Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju: Gymnasia

The Nigerian-American artist presents an installation of unpublished paintings, sculptures and drawings, created between her studio in Berlin and her residence in Venice.

Inspired by the numerous contradictions and double meanings of the gymnasium, Ilupeju transforms the gallery into an arena with nude figures and metallic sculptures referencing ancient exercise equipment. Embodying different postures of effort and recovery, the bodies painted on canvas and paper are cut out, and released from the parameters of the rectangle, they become free to interact with the flexible armatures and architecture of the gallery. In this way the relationship with the space that surrounds them becomes clearer and more concrete, and according to the way in which the canvas curves, different perspectives and perceptions emerge.