INDEPENDENT 20TH CENTURY: BOOTH 310

THE OBSESSIVE IMAGE

The Obsessive Image, a collaborative presentation by Gió Marconi Gallery and David Nolan Gallery, explores the recurrence of images, forms, and artistic preoccupations across twentieth-century art. While repetition is one manifestation of obsession, the exhibition considers a wide spectrum of obsessive artistic behavior: the return to a single image, motif, or medium; the meticulous refinement of craft; the accumulation of forms over decades; and the compulsive need to investigate an idea beyond conventional limits. Bringing together Italian and European artists with art of the Americas, the presentation reveals connections between formally and conceptually distinct practices from different generations and cultures, tracing how obsession, in its many forms, becomes a mode of seeing as much as a way of making.

In a culture defined by progress and acceleration with the relentless circulation of news, images, the pressure of markets, and the obsessive measurement of time and productivity, the artists in this exhibition offer a different proposition: that to return to the same image, or form, or the same question or concept, is a very meaningful way to move forward. Artistic obsession slows time. This presentation makes the case for that paradox.

David Nolan has maintained a gallery in New York City since 1987, juxtaposing work made in a variety of media by international artists from different generations and cultures, as well as mounting tightly-curated historical exhibitions. Nolan began his career in 1980 at Michael Werner Gallery, Cologne, and moved to New York in 1983 to work with Ileana Sonnabend. Now located in TriBeCa at 74 Leonard Street, his program is known for presenting artists whose work upsets familiar hierarchies of vision and meaning.

Gió Marconi Gallery was founded in 1990 by Gió Marconi, who had previously established Studio Marconi 17 — an experimental space for young artists and curators that he ran from 1987 to 1990. Over the three decades that followed, the gallery developed a vibrant and consistent program, marked by brave choices often well ahead of their time. Throughout, the gallery has supported the careers of its artists, promoting their diverse practices to audiences and institutions at home and abroad. While its focus has always been on contemporary positions, the program has gradually expanded to include historical artists from the Studio Marconi legacy.