LONG ISLAND CITY, NY.- P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center opened the first major American museum exhibition of the Italian artist Gino De Dominicis, presented in P.S.1’s first floor Main Gallery and basement Vault, with additional works concurrently on view in Here is Every. Four Decades of Contemporary Art in the Contemporary Galleries of The Museum of Modern Art.

An Italian artist who purposely shrouded himself in mystery and stood apart from popular artistic trends, De Dominicis exhibited very little in North America. He worked in a variety of mediums including sculpture, painting, film, and installation. This exhibition focuses primarily on the paintings the artist made in the 1980s and ’90s, as he considered this art form the pinnacle of visual expression. Important historical works such as Palla, 1970, first exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1972, will be included, as well as D’IO, 1971, an audio recording of the artist’s laugh. The exhibition also features drawing, as well as sculptural works on wood, paper, and in a few cases, canvas.

De Dominicis’ paintings are figurative and often produced using materials as basic as tempera and pencil on board. Concentrating on the human figure, De Dominicis often referenced mythical and epic leaders like Gilgamesh, the Sumerian king who sought immortality, and Urvashi, the Hindu Veda goddess of beauty. De Dominicis’ paintings convey notions of immortality, beauty, and esotericism. A mysterious element pervades these works as the figures undergo various facial and bodily compressions: noses, eyes, mouths, and eyebrows are elongated and occasionally become fine fissures, while surreal imagery such as tiny fork-like hands and beak-like crania are paired with out of proportion arms, torsos, and legs. For Gino De Dominicis, painting performed a primary and extraordinary function, reaffirming the legacy of the artist as a powerful and creative force.

Gino De Dominicis (1947, Ancona, Italy – 1998, Rome, Italy) has had solo exhibitions at Galleria De Dominicis, Acona, Italy (1967); Palazzo Taverna, Rome, Italy (1972, 1977); Galleria Lia Rumma, Naples, Italy (1988); The Murray and Isabella Rayburn Foundation, New York, NY (1989); Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble, France (1990). He has also been featured in major exhibitions such as Documenta V, Kassel, Germany (1972); 40th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (1980); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (1981); 44th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (1990); 47th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (1997).