Salvatore Arancio

The main interest at the centre of Salvatore Arancio’s artistic practice, lies in the potential of images and particularly in how images and their meaning can be re-framed or re-viewed. He plays with symbols always aiming to retain a certain ambivalence in his work. Through the use of a range of media: ceramics, etching, collage, animation and video, Arancio gives the sensation of a compact and homogeneous concept, regardless of the fact that his practice is paradoxically composed of contrasting elements. Each of its facets, contains an intertwining juxtaposition of the roots and representation of images: natural and artificial, mineral and vegetable, two-dimensional and three-dimensional, scientific and mythological. Departing from their literal meaning, Arancio creates new juxtapositions that are both beautifully evocative and deeply disquieting. His work functions like an Atlas of confusion, like figures in positivistic scientific volumes devoid of any substantial image and left only with a vague ambiguous frame.

His works and performances have been subject to exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery (UK), at the 57the Venice Biennale in the exhibition « Viva Arte Viva », at the Kunsthalle Winterthur (CH), at the Camden Art Center (UK), at La Halle des bouchers (FR), at the Museo Tamayo (MX) and at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (IT). Salvatore Arancio's work is held in the collections of the Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris (FR), Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (MX), MART, Rovereto (IT), Artist Pension Trust, London (UK), Fondo di Acquisizione “Giampiero Cantoni” di Fondazione Fiera Milano (IT), Fiorucci Art Trust, London (UK), Harris Museum, Preston (UK).