Naturalis Historia. Linda Carrara and Mikayel Ohanjanyan

Linda Carrara Il funzionamento del pensiero (dettaglio) 2024 olio su tela di cotone nera 100 x 70cm

BUILDING presents, from September 10th to October 12th, 2024, Naturalis Historia, a two-person exhibition of artists Linda Carrara and Mikayel Ohanjanyan. By hosting a selection of both sculptural and pictorial works, the exhibition project offers an unprecedented comparison of their different artistic researches that investigate the common theme of nature.

The title of the exhibition, Naturalis Historia, which can be translated as "observation of nature," refers to the famous treatise by Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.), an encyclopedic work containing a multitude of studies on the natural world.
The analysis of the world, whether understood as natural or human, in both the macrocosm and microcosm, continues to inspire and inform contemporary art by allowing artists to rework deeper themes of identity, connection, bond, and duality. Linda Carrara and Mikayel Ohanjanyan, in their two solo exhibitions hosted by BUILDING - each with a different approach - observe what surrounds them, and they translate it with a unique perspective through their art practice.

Linda Carrara investigates the landscape and our perception of nature, revealing in her poetics the double in the world and in human nature. Mikayel Ohanjanyan concretely represents in his sculptures the invisible but real bonds between human beings in a tangible union of ancient and modern memories.
Linda Carrara (Bergamo, 1984), through several pictorial works, proposes a project on the uniqueness of the double that in nature presents itself with different faces and arouses different visions. From the landscape that doubles and is reflected on the surface of water, to the day and night that, since the dawn of centuries, divide the world into two parts, contiguous but opposite. The works and analysis of the landscape illustrate the multiple aspects of mirroring and doubling, even to the point of investigating the double of our own human nature. Moreover, in a study of self-portraiture, the artist depicts herself in a pencil drawing with a simple line. The line that separates reality and its double in the mirroring on the surface.

Mikayel Ohanjanyan (Yerevan, Armenia, 1976), exhibits a basalt work specifically made for the exhibition, and unpublished sculptures belonging to the series Ties [Legami]. The artist's research focuses on the human being and the observation of his inner and outer world. In particular, Ohanjanyan's works reflect the bonds and tensions that exist in human relationships. According to the artist, "we are connected by invisible bonds," quoting Nikola Tesla, which allow us to be seismographs of the vibrations emanating from everything around us. A "Whole," which is defined by space itself, time, nature, matter with its rhythms and forms, and the human being. In connections we rediscover Oneness, that is, our balance with the "Whole," the cohesion between opposites, also inherent in human nature. The latter, seemingly formless and disharmonious like the surface of a stone marked by time, reveals within it a solid network of memories and recollections that structure and shape our existence and our paths. An inexorable interweaving of ancient and modern memories from which it seems impossible to free oneself.

Biography

Linda Carrara (Bergamo,1984) lives and works between Milan and Brussels.
She studied in the contemporary art department at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts (2003 - 2007) and was a studio assistant for Vincenzo Ferrari (2006 - 2012). Between 2014 and 2015, she completed a master's degree in multimedia arts at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) at the University of Gent in Belgium, and in the same year she did an internship for Michaël Borremans.
In her more recent works, her artistic practice has shifted toward a "vitalist" representation of reality: the material and the pictorial action have become the focal point of the work itself, thus breaking free from the purely figurative for a "figural pictorial event." In this sense, the images presented by the artist do not coincide with the things they describe, but are intended to evoke the primary experience that generated them, the observation to which they refer, their primordial side, almost in a metaphysical narrative of both the pictorial event and the experience from which they arise.
The artist recently won the Premio Casarini Due Torri 2023 at ArtVerona 2023 and was invited to participate in the group exhibition Pittura italiana oggi at the Triennale Milano. In 2013 she was a finalist at the Premio Cairo, and in 2014 she won the Terna Prize - Pittura with the work entitled Outer Space.
In 2016 she presents her first solo show at Boccanera Gallery Il pretesto di Lotto curated by Daniele Capra, in 2017 her solo show Looking for the right place at the right moment with writings by Claudio Salvi at Blanco spaces in Gent, Belgium. In 2018 she opens her exhibition A/R Linda Carrara [nata a Bergamo nel 1984, vive e lavora tra Bruxelles e Milano] at the Italian Cultural Institute in Brussels, in 2019 the solo show Madonna delle Rocce at the Iragui Gallery in Moscow and the solo show Chôra at Boccanera Gallery curated by Giuseppe Frangi. In 2020 she participates in the virtual group shows Love is the answer e Boccanera Fiction, in 2021 in the group show Basta at Palazzo Monti in Brescia, and in 2022 in the group show How far should we go? curated by Rossella Farinotti at Fondazione ICA in Milan. In 2023 she transformed her solo show Se il paesaggio è simbolico into a group exhibition in Trento and Milan, opening the dialogue to other artists she considered akin to her poetic research.
Her works have been exhibited in numerous private galleries and public institutions in Italy and abroad: Triennale Milano, 2023; Cremona Art Week, 2023; Public Service Gallery, Stockholm, 2023; Boccanera Gallery, Trento/Milan, 2023-2019-2016; MAC Lissone, 2023; Fondazione ICA, Milan, 2022; Centrul de Interes in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2022; Galleria Renata Fabbri, Milan, 2022; Palazzo Reale, Milan, 2021; Floris-Romer Museum in Gyor, Hungary, 2021; Rizzuto Gallery, Palermo, 2020; Iragui Gallery, Moscow, 2019; Italian Institute in Brussels, 2018; Blanco Space Gent, 2017; Fabrica, Moscow, 2016; L.A.C. Centre d'Art Contemporaine Sigean, France, 2015.
She has participated in residencies such as: MOMENTUM, Berlin (2015); LKV Trondheim, Norway (2016); NCCA, St. Petersburg (2017); Musumeci Contemporary, Brussels (2018); Palazzo Monti, Brescia (2020).... read the rest of the article»

