Carlo Bernardini

CARLO BERNARDINI was born in Viterbo in 1966 and obtained his diploma at the Fine Arts Academy in Rome in 1987. In 1997 he wrote the theoretical essay on "The division of visual unity", which was published by Stampa Alternativa. In 2000 and 2005 he received a grant "Overseas Grantee" from the Pollock - Krasner Foundation of New York, and in 2002 the prize Targetti Art Light Collection "White Sculpture". He works with optic fiber since 1996; he has created and installed permanent public sculptures in stainless steel and optic fibers in various Italian cities, and in 1996 and 2003 he has installed site specific works at the XII and XV Quadriennial National of Rome. Carlo Bernardini is devoted to the dialectic relation between lines and monochrome, representing different moments of the figurative conception of space and light. The painstaking path of abstraction, far from being a sole intellectual strategy, is a gradual research of the line element in order to conquer its essence, as if to trace the invisible. His is a form of creativity that works on the basis of a code of modifications in space reflecting variants produced by light. So much is confirmed by the present research of Carlo Bernardini, who handles light and shade like materials and substances, using electro-luminescent surfaces and optical fibers with internal lighting in a context of total darkness. In these works with interior and exterior environmental light installations, the optical superimposition of lines traversing a space and lines running along the planes of the same space, viewed from a certain position, can produce two-dimensional visual conditions. Closing one eye, transforming it into a single lens, the image becomes two-dimensional; as soon as the viewpoint shifts volumetric changes come about, generating mirror image-forms. The first impression is not of the optical fibers themselves, but rather of transparent plates of glass lit up along the sides. The optical fibers only reveal the empty space they enclose in a subsequent phase of perception. The observer can enter into a sort of illusory space, experiencing the installation from within and without. He currently teaches at the Fine Arts Academy of "Brera" in Milan. He lives and works both in Rome and Milan.
Among Bernardini's major exhibits of the past ten years, let us mention:

Solo exhibitions:

1998 Galleria Nazionale della Pilotta, Parma; 1999 Galleria Spaziotemporaneo, Milan; Museo Laboratorio di Arte Contemporanea Università "La Sapienza" Rome; "Light" Galeria Arsenal, Bialystok (Poland); 2000 Galleria L'Isola, Trento; 2001 Galleria Fioretto, Padova; 2003 Galleria del Naviglio, Milan; Galleria Spaziotemporaneo, Milan; 2004 Museo Paso Imperial, Rio De Janeiro; Galleria Milano, Milan; Galleria Bruna Soletti, Milan; Galleria Spazia, Bologna; 2005, Galleria Les Chances de l'Art, Bolzano; Il Sole Arte Contemporanea, Rome; Velan Centro Arte Contemporanea, Turin; 2006 Galleria Milly Pozzi, Como; 2007 Swing Space LMCC, New York; Galleria Milly Pozzi, Como, C.Bernardini-B.DePonti; 2008 Galleria Bruna Soletti, Milano; Museo di Arte Contemporanea, Lissone (MI); Castello di Rivara, Rivara (TO).

Environmental light installations in outside of big dimensions:

1999 Reggio Emilia, S.Domenico Cloisters, "Permeable Space"; Reggio Emilia, Tower of Civic Museum, "Permeable Space". 2000 Padova, Palace of Reason - via Fiume, "Light Accords". 2001 Mojàcar, Almerìa, Fundaciòn Valparaìso, "Permeable Space"; Ancona, Cavour Square, "Ancona Lights". 2003 Rome, Campidoglio Square, "Line of Light". 2008 Brindisi, Salento Airport, "Light Waves"; Castelbasso (TE), Via del Forno, "Spaesamenti"; Valencia, Ciudad De Las Artes Y Las Ciencias, "Permeable Space"; Lissone (MI) Museo di Arte Contemporanea "Light Catalyst", 2009 Bologna, Art Fair - Art First, S.Stefano Square "Space Code".

Group exhibitions:

1996 and 2003 XII and XIV National Quadriennial of Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome and Palazzo Reale, Naples; 1997 "Arte a Roma" Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome; 1998 "Nuove Contaminazioni" Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Udine; 1999 "Translacje" Collection De La Fin Du Siecle, Piotrkow Trybunalsky (Poland); 2000 "2000 Anni Luce" Galleria Parmiggiani, Reggio Emilia; "Thai - Italian Art Space 2000" Art Gallery Silpakorn University, Bangkok; 2001"Oriente d'Occidente" Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale, Rome; "Glimmers" Inner Spaces Multimedia, Poznan (Poland); "InPressione" Bovisa, Officine del gas AEM, Milan; 2002 Sculpture Space, Utica, New York; "Light Accords-East of West" Nacional Gallery of Contemporary Art, Bangkok; XX Triennial of Milan, "Le città In/visibili", Palazzo della Triennale, Milan; 2003 "Targetti Art Light Collection" Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Varsavia, Chelsea Art Museum, New York; 2004 Barbara Behan Gallery, London; 2005 "FiloLuce" Museo della Permanente, Milan; Sculpture Now, "Sculpture in the Public Arena 2005/06", Main Street, Great Barrington, (Massachusetts USA); 2006 "Filophilo", Hotel de ville de Montrouge, Paris; "Targetti Art Light Collection", "White Sculpture", MUAR, Museo Nazionale di Architettura Schusev, Moscow; "Light On", Artiscope, Bruxelles; 2007 "Come Along to the Future", Vychodoslovenská Galéria, Kosice (Slovakia); "International Light Workshop", Gallery A22, Budapest; 2008 "Digital Media", LA NAU - Universidad de Valencia, Valencia; "Drawing all over - the power of the line", Kunstverein KISS Kunst im Schloss Untergröningen Temporares Museum, Abtsgmünd Untergröningen (Stuttgart); TinaB, Prague.

Website

Carlo Bernardini