A mermaid fair di Giuseppe La Spada

Leucò Art Gallery is pleased to present “A Mermaid Fair”, a solo exhibition by Giuseppe La Spada (Palermo, 1974), which will be held in the gallery spaces in Ortigia from 20 June to 1 July 2024 as an external event of the Ortigia Contemporanea festival.

A Mermaid Fair, curated by Stefania Pennacchio, is a restitution of La Spada's artistic research, an ode to grace and beauty that takes shape through photography dedicated to mermaids and the element of water that flows throughout her artistic practice , each time becoming the subject or the context, sometimes even the medium.

“ The skies and its waters are never taken for granted... inside I see a desire for freedom and escape ” comments Samuele Mazza, writer and designer who provided his intellectual contribution for the occasion.

For La Spada “ Water is a moment of suspension, a suspension between ancestral dualisms, light and darkness, the visible and the invisible, in the flow of this eternal movement that is life - For me it has always been the 'element in which to immerse myself, a black box where I can see better, where I can find myself in sensorial and primordial dilation .'

In the eternal flow of this important element, the secret of life itself is hidden, a constant movement that symbolizes the constant transformation and the endless cycle of existence.

Giuseppe La Spada

Since 2007, the year in which he won the prestigious Webby Award (The Oscars of the Internet) for a project linked to ecology, his research has aimed at raising awareness among the community on environmental issues.

In 2009 ' Afleur ' is among the works of ' Digitalife2 ' alongside those of Marina Abramovic, ChrisLan Marclay, and others; the image of the event is by La Spada himself.

In October 2015 he presented ' Sublimis ' an exhibition on the relationship between Man and Water at the Triennale in Milan. Ryuichi Sakamoto supported the project with the unpublished composition ' Shizen no Koe '.

In 2018 he participated in "Re Use, Waste, objects, ecology in contemporary art" alongside works by Man Ray, Duchamp, Burri, Hirst etc. In 2019 he exhibited the 'Traiettorie Liquide' project with photos of the world ski champion Federica Brignone. In the same year he directed Franco Battiato's video 'We'll be back again'.

In 2020 he conceived “Essere Ecosofia” for the Creval Foundation, a digital platform that hosts works of art and educational tools aimed at creating a new ecology of thought and a new sustainable balance.

In 2022 with his field recording of Mount Etna, he collaborates on the sound installation "Playback" curated by Ryuichi Sakamoto for the Dumb Type collective, an installation present both at the Japanese Pavilion of the 59th Venice Biennale at the exhibition and at the Haus der Kunst museum in Munich. Bavaria.

Art Director of the Global Network of Water Museums (UNESCO-IHP).

Member of the InternaLonal Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (New York).

He taught at the Brera Academy from 2010 to 2019 and at the IED in Milan from 2014 to 2022.

As an artist his works have been exhibited in Rome, Milan, Palermo, Catania, Genoa, Sondrio, Sanremo, New York, Tokyo, Munich, Paris, Arles, Berlin, Belgrade, etc.

Leucò Art Gallery

Located in the heart of the island of Ortigia in Syracuse, Leucò Art Gallery is the culmination of a long activity of cultural promotion of artists and the territory of Syracuse and beyond. Founded by the artist Stefania Pennacchio and with the artistic direction of Claudia Sveva Calabrò, Leucò Art Gallery is committed to organizing exhibitions, projects and events even beyond national borders with the aim of promoting beauty in contemporary art.