NEW YORK, NY.- Galerie Lelong presents The House of Magic Affection, an exhibition of intricately designed and embroidered paintings by Italian artist Angelo Filomeno. Over a dozen recent paintings will fill the main gallery, paired with a series of intimate works on linen in the gallery’s project space. Highlighting Filomeno’s technical and aesthetic skill in merging painting, embroidery, and craft, his unique visual language is presented through a variety of rich materials including silk, crystal, and metal. In a departure from his last exhibition, Filomeno introduces a serialism not seen in his previous bodies of work, an expanded use of color and materials, including muslin, and a variety of characters that have never before been incorporated into each of the hand-made canvases. The artist will be present for the opening on Thursday, December 18 from 6-8PM.

Presenting immediately alluring, albeit complex, imagery has long been the foundation of Filomeno’s work in his exploration of themes such as death, destruction, isolation, and obsession. Drawn from and aligned with the artist’s personal history, Filomeno’s work as a child apprentice to a clothes tailor still informs his intricate technique and production as both art and skilled craft. Often blending elements from his personal history with his fantastical imagery, the exhibition’s title, The House of Magic Affection, references the artist’s childhood home.

In this exhibition Filomeno maintains his careful attention to the interplay between texture, material, content, and presentation, attracting viewers to his constructed canvases with the juxtaposition of often unsettling content and aesthetic refinement. Filomeno’s iconography, in contrast to the allure of his work, often incorporates and explores the allegorical and the macabre, including insects, fish, human body parts, skeletons, and reptiles. In addition to the paintings, two recent sculptures will be on view, further revealing Filomeno’s world of ominous beauty and extraordinary workmanship.

Angelo Filomeno was born in Ostuni, Italy in 1963 and has lived in New York since 1992. He has had solo museum exhibitions at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta, Georgia; Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, Tennessee; Italian Cultural Institute of New York, New York, and the Italian Cultural Institute of Toronto, Canada. His work has been included in major international biennials including the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007) and ARS 06 at the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland. Filomeno's work can be found in several public collections, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; 21C Museum, Louisville; and Museum of Art & Design, New York. Work was recently on view at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York in the exhibition Re:Collection. In 2015 Filomeno’s work will be included the exhibition Threaded at the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech opening on February 12. The House of Magic Affection is Filomeno’s third exhibition with Galerie Lelong.