IN VIEWING THE WORKS OF MAURIZIO PELLEGRIN, ONE OFTEN CONTEMPLATES THE NUANCES BETWEEN COLLECTING VERSUS ACCUMULATING.
PELLEGRIN, A NATIVE VENETIAN ARTIST, IS BOTH A COLLECTOR AND AN ACCUMULATOR. HIS WORKS ARE A REPOSITORY OF “THINGS”, OBJECTS THAT IN AND OF THEMSELVES APPEAR COMMONPLACE, EVEN REJECTED, BUT WHICH ACQUIRE, THROUGH THE ARTIST’S ACT OF SELECTION, JUXTAPOSITION, AND ARRANGEMENT, TALISMANIC PROPERTIES THAT CHARGE THE OBJECTS THEMSELVES AND THE LARGER WORKS THEY CONSTITUTE.
UTILIZING A TRADITIONAL, FORMAL “FRAMING” SYSTEM FOR THESE WALL-ORIENTED AND FREE-STANDING WORKS, IN THE SPIRIT OF GRAND EUROPEAN PAINTING OF THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES, PELLEGRIN’S CONTEMPORARY IDEAS ARE IMBUED WITH A STRONG, ROMANTIC TENOR AND A SENSE OF MYSTERY - MANY OF PELLEGRIN’S ’FOUND’ OBJECTS ARE PRESENTED WRAPPED IN FABRIC, IMBUING THE WORKS WITH A SENSE OF EVOLUTION OR AS OBJECTS LEFT FOR FUTURE STUDY.
IN HIS “LANGUAGE” OF PRESENTATION (IN WHICH THE INCLUDED OBJECTS COULD BE PERCEIVED TO OPERATE AS ’WORDS’), PELLEGRIN ALSO INCORPORATES A SYSTEM OF NUMBERS WHICH RELATE TO A SENSE OF BOTH THE MAGIC AND THE ORDERED -WHILE NUMBERS IN AND OF THEMSELVES RELATE TO BOTH QUANTIFICATION AND SCIENCE, IN PELLEGRIN’S OUEVRE THEY HAVE SPIRITUAL ASSOCIATIONS OF DESTINY.
THIS IS PELLEGRIN’S SECOND EXHIBITION WITH MARK MOORE GALLERY; HE WAS THE SUBJECT OF A 1990 EXHIBITION AT THE SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, AND WILL PRESENT A CONCURRENT EXHIBITION OF RECENT WORKS IN MARCH AT THE ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI CULTURA (IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE ITALIAN HERITAGE CULTURE FOUNDATION).