things that seem to conform to a linear development marked by causes and effects. The historical and the personal are constantly intertwined in the artist’s work in the representation of historical events based on a factual relationship with himself. We frequently encounter the use of the artist’s anthropometric data (such as weight, body mass, height, distance from his eyes to the floor), acting as tangible figures to quantify history.
Selected Works
Statua (... as heart)
2025
Bronze
120 x 15 x 15 cm (47 1⁄4 x 5 29⁄32 x 5 29⁄32 inches)
Marcel
2025
6 bronze casts of original commemorative plaques
Birth, July 10th 1871, 96 Rue La Fontaine, Paris 32 x 40 cm (12 19⁄32 x 15 3⁄4 inches) Childhood holidays, Illiers-Combray 40 x 40 cm (15 3⁄4 x 15 3⁄4 inches) Military service, 1889-1890, 92 Faubourg Bannier 92, Orleans 35 x 30 cm (13 25⁄32 x 11 13⁄16 inches) Home, 1900-1906, 45 Rue de Courcelles, Paris 40 x 30 cm (15 3⁄4 x 11 13⁄16 inches) Home, 1907-1919, 102 Boulevard Haussmann, Paris 27 x 40 cm (10 5⁄8 x 15 3⁄4 inches) Home, 1919-November 18th 1922, 44 Rue de l’Amiral-Hamelin, Paris 30 x 35 cm (11 13⁄16 x 13 25⁄32 inches)
Stone Head
2021
Granite
15 x 25 x 15 cm (5 29⁄32 x 9 27⁄32 x 5 29⁄32 inches)
Ash Horizon
2018
Moroccan gray stone, cigar ash
166.5 x 20 x 20 cm (65 9⁄16 x 7 7⁄8 x 7 7⁄8 inches)
Angolo duro (Hommage à la mort de Eva Hesse)
2022
Pink Portuguese marble, person born in 1970
100 x 43 x 37 cm (39 3⁄8 x 16 15⁄16 x 14 9⁄16 inches)
Senza titolo (un metro di libri letti)
2019
Moroccan gray stone, books, nylon
26.5 x 100 x 19 cm (10 7⁄16 x 39 3⁄8 x 7 15⁄32 inches)
Granito con minuto (triangolo)
2022
Granite, magnetic tape
94.6 x 94.6 x 2 cm (37 1⁄4 x 37 1⁄4 x 25⁄32 inches)
Metro di zucchero smezzato (78 giorni)
2018
Bronze, sugar sachets
5 x 104 x 5 cm (1 31⁄32 x 40 15⁄16 x 1 31⁄32 inches)
Cube (Mrs. Dalloway)
2018
Moroccan gray stone, Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf
21.1 x 21.1 x 21.1 cm (8 5⁄16 x 8 5⁄16 x 8 5⁄16 inches)
Division of the square (Nietzsche)
2016
Metal, wire, different materials
100 x 100 x 2 cm (39 3⁄8 x 39 3⁄8 x 25⁄32 inches)
8 Arms with Times
2018
Bronze, analog magnetic musicassette tape
178.5 x 10 x 1 cm (70 9⁄32 x 3 15⁄16 x 3⁄8 inches)
Angolo Stanco (hommage à la mort de Walter Benjamin)
2018
Iron, chair, person born in 1940
200 x 200 x 200 cm (78 3⁄4 x 78 3⁄4 x 78 3⁄4 inches)
Keats between cubes
2016
Bronze, steel wire
10 x 15 x 185.5 cm (3 15⁄16 x 5 29⁄32 x 73 1⁄32 inches)
Medio, pollice, rosa
2020
Bronze ring
70 x 20 x 6 cm (27 9⁄16 x 7 7⁄8 x 2 3⁄8 inches)
La settimana
2022
Stone, magazine, steel cable
34 x 24 x 20 cm (13 3⁄8 x 9 7⁄16 x 7 7⁄8 inches)
Family portrait (eyes)
2014
Slate
165 x 110 x 2 cm (64 31⁄32 x 43 5⁄16 x 25⁄32 inches)
Installation
Il fulmine governa ogni cosa, 2023
Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio, Roma
Afterimage, 2022
MAXXI L'Aquila
Photography: Andrea Rossetti
Chaos:Calm Bangkok Art Biennale, 2022
Bangkok
Chaos:Calm Bangkok Art Biennale, 2022
Bangkok
APERTO by DAMA, 2021
Palazzo Carignano, Torino
Cubic Metre of Seawater as a Diagonal, 2019
Sprovieri Gallery, London
