2024
AUSSER SICHT
Solo show
Thun Panorama
Thun Panorama
May 11 – Dec 1, 2024
Thun
Thun
Text
Chiara Ottavi
On their way to the building, visitors are already confronted with Rogado’s work as soon as they glimpse from the outside the backs of the large canvases blending harmoniously with the windows. The translucency of the picture supports hints at the nature of the painting to come. In addition, circular openings in the canvases afford a direct view into the exhibition space. In addition, round pictures hanging on the back of the canvases can be seenfrom the outside but only guessed at from inside. As windows into another dimension, they enhance the impression of depth and the complexity of the installation.
Upon arrival inside the exhibition space, the possibilities for interpreting the work multiply. The colours that the artist has applied to the canvases create shimmering organic forms that open up a view inwards and – thanks to the light coming in from outside and the semi-transparent picture supports – also outwards. The daylight makes the silhouettes of the stretcher frames and the small round paintings attached to the back show through the canvases. These elements blend with the shadows cast by the trees and plants to become part of the work and its composition. Ausser Sicht is therefore constantly in motion, transforming with changes in nature and the seasons.
Chiara Ottavi
On their way to the building, visitors are already confronted with Rogado’s work as soon as they glimpse from the outside the backs of the large canvases blending harmoniously with the windows. The translucency of the picture supports hints at the nature of the painting to come. In addition, circular openings in the canvases afford a direct view into the exhibition space. In addition, round pictures hanging on the back of the canvases can be seenfrom the outside but only guessed at from inside. As windows into another dimension, they enhance the impression of depth and the complexity of the installation.
Upon arrival inside the exhibition space, the possibilities for interpreting the work multiply. The colours that the artist has applied to the canvases create shimmering organic forms that open up a view inwards and – thanks to the light coming in from outside and the semi-transparent picture supports – also outwards. The daylight makes the silhouettes of the stretcher frames and the small round paintings attached to the back show through the canvases. These elements blend with the shadows cast by the trees and plants to become part of the work and its composition. Ausser Sicht is therefore constantly in motion, transforming with changes in nature and the seasons.
The four circular openings, which are positioned in the installation in the direction of the four points of the compass, act like windows that open up the picture even further to offer a complete view of the outside world and project it outwards. Rather than blocking the view, the canvases thus open up a horizon of infinite possibilities. The artist has furthermore placed on them painted ceramic spheres with reflective enamel surfaces, creating a kaleidoscope of reflected images. Viewers can also see themselves reflected in these orbs and become in this way part of the installation. This panora- ma of visions and illusions not only explores the nature of art but also probes the limits of human perception.
In sum, Ausser Sicht generates a continuous and complex connection between interior and exterior space that can be experienced from both perspectives. The windows of the gallery become fragmented openings providing surprising views inside and out that challenge our perceptual habits. The title Ausser Sicht refers to the fact that some- thing always remains hidden from view and eludes our gaze, no matter how we look at things.
In sum, Ausser Sicht generates a continuous and complex connection between interior and exterior space that can be experienced from both perspectives. The windows of the gallery become fragmented openings providing surprising views inside and out that challenge our perceptual habits. The title Ausser Sicht refers to the fact that some- thing always remains hidden from view and eludes our gaze, no matter how we look at things.
2024
ALL THAT YOU SEE
Solo show
Kunstmuseum Thun
Kunstmuseum Thun
May 11 – July 28, 2024
Thun
Thun
Text
Cornelius Krell
Giacomo Santiago Rogado explores in his paintings, works on paper and spatial installations both human perception itself and the history of artistic and non-artistic images. Using various techniques and materials, many of which have a long tra- dition, he probes the possibilities, limits and conditions of contemporary painting. Since the mid-2000s, Rogado has produced an extensive and extremely diverse oeuvre. He primarily devotes himself to developing series over an extended period of time, taking up the same leitmotifs, themes or processes again and again, which he var- ies and continually places in new contexts. For this reason, Rogado’s oeuvre exhibits great consistency and stringen- cy, without however lacking in innovative pictorial inven- tions and displays. His reflexive, circular approach can best be envisioned as a spiral that keeps leading the artist back to the same point – but always at a higher level (of development). We can therefore constantly take a fresh look back at Rogado’s earlier images from the perspective of the present, as well as perceiving his present images with hindsight from the past. This is the basic idea behind Rogado’s solo exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Thun, the very first retrospective of the artist’s work.
