FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Carolina Raquel Antich: Di punto in bianco (All of a sudden)

Catalogue Available with Essay by Barbara Pollack

Project Space:  Theresa Hackett: Cumulus (painting installation)

November 17, 2005 through January 7, 2006

Florence Lynch Gallery is pleased to present the first New York solo exhibition of artist CarolinaRaquel Antich. Concurrently exhibiting in the Venice Biennale, in the Giardini’s Venice Pavilion, this exhibition is a continuation of the Venice dialogue and will include paintings, drawings and video animation.  The exhibition is view from November 17 through January 7, 2006 . An opening reception will be held at the gallery on Thursday, November 17 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

These images are not documentation of childhood nor are they documentation of memories of childhood.  They function more like a moment when we manage to reinhabit a memory, reliving the complexity of keeping a stiff upper lip even as we endure a broken arm.   “My imagination is more directly from the world of a child,” says Antich, “But revisited with more significant rigor.”  Indeed, these gems of images condense those moments of terror, torture, and relief—perhaps, the inescapable reality of childhood—with the fearlessness that only an adult can conjure many years after the trauma has passed.  To Antich, her work represents a “negotiation” between the child and adult space, the constant comparison between the inside and outside, vulnerability and endurance, that allows us each to survive childhood.

Some have suggested that these works are commentary on contemporary events—Columbine or Jean-Benet Ramsey—so scary that they have irrefutably erased innocence from our understanding of childhood.  Others have credited Antich with conjuring up child-like metaphors of adult behavior, making war, for example, more up-close and personal by putting the weapons in the hands of children.  But, the complicated truth is that childhood does not need the amplification of media imagery and news headlines to be a terrifying experience in and of itself.   Antich seems to understand this fundamental truth, or more pointedly, remembers her own childhood truths, and limns her seemingly simple renderings with an aura of inescapable tragedy.

Barbara Pollack, catalogue essay excerpt

Born in Rosario , Argentina , Antich Lives and works in Venice .  She has exhibited extensively in Europe and South American.  Awards include, (Prize for Young Italian Art) 2005 Finalist, Premio per la giovane arte italiana, 51^st Edition Venice Biennale.  2003, Premio Bevilacqua La Masa 87 mostra collettiva.  1998, Corso Superiore de Arti Visive, visiting Professor Hamish Fulton, Fondazione Ratti, Como. 1995, Grant, perfezionamento per giovani artisi, director Guillermo Kuitca, Fondazione Proa, Buenos Aires.

She is currently exhibiting in “Altre Lilith. Le Vestali dell’Arte -  Terzo Millennio” at the institution Scuderie Aldobrandini in the Comune di Frascati, Roma, with artists Vanessa Beecroft, Bruna Esposito, Tracy Moffatt, Mariko Mori, Orlan, Lucy Orta, Margot Quan Knight, among others.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 to 6:00 p.m. .  For further information and photographic material please contact Florence Lynch or Provie Landor at 212-924-3290.