Recently opened at Niccoli Sweetwater’s Basilique region is a joint exhibition of art organised by the Focus team, and featuring the work of Looker Lumet and Sophie Marie Sinclair (Perpetua1010), both of whom are artists new to my eyes. This is something of a “split level” exhibition of work, the core being located at Basilique’s skyborne exhibition and event space, Palazzo di Basilique, with some of Looker’s work also appearing at the ground level Galleria rotunda.
Located on the Lago di Garda terrace at the rear of Palazzo di Basilique, Sophie Marie Sinclair presents Yellow Expressions, a portfolio of her physical world art with – as might be expected from the title – something of a yellow theme running through them.
Sophie’s background is perhaps as fascinating as her art. A graduate of the Academy of fine Arts Vienna, she is also by turn a cartoonist, having had a particular focus on political satire, an author and a ghost writer for certain well-known comedians. As a painter, she is an experimentalist in terms of materials she uses, but has a leaning towards plaster, glue, terracotta, stones, bones, ash, charcoal, and the use of natural pigments.
Sophie describes her artistic focus as being on the nude body and also abstract art, and the former is certainly demonstrated in Yellow Expressions, which features 10 studies of the male and female form, most of which appear to be pen or charcoal drawing finished in a water or ink wash to provide the natural yellow tone within them, with one piece (Mind N) offering the suggestion of a more oil-like and textured / layered finish that also involves richer hues.
All ten pieces are superbly rendered, their finish highly suggestive of being produced on porous plaster rather than canvas, something that gives them a highly tactile sense, whilst their neo-classical styling presents them as pieces that would fit any home environment admirably.
Straddling the upper terrace at the front of Palazzo di Basilique and the ground-level Galleria rotunda, Looker Lumet offers a selection of his Second Life landscape photography (although he also produces avatar studies and portraits as well), with 12 pieces on the terrace, eight of which are also offered within the Galleria. I’m not entirely sure of the reason for this, although I assume it is to allow visitors to Basilique itself to view an art display without them necessarily being aware of the exhibitions up at Palazzo di Basilique.
Either way, Looker’s landscape work is rich in atmosphere, with the pieces offered in this selection perhaps leaning more towards darker tones and hues, some of which are fitting, given the theme (such as with The Graveyard in the Forest), whilst with others it offers a genuine and fitting depth of broodiness that emphasises Nature’s changing moods or the overall tone of the piece in question (see Abandoned and Seasight).
Which is not to say this is a “heavy” exhibition in terms of colour and tone: there are several brighter pieces that stand as memories of happy times on the beach or the splendour of a day’s sailing, all of which stands as an engaging exhibition.
I gather both Sophie’s and looker’s work will remain at Basilique through until mid-October.
SLurl Details
Basilique is rated Adult
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