Cornelius Krell
Giacomo Santiago Rogado explores in his paintings, works on paper and spatial installations both human perception itself and the history of artistic and non-artistic images. Using various techniques and materials, many of which have a long tra- dition, he probes the possibilities, limits and conditions of contemporary painting. Since the mid-2000s, Rogado has produced an extensive and extremely diverse oeuvre. He primarily devotes himself to developing series over an extended period of time, taking up the same leitmotifs, themes or processes again and again, which he var- ies and continually places in new contexts. For this reason, Rogado’s oeuvre exhibits great consistency and stringen- cy, without however lacking in innovative pictorial inven- tions and displays. His reflexive, circular approach can best be envisioned as a spiral that keeps leading the artist back to the same point – but always at a higher level (of development). We can therefore constantly take a fresh look back at Rogado’s earlier images from the perspective of the present, as well as perceiving his present images with hindsight from the past. This is the basic idea behind Rogado’s solo exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Thun, the very first retrospective of the artist’s work.
Rogado has brought together here nearly 80 works made between 2005 and 2024. Outstanding key works are shown alongside new pieces produced especially for the show. Although the exhibition is conceived more or less chrono- logically, the artist also reacts directly to the architectural challenges and conditions of the surrounding space. For him, it is not only the careful composition of the individu- al works that counts but also their arrangement and place- ment in the space and within an exhibition choreography.
Rogado is the first artist in the history of the museum to simultaneously show works at both locations, the Thunerhof and the Thun Panorama, covering an area of over 1,000 square metres. ALL THAT YOU SEE at the Thunerhof pre- sents paintings, works on paper and installations from recent years and decades, while the exhibition AUSSER SICHT (Out of Sight, 11 May – 1 December 2024) in the glazed extension to the Thun Panorama features a new site-specific spatial installation that makes reference to both Schadaupark out- side and Marquard Wocher’s circular painting inside.
Rogado is the first artist in the history of the museum to simultaneously show works at both locations, the Thunerhof and the Thun Panorama, covering an area of over 1,000 square metres. ALL THAT YOU SEE at the Thunerhof pre- sents paintings, works on paper and installations from recent years and decades, while the exhibition AUSSER SICHT (Out of Sight, 11 May – 1 December 2024) in the glazed extension to the Thun Panorama features a new site-specific spatial installation that makes reference to both Schadaupark out- side and Marquard Wocher’s circular painting inside.
2023
Concerto Finale, Regionale
Group show
Kunsthaus Baselland
Kunsthaus Baselland
Nov 26 – Jan 8, 2024
Basel
Basel
Text
Meryl Kureekal
Die Bildsprache von Giacomo Santiago Rogado ist frei von raumzeitlichen Koordinaten und erkennbaren Objekten. Seine Werke, meist installativ realisierte Gemälde, zeigen evokative Formen, die als Partikel, Flüssigkeiten, elementare Lebensformen oder Planeten, Sterne oder Galaxien erscheinen. Es entsteht ein Gefühl von Widersprüchlichkeit und Transparenz, von Durchdringung und Überschneidung, von Konsonanz und Resonanz.
«Das Überflüssige weglassen, um das Wesentliche zu finden» – das ist das poetische Credo, das Rogado uns vor Augen führt. Analog dazu tut Rogado beim Malen nichts anderes als «einfach nur malen». Es gibt keine Vorüberlegungen, kein Projekt und kein vorgefertigtes Wissen, die Praxis wird mit Ausgeglichenheit und Ausdauer als eine paradoxerweise blinde Übung des Malens ausgeführt. In seinem Werk
Meryl Kureekal
Die Bildsprache von Giacomo Santiago Rogado ist frei von raumzeitlichen Koordinaten und erkennbaren Objekten. Seine Werke, meist installativ realisierte Gemälde, zeigen evokative Formen, die als Partikel, Flüssigkeiten, elementare Lebensformen oder Planeten, Sterne oder Galaxien erscheinen. Es entsteht ein Gefühl von Widersprüchlichkeit und Transparenz, von Durchdringung und Überschneidung, von Konsonanz und Resonanz.
