INTERVIEW WITH NICOLO CARDI, DIRECTOR OF CARDI BLACK BOX, MILAN 

Scott Short, View of the installation at Cardi Black Box, First Floor, May 28th / August 1st 2009
Scott Short
View of the installation at Cardi Black Box, First Floor
May 28th / August 1st 2009

Cardi Black Box is a new art gallery born as private cultural institution and aimed at promoting both established and emerging artists through its exhibition programme. Eclectic and versatile, the gallery wishes to become a point of reference in the international art scene by means of an experimental and innovative approach. Cardi Black Box is characterized by a distinctive model, based upon its dual mission – culture and business – meant to recognize quality, regardless of the provenance and age of the artists proposed, in the conviction that also a private commercial space can host exhibition projects of museum quality.

“We would like to introduce the artists we represent to a different audience, specifically Dubai and the Middle Easter region. We also hope that collectors from Asia, for example China and India, will visit the fair.

We have chosen to show Jorg Immendorff, a big German artist who has marked the history of the contemporary painting, Thomas Bayrle, the pioneer of the Geman Pop and Scott Short, young American Abstract Painter. In his last paintings from 2006 and 2007, Immendorff collages metaphorical and allegorical images from art history and contemporary history. We feel that seeing the world in terms of metaphor and allegory has a particular impact in the Middle East. In Bayrle’s silkscreens on cardboard, the viewer sees an individual image or repeated images of financial records morphing into a person’s portrait and the portrait merging back into the financial records.

We think that these works are particularly poignant given that Dubai is historically a capital of trade and commerce. With Scott Short, who repeatedly photocopies a piece of paper to obtain an abstract image that he then projects on a canvas and paints, we bring an artist who has put himself into dialogue with the history of abstract Western painting in a very interesting way.

There has absolutely been a rise in talent in Asia and the Middle East. There will be an over saturation of both Eastern and Western markets and the more talented artists will find homes in galleries and museum exhibitions in the west while simultaneously participating in galleries and museums in the east. What is important is that these institutions have the money to support these artists.

Produzione Bayrle, 2009, View of the installation at Cardi Black Box, Ground Floor, October 30th / December 23th 2009
Produzione Bayrle, 2009
View of the installation at Cardi Black Box, Ground Floor
October 30th / December 23th 2009

Ten years ago the art market was beginning to really feel the rush of money from the end of the dot com era and new hedge fund managers. We are at the tail end of that rush; however, for people who have the money, it is an amazing time to find artworks that would not necessarily have been available before.

The economic downturn has made a difficult time for galleries, but it is the time to not give up and keep going with high-level project. We support artists in the production of new works and collaborate with other cultural institutions at an international level: by Cardi Black Box Gallery that is the way to beat the recession.

Dubai is a very interesting platform: contemporary art and buyers are increasing exponentially and there are so many art initiatives. So, we definitely think that Dubai will play a key role on the contemporary art market.

We expert Art Dubai 2010 to bring world-class art to the doorsteps of some of the most enthusiastic new art collectors in the world.”

 

 

 


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