REMAINS TO BE SEEN
CHRIS SOAL
EDUARDO SECCI MILANO - Via Olmetto
Milan, from September 21 to November 11, 2022
Opening: Wednesday, September 21, 6:00 - 9:00 pm
Exhibition walkthrough video available online
Exhibition view, Remains to be seen, Chris Soal, 2022, Eduardo Secci Milano, Photo The Knack Studio, Courtesy the artist and Eduardo Secci, Milan, Florence
Eduardo Secci is pleased to announce the solo show "Remains to be seen" by Chris Soal in the gallery space in Milan, in Via Olmetto, from September 21 to November 11, 2022.
The exhibition brings together new and never-before-seen works by the emerging South African artist, who through sculptural practice not only wants to express a conceptual engagement with the contexts and histories of the objects and materials he uses but also re-enforces the body as a site for knowledge reception and production.
Soal's work can be considered as a social abstraction that is deeply rooted and reflective of having grown up in Johannesburg. It seeks to make a poetic statement through the simplest of ways, engaging the viewer’s spatial awareness and perception while challenging societal assumptions of value. The use of discarded and mundane ephemera, such as toothpicks and bottle caps, along with concrete, rebar, electric fencing cable, and other industrial materials, intuitively develops the familiar to the point of the uncanny.
For his first solo show in Italy and his first exhibition with the Eduardo Secci gallery, Soal has decided to investigate the legacy of Arte Povera and the connection he feels with artists such as Alberto Burri and Giuseppe Uncini, the precursor of the movement.
The repeated motifs throughout this body of work are the residual, fissure, crack, tear, singe, burn, spill, and break. The artist is interested in how entropy manifests in the man-made: the organic presents itself as a renewable force capable of resisting it, but to which we must then also forego imposing purely our agenda. This relationship between intuition and intention revealing in the suggestions of intestinal and cerebral form is what propels his work. In an ongoing engagement with the material, Soal threaded salvaged beer bottle tops onto electric fencing cable encouraging its natural coil and twist to determine the form of the entire work.
From a socio-political point of view, the presence of beer bottle tops strewn in the streets of Johannesburg and in their resemblance to entrails, speaks to a certain attitude towards consumption and its violent excesses. The writhing and serpentine nature of the work also calls to mind mythical figures such as Medusa and the Gorgons.
In researching versions of the myth of Perseus and Medusa, the artist interprets it by contemplating the metaphor of the role of art in society. While the direct encounter with the Gorgon transforms the individual into stone, art can be the medium, the mirror or the shield through which we can face complex issues without becoming paralyzed by them.
Compelling the viewer to question their own complicity within our society of excessive consumption and mass-production, Soal’s toothpicks works astound and confound the perception of this humble material. Foregrounding pressing ecological concerns, these works primarily attempt to expose the paradoxical relationship humankind has with nature, that of simultaneous dependence and domination.
The exhibition walkthrough video with the artist will be online at www.eduardosecci.com/exhibitions.
Exhibition view, Remains to be seen, Chris Soal, 2022, Eduardo Secci Milano, Photo The Knack Studio, Courtesy the artist and Eduardo Secci, Milan, Florence
Chris Soal (1994, South Africa) lives and works between Johannesburg and Cape Town. He earned the BA Fine Arts at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (2017). Among his exhibitions: the solo show Elegy, NIROX Foundation (2021, Cradle of Humankind, Johannesburg) and the group shows Disrupture - 30 Years after, Kunstraum (2022, Brussels); The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize 2022 Finalists Exhibition, Norval Foundation (2022, Cape Town); Margins of Error, NIROX Sculpture Park (2021, Cradle of Humankind, Johannesburg); Matereality, Iziko South African National Gallery (2020, Cape Town); Il est une fois dans l’Ouest, Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA (2019, Bordeaux); Germination, RAW Material Company (2018, Dakar); Forward? Forward! Forward..., Stellenbosch University Museum (2018, Stellenbosch); Beyond Troubled Water(s), Gong Laut: The First Singaraja International Art Forum (2018, Bali); NEWWORK17, Wits School of Arts Graduate Exhibition, Wits Art Museum (2017, Johannesburg); Activate/Captivate: Collections re-engagement, Wits Art Museum (2016, Johannesburg); #ULTRACONTEMPORARY#EMERGENCYART#AFRICA, MOAD - Museum of African Design, (2016, Johannesburg). He received many prizes: The Claire & Edoardo Villa Will Trust Grant (2020); SEED Award, SAFFCA - Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art (2019); PPC Imaginarium Award (2018). Among his artist residences: SAFFCA.EU, La Cambre (2022, Brussels); NIROX Foundation Residency, NIROX Sculpture Park (2021, Cradle of Humankind, Johannesburg); RAW Material Company (2019, Dakar); SAFFCA - Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art (2018, Knysna). His works is included in numerous public and private collections. Chris Soal was among the selected artists of Dior Lady Art #5 in 2020.