«Das Überflüssige weglassen, um das Wesentliche zu finden» – das ist das poetische Credo, das Rogado uns vor Augen führt. Analog dazu tut Rogado beim Malen nichts anderes als «einfach nur malen». Es gibt keine Vorüberlegungen, kein Projekt und kein vorgefertigtes Wissen, die Praxis wird mit Ausgeglichenheit und Ausdauer als eine paradoxerweise blinde Übung des Malens ausgeführt. In seinem Werk
Room for Intuitionüberträgt er den Akt des Malens in Teilen auf dieMaterialien seiner Arbeiten. Es handelt sich um eigenständige Arbeiten, in denen sich seine selbst entwickelten Techniken vermischen und neuartige
Malereikombinationen generieren. Die mit Farbbädern in einem Zusammenspiel von Zufall und Komposition geschaffenen Werke beeindrucken durch ihre unmittelbare Wirkung. Die Baumwolltücher saugen in einem langsamen Trocknungsprozess die Farben auf, die der Künstler in Behälter hineintröpfelt. Die Tropfen blühen auf den Stoffen zu prächtigen bunten Formen aus. Das Arbeiten ist ein Dialog zwischen Impulsgeben, Beobachten, Entstehen und Reagieren.
Giacomo Santiago Rogado geht bei seinen Arbeiten äusserst einfühlsam mit Licht und Raum um. Dieses Interesse spiegelt sich nicht nur in seinen Gemälden, sondern auch in deren reflektierten Platzierung. Affektiv, mediativ, kontemplativ – so lässt sich das Betrachten mit dem Werk von Giacomo Rogado beschreiben, und es ist zugleich ein Erfassen des eigenen Seins im Raum.
Malereikombinationen generieren. Die mit Farbbädern in einem Zusammenspiel von Zufall und Komposition geschaffenen Werke beeindrucken durch ihre unmittelbare Wirkung. Die Baumwolltücher saugen in einem langsamen Trocknungsprozess die Farben auf, die der Künstler in Behälter hineintröpfelt. Die Tropfen blühen auf den Stoffen zu prächtigen bunten Formen aus. Das Arbeiten ist ein Dialog zwischen Impulsgeben, Beobachten, Entstehen und Reagieren.
Giacomo Santiago Rogado geht bei seinen Arbeiten äusserst einfühlsam mit Licht und Raum um. Dieses Interesse spiegelt sich nicht nur in seinen Gemälden, sondern auch in deren reflektierten Platzierung. Affektiv, mediativ, kontemplativ – so lässt sich das Betrachten mit dem Werk von Giacomo Rogado beschreiben, und es ist zugleich ein Erfassen des eigenen Seins im Raum.
2023
connecting
Solo show
Galerie Mark Müller
Galerie Mark Müller
20/1/23 – 18/3/23
Zürich
Zürich
Text
Luca Libertini
What a paradox to call an exhibition of abstract painting connecting, when the Latin root of the word ‘abstraction’ speaks of detachment. This apparent contradiction is even more striking if we consider that the works chosen by Giacomo Santiago Rogado for the Mark Müller Gallery belong to different series and are thus dis- connected from their original contexts.
Yet, it is precisely in these cognitive dissonances that the true meaning of the exhibition lies. Only here, in the distances and discrepancies between the artworks on display, we are able to appreciate the poetics that connect Rogado's extensive research. Here the artist unfurls his very own understanding of ‘abstraction’ as an intimate connection with the audience, a dialogue with the other, without ever imposing but proposing, never affirming but always questioning.
The visual language of connecting is devoid of spatio-temporal coordinates and recognisable objects. The works depict evocative shapes that appear as particles, fluids, elementary life forms, or planets, stars, galaxies. In these compositions, fantasies of extraordinarily small and extraordinarily large worlds converge to express fundamental properties. We thus perceive a sense of inconsistency and transparency, interpenetration and overlap, consonance and resonance.
