Superstudio – Osservatorio X

curated by Gabriele Di Matteo, Ilaria Mariotti, Dany Vescovi

19 November – 18 December, 2021

Superstudio
via Tortona, 27, 20144, Milano IT

Photos: Simone Panzeri

Gabriele Napoli takes part in the exhibition Osservatorio X at Superstudio, Milan, with It was a threesome, from the 2021 series called The snotboy. “Snotboy” means a child who acts as an adult. The series is focused on the artist digging into his own self, looking for his own identity,  through making a relationship with the viewer. With It was a threesome, Napoli definitely offers the possibility of finding yourself in the artist’s narrative, interacting and almost playing with the figures represented. Although the title refers to the presence of a trio, the painting sees a dark setting in which only two people, maybe illuminated by the headlights of a car placed outside the scene, emerge with an accomplice feeling. We are thus led to ask ourselves who are the protagonists of this show, who is in the car, and above all who is the third figure referred to by the title: are we those? Is it a general audience? Or the artist himself? Returning to the general theme of the series to which the work belongs, somebody might think that the painting instead wants to be a self-portrait. The representation of one, no one, one hundred thousand, a scene of inner splitting and, maybe, of loss.

Anita Fonsati