WHO SAYS, WHO SHOWS, WHAT COUNTS: THINKING ABOUT HISTORY WITH THE BLOCK’S COLLECTION - BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
September 22–December 5, 2021
Federico SolmiExcerpt from The Great Farce, 2020Acrylic paint, mixed media, gold leaf on laser cut MDF, LED screen, plexiglass, video loop. Duration 8:11 minutes. 60 x 30 x 5in
Highlighting more than 80 modern and contemporary artworks recently acquired by The Block Museum of Art, the exhibition features works by a wide-ranging selection of artists exploring the idea of history, such as Kerry James Marshall, Catherine Opie, Walid Raad, Man Ray, Edward Steichen, and Kara Walker.
THE OUTWIN: AMERICAN PORTRAITURE TODAY - MILDRED LANE KEMPER ART MUSEUM
September 10, 2021– January 23, 2022
The Outwin: American Portraiture Today is a major exhibition that features the finalists of the Portrait Gallery’s fifth triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.
THE BACCHANALIAN ONES, 2021
The Bacchanalian Ones, 2021
Virtual Reality Experience for Oculus Quest 2 with three unique hand-sculpted masks (Theodora, George Washington, and
Colombo) and VR headsets with controllers.
FEDERICO SOLMI, INTERVIEW WITH LAWRENCE WESCHLER - LUIS DE JESUS, LOS ANGELES
ABOUT
This is a recording of a conversation between artist Federico Solmi and noted author, Lawrence Weschler in conjunction with Solmi's solo exhibition, "The Bacchanalian Ones". Weschler and Solmi discussed the underlying politics, technological methods and antecedents present in Solmi's work as well as go through the inspiration and evolution of ideas behind the "Bacchanalian Ones". This was the first in-person event hosted by Luis De Jesus Los Angeles in the new Downtown Los Angeles location.
Lawrence Weschler spent twenty years as a staff writer at The New Yorker (1981-2001), where his work shuttled between political tragedies and cultural comedies, and then for thirteen years (2001-2014) as director, now emeritus, of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU. He has been a regular contributor, among others, to the New York Times magazine, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, Harper's, McSweeney's, The Believer—and is the author of over twenty books, including Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees (a life of artist Robert Irwin); Mr Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder (on the Museum of Jurassic Technology); Vermeer in Bosnia; A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers (in Brazil and Uruguay); Domestic Scenes: The Art of Ramiro Gomez; and now, And How Are You, Doctor Sacks?, a biographical memoir of his thirty-five-year friendship with the neurologist Oliver Sacks).
Filmed by Eric Mihn Swenson
Edited by Molly Shea
Thursday, May 6, 11am - 12pm EST
American Fables - solo project for Frieze New York, Kornfeld Gallery, Berlin
Federico Solmi and Larry Ossei-Mensah
Join the online livestream of the physical talk at artist studio. On the occasion of Frieze New York 2021 and as a tribute to the Vision & Justice Project.
THE BACCHANALIAN ONES, SOLO EXHIBITION - LUIS DE JESUS, LOS ANGELES
April 24, 2021 - June 19, 2021.
Federico Solmi
The Bacchanalian Ones, 2021
Virtual Reality Experience for Oculus Quest 2 with three unique hand-sculpted masks (Theodora, George Washington, and
Colombo) and VR head sets with controllers.
SEEING DIFFERENTLY - THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION, WASHINGTON D.C.
Opens March 8, 2021.
The Great Farce "Portable Theater", 2020 (edition 3/5), nine channel animated video, color sound, 8:11 minutes. Acrylic paint, mixed media, gold leaf on laser cut MDF, led screen, plexiglass video loop. Dimension: 60 x 30 x 5 in.
THE BACCHANALIAN ONES - ROWAN UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY, Glassboro, NJ.
November 2, 2020 – January 9, 2021.
The Bathhouse, 2020, five channel video installation, color, sounds, 9:46 minutes, plexiglass, acrylic paint on wooden frames. 6 x 20 ft.
“Using game engines, digital animation, virtual and augmented reality combined with his drawings and paintings, Solmi creates satirical and clownish portrayals of political leaders, colonial rulers and explorers absorbed in extravagant and deranged parties; pompous, imperious parades; and theatrical and contrived events.
Inspired by ancient mythology, modern myth, and contemporary celebrity culture, Solmi has blended together historical characters and depicts them as ghoulish, self-indulgent, degenerate devotees of the cults of Bacchus and Dionysus concerned only with their own power and influence.
Through the absurd behavior of his characters, Solmi asks us to question their relevance and the distorted historical narratives that have led to an era of misinformation, corruption, and hypocrisy.”
- Rowan University Art Gallery
THE OUTWIN 2019: AMERICAN PORTRAIT TODAY - NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Opens October 26, 2019.
Excerpt from “The Liberator” Federico Solmi, 2019
“The Liberator” Federico Solmi, 2019
FEDERICO SOLMI’S SURREAL, SATIRICAL UNIVERSE COMES TO THE BLOCK MUSEUM COLLECTION
Past and present, history and amusement, reality and spectacle are conflated and distorted in Federico Solmi’s monumental media work, The Great Farce (2017), recently acquired by Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art.
Originally commissioned for the 2017 B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, Frankfurt, Germany, The Great Farce is Solmi’s most ambitious work to date in terms of technical complexity, physical scale and scope of content. Featuring a cast of time-traveling world leaders with a feverish madness for power, Solmi’s animation turns a frenzied, fun-house mirror to grandstanding historical figures.
The Great Farce Federico Solmi, Frankfurt, 2017
THE QUEST FOR HAPPINESS - ITALIAN ART NOW - Serlachius Museum Gösta, Mänttä, Finland, 26 Oct 2019–29 Mar 2020
Curated by Maria Stella Bottai, Lorella Scacco and Pirjo Immonen.
Following the red line of the quest for happiness, the exhibition brings together Italy's most interesting contemporary artists.
THE GRAND MASQUERADE, TARBLE ART CENTER, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS, August 17 , 2019 - October 6, 2019
Curated by Michael Schuetz.