Mikayel Ohanjanyan (Yerevan, Armenia, 1976) lives and works between Florence and Carrara.
He attended the P. Terlemezyan State High School of Fine Arts in Yerevan (graduating in 1995) followed by the Yerevan State Academy of Fine Arts (graduating in 2001). In 2000 he moved to Italy, attending the Florence Academy of Fine Arts (graduating in 2005).
His artistic training has deep roots that branch from Armenia to Italy and converge in his artistic practice which is, and continues to be, constantly evolving. The presence of this connection is openly manifested in his works and is the result of the influence exerted by Armenian culture and his own landscape and the artistic training he later undertook in Italy.
The artist has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions, such as the Venice Architecture Biennale (Armenia Pavilion) in 2010, the Venice Art Biennale (Collateral Event) in 2011 and in 2015 for Armenia's National Pavilion for which he won the Golden Lion (2015).
In 2016 his work Diary was selected for the Frieze Sculpture Park 2016, and exhibited at Regent's Park in London. Subsequently, the same work, after a long exhibition at the prestigious Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Britain, was chosen for the permanent collection of the same park in 2021. In 2017, two works by Ohanjanyan were chosen for the Fiac - On Site project, exhibited in front of the Petit Palais in Paris. In 2018 the work The Threshold is the Source won the International Prize for Contemporary Art E. Marinelli for the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence. The work became part of the permanent collection of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore / Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence. In 2021, Mikayel Ohanjanyan won the competition, announced by the CEI / Vatican, for the creation of liturgical-artistic works: the Altar, Ambo and Baptismal Font for the church of Don Giovanni Bosco in Bagheria, Sicily, to be completed in 2026. In 2022, in the context of the 9th edition of Stills of Peace and Everyday Life, Ohanjanyan was invited by the Aria Foundation (Pescara, Italy) to exhibit at the Roman Cisterns of the Ducal Palace of the Dukes of Acquaviva in Atri, Italy.
In 2023, as part of White Carrara 2023 / Still Liv(f)e - The Forms of Sculpture, Ohanjanyan was invited by the city of Carrara to exhibit in the city's public spaces.
Major awards include: Artist selected for Fiac - On Site, Petit Palais, Paris, France, 2017; Artist selected for exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, GB, 2017; Artist selected for Frieze Sculpture Park 2016, Regent's Park, London, GB, 2016; Golden Lion - National Pavilion of Armenia 56th Venice Art Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2015; 1st Prize - Henraux Prize, Querceta, Italy, 2014; 1st Prize - Targetti Light Art Prize, Florence / Italy, 2009, 1st Prize - MOVIN'UP 2006, Italy, 2006; 1st Prize - II International Biennale of Contemporary Art of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, 2003; Diploma of Honor - XX Florence Prize, Italy, Florence, 2002; 3rd Prize - XIX Florence Prize, Florence, Italy, 2001; 3rd Prize - XIII International Sculpture Biennale of Ravenna, Ravenna, Italy, 1998.