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| Summer exhibition Maura BiavaJune 14 to September 15, 2024, Escher in the PalaceMaura Biava was the first artist to create underwater photography in the 1990s. Accompanied by a photographer and a diver, she herself dove meters deep into the sea with costumes and objects for a photo series or a video of her performance. Every minute she was supplied with air so that she could stay underwater for an hour. This method alone can be called magical.At a young age, the Italian artist was curious about the world around her, a trait she shares with M.C. Escher. For her photography, drawings and ceramic work, she draws inspiration from nature and mathematics. In her solo exhibition at Escher in The Palace, she will show three works of her underwater photography, new ceramic work and the photography that results from it, as well as a series of works on paper. | ||
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| Maura Biava, Occult Star, C-print, 2023. Courtesy of Galerie Caroline O’Breen | Maura Biava, Zero Zero #5, C-print, 2024. Courtesy of Galerie Caroline O’Breen | |
| As props for her underwater photography, Maura Biava often used ceramic objects in recognizable natural shapes such as stars, shells and flowers. Gradually, the objects became sculptures in their own right. For her presentation at Escher in The Palace, she is creating new ceramic work about hands, inspired by work by M.C. Escher. She sees her hands as an important source of energy, which she transforms into art along with raw materials and a mathematical formula. The hands thus not only shape the artwork, but also become the work itself. Also on view is a photo series of patterns of hands covered in ceramics, which Biava also developed into wallpaper.As with Escher, for Maura Biava, nature and mathematics are the basis for creating new worlds. Where to many mathematical principles are abstract and elusive, there she tries to fathom and visualize them. Many forms, such as those of plants, humans and animals contain mathematical nuclei that also repeat themselves. Consider the star shapes of cacti and starfish, as well as in man-made objects. Likewise, a star forms the basis of a machine-pressed ice cream, which is thus nevertheless established in natural principles.For her series of works on paper, Form Informed(Informed Form), Biava took analytical geometry as a starting point: together with a mathematician, she converted mathematical formulas into a form on paper. Using a computer program, she then combined this form with that of a totally different formula, giving depth to the works. Her “palette of formulas” is broad: Biava combines the formulas of important mathematicians in history, from 17th-century Isaac Newton to 20th-century Piet Hein. For Form Informed, she gives the visual interpretations of two formulas each their own color, which she then prints on top of each other. The work is thus an investigation of color and form, driven by mathematical history.Maura Biava (Italy, 1970) was educated at the Liceo artistico in Brera and at the Academy of Brera in Milan and was a participant at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. She has been artist in residence at the EKWC in Den Bosch (2008) and the ISCP in New York City, USA (2014), among others, and is a subject lecturer at the KABK in The Hague. Her work can be seen in exhibitions worldwide and collected in the Netherlands by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Het Nieuwe Domein in Sittard and AkzoNobel Art Foundation, among others. | ||
| NOTE, NOT FOR PUBLICATION | ||
| Exhibition:Duration of exhibition:Address:Opening hours: Phone: Email:Website: Press information and images: | Maura Biava14 June to September 15, 2024Lange Voorhout 74, 2514 EH Den Haagdi to Sun 11am-5pm070-4277730 (general)info@escherinhetpaleis.nlwww.escherinhetpaleis.nl/MaaikeStaffhorst,reachable at mstaffhorst@kunstmuseum.nl | |