I’m very excited to attend the preview of Gaetano Pesce Molds (Gelati Misti) presented by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles at the Pacific Design Center.
The exhibition will be from September 3 – November 27, 2016 at MOCA Pacific Design Center
“I hope my work is acknowledged for its multidisciplinary nature and its curious diversity,” remarks artist Gaetano Pesce.
MOCA Senior Curator Bennett Simpson and John R. Geresh, Pesce collector & scholar organized the exhibition that focuses on the Italian artist’s use of two dimensional cast-resin reliefs that he calls ‘industrial skins’ and will have his body like vases, a selection of chairs and lamps that use his casting techniques with resin and molds.
Pesce has more than four decades of work that span architecture, exhibition and industrial design that are playful, eccentric and utilizes the medium’s variation of pigmentation, transparency and plasticity.
“Gaetano Pesce is a true icon of contemporary design,” says Simpson. “His cast resin works evoke bodies, fungi, lava flows, and ocean life—seductive and repellent in their strange beauty. It is an honor to bring his work to MOCA.”
Though many of his vases (Amazonias, Twins, Rock, Spaghetti, Pompitou, Medusa, and Tre Piedi) have structural foundations that begin with the same bullet-shaped underpinnings, their final forms are anything but identical. Each bares the process of its own making, capturing gravity and the velocity of Pesce’s hand, which renders some things humorously anthropomorphic or blithe and painterly, and others unsettlingly corporeal.
Gaetano Pesce was born in 1939, La Spezia, Italy. He has led a forty-plus-year career of exuberant and groundbreaking work in architecture, urban planning, interior, exhibition, and industrial design. His engagement with the avant-garde began with his studies in architecture from 1958 to 1963 at the University of Venice, where he became one of the founding members of Gruppo N, a collective focused on expanding the idea of programmed art that emerged out of the Bauhaus movement. During his college years, Pesce worked at three notable Murano glass factories: Moretti, Vistosi, and Venini; this occupational education in Venetian glasswork has informed much of the way he wields and approaches resin as a part of his current practice.
Geresi has written, “Pesce’s work in resin is an extension of the 20th century’s greatest Italian glass artist and is as continuous with that tradition as can be believed.”
His career has also led him to teaching at prestigious institutions such as Cooper Union, New York; Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the Institute of Architecture and Urban Studies, Strasbourg, France; Domus Academy, Milan; and the Architectural School of São Paulo. He has mounted over two dozen solo exhibitions and featured in a number of group exhibitions, most notably the seminal 1972 exhibition The New Domestic Landscape: Achievements and Problems of Italian Design at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. Pesce’s work is featured in more than 30 permanent collections across the world, including MoMA; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre in Paris.
Gaetano Pesce: Molds (Gelati Misti) is organized by MOCA Senior Curator Bennett Simpson with John Geresi, and with curatorial support by Executive Assistant to the Chief Curator Hana Cohn.
Lead support for MOCA Pacific Design Center is provided by Charles S. Cohen.
Exhibitions at MOCA are supported by the MOCA Fund for Exhibitions with lead annual support provided by Delta Air Lines, Shari Glazer, Hästens, and Sydney Holland, founder of the Sydney D. Holland Foundation. Generous funding is also provided by Jerri and Dr. Steven Nagelberg, and Thao Nguyen and Andreas Krainer.
RELATED PROGRAMS
BENNETT SIMPSON AND JOHN GERESI IN CONVERSATION
Sunday, September 25, 3pm
MOCA Pacific Design Center
INFO 213/621-1741 or visitorservices@moca.org
FREE
Please check moca.org for updates on related programs.
THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, LOS ANGELES (MOCA)
About MOCA: Founded in 1979, MOCA’s vision is to be the defining museum of contemporary art. In a relatively short period of time, MOCA has achieved astonishing growth with three Los Angeles locations of architectural renown; a world-class permanent collection of more than 6,800 objects, international in scope and among the finest in the world; hallmark education programs that are widely emulated; award-winning publications that present original scholarship; groundbreaking monographic, touring, and thematic exhibitions of international repute that survey the art of our time; and cutting-edge engagement with modes of new media production. MOCA is a not-for-profit institution that relies on a variety of funding sources for its activities.
Hours: MOCA Grand Avenue (located at 250 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles) is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11am to 6pm; Thursday from 11am to 8pm; Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 5pm; and closed on Tuesday. The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA (located at 152 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012) has the same hours as MOCA Grand Avenue during exhibitions. Please call ahead or go to moca.org for the exhibition schedule for The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. MOCA Pacific Design Center (located at 8687 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, CA 90069) is open Tuesday through Friday from 11am to 5pm; Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 6pm; and closed on Monday. The MOCA Store at MOCA Grand Avenue (located at 250 South Grand Avenue) is open Monday through Wednesday and Friday from 10:30am to 5:30pm; Thursdayfrom 10:30am to 8:30pm; and Saturday and Sunday from 10:30am to 6:30pm.
Museum Admission: General admission is free for all MOCA members. General admission is also free for everyone at MOCA Grand Avenue and The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA on Thursdays from 5pm to 8pm, courtesy of Wells Fargo. General admission is always free at MOCA Pacific Design Center. General admission at MOCA Grand Avenue and The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA is $12 for adults; $7 for students with I.D. and seniors (65+); and free for children under 12.
More Information: For 24-hour information on current exhibitions, education programs, and special events, call 213/626-6222 or access MOCA online at moca.org.
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