Francesco Clemente, Mandala for Crusoe (Installation View), via Blain|Southern Gallery
For the first time in seven years, painter Francesco Clemente is having a show in London, titled “Mandala for Crusoe,†at Blain|Southern’s recently opened Hanover Square location. Born in Italy, Clemente divides his time between New York and Varanasi, a city on the banks of the Ganges River in northern India, and the works in this exhibition reflect this diverse international influence.
Francesco Clemente, Mandala for Crusoe (Installation View), via Blain|Southern Gallery
The fourteen recently created paintings in the exhibition are quite large, measuring at least six feet long and six feet high, and are accompanied by a catalogue of illustrations of each work along with an essay by Sir Norman Rosenthal.
Francesco Clemente, Mandala for Crusoe (Installation View), via Blain|Southern Gallery
Mandala is the sanskit word for “circle,†and symbolizes the cosmos, allowing one to become closer to the sacred and explore the depth of consciousness through a focus on the intricately adorned image. Adapting this concept, Clemente’s mandalas contain images of everyday life at the center. While ostensibly vapid, it emphasizes the imagination used for inner peace and connections to others, banishing spiritual emptiness.
Francesco Clemente, Mandala for Crusoe (Installation View), via Blain|Southern Gallery
Created using a variety of materials, the works on view emphasize the only truly recurring theme of life — that one’s experiences are broken, fragmentary, and discontinuous.  The title is a metaphorical reference to Robinson Crusoe, the famous novel where a man is shipwrecked and lives on an island for many years prior to being rescued. Uniting survivors of life, regardless of cultural background or experiences, the show recalls a shipwrecked Crusoe’s methodology for hanging on.
Francesco Clemente, Mandala for Crusoe (Installation View), via Blain|Southern Gallery
“Mandala for Crusoe” will be on display until January 26th, 2013 at Blain|Southern’s Hanover Square gallery.
-K.Hill
Links:
[Blain|Southern]
Artist’s website: [Francesco Clemente]