Rogado's reduced and sophisticated style offers a welcome alternative to the visual saturation of our time. As we follow the delicate
Luca Libertini
What a paradox to call an exhibition of abstract painting connecting, when the Latin root of the word ‘abstraction’ speaks of detachment. This apparent contradiction is even more striking if we consider that the works chosen by Giacomo Santiago Rogado for the Mark Müller Gallery belong to different series and are thus dis- connected from their original contexts.
Yet, it is precisely in these cognitive dissonances that the true meaning of the exhibition lies. Only here, in the distances and discrepancies between the artworks on display, we are able to appreciate the poetics that connect Rogado's extensive research. Here the artist unfurls his very own understanding of ‘abstraction’ as an intimate connection with the audience, a dialogue with the other, without ever imposing but proposing, never affirming but always questioning.
The visual language of connecting is devoid of spatio-temporal coordinates and recognisable objects. The works depict evocative shapes that appear as particles, fluids, elementary life forms, or planets, stars, galaxies. In these compositions, fantasies of extraordinarily small and extraordinarily large worlds converge to express fundamental properties. We thus perceive a sense of inconsistency and transparency, interpenetration and overlap, consonance and resonance.
Rogado's reduced and sophisticated style offers a welcome alternative to the visual saturation of our time. As we follow the delicate
juxtapositions between shapes, the careful layering of colour, and the constant search for depth, matters of virtual realities, high resolution and augmented reality move further into the distance.
Discart the superfluous in order to find the essential – this is the poetic truth that Rogado presents to us. His art’s graceful language reveals a desire to give voice to transcendence, to let it speak, with all its murmurs and silences.
"All this without looking you will see..."
Pablo Neruda once said to his friend. It applies perfectly to Rogado's work as well, aiming right at its most profound meaning. While Rogado has certainly chosen the arduous path of abstraction, exposing himself to the risks of intellectualism, didacticism or insignificance, he wanders along it implementing Neruda's words to his own world of images: How can painting show the invisible?
A paradoxical question to which one can only give paradoxical answers. Rogado, an avid pupil of Zen philosophy, is well aware of this. According to the ZaZen school, meditation can be summarised in one single expression: 'just sitting'. Similarly, while painting Rogado does nothing more than... ́just painting’. There is no forethought, no project, and no pre-constituted knowledge, the practice is carried out with balance and perseverance as a "paradoxically blind exercise of painting".
And what this exercise, above all else, bears witness to is an act of faith in everything we can see only by briefly closing our eyes.
Discart the superfluous in order to find the essential – this is the poetic truth that Rogado presents to us. His art’s graceful language reveals a desire to give voice to transcendence, to let it speak, with all its murmurs and silences.
"All this without looking you will see..."
Pablo Neruda once said to his friend. It applies perfectly to Rogado's work as well, aiming right at its most profound meaning. While Rogado has certainly chosen the arduous path of abstraction, exposing himself to the risks of intellectualism, didacticism or insignificance, he wanders along it implementing Neruda's words to his own world of images: How can painting show the invisible?
A paradoxical question to which one can only give paradoxical answers. Rogado, an avid pupil of Zen philosophy, is well aware of this. According to the ZaZen school, meditation can be summarised in one single expression: 'just sitting'. Similarly, while painting Rogado does nothing more than... ́just painting’. There is no forethought, no project, and no pre-constituted knowledge, the practice is carried out with balance and perseverance as a "paradoxically blind exercise of painting".
And what this exercise, above all else, bears witness to is an act of faith in everything we can see only by briefly closing our eyes.
2022
Reality Blue
Solo show
Bernhard Knaus Fine Art
Bernhard Knaus Fine Art
7/1 – 9/3/22
Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Text
Michelle Heyer
Blue is water, sky, infinity or, according to Yves Klein, "the invisible becoming visible". In the latest works by Swiss artist Giacomo Santiago Rogado, the distance between color and its perception dissolves. The intuitive comes to the fore. Rogado's third solo exhibition at Bernhard Knaus Fine Art brings together these recent works that play with the impossibility of perceiving things as they really are.
