The idea of Carte Blanche is to provide a platform for contemporary art now. Local and International creatives and artists will be given the opportunity to show their works in a virtual gallery online and a gallery space at the Aurora premises.
October 2022
Petra Polli
PETRA POLLI was born 1976 in Bolzano and lives and works in Bolzano(I) and Lipsia (D). She studied from 2001-2008 communication at the University of Salzburg (A) and at the same time 2002-2007 she took her degree in painting at the University MOZARTEUM Salzburg (A). From 2008-2010 Polli was attending the masterclass of Annette Schröter, at the Hochschule for graphics and book art HGB Leipzig (D). She held the position of co-teacher from 2009 to 2017 at the Summeracademy in Salzburg(A) and is a board member of the Kunsthalle West, Lana exhibition space (I). She has shown her works in many solo exhibition like CODE X=3 at Galerie M2A, Dresden (D),Tracks at Kunstforum Unterland, Egna(I), signed places at the civic gallery in Chiusa (I), Transform- heretostay at museum Museion Bolzano (I), and Memory imprint at Fortress Fortezza, (I) to name a few. She also exhibited and many group exhbitions like ARTE LAGUNA PRIZE, Venezia (I), 3 LOGIE – the money maker, StadtGalerie Bressanone(I), DI CARTA – PAPERMADE, BIENNALE, Palazzo Fogazzaro Schio (I), Portfolio Sammlung / Collection Raika Bank, Bolzano (I), Water Light Festival Bressanone (I). The artist has received different awards and scholarships like 2022 Förderpreis von 7 Sammlern, Bolzano (I), 2019 Award of the Raika Bank for contributing to the collection.
Petra Polli mainly gets inspired by different topics and situations she finds in the public space. The artist transforms these inspirations into the artworks and tries to leave traces and signs throughout her works. She creates illusions like in the Trompe-l’œil paintings using different layers, scraping off parts and overwriting. The richness in expression of the paintings is visible as the spectator moves closer and tries to decode the underlying message.
Petra Polli works with concrete to form sculptures of words. She also is experimenting a lot with different materials and recently has discovered light as a medium to express her thoughts and feelings. At the Carte Blanche #6 Polli is showing latest works along some sculptures and paintings from the last years to give an extensive overview of her body of work.
„Everything what you can imagine is real “
About
Petra Polli
BLAZE
At the Carte Blanche #6 exhibition BLAZE Petra Polli is showing latest works along some sculptures and paintings from the last years to give an extensive overview of her body of work. Petra Polli mainly gets inspired by different topics and situations she finds in the public space. The artist transforms these inspirations into her artworks and tries to leave traces and signs throughout her works. She creates illusions like in the Trompe-l’œil paintings using different layers, scraping off parts and overwriting. The richness in expression of the paintings is visible as the spectator moves closer and tries to decode the underlying message. Petra Polli works as well with concrete to form various sculptures some shown at the exhibition in the Hotel Aurora premises. The artist is experimenting a lot with different materials and recently has discovered light as a medium to express her thoughts and feelings. Since her studies in Leipzig, Petra Polli has been researching, experimenting and was meanly influenced by graffiti art in public spaces. In the series of works shown at Carte Blanche #6 the artworks at first glance look like photographs of urban walls on which anonymous sprayers have left their traces. The illusion stems from the fact that Polli builds up her paintings in a process of layering, scraping, overwriting comparable to sprayer art. The palimpsest-like overlays and overpaintings on urban walls are fascinating because of their inherent expressive richness and their undomesticated underground character. The tags with which sprayers mark their territory are messages that are only understood by the initiated. They are exceedingly present in public space and at the same time elude into mystery. At the same time, the signs of the city refer painterly or sculptural when designed in concrete - as abstract, independent elements. With these objects Polli introduces a different level of presence of quotations of linguistic elements in her work.
