On The Nature of Things
On the Nature of Things
Marine Contemporary
1733-A
Abbot Kinney Blvd,
Venice, CA 90291
January 14 – February 18
2012
On the Nature of Things is both a reference to the repetition of the still life motif featured in many of the works in this exhibition, as well as a direct quotation from the ancient Roman poet Lucretius’ poem by the same title “De Rerum Natura”. The book of poetry, now more than 2000 years old, is a call to radical ideas, such as that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions.
All of the titles of the paintings for this exhibition are direct quotations from the poem and the literary references are a part of the conceptual underpinning for these multi-faceted works, which, through the juxtaposition of these various references, place the viewer somewhere between the past, present and future. One of these is
the Vanitas panting, a type of symbolic work of art meant for humanity to reflect upon the temporariness of life and morality. It is derived from the Latin origin “emptiness”, which in turn relates to Lucreatius’ interpretation of matter and the void. In a way, the works in On the Nature of things, function as contemporary Vanitas paintings, in which the contemplation of existence is made through a mixed symbolism of the intermingling of historical and contemporary objects.
Minervini subverts nature, constructing or destroying architectural sites and alluding to the making of a utopian and/or dystopian environment. There is a feeling of movement, of being in a constant state of flux. Civilization in all its forms is the subject of Minervini’s work, but humans themselves are markedly absent. Minervini started off as a figurative painter, so it is interesting to note that although the works are no longer figurative, they are still about the figure in a more psychological sense. They are, in essence, meditations on humanity.
Marine Contemporary
1733-A
Abbot Kinney Blvd,
Venice, CA 90291
January 14 – February 18
2012
On the Nature of Things is both a reference to the repetition of the still life motif featured in many of the works in this exhibition, as well as a direct quotation from the ancient Roman poet Lucretius’ poem by the same title “De Rerum Natura”. The book of poetry, now more than 2000 years old, is a call to radical ideas, such as that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions.
All of the titles of the paintings for this exhibition are direct quotations from the poem and the literary references are a part of the conceptual underpinning for these multi-faceted works, which, through the juxtaposition of these various references, place the viewer somewhere between the past, present and future. One of these is
the Vanitas panting, a type of symbolic work of art meant for humanity to reflect upon the temporariness of life and morality. It is derived from the Latin origin “emptiness”, which in turn relates to Lucreatius’ interpretation of matter and the void. In a way, the works in On the Nature of things, function as contemporary Vanitas paintings, in which the contemplation of existence is made through a mixed symbolism of the intermingling of historical and contemporary objects.
Minervini subverts nature, constructing or destroying architectural sites and alluding to the making of a utopian and/or dystopian environment. There is a feeling of movement, of being in a constant state of flux. Civilization in all its forms is the subject of Minervini’s work, but humans themselves are markedly absent. Minervini started off as a figurative painter, so it is interesting to note that although the works are no longer figurative, they are still about the figure in a more psychological sense. They are, in essence, meditations on humanity.
