Raqib Shaw: Palazzo della Memoria

The artist Raqib Shaw opens at Ca’ Pesaro, Museum of Modern Art in Venice with the exhibition:” Palazzo della Memoria“, curated by Sir Norman Rosenthal, in collaboration with White Cube, and represents a body of new works completed recently at the artist’s London studio, the majority of which have never been exhibited before.

Inspired often in his art by Western European old master traditions, in works conceived specifically for this exhibition at Ca’ Pesaro, Shaw draws particular influence from the unique painting traditions found in Venice and Rome. These works take direct references from Giorgione’s famous “La Tempesta” and paintings by Tintoretto that still reside in Venice today.  This large-scale work will form a centrepiece to the show, depicting more than 60 miniaturised versions of Shaw’s past paintings and sculptures in one image.

Raqib Shaw’s transgressive vision is explored through highly personal imagery that is both opulent and fantastical. Combining iconography from both East and West, he draws on a wide range of sources including art history, mythology, poetry, theatre, religion, science, and natural history, but transforms the subject matter in his paintings by bringing in highly personal elements.