Roberto Cuoghi
“Pepsis”
New York, 22nd Street
One of the most celebrated, yet enigmatic, artists of his generation, Cuoghi is known for an exacting, almost obsessive, research- and process-driven practice that spans the full spectrum of styles and genres. ‘Pepsis’* will debut works from Cuoghi’s ongoing, all-consuming project of the same name—a complex, multi-faceted investigation initiated in early 2020 after a fully immersive stay in New York City. Much of this body of work focuses on a rarely explored aspect of his ever-expanding practice, a medium infrequently associated with Cuoghi but central in contemporary art discourse now: painting.
‘I’ve been painting exactly how I’ve seen that ‘one paints.’ So not only do these pictures not seem to be a development of my work, they don’t even look like they are mine.’
Deliberately mixing artistic genres, styles and subjects, ‘Pepsis’ is Cuoghi’s attempt to free himself from his own stylistic and artistic assumptions and experiences, his cultural imprint. In this sense, it is the next step for the artist in his continuous effort to challenge his own practice. A thesis that has become a working method, ‘Pepsis’ is the application of a troubling idea that has always gone hand in hand with Cuoghi’s mutable work, culminating here in a highly varied and emotionally charged presentation of different series and bodies of work. Cuoghi has deliberately chosen to think of his work as an exercise in stylization, reproducing the ‘already seen’ in accordance with reassuring canons that seem to be warning us of a leveled and polished future.
‘I paint against my intentions. That is, if something of mine appears, I go over it. My way of painting can be defined only through the form it takes each time. I’m a painter without a mindset.’
The exhibition begins with an imposing 15-foot-wide tapestry featuring a map of the world made in silk, wool, and gold and silver thread with the United States at the center. The piece represents a flattened Earth and depicts our planet experiencing night simultaneously––an obvious practical impossibility but presented in a plausible and seemingly scientific manner.
