To fall with elegance. To fall, tearing ligaments, and instantly rise as if nothing had happened, without injury. This, to some extent, is what is attempted in my drawing.

R. Baruzzi

P420 is pleased to present Del disegno disposto alla pittura, the solo show by Riccardo Baruzzi (Lugo, 1976), who after taking part in the group show Le leggi dell’ospitalità curated by Antonio Grulli (2014), comes to terms with the new gallery space at Via Azzo Gardino 9, with works never previously shown from 2014 and 2016. Drawing, the sign and the line are the pivotal elements of the work of Riccardo Baruzzi. His research explores the notion of the unfinished and the provisional, giving the work a tension towards a solution to which it only alludes, which never arrives. Drawing is investigated through the body of the painting, conveyed as subtraction in these works. Subtraction is thus the earmark of this body of works by Riccardo Baruzzi, manifested as veil, threshold, limit, between phenomenon and noumenon, figuration and abstraction. The line, a faithful and fickle companion, resembles thought more than things. The subjects are not important; what counts is to trace a delicate, daring, sophisticated, essential interval, a sign that is the original expression of an anamnesis of incompletion. In his works Riccardo Baruzzi tells us that the evocative power of the piece lies in the lack of description, in its existence as a hint, an allusion, or as exploration of the boundary between surface and work, as in Ordine, or between drawing and painting, as in Quasimezzochilo: short, syncopated, musical, intermittent compositions.

Baruzzi’s artistic practice is made of stylistic and technical experiments, ironic and disorienting short circuits. In Più o meno otto chili he covers a board with a thick layer of oil point, to use it as a surface for drawing; the Porta Pittura works are devices of sculptures that contain thematic series of paintings: a sort of notebook that involves the viewer in the selection. 

The artist’s intention is therefore to challenge the scale of values between painting, sculpture and drawing, through ravenous production centered on the gesture and the line, and the surpassing of the boundaries between individual media. At the same time, the experimentation with and interest in the contamination of languages lave always led him to explore electro-acoustic sounds, and to invent instruments through which he shapes sounds and creates performances or concerts where the instrument becomes almost sculpture.

During Live Arts Week, on Saturday 23 April at 20.00, P420 will present a sound performance.

At the end of the exhibition, a monographic publication with texts by Davide Ferri and Alessandro Rabottini will be presented.

Among the artist’s solo shows, we should mention Plantel Renovado, Spazio O’, Milan; Mini strutture Sparse, Careof , Milan; Curva Sopra Lama, Arcade Gallery, London; he has also shown at Neon Campobase, Bologna; Ceri Hand Gallery, Liverpool; Lucie Fontaine, Milan; Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London. He recently won the Premio Termoli 2016.