Angelo Vasta’s exhibition, Luci Spente, meaning Lights Off, at Tappeto Volante’s newest gallery in Tribeca, greets you with energetic works on paper in which bodies overlap, lean into one another, and drift across the surface. The figures carry a deeply personal connection as Vasta stresses the importance of closeness, exchange, and intimacy within domestic spaces. While not as brightly colored as his previous works, the colors here are deeper and softer, carrying a more somber tone. Vasta welcomes us into the spaces. He welcomes us as if we are a part of the group.
Vasta activates space with figures entering or leaving the scene. It is both dynamic and tender. Compositions often dwell in spaces of domestic intimacy, filled with quiet gestures and tender encounters between the figures. These interactions feel evocative of friends appreciating time spent with one another, either in motion or at rest, each moment appearing to be one of importance. Bringing us into the midst of these figures, Vasta envelops us in a sense of care, community, and a presence within the moment. With the works carrying a deep intimacy, he allows us to become viewers of his reflections on vulnerability, human connection, and the queer experience.
After hearing that Vasta was also a dance filmmaker, I noticed the strong connections to motion, energy, and a cinematic feel. Each drawing acts as a fragment of an experience that melds together. They are an accumulation of both gesture and atmosphere—where motion, emotion, and memory converge. Each one becomes a scene, where the figures that Vasta depicts experience narratives of life as each drawing becomes a sequence in time. It feels as though time and motion are implied. As I view the works, I can feel the figures moving across the paper and the moments passing. In Holding each other, the figures resist individuation and exist through relation to others; by leaning, folding, encircling, or dissolving into one another in kind gestures of closeness. These are interconnected presences, bound through contact and shared space, full of care and empathy.
Vasta handles the pictorial field with grace. The small details and symbols throughout the works expand the narratives and help us also learn more about Vasta. The works in this exhibition were created after the death of his father. His primarily large-scale works on paper are set against saturated, nocturnal grounds, filled with velvety blacks or deeper crimsons. The compositions focus on emergence, in which figures or surroundings emerge from darkened rooms, or other spaces. Here, darkness functions as an active spatial field, an atmosphere within which figures come into being, shaped by the emotional density of the night surrounding them. It reminds me of a darkened stage, where a figure emerges underneath a warm stage light, illuminated only when they want to be seen. In Ragazzo con giglio, the figure emerges from the darkened background where the ground disappears in the distance. Here, the figure is also embracing a lily, which is historically associated with mourning, purification, and renewal. So, despite the darkness, color and symbols of hope persist to show through. Through these figures and the sense of closeness between them, Vasta offers us a way to move forward and an opportunity for healing and catharsis.
The use of color adds to the emotional and physical environments of the drawings. Besides the use of a dark black background from which figures emerge, greater reliance on other chromatic hues comes through in the red works. It also comes through in the more landscape- or pastoral-color-based pieces like A Cato, which carry influences of the color work of Paul Cézanne. Deserto Rosso is also a great example of the colors influencing the surrounding emotions. The piece’s title recalls Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Red Desert, where color similarly operates as a psychological and environmental factor. Vasta uses hues such as Terra di Siena, greys, blues, and muted tonalities to generate tension, blurring the line between interior and exterior states. Additionally, he flattens space like Henri Matisse, using color, composition, and the placement of the figures to fill the space. The piles of intertwined figures create a wonderful abstraction of flow, form, and connectedness.
Through the drawings, the exhibition of Luci Spente allows viewers to either watch or to join in the activity. It becomes a welcoming environment, carrying a sense of peace. Vasta focuses on relationships and the placement of bodies – the importance of closeness. In hard times, shows such as these bring forth a much needed warmth and hope. Within the framework that Vasta creates, intimacy is sustained as a living condition, shaped by various emotions such as grief, quiet happiness, and tenderness, and highlighted through figurative closeness and an emphasis on connection.
Tappeto Volante Gallery, Luci Spente, Angelo Vasta’s solo exhibition, 4 Cortlandt Alley, New York, NY, 10013. On view through June 27, Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am–6 pm.
About the Writer: Taylor Bielecki lives in Gowanus, where her studio is, and works at Pratt Institute, where she earned her MFA. She also studied at Penn State, where she earned a BA in English and a BFA in Fine Arts. She finished as a finalist in the Kennedy Center’s VSA National Emerging Young Artist program for 2017, where she earned an award of Excellence. She has shown prints internationally in a print exchange in Australia and exhibitions in Dubai, India, and the Glasgow School of Art. She has also shown paintings internationally in Gallery 24N, PhilaMOCA’s juried exhibitions in Philadelphia, Pa., Perry Lawson Fine Art in Nyack, NY, BWAC in Red Hook, and IW Gallery in Brooklyn. Taylor works for Two Coats of Paint, TUSSLE Magazine, and has joined Art Spiel as a contributing writer. @Taylor.Bielecki
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