Gillick and Charlton: A Minimalist Dialogue in Form and Color

2 hours ago7 min read

A compelling artistic dialogue unfolds at Naples' Alfonso Artiaco gallery, where Liam Gillick and Alan Charlton present a duet of minimalist philosophies. The exhibition stages a profound conversation through the essential languages of geometry, form, and color.Alan Charlton, celebrated for his devout exploration of monochromatic grey, presents works that are meditations on subtlety. His modular, architectonic canvases, frequently arranged in multi-panel formations, investigate the nuanced relationships between surface, texture, and ambient light, revealing a universe of variation within a single, intentional color.In contrast, Liam Gillick acts as a conceptual mapper of the post-industrial condition. Utilizing materials like anodized aluminum and powder-coated steel in a palette of corporate pastels, he constructs objects that exist in the ambiguous space between functional design, architectural proposal, and social commentary.His work does not merely fill the gallery; it questions the underlying ideologies of our contemporary workspaces and public structures. Placing a Gillick 'discussion platform' beside a Charlton 'grey painting' creates a resonant harmony from apparent methodological clash: Charlton’s art provides a silent, contemplative foundation, while Gillick’s offers a colorful, syntactical proposition for a possible future.This is a masterclass in curation, showing how two artists from different generations, united by a reductionist drive, can brilliantly illuminate each other's central pursuits. Charlton, emerging from the 1970s conceptual art scene, upholds a purist modernist tradition, his work a direct heir to the radical propositions of Malevich and Reinhardt.Gillick, a key figure in the 1990s relational aesthetics movement, employs the visual vocabulary of modernism not to pursue purity, but to critique its appropriation by late capitalism, his sleek forms mirroring the aesthetics of corporate and scientific environments. The brilliance of this presentation is its refusal to force a resolution, instead allowing the productive tension between Charlton’s autonomous art object and Gillick’s context-dependent installation to persist. Visitors depart not with a definitive answer, but with a sharpened perception of how form conveys meaning, how the presence or absence of color shapes our psychological response, and how the legacy of geometric abstraction remains a vital, evolving tool for examining the visible and invisible structures of our world.

#art exhibition

#Liam Gillick

#Alan Charlton

#Alfonso Artiaco

#geometry

#dialogue

#featured

Stay Informed. Act Smarter.

Get weekly highlights, major headlines, and expert insights — then put your knowledge to work in our live prediction markets.

Comments

Loading comments...