The 2022 exhibition program of Dorothy Circus Gallery entitled "The Angel Year" draws upon the meaning of the number 22. The Angel Year, considered the Messenger of Light, is a visual and artistic instrument inspiring strength and determination. It inaugurates with the exclusive presentation of Group Exhibition MILK, an extension of the past exhibition "Mother and Child" that took place in April of 2019 at Dorothy Circus Gallery in Rome and London.
The Reprise of Mother&Child, MILK, explores one of the most celebrated themes in the history of art and by artists of all times: Maternity. This event will be presented with the name of MILK, symbolising nourishment, unconditional love, and care for children in all their declinations.
MILK also encompasses paternity and adoption. Through curatorial research, the exhibition investigates both anthropological and artistic interpretations of the theme, which is inevitably inspired by the renowned iconography of the Madonna with Child. However, MILK aims to incite the spectator to embark on a journey through a deeper level of reflection on Maternity, to and beyond the spiritual image of the Woman.
It is true that art history has provided a starting point for research development on the theme of Maternity through its most conventional interpretation. Yet, it also presents an extensive collection of examples where Maternity is interpreted as pure, powerful creative and sustaining energy. This is identifiable with Mother Nature and further references to the Family, with the Paternal hospitality and the Father's responsibility in transmitting love and providing an essence of protection.
The evocative body of work of Mother&Child, which already in the previous edition offered an occasion to explore the theme of Maternity in its most profound meaning, returns with visualising the paradigms of our time across a panoramic on new philosophical and sociologic trends. More specifically, across the vast visual vocabulary which covers the most diverse international trends in contemporary art, from the urban art of Saner, Ella e Pitr, DULK, BLIC, and Alex Face to the evocative magic realism of Fatima Ronquillo and Aron Wiesenfeld to the extravagant surrealist figurative of Rafael Silveira and Flavia Itibere, Jesus Aguado, or of Clementine Bal to the pop contemporary of Hanna Lee Joshi, Kazuhiro Hori.
Renowned and exponential artists star right next to each other at DCG on this occasion, covering a multitude of generations. Each one, in its way, is a testament to a different way of relating to, and being in a Family, included in first place both as an individual and an artist; as generators of artistic creatures whose drops of beauty, cultural and emotional nourishment become part of the child who grows up by watching and assimilating.
For this second edition, the following artists will participate: Fatima Ronquillo, Silvia Idili, Alex Face, Kazuhiro Hori, Dulk, Andrea Kowch, Rafael Silveira, Flávia Itiberê, Jade Rivera, Hanna Lee Joshi, Saner, Giulio Secondo, Jesus Aguado, Aron Wiesenfeld, Francesco LoCastro, Clémentine Bal, Ella et Pitr, Arturo Garcia de Las Heras, Blic, NIKKI, Afarin Sajedi, Paolo Pedroni, Millo, El Gato Chimney, Andrea Wan, Tokuhiro Kawai, Miss Van, Cheng Cheng Yi, Koh Kisung.
Parenting and childhood are, therefore, the protagonists in this exhibition, the complex relationship of the figures incarnates protection and care in their purest form and strength.
To quote Natalia Ginzburg in her masterpiece "Family Saying", which explores the relationships between siblings and explains with simplicity and purity the emotional distance that can, at times, be found amongst relatives. She mentions how easily this void can be filled by recalling a common joke, a childhood memory, or simply a "familiar saying" that each Family has. With this idea in mind, MILK aims to communicate through the participation of worldwide selected artists their own personal contribution to the real anthology of the Family.
The primeval core of each individual is accompanied by the most contemporary and authentic shades of what constitutes a family: from the heterosexual couple to the single parent, to the two fathers and the two mothers, for those who called, and call "Mom" a grandmother, an aunt, and "Dad" a friend of the Family, the strong question arises of love in its entirety and in its inexplicable and irrepressible force in front of which nothing holds or resists.
The key point in the interpretation and reading of this exhibition production remains the primordial influence. Not only genetic, of the mother's influence on her children, not just a matrix, but a real existential cornerstone.
On the other hand, the role of the children in the mother's life is also highlighted. Although they cannot fulfil her ambitions and dreams for her, they can preserve her legacy in the world after her death, ensuring its survival. Parenthood is therefore investigated on the one hand as an irresistible force that determines the individual originated from it, and on the other as an emotional and profound investment of subjectivity in one's own creation. This projection here is further broken down into the never-exhausted question of how to be a parent.
