LAURINA PAPERINA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 23 – March 23, 2007 Reception: Saturday February 24, 6 – 8 pm
Main Space: LAURINA PAPERINA ro(t)fl
Project Space: JOSEPH HART Priority Index

In the world of Laurina Paperina, comic book characters and super heroes take on a more human folksy feel – wrinkles appear beneath Spiderman’s mask and Robin’s beer belly hangs slightly over his green tights. The manner in which Paperina portrays these fictitious personalities and parodied celebrities draws parallel to the ordinary among us. In keeping with the fantastic characters she creates, the artist has adopted the pseudonym Laurina Paperina (her real name is Laura Scottini).

Through her lo-fi paintings and drawings with witty one-liners, Paperina’s interpretations of the social and political ramifications of television and the internet come to life. Her subjects are presented simply but powerfully, incorporating a vivid cartoon-like palate, ultimately reducing them to their most familiar and accessible characteristics. This is an effective strategy given our internet age of increasingly short attention spans. In the video game world of good and evil, Laurina Paperina is a welcome hero, liberating us with humor from our phobias, foibles and fallacies. Where instant gratification is valued over personal relationships, Paperina encourages us to be honest and vulnerable.
For Paperina’s first solo exhibition in the United States, ro(t)fl (internet slang for rolling on the floor laughing) the artist takes us through an ironic journey of heroes and villains, celebrities, and other pop culture figures. With over 100 works including drawings, paintings, a wall installation and an original animation, we are reintroduced to characters that we have known and loved for years, and meet an entire cast of new ones. “Rolling on the floor laughing” is Paperina’s opportunity to remind us not to take ourselves so seriously. Like- wise, Paparina’s direct approach pokes fun at the grandiosity elitism of the art word itself.

Laurina Paperina was born in Roverto Italy. She currently lives and works between Mori (Trento-Italy) and Duck Land. Her solo exhibitions include Erdmann Contemporary Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa; Perugi artecontemporanea, Padova, Italy; Che fine ha fatto, Rovigo, Italy.

In the project space, Joseph Hart will present a series of collage-based drawings. Hart’s wistful compositions generated with pencil, pen and paint, are reminiscent of Baroque landscapes and nod to other art historical works. For Priority Index, Hart has taken his cue from several trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where display cases, pedestals, frames, mantels, and other exhibition fixtures serve as anchors within the composition as well as metaphors for value, triage and importance. He further investigates belief and value systems, and how these ideologies relate to faith, human capacity, and mythology.

Born and raised in New Hampshire, Joseph Hart studied at Rhode Island School of Design before moving to Brooklyn, where he currently lives and works. His first solo exhibition at Galleri Loyal in Sweden was preceded by several group exhibitions at Alexander and Bonin, CRG Gallery, New York; Klaus Von Nichtssangend, Brooklyn; Allston Skirt Gallery, Boston, MA. Hart’s forthcoming project AIM 27 at the Bronx Museum of The Arts, New York opens this April.

For more information, please visit the gallery’s website or contact Nick Lawrence (Owner), Steven Stewart (Co-Director) or Yasha Wallin (Co-Director) at 212-989-8700 or info@freightandvolume.com.