The transition to dealing with writings, or more precisely with graffiti, began in 2009, when Petra Polli created acrylic paintings on canvas that at first glance seem to be taken directly from urban reality: from walls on which signs and writings of different provenance condense and sometimes overlap. Nevertheless, what Petra Polli does is a very conscious form of painting. In analogy to the confusing condensations of signs and the crumbling walls on which Polli often finds her subjects, she works on her canvases by applying different layers, washing out or scratching off parts, re-applying and re-erasing, so that finally several pictorial levels are present at the same time. Like an archaeologist, Polli presents the viewer with situations in which different tags compete with each other or with substrates that have been processed in different ways.
Tags are sign-like abbreviations that stand for names and began to spread in New York at the end of the 1960s. able by everyone, but are based on a code that is initially only understandable to insiders. In the beginning, it was about underground evidence of the existence and demarcation of territories on the part of individuals. In this respect, Petra Polli's pictures have a lot to do with the big city and with the very specific forms of communication at work in it. Polli transfers her fascination for these underground signs un- embellished onto the canvas and confronts her viewers with them. Recently finished art works of light that represent the fluid digital Infrastructure we all are dealing and living with daily will be shown at the Hotel´s own club Sketch and at the ground floor entrance of the hotel. The commissioned work of light is part of the series of works called virtual traces and plays with the architecture, the structure and texture of the underground floor of the Aurora Hotel. Polli likes to play with the soft bendable light tubes of LED lighting and is referring to the transformation and constant changes we are all facing every day. The underlying chance of every transformation is hope and with hope Petra Polli want to leave a sign to everybody.
The work shown at the Aurora
All prices are without VAT. They are sold directly by the artist to the customer with a certificate of authenticity and invoice.
NEBELHAUCH
Acryl auf Leinwand, 140x100 cm, 2019
6.700 €
Schmetterlingseffekt
Acryl auf Leinwand, 140x100 cm, 2022
Preis: 6.700 €
ORBIT
Acryl auf Leinwand 70x50 cm 2015
Preis: 3.350 €
FEELING OF HAPPINESS
Beton ca. 34x50cm, 2022
Preis : 750 €
MAUERFRAß
Acryl auf Leinwand, 60x50 cm, 2017
Preis 3.080 €
AKTIV
Lichtinstallation LED, Holzplatte lackiert, 120x60 cm, 2021-22
Preis: 2.800 €
IROORZHU / follower
Acryl auf Leinwand 50x70 cm 2013
Preis: 3.350 €
LOVE NOW, CRY LATER
Acryl auf Leinwand, 140x100 cm, 2022
6.700 €
FLOW
Acryl auf Leinwand, 140x100 cm, 2019
Preis: 6.700 €
SPAM
Skulptur aus Beton, 50x125x4 cm, 2016
Preis: 5.390 €
FDVWLQJ / CASTING
Acryl auf Leinwand 50x70 cm 2013
Preis : 3.350
WANDSTÜCKE
Acryl auf Leinwand, 140x100 cm, 2017
Preis: 6.700 €
SELFTRACKING
Lichtinstallation
Event Photos
THE IDEA
The aim is to curate the Hotel’s art specifically - we want there to be good stories and a lasting wellbeing for the guests as well as try to make them have a unique and distinctive experience. The interplay of art design and the Hotel Aurora’s architecture is what characterizes this special place in South Tyrol. The historic hotel in Merano is marked by art treasures and designer pieces that one can find throughout the hotel as well as in every room and this is what makes the Aurora so outstanding. Carte Blanche will host about 6 art exhibitions per year and is keen on giving artists the opportunity to also create site specific works for the hotel that will be shown permanently. The shown art works as well as art editions of works on display will be available at the Hotels Aurora’s own art corner.
THE CURATOR
The upcoming exhibitions will be curated by the freelance curator Eva von Ingram Harpf. Curator Eva von Ingram Harpf, 1987, after graduating from Bocconi University in Milan with a thesis in Art Banking worked at Johann König Gallery in Berlin, as well as Ghetta Gallery, Ortisei and holds a Master´s degree in Contemporary Art from Sothebys London. Since 2012 she works as an independent curator and art adviser and is based in Bolzano, Südtirol, Italy. She is a member of the board of ar/ge Kunst Bozen and founder of y-contemporary platform.