The marquis and a bearded dominatrix with a cake in the oven

Dreams of flies (Yellow, black) 2010

Embroidery on silk shantung stretched over linen

ANGELO FILOMENO

Galerie Lelong

Angelo Filomeno's exhibit just closed this weekend unfortunately. I just managed to take a peak last Thursday. Still I thought that I had to share this artist with you. It held a certain wow! feeling with me when I walked through the door. The bright happy yellow with the dark shiny black, such contrasts! Still the closer you got to the art the more intricate it became. The details and precision in the stunning embroidery is taken to a whole new level of what you would expect. The morbid and the danger is seeping out of this show, whips, skulls, skeletons and parasites. Still it is reflected with a bright sun, like even death has some sort of hope? 

 Dream's Essence, 2010

Bronze, smoky quartz

 Overview of the gallery pace, on yellow wall:

I am feeling cold (2010)

 Embroidery on silk shantung with crystals stretched over linen

"Angelo Filomeno’s embroidered “paintings” depict fragments of animals, plants, and skeletons, which are juxtaposed to symbolize epic struggles between life and death, sexuality and decay, evil and redemption. Despite their psychological tension and implicit brutality, the works are highly ornamental with luxurious threads and glass crystals masterfully sewn and appliquéd in neo-baroque designs onto sheets of Shantung silk. As do the works of nineteenth-century decadents Fernand Khnopf and Aubrey Beardsley, Filomeno’s stylized and seductive forms produce a classic tension between Eros and Thanatos—life and love versus death and nothingness.

Filomeno was born in 1963 in the southern Italian town of Ostuni. He began to learn needlework when, at the age of seven, he was sent by his parents to work for his godfather, a tailor. While the rambunctious child was dismayed at not being allowed to play with his friends after school, his parents told him that by sending him to learn such a useful trade “we put gold into your hands.” After his childhood apprenticeship, Filomeno earned his MFA in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lecce in southern Italy, and then worked in the fashion industry in Milan. Upon moving to New York, Filomeno made his living by producing theater costumes. He has exhibited widely in New York and Italy, and his works were featured in the 2007 Venice Biennale."

-Mark Scala, Chief Curator of Frist Center for the Visual Arts, on Filomeno's "Eros and Thanatos" 

 By the Side of the Last Ocean Ready for Sunset (2008/2009)

Hand blown glasss, leather, crystals, wooden table and mirror.

 (table insert)

 (Table insert)

 (Table insert)

 Dreams of Flies (yellow) 2010

Embroidery on silk shantung stretched over linen

 Laughing philosopher (facing right, 2010)

 Parasite God (2010)

Embroidery on silk shantung with crystals stretched over linen

 Rapture of the Skin (2010)

Days of pain (Wednesday, 2009)

I am curious about what Angelo Filomeno will come up with next.
First Whitney Gala dinner tonight, and of course I am excited:)

With Love 

Kristin