An architecture graduate of the University of La Sapienza in Rome, London-based artist Giuseppe Lo Schiavo (born 1986) has, in a short period of time, gained wide recognition for several of his photographic projects. Two of them – “Levitation” and “Ad Vivum” are particularly attractive. The former explores the freedom of the human mind and the latter is an attempt to extract the human person out of geographical and temporal constraints.
Inspired by René Magritte’s Le Château des Pyrénées, Levitation (2011) consists of monochromatic shots of huge rocks floating in the air over water bodies. Upon the formations, we find major monumental attractions of the world – the Eiffel Tower, Christo Redempto, the Colosseum, the Parthenon, the Taj Mahal.
Giuseppe explains: “These photos do not depict actual reality but they illustrate a ‘universe’ made of thoughts, the freedom of imaginary potentiality of the unconscious to ‘levitate’ and achieve cognitive levels that surpass reality.”
Ad Vivum (2013), on the other hand, is a collection female portraits set against black backdrops. “I have imagined this photographic series as a journey with no space-time boundaries,” Giuseppe continues, “a bridge that links the Flemish painters such as Vermeer, Jan van Eyck, Robert Campin and even Tiziano, Antonello da Messina with digital photography. An amalgamation of the classical aesthetic with a modern medium. I wanted to create portraits without explicit time references, chronologically uncertain. Therefore, I asked the subjects of the photographs to imprison their emotions. The Latin name ‘ad vivum’ is taken from the engravings that some painters inserted under their paintings in order to specify that the painting was painted live.”
After finishing his studies, Giuseppe worked for a famous design studio in Rome for a period of five years. He decided to become a full-time art photographer in 2013. His works have been featured on the BBC, Inside Art, O Estado de S. Paulo Newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, La Stampa, Wall Street International, Rai TG1 and Radio Télévision Suisse. They have been exhibited at Saatchi Gallery in London, Aperture Foundation in New York, Museum of Contemporary Art of Acri in Cosenza, Mixer Gallery in Istanbul and in other galleries in Rome, Turin and Munich and Miami.
Links: Website (www.giuseppeloschiavo.com) | Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Lo_Schiavo) | Facebook (www.facebook.com/GiuseppeLoSchiavoPhotographer) | Saatchi Art (www.saatchiart.com/giuseppeloschiavo)
Images used with permission.
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From Levitation:
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From Ad Vivum:
On Art and Aesthetics 