Cubic Metre of Seawater as a Diagonal, 2019
Sprovieri Gallery, London
Escamas, 2019
Casa Vicens, Barcelona
Bajo el brazo: entre la palma de la mano y la axila, 2018
CaixaForum, Barcelona
Bajo el brazo: entre la palma de la mano y la axila, 2018
CaixaForum, Barcelona
Autumn Lines, 2016
Sprovieri Gallery, London
Sette, uno, quattro, 2015
Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan
Sette, uno, quattro, 2015
Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan
Les sculptures meurent aussi, 2010
Kunsthalle Mulhouse, Mulhouse
News
Exhibitions
Revelations on a shapeless sphere
FontetaJun 17 - Aug 28, 2022
For the second consecutive year, we are delighted to present a collaborative project between galleries Bombon, Galeria Joan Prats and NoguerasBlanchard. The proposal for this summer once again brings together artists from the three galleries and from different generations in an exhibition format that will be based on the exquisite corpse principle, with a text by poet Eduardo Escoffet written for the occasion.
Focusing on this act of collective exchange, during the summer of 2022, the artists invited to participate, the first of them Pere Noguera (La Bisbal del Ampurdán, Girona; 1941) , will be in charge of selecting the first group of artists, and so on in succession, until closing a cycle of exhibition proposals made up of works spanning different generations and imaginaries.
Chapter 1: Opening Saturday 25 June
Pere Noguera, Luis Gordillo, Ludovica Carbotta (Room 1)
Pere Noguera, Anna Dot, The Late Estate Broomberg & Chanarin (Room 2)
Chapter 2: Opening Saturday 16 July
Ludovica Carbotta, Muntadas, Francesco Arena (Room 1)
The Late Estate Broomberg & Chanarin, Jordi Mitjà, Rasmus Nilausen (Room 2)
Chapter 3: Opening Saturday 6 August
Francesco Arena, Victoria Civera, Perejaume (Room 1)
Ángela de la Cruz, Rasmus Nilausen, Lola Lasurt (Room 2)
Chapter 4: Opening Thursday 18 August
Perejaume, Pere Llobera, Ignacio Uriarte (Room 1)
Lola Lasurt, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Fernando Prats (Room 2)
c/ Empordà, 10, Fonteta, Girona
Jun: Friday to Sunday from 5 to 9pm
Jul and Aug: Monday to Sunday from 5 to 9pm
Angolo Stanco
BarcelonaSep 26 - Nov 16, 2018
Francesco Arena’s research is centred around ways of thinking about temporality, by revealing irruptions in the course of things that seem to conform to a linear development marked by causes and effects.
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WATCHDOG-LAPDOG-PLAYDOG
BarcelonaApr 2 - May 7, 2016
“The press is a watchdog. Not a lapdog. A watchdog. Now, a watchdog can’t be right all the time. He doesn’t bark only when he sees or smells something that’s dangerous. A good watchdog barks at things that are suspicious.” -Dan Rather (American journalist and a former anchor for CBS Evening News)
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3 Ludwig reflections and 1 horizon
MadridNov 15 - Jan 17, 2015
The exhibition parts from an investigation around the cabin built by Ludwig Wittgenstein on a fjord in the remote town of Skjolden (Norway) in 1911.
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