Sicardi Gallery is pleased to present Mariano Dal Verme: On Drawing. For this exhibition, Dal Verme breaks from the traditions of drawing. Intertwining graphite and paper in intricate configurations, Dal Verme reassesses how a drawing might be constructed. The resulting sculptural objects are not exactly graphite on paper; instead they consist of paper in graphite, and graphite extending out from paper. "I'd like to get the whole discipline of drawing and operate on it," says the artist, speaking about his most recent work.

Born in Buenos Aires, Mariano Dal Verme first studied art at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón in the mid-1990s. During this time he participated in many artist collectives. In 1998, he co-founded Kunstwerks, a design company which created art and everyday objects. Since the early 2000s, Dal Verme has explored different methods of drawing and resisting the conventions of drawing. In an untitled series from 2003, for example, he works directly against his training as a preparator by encouraging the destructive effects that UV rays can have on paper to produce burnt outlines of found objects. His explorations of drawing have since evolved into three-dimensional works. In these, he manipulates the distance between the paper and the graphite to playfully engage with the viewer’s perception. Other collaborative projects and installations have engaged with exhibition and collection practices and have satirized the Argentine tourist industry. Dal Verme has had solo exhibitions at the Centro Cultural de España, Ruth Benzacar Gallery, Sonoridad Amarilla, Espacio Giesso Reich, and Le Bar, all in Buenos Aires. His work is in many private collections and in the collection of the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA). This is his first solo exhibition in the United States. Mariano Dal Verme lives and works in Buenos Aires.