“Love is watching someone die”
(Death Cab for Cutie – What Sarah Said)
On the 14th of February, Dorothy Circus Gallery will host a special St. Valentine’s event: “Orpheus and Eurydice: Beyond the Myth”, which will feature Alex Kuno’s pop-up show.
The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, born in Ancient Greece but also told by the Latin Virgilio and Ovid, relives in the red velvet walls of Dorothy Circus Gallery through five beautiful pieces by the American artist Alex Kuno, created specifically for this event. The story deals with the extreme devotion of Orpheus, the poet who dived into the Underworld to get his wife back to life. It is therefore a story of rescue, the myth of a love that is so strong it can heal and keep one alive. The eternity of this myth intertwines with the eternity of a sentiment that goes beyond death or any other obstacle one may find on his path towards the loved one. The myth is a declaration of the existence of a bound that can forever exist between two people who have the strongest feelings for each other – in this case, Orpheus and Eurydice. Alex Kuno’s panels will highlight the deepest nuances of this story in a new and original way, introducing the artist’s work to the Italian public for the first time.
Alex Kuno, after having received his BFA in Studio Art from the University of Minnesota in 1999, moved to New York to work as a gallery assistant and Art Installer for the American Fine Art and Pat Hearn Art Galleries. After moving back to Minneapolis in 2005, Kuno began playing with the nature of storytelling in his work, as a way to process the uneasy realization that American Exceptionalism is a dangerous and fragile fairy tale. In his works many elements are present, from a fascination with the revisionist history of American military to his love for Northern Renaissance artworks. In his process of creation, Kuno generates a brand new world that, just like the “real” world, appears to be morally ambiguous. The characters of this parallel universe dwell in a fabled dimension, in which the beholder can always find a story told.
Kuno’s collections of paintings, drawings, and sculptural installations have been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums throughout the United States, and he regularly produces custom pieces for private clients around the world. He lives and works out of his studio in the Lowertown Arts District in Saint Paul Minnesota, where he co-hosts monthly studio visits and showings of new and in-progress work concurrently with his other exhibits.
