Mimmo Paladino

The Alan Cristea Gallery will be showing the new printed work of Mimmo Paladino. Despite the demands of numerous Museum and Gallery shows, Paladino has spent the last year completing a series of new printing projects.

The exhibition coincides with major exhibitions of Paladino's work at the South London Gallery and the Roundhouse in Camden. These are curated by James Putnam, from the British Museum who also wrote the essay for the exhibition catalogue, Extemporisation, held at the Alan Cristea Gallery in 1997.

Carte Siciliane, is a series of twelve mixed media prints. Ina a paper making factory in Sicily he moulded and shaped pulp into the forms of head, hands and fruit. The pieces were then shipped to Milan where he created images in etching, aquatint and engraving on chine collé, finally attaching them to the hand shaped paper. The result is a series of highly complex and subtle images.

The most recent body of work is a series of six circular images. In each work a different human head sits at the centre of a field of pure colour, surrounded by a collage of geometric shapes. Each of these heads is reminiscent of his monumental stone figures which will be exhibited at the South London Gallery and each appears to gaze out at the viewer, changing expression and mood.