The Italian artist Stefano Bombardieri chooses an anthropological approach to art, despite the representation of wildlife animals as recurring subjects of his sculptures. Bombardieri creates works in which the animal often represents a metaphor, linked to man and his problems, the concept of time and its perception. In this sense, underlines that: “the context, the posture and expression of the subjects I choose become essential”.
Bombardieri makes us measure as on a theatrical scene with the discomfort, loss and fears that inhabit our everyday life but entrusting them with a delegation of irony and burglary, of minimal revolt, of elusiveness and lightness. So the game is all about making sure that things no longer fit in their common skin, to settle on the threshold of our dreams or desires.
The sculpting production of Stefano Bombardieri is inserted in the panorama of contemporary plastic research with attributes of extreme vitality, originality and sophisticated balance. Bombardieri surpasses the mere representation, entrusting it with a symbolic and metaphorical value.
The artist creates voluminous and amazing life-sized sculptures that return in the absolute of themes that are linked to time, to its heaviness and suspension.
Life sized rhinoceroses, sumo wrestlers, massive figures, given in their absolute faithfulness of each realistic detail and crystallized in the immobility of their mass, but unexpectedly suspended in space hung from above and still in an unnatural air collocation.
Children’s figures are frequently seen in Bombardieri’s works in addition to the massive suspended animals that represent the weight of suspended and inexorably passing time. This sparks a lively conversation between the animals and the kids, forming a bond that culminates in the spreading of a message of inspiration: kids are indeed the ones who can successfully protect the environment and humanity from the most urgent problems.
Emma, Marta, Gaia and Elia are the ones who securely hold the ropes holding the enormous pachyderms hung from the ground in Stefano’s artwork. Although it may appear impossible for a young child to raise such enormous animals off the ground, Bombardieri has the power to carry the viewer into a world of fairies where even the smallest people have superhuman strength.
About Stefano Bombardieri
Italian artist Stefano Bombardieri is known for his large and bold sculptures, which often include wildlife as their subject matter such as: whales, rhinos, crocodiles and elephants. He acquired and refined his knowledge on art through the experimentation and use of artistic techniques with multiple materials in his father’s studio. Bombardieri embraces a deeply philosophical approach to art, focusing on themes such as time and its perception, man and the meaning of existence and the experience of pain in Western culture. He has described his work as both minimal and conceptual, featuring a great mix of tools and artistic mediums, ranging from large sculptures to video installations. In his early years Bombardieri focused on figurative sculpture and was greatly influenced by masters of the 20th century such as Boccioni and Balla – Futurist movement painters.
This present is the result of a past made of wrong choices, and tragically, history repeats itself.
Stefano Bombardieri
Since the 1990s he has exhibited in both public spaces and galleries. His installations include those located in the center of Ferrara, Faenza, Bologna, Saint Tropez and Posdam. In 2009 he held his personal exhibition ‘The animals count down’ in the evocative setting of Pietrasanta.
Aside from multiple group and solo exhibitions worldwide – he has participated several times in the Venice Biennale and his works have been displayed in major art galleries in Italy and abroad. Bombardieri continues to work in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, England, Greece, Lebanon, USA.
About Oblong Contemporary
Oblong Contemporary is an Italian Art Gallery primarily involved in promoting contemporary art, operating both locally and on the international art platform. Oblong gallery’s mission is to create a successful global arena for culture, represented by its headquarters in Dubai and Forte dei Marmi, Italy. Bringing its strong Italian culture and tradition, Oblong functions as an artistic bridge between the UAE and Italy. It is a place of cultural exchange, exhibiting some of the highest quality artworks and giving a platform to artists from the region as well as hosting a strong programme of workshops, educational initiatives and a cross-cultural art exchange program between Dubai and Pietrasanta (Italy).
The founders of OBLONG Contemporary Gallery are two entrepreneurial women: Emanuela Venturini and Paola Marucci who have shared a vision and combined their love for art and culture to create a platform for cross-cultural exchange between the UAE and Italy.
I believe art is an instrument for social and cultural integration through which the differences between cultures are merged. The UAE is becoming the center of art in the Middle East, thanks to the vision of its respective leaders who have embraced art in different ways. I envision OBLONG Contemporary Gallery to boost the art scene in Dubai and the UAE through the different exhibitions, workshops and activities that we will offer.
Paola Marucci, an entrepreneur who has lived in Pietrasanta for the past 20 years and carries experience in culture and tourism.
Dubai has a vibrant art scene and is home to galleries that showcase single and individual projects, paving the way for artists to highlight their work. OBLONG Contemporary Gallery will promote modern and contemporary international art, bringing the works of the world’s famous sculptors to Dubai, allowing artists and sculpture lovers to appreciate the art in a completely different manner.
Emanuela Venturini, an architect and curator whose experience in interiors is combined with a love of art and artists.
The name of the gallery was derived from the ‘oblong’ shape. An ‘oblong’ is a shape which has two long sides and two short sides, and in which all the angles are right angles. Playing on the correspondences between the two elements of the shape, not only Oblong Contemporary builds on the two personalities of the founders, as a representation of their different backgrounds and characters. The name of the shape also highlights the interaction between the Italian culture and the UAE identity, which come together in expressing a genuine love for art. Two different worlds, that meet and find harmony through ART.
