NOW YOU SEE YOU

To inaugurate Mucciaccia Contemporary’s newly refurnished premises located on via di Monte Brianzo 86 in Rome, the gallery is proud to present four American artists, Nick Atkins, Sydney Chastain-Chapman, Keegan McHargue and Andy Rementer, personally selected by Giulia Abate, Artistic Director of the gallery.

The four artists’ research is united by the practice of a realistic or semi-realistic approach to painting. Their art recovers and reworks the contemporary visual culture that either redefines traditional genres of art history, such as portraits, landscapes and still life, or borrows from and appropriates themes and categories of other linguistic fields, from Pop Surrealism to Street Art, from digital animation and science-fiction, to dreams and the subconscious.

The twenty paintings on display aim to reconstruct an empathic path, between allusions and subtexts, satire and social criticism, which invite the viewer to lose him/herself in the plots and details of that contemporaneity which, in a globalized world, is also ones own. Hence the title of the exhibition NOW YOU SEE YOU.

The multidisciplinary artist, Nick Atkins (born in1982, Boston, MA), creates cartoon like paintings to express his personal struggles and passion for life. He uses his mythological fantastical subject-matters to cope with society’s abuse of the earth and inspire action. Nick works with video, studio-based art, and commercial design.

Sydney Chastain-Chapman (born 1979, Northfield, MA) investigates themes such as femininity, domesticity, human impact on the environment, and psychological reactions to modern reality. Using vibrant hues, her paintings are reminiscent of dreamlike situations of fractured worlds in fantastical environments, domestic life in absurd locations, exploring ways people connect and disconnect from each other.

Keegan McHargue (born 1982, Portland, Oregon) is an American artist known for his abstract illusory drawings and paintings. His intense illustrated paintings combine figurative dreamlike elements, whilst twisting the rules of perspective. Keegan’s flattened style evokes child drawings, as way of expressing his understanding of the world.

Andy Rementer (born in 1981, Atlantic City, NJ) is strongly inspired by a range of art history references from Giotto to Léger. His colourful compositions seem both real and surreal at the same time. There’s a sense of balance, limited colors, and graphic edge that clearly identify Andy’s work. His highly figurative almost cartoon like subjects are in contrast with a sense of ambivalence and isolation. The artist plays with bright color schemes to depict interpersonal relationships, that emerge within a vibrant and often introspective universe.

The exhibition NOW YOU SEE YOU will open to the public on Thursday, May 20, 2021, and will run until July 31, 2021. An exhibition catalogue, with a text by Cesare Biasini Selvaggi, will be published for the occasion.