Meyecelium is an exhibition of over a hundred new paintings by Sandro Kopp at the Palazzo Grimani Museum in Venice, running from mid-May to early September 2019.

The exhibition

Each painting is a portrait of a single eye of one of the artists friends and family, painted from life over the course of the past two-and-half years. Each eye is surrounded with precious metal leaf – gold, silver, platinum – further ennobling the paintings and underlining the affection and admiration of the artist for his subjects. The works are presented in an installation designed in collaboration with and produced by Alfonso Architects, Florida.

Our eyes are primarily receptors of information, but also powerful transmitters of our personality and emotion. These orifices that allow light and impressions into our bodies, are also the main broadcasters of our presence and the mediators of our connections to other people. They are the most crucial organs for any experience of art as well.

The paintings were made in many different locations, all over the world: mainly in Kopp’s studio, but also in hotels and cafés, in parks and gardens. The locales of the sittings can be gleaned by carefully studying the reflection in the irises, which often include a tiny silhouette self-portrait of the painter as well as the environment of the sittings.

The title of the exhibition alludes to the organically grown network of relationships and friendships that exists around every individual.

The show is accompanied by a lavishly produced hardcover catalogue, with an essay by Jasper Sharp, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. It is supported and presented by Tendercapital.

L’artista

Kopp is half-German, half-New Zealander based in the Scottish Highlands since 2005. Some notable past exhibitions include:

• July 2017, Played, Ebensperger, Salzburg
• May 2017, Elective Affinities, Sammlung Friedrichshof, Vienna
• October 2016, Take Time, Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris
• December 2015, Feedbackloop, Five Eleven, New York
• December 2014, Sono Qui, Otto Zoo, Milan
• June 2013 Cinematic Visions, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
• January 2012 There You Are. Lehmann Maupin, New York
• May 2008. PRESENT. HP Garcia Gallery, New York
• November 2007 Junge Kunst 69, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany
• June 2007, The National Portrait Gallery, London, BP Awards

Photos by Ruediger Glatz