Eduardo Secci is an Italian art gallery in Florence - where it was founded in 2013 - and Milan with two locations opened in 2021 and 2022. It presents a double program featuring the exhibitions of the main gallery and its independent experimental space NOVO.
EDUARDO SECCI Milano - Via Olmetto (NEW LOCATION)
Remains to be seen - Chris Soal
From September 21 to November 11, 2022
NOVO Milano - Via Olmetto (NEW LOCATION)
David Schnell, curated by Pier Paolo Pancotto
From September 21 to November 11, 2022
Via Olmetto 1, Milan, Italy / +39 02 38248728 / milano@eduardosecci.com
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 am - 1:30 pm / 2:30 - 7:00 pm; Opening: Wednesday, September 21, 6:00 - 9:00 pm
EDUARDO SECCI Milano - Via Zenale
Michael Staniak
From September 23 to November 18, 2022
Harvest of Time - Monika Grzymala
From September 23 to November 18, 2022
Via Zenale 3, Milan, Italy / +39 02 38248728 / milano@eduardosecci.com
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 am - 1:30 pm / 2:30 - 7:00 pm; Opening: Friday, September 23, 11:00 am - 8:00 pm
EDUARDO SECCI Firenze
Gio’ Pomodoro, critical text by Sergio Risaliti
From September 16 to December 23, 2022
NOVO Firenze
The Dream of Reason - Daria Dmytrenko, curated by Edoardo Monti
From September 16 to November 19, 2022
Piazza Goldoni 2, Florence, Italy / +39 055 661356 / firenze@eduardosecci.com
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 am - 1:30 pm / 2:30 - 7:00 pm; Opening: Friday, September 16, 11:00 am - 8:00 pm
www.eduardosecci.com / gallery@eduardosecci.com
IG @eduardoseccigallery / FB @eduardoseccicontemporary
www.novo.ooo / hello@novo.ooo
IG @novo_projects / FB @NOVOprojects
Exhibition walkthroughs videos with artists and curators:
www.eduardosecci.com/exhibitions - www.novo.ooo/exhibitions
Press Office: THE KNACK STUDIO / Tamara Lorenzi
tamara@theknackstudio.com / +39 347 0712934
info@theknackstudio.com / www.theknackstudio.com
REMAINS TO BE SEEN
CHRIS SOAL
EDUARDO SECCI MILANO - Via Olmetto
Milan, from September 21 to November 11, 2022
Opening: Wednesday, September 21, 6:00 - 9:00 pm
Exhibition walkthrough video available online
Exhibition view, Remains to be seen, Chris Soal, 2022, Eduardo Secci Milano, Photo The Knack Studio, Courtesy the artist and Eduardo Secci, Milan, Florence
Eduardo Secci is pleased to announce the solo show "Remains to be seen" by Chris Soal in the gallery space in Milan, in Via Olmetto, from September 21 to November 11, 2022.
The exhibition brings together new and never-before-seen works by the emerging South African artist, who through sculptural practice not only wants to express a conceptual engagement with the contexts and histories of the objects and materials he uses but also re-enforces the body as a site for knowledge reception and production.
Soal's work can be considered as a social abstraction that is deeply rooted and reflective of having grown up in Johannesburg. It seeks to make a poetic statement through the simplest of ways, engaging the viewer’s spatial awareness and perception while challenging societal assumptions of value. The use of discarded and mundane ephemera, such as toothpicks and bottle caps, along with concrete, rebar, electric fencing cable, and other industrial materials, intuitively develops the familiar to the point of the uncanny.
For his first solo show in Italy and his first exhibition with the Eduardo Secci gallery, Soal has decided to investigate the legacy of Arte Povera and the connection he feels with artists such as Alberto Burri and Giuseppe Uncini, the precursor of the movement.
The repeated motifs throughout this body of work are the residual, fissure, crack, tear, singe, burn, spill, and break. The artist is interested in how entropy manifests in the man-made: the organic presents itself as a renewable force capable of resisting it, but to which we must then also forego imposing purely our agenda. This relationship between intuition and intention revealing in the suggestions of intestinal and cerebral form is what propels his work. In an ongoing engagement with the material, Soal threaded salvaged beer bottle tops onto electric fencing cable encouraging its natural coil and twist to determine the form of the entire work.
From a socio-political point of view, the presence of beer bottle tops strewn in the streets of Johannesburg and in their resemblance to entrails, speaks to a certain attitude towards consumption and its violent excesses. The writhing and serpentine nature of the work also calls to mind mythical figures such as Medusa and the Gorgons.
