'SAM' by Nicole Colombo at BitCorp for Art, Milan

BITCORP for ART presents Nicole Colombo’s (Monza 1991) first solo exhibition curated by Greta Scarpa. Its title, SAM, introduces a fictional character – not well identified – created by the artist. Their body, void of gender traits and without a position in time and space, is deconstructed throughout the different areas of the exhibition, both through drawings and sculptural forms. 

The artworks on display have an in-your-face approach, that, at times, can even become aggressive and repulsive. It represents the initial relationship that the artist wants to create between the work and the viewer, underlined by a subtle violence, which reflects and refers to the omnipresent violence in our society. The drawings opening the show are the actual emotional introduction to a state of alertness. Those are parts, elements or fluids of SAM depicted by the artist. Some are veiled by an opaque surface, suggesting that the character is losing clarity of the character – as if SAM’s sight was slowly abandoning them. Some of the sculptures in the exhibition, like the cigarettes and the ashtray, are instead the manifestation of the rhythm and rituality that characterized SAM before their collapse, and are also guiding us to the main works: Agitating chunks of matter in uncertain space and A friend of mine once told me something about a phantom limb. Nicole Colombo’s approach to sculpture becomes evident in this two works; it begins by questioning volume, structure, and the beauty of functional details, focusing clearly on the sensual handling of materials. 

The concept of avatar, and the use and creation of fictional artwork-characters inside Nicole Colombo’s art-practice turns into a noble tool for the imagination. The body becomes a narrative surface, manipulated and brought to its extremes. The artist asks viewers to interact with the story she begun, giving room to personal memories and their interaction with the artworks’ identities, creating a continuous juxtaposition where details, experiences, feelings and gestures are the common platform onto which this story is written.