Physical Therapy, 2014
Furini Arte Contemporanea, Arezzo, Italy.

Press Release:

FURINI is pleased to open the new art season at the Chiesa della Madonna del Duomo Vecchio in Arezzo with Benjamin Barretto’s solo exhibition Physical Therapy, presenting a new series of paintings made during the artist’s stay in Tuscany, along with video works recorded in Los Angeles.

For Physical Therapy, Barretto presents oil paintings made using only paint and the canvas itself in a process the artist refers to as ‘painting paintings’. For these works, a set amount of oil paint is spread over two canvases and the surfaces are then pressed together. He repeats this stamping action until an even layer of coverage is achieved, following this he then picks up one painting and uses the corner of the canvas frame to draw into the surface of the next painting, and vice versa. Using the canvas as his only tool, the result is a series of marks that reveal the underlying layers of paint as well as a record of this physically awkward performative process.

These paintings are accompanied by a series of video works depicting the artist in various physical interactions with paint and a canvas. In these slow-motion videos, recorded at various street ‘spots’ in Los Angeles, the artist can be seen applying paint to a canvas with a spray-can while both the canvas and the artist are floating in mid-air. These performances function as visual articulations for the artist’s general approach towards painting. They embody a need to translate energy into art, a desire to go from thought to action with as few implications as possible. Both of these series represent a sensitivity toward composition as being both purposeful and purposeless, possessing marks that are determined by the immediacy of their process of application. Barretto engages a historical rendition of the action painting tradition and places it in direct dialogue with current methods of self- documentation, enlisting the iphone to record the performances and presenting the videos amongst arrangements of various accessories such as selfie-sticks, flexible tripods and mounts. Emerging out of his painting painting process – where two artworks interact in the production of themselves/each other, these arrangements utilize the inherent properties of the objects, one selfie-stick screws into another and then another, until forming a complete loop, selfie-referential and selfie-supporting.

Physical Therapy also introduces a new series of collage works which employ bedazzled logos and graphics, typically used to customize clothing and accessories. The artist re-configures these rhinestones and sequins together with marker and fabric pens to create compositions on canvas.