Stux Gallery is pleased to present a retrospective exhibition of the work of Lydia Venieri. The Last Conflict features Venieri’s new series of satin digital color photographs Planetic Exodus and highlights of her prolific oeuvre including works from the magical forest of Hibernation, The Dolphin Conspiracy video and a sculptural installation created with her bubble sculptures, fauna and tree debris. This is Venieri’s second solo exhibition at Stux Gallery.
This exhibition also celebrates the publication of Venieri’s first comprehensive monograph Theogony published by Charta in 2011. This brilliant new book surveys two decades of her provocative production in drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, video and the Internet.
Lydia Venieri is best known for her evocative sculpture installations and photographic works bridging mythology with current events. She assembles whole mythologies and extracts symbolic structures from the questionable world of news media. Her stories are depicted through a cast of elegant dolls and childlike imagery to counter media dementia.
She continues her search for utopian rebirth in Planetic Exodus. This time the dolls’ eyes reflect the bitter trials of immigration resulted by global shifts in power and the endless economic and political wars plaguing the world. Many things have changed since the 19th century including massive shifts in human migration contributing to an extraordinary cultural diversity. Venieri’s migratory imagery tackles the romantic and enduring notion of an ideal life in another land or country.
The longing for utopia is a perpetual theme in Venieri’s work. Similar to Dorothy in Wizard of Oz and her search for an ideal home in the Emerald City, we see in Venieri’s work lush seductive formations of an ideal world admidst dystopia and social upheaval. In the 21st century the need for a utopian society is manifesting itself in the form of local communities attempting to revive economic, social, political and possibly legal systems through the use of social media.
This pivotal social media plays a paramount role in Venieri’s work as the dolls and childlike imagery glisten with quizzical life whose driving force is impeded by the inadequacy of adults. Would children be tempted to revolt and to take control of the world because of the lack of trust and weakness of grown ups?
Revolution is in the air and very much in Venieri’s dynamic work as she leads us to new possibilities of a journey to the center of our follies and potentials.