Piero Golia

Very often artists are responding to a request, living and working to fulfill expectations, but artists should establish alternatives instead of following expectations.
—Piero Golia

Gagosian is pleased to present Suddenly, in the middle of the summer, an exhibition of new works by Piero Golia.

Though vastly different in medium and process, Golia’s artworks feature a simple, usually deceptive, arithmetic: one event has led to another, and then another, initiating a chain reaction at the end of which an artwork is left as evidence. Often, the manufacturing becomes the work itself, coming together in situ—as with The Painter (2016), a robot programmed to create abstract paintings whenever it detects movement in the room; or the Chalets in Hollywood and Dallas, communal settings activated by visitors, events, artists, and objects.

However, in Suddenly, in the middle of the summer, works seem just to have materialized in the gallery. Engaging in slow and meticulous technical processes, Golia pursued artistic craft in direct counterpoint to mass production. Like precious artifacts in a museum, these works provoke questions about their individual histories, together with admiration for their detailed, mysterious beauty. Instead of appearing and disappearing like so many of Golia’s other works, they have completed a full cycle of production.