GUGLIELMO ACHILLE CAVELLINI / ​Centennial Exhibition
​5 Nov to 2​1​ ​Dec​ 2014
Opening Reception: Wednesday, ​5 Nov 2014, 6-8pm
175 Rivington Street, New York

LYNCH THAM is pleased to present select carbon works by the celebrated Italian artist Guglielmo Achille Cavellini. The year 2014 is an important marker in Cavellini’s career as art institutions across Europe and the United States celebrate the centenary of his birth. In addition to the gallery presentation, a local Cavellini Festival, organized by Mark Bloch is scheduled from November 14-16. On November 14, the library at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, will host a reception and special viewing of their vast Cavellini archive. The weekend will also include a series of performances and interventions at various New York museums and non-profit spaces.

The exhibition at LYNCH THAM includes Cavellini’s ontological carbon series created from 1970 to 1990. The works feature fully and partially charred pictures and objects; including geometric abstraction of chromatic scale with portraits and image of Italy’s physical outline as an aesthetic and personal symbol. These pieces contributed to the deep innovation Cavellini had undertaken in his work and when combined, in terms of background and form, carbon became an absolute texture, which expanded through a continued citation.

Cavellini engaged in an extensive postage-art exchange for which he became well known. This exchange turned him into the leader of a new way of communicating in art. He became a mythical figure for a generation of underground artists and was regarded as a liberator that would break the chains of a closed system that often excluded artists. In 1970, he invented the term autostoricizzazione (self-historicization) and started a long work of conceptual self-promotion, which sought to bypass the roles of the critic and the market.

Cavellini was born in Brescia, Lombardy where he lived and worked until he died in 1990. His artist’s books are represented in the permanent holdings of New York’s Franklin Furnace and in the archive on 20th century art maintained by the Venice Biennale. His work is in many private and public collections including the Civiche Raccolte Comune di Milano, Museo Pecci Prato, Museo MART Rovereto, Museo di Cavalese Trento, Collezione citta di Pesaro, Civica Raccolta del disegno Sal, FRAC Nord Pas de Calais and Le Consortium Dijon in France, among many others.

2014 venues for the Centennial Exhibitions include Emily Harvey Foundation, Venezia, Italy; Museo MART di Rovereto, Rovereto, Italy; Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, Hungary; ICI, Italian Cultural Institute, San Francisco, CA; Center of Contemporary Art (Lu.C.C.A.), Lucca, Italy; Public Library of Cairo Montenotte, Cairo; Spazio Contemporanea, Brescia, Italy, among others. A comprehensive exhibition on mail art, curated by Mark Bloch, is scheduled for November-December at White Box, New York.

Media enquiries:
Florence Lynch / Bee Tham
Tel: +1-917-327-3580 / +1-917-288-9099
[email protected]