In researching versions of the myth of Perseus and Medusa, the artist interprets it by contemplating the metaphor of the role of art in society. While the direct encounter with the Gorgon transforms the individual into stone, art can be the medium, the mirror or the shield through which we can face complex issues without becoming paralyzed by them.
Compelling the viewer to question their own complicity within our society of excessive consumption and mass-production, Soal’s toothpicks works astound and confound the perception of this humble material. Foregrounding pressing ecological concerns, these works primarily attempt to expose the paradoxical relationship humankind has with nature, that of simultaneous dependence and domination.
The exhibition walkthrough video with the artist will be online at www.eduardosecci.com/exhibitions.
Exhibition view, Remains to be seen, Chris Soal, 2022, Eduardo Secci Milano, Photo The Knack Studio, Courtesy the artist and Eduardo Secci, Milan, Florence
Chris Soal (1994, South Africa) lives and works between Johannesburg and Cape Town. He earned the BA Fine Arts at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (2017). Among his exhibitions: the solo show Elegy, NIROX Foundation (2021, Cradle of Humankind, Johannesburg) and the group shows Disrupture - 30 Years after, Kunstraum (2022, Brussels); The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize 2022 Finalists Exhibition, Norval Foundation (2022, Cape Town); Margins of Error, NIROX Sculpture Park (2021, Cradle of Humankind, Johannesburg); Matereality, Iziko South African National Gallery (2020, Cape Town); Il est une fois dans l’Ouest, Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA (2019, Bordeaux); Germination, RAW Material Company (2018, Dakar); Forward? Forward! Forward..., Stellenbosch University Museum (2018, Stellenbosch); Beyond Troubled Water(s), Gong Laut: The First Singaraja International Art Forum (2018, Bali); NEWWORK17, Wits School of Arts Graduate Exhibition, Wits Art Museum (2017, Johannesburg); Activate/Captivate: Collections re-engagement, Wits Art Museum (2016, Johannesburg); #ULTRACONTEMPORARY#EMERGENCYART#AFRICA, MOAD - Museum of African Design, (2016, Johannesburg). He received many prizes: The Claire & Edoardo Villa Will Trust Grant (2020); SEED Award, SAFFCA - Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art (2019); PPC Imaginarium Award (2018). Among his artist residences: SAFFCA.EU, La Cambre (2022, Brussels); NIROX Foundation Residency, NIROX Sculpture Park (2021, Cradle of Humankind, Johannesburg); RAW Material Company (2019, Dakar); SAFFCA - Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art (2018, Knysna). His works is included in numerous public and private collections. Chris Soal was among the selected artists of Dior Lady Art #5 in 2020.
Eduardo Secci is an Italian art gallery in Florence - where it was founded in 2013 - and Milan with two locations opened in 2021 and 2022. It presents a double program featuring the exhibitions of the main gallery and its independent experimental space NOVO.
EDUARDO SECCI Milano - Via Olmetto (NEW LOCATION)
Remains to be seen - Chris Soal
From September 21 to November 11, 2022
NOVO Milano - Via Olmetto (NEW LOCATION)
David Schnell, curated by Pier Paolo Pancotto
From September 21 to November 11, 2022
Via Olmetto 1, Milan, Italy / +39 02 38248728 / milano@eduardosecci.com
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 am - 1:30 pm / 2:30 - 7:00 pm; Opening: Wednesday, September 21, 6:00 - 9:00 pm
EDUARDO SECCI Milano - Via Zenale
Michael Staniak
From September 23 to November 18, 2022
Harvest of Time - Monika Grzymala
From September 23 to November 18, 2022
Via Zenale 3, Milan, Italy / +39 02 38248728 / milano@eduardosecci.com
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 am - 1:30 pm / 2:30 - 7:00 pm; Opening: Friday, September 23, 11:00 am - 8:00 pm
EDUARDO SECCI Firenze
Gio’ Pomodoro, critical text by Sergio Risaliti
From September 16 to December 23, 2022
NOVO Firenze
The Dream of Reason - Daria Dmytrenko, curated by Edoardo Monti
From September 16 to November 19, 2022
Piazza Goldoni 2, Florence, Italy / +39 055 661356 / firenze@eduardosecci.com
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 am - 1:30 pm / 2:30 - 7:00 pm; Opening: Friday, September 16, 11:00 am - 8:00 pm
www.eduardosecci.com / gallery@eduardosecci.com
IG @eduardoseccigallery / FB @eduardoseccicontemporary
www.novo.ooo / hello@novo.ooo
IG @novo_projects / FB @NOVOprojects
Exhibition walkthroughs videos with artists and curators:
www.eduardosecci.com/exhibitions - www.novo.ooo/exhibitions
Press Office: THE KNACK STUDIO / Tamara Lorenzi
tamara@theknackstudio.com / +39 347 0712934
info@theknackstudio.com / www.theknackstudio.com
