Bringing art out of the shadows in Warwickshire

02/05/2007

An exhibition focusing on the psychological and symbolic meaning attached to the shadow is coming to Compton Verney on June 29th. The theme is explored through the medium of installation, video and photography, and features top artist from around the world, including Carlo Benvenuto, Christian Boltanski, Tracey Moffatt, Andy Warhol, William Wegman and Francesca Woodman.

Shadows have been a constant source of inspiration from Egyptian tomb paintings to early Renaissance art, and the exhibition explores how the theme emerges in the work of modern and contemporary artists. Reassuring yet forbidding, shadows carry a range of associations, and this exhibition offers a series of atmospheric encounters which reflect the constructed superstitions of society as well as expressing individual psychological states.

The exhibition presents works where the shadow contributes to the formation of human psychology, exploring emotions usually hidden deep within the psyche. In doing so, the exhibition raises questions about the shadow as an entity onto which individual and collective fears and desires are instilled and the possibility for it to evoke intense feeling as a consequence. More ominously, the potential for the shadow to develop an identity that acts independently in contradiction to our own is also explored.

Organised by Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena and MAN, Nuoro, and only showing at Compton Verney IN THE UK, The Shadow is curated by the Italian academic and critic Lea Vergine.

Exhibition dates are 30 June – 9 September 2007.

Contact: Ina Cole, Compton Verney, Warwickshire, CV35 9HZ. Tel: 01926 645540. Or email:ina.cole@comptonverney.org.uk