Close your eyes and imagine an ocean. In all likelihood, the color blue predominates in this image. Conversely, blue is automatically associated with largely positive qualities and things like tranquility or the sea. Blue also often plays a central role in the paintings of Giacomo Santiago Rogado, where the artist combines the depth of the color with the rest of the color spectrum in harmonious compositions. This harmony, based on the artist's meditative way of working, is transmitted to the viewer. Colors become figures on the canvas, which make contact with the subconscious and set meditative processes in motion.
In his latest paintings, Rogado continues developments that were already touched in earlier works. The artist thereby transfers the act of painting in parts to the materials of his works: cotton, pigment and water. Circular forms emerge, traces of color movements settle into the canvas or onto paper. The works from the series "Intuition" show an interplay of light and darkness. Both components seem to arise from similar centers, which, however, cannot be firmly located.
Michelle Heyer
Blue is water, sky, infinity or, according to Yves Klein, "the invisible becoming visible". In the latest works by Swiss artist Giacomo Santiago Rogado, the distance between color and its perception dissolves. The intuitive comes to the fore. Rogado's third solo exhibition at Bernhard Knaus Fine Art brings together these recent works that play with the impossibility of perceiving things as they really are.
Close your eyes and imagine an ocean. In all likelihood, the color blue predominates in this image. Conversely, blue is automatically associated with largely positive qualities and things like tranquility or the sea. Blue also often plays a central role in the paintings of Giacomo Santiago Rogado, where the artist combines the depth of the color with the rest of the color spectrum in harmonious compositions. This harmony, based on the artist's meditative way of working, is transmitted to the viewer. Colors become figures on the canvas, which make contact with the subconscious and set meditative processes in motion.
In his latest paintings, Rogado continues developments that were already touched in earlier works. The artist thereby transfers the act of painting in parts to the materials of his works: cotton, pigment and water. Circular forms emerge, traces of color movements settle into the canvas or onto paper. The works from the series "Intuition" show an interplay of light and darkness. Both components seem to arise from similar centers, which, however, cannot be firmly located.
Nuances from turquoise to midnight blue, from crimson to bordeaux red, enter into connections and spread further in the pictorial space. There is something mysterious about this flow of forms and colors. It almost seems as if higher forces were at work in its creation. And this thought is not so far-fetched, because Giacomo Santiago Rogado's works release emotional forces in the viewer, who becomes one with the paintings and consequently to a certain extent with the artist himself.
“The painter is you, the painter is me.” These words by the Zen monk Seigaku Higuchi could not describe more aptly the effect of Rogado's paintings, the intuitive-expressive bonds between the viewing eye, the painting and its painter.
Affective, meditative, contemplative - this is how the encounter with a painting by Giacomo Santiago Rogado can be described. However, the artist leaves it up to the viewers which emotions are triggered by looking at his works. In German, the word "Betrachtung" (observation) stems from „Achtung“ which can be translated as both paying attention and respecting something or somebody. The verb „betrachten“ then describes a mutual exchange, in which one can get to know one's environment, but also oneself, better. In current times, in which the concept of mindfulness seems to be overused by the media, but still has its appeal in contrast to the everyday oversaturation by diverse impressions, it is more important than ever to reflect on where attention flows. If one understands Rogado's work "Thrust", for example, as an invitation to reflection and follows it, one receives new impressions of one's own and a common reality. The invisible possibly moves into the field of vision.
“The painter is you, the painter is me.” These words by the Zen monk Seigaku Higuchi could not describe more aptly the effect of Rogado's paintings, the intuitive-expressive bonds between the viewing eye, the painting and its painter.
Affective, meditative, contemplative - this is how the encounter with a painting by Giacomo Santiago Rogado can be described. However, the artist leaves it up to the viewers which emotions are triggered by looking at his works. In German, the word "Betrachtung" (observation) stems from „Achtung“ which can be translated as both paying attention and respecting something or somebody. The verb „betrachten“ then describes a mutual exchange, in which one can get to know one's environment, but also oneself, better. In current times, in which the concept of mindfulness seems to be overused by the media, but still has its appeal in contrast to the everyday oversaturation by diverse impressions, it is more important than ever to reflect on where attention flows. If one understands Rogado's work "Thrust", for example, as an invitation to reflection and follows it, one receives new impressions of one's own and a common reality. The invisible possibly moves into the field of vision.