Currently on view at LYNCH THAM, I’m no longer obsessed with winning, an exhibition of recent work by leading Italian artist, Carlo Ferraris.

In Ferraris’ work, the ordinary world and the objects that make it up become the points of experience. Narrative content is loaded with ambiguous irony and deadpan humor as the artist constructs situations out of absurdity. Often, disjunction and opposition denounce a precise reading of situations while adding a strange depth to unfolding occurrences. In this multi-media exhibition including an audio work, Ferraris presents an interdisciplinary approach to creating a world that consists of metaphorical symbols of events, fantasies, words and bodies. Sculptures and photographs oscillate between reality and fantasy, making constant shifts in narrative structure to confuse thematic intent. Ferraris' audio work and videos explore the relationship of visual art as it relates to music and its roots in Hip Hop culture. The resulting combination of lyrics and visuals engages the viewer in real space and thought, affecting his understanding and experiences in new and unexpected ways.

The exhibition extends outdoors with an installation viewable only during closing hours. Ultimately, Ferraris’ installation at LYNCH THAM questions the interface between cognition and consciousness, perception and mind. Formally and conceptually, the works forge dialogues between points of opposition. They embrace issues of the symbolic and the mythical, presence and authenticity, the contradictory abuses of consumerism, and the utopian promise.

Born in the Piedmont region of Italy, in 1960, Carlo Ferraris currently lives and works in New York. His work has been exhibited in institutions world-wide including the Queens Museum, New York, White Columns, New York, Greenaway Art Center, Adelaide, Australia; OTKRbITKA Gallery, Moscow; Senko Forum, Viborg, Denmark; The Shore Institute for Contemporary Arts, (SICA), Long Branch, NJ; Bronx Center for the Arts, Bronx, NY; VideoFest, Detroit; Galerie von Fellner, Krefeld, Germany; CCNOA Center for Contemporary Non Objective Art, Brussels; Millennium Film Workshop Inc., New York; kjubh Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany; Salle D’Exposition Centre St. Charles, University de Paris I, Sorbonne, Paris; Art in General, New York; Galerie Le Faisant, Strasbourg; London Brewery, London; and, among others.