TITUS KAPHAR

Titus Kaphar (1976), having finalized his “Artist-in-Residence Program” at the Studio Museum in Harlem (New York), now makes his first visit to Italy where he will be hosted by the Osart Gallery of Milan with the exhibition An Alternative History - inauguration Thursday April 2nd, 2009, 7 p.m. Simultaneously his personal showing - History in the Making -opens at the prestigious Seattle Art Museum.

Titus Kaphar structures his semantic approach by basing it on classic works, both American and European, painted in the XVIII and XIX centuries. His starting point is, therefore, always an historic masterpiece which the artist personally re-interprets, using various techniques such as: the modification of the subjects illustrated in the original paintings, the use of different materials like tar and wax or, more drastically, slashes, rents and crumpling. He achieves this re-interpretation by playing with the white/black duality (wax/tar, replacing the white complexion of a subject with a colored face), and with the use of his own subject matter.

By applying this intense and captivating language, Titus Kaphar handles the most diverse topics and also those closest to the artist himself, i.e.: the racial question, faith, and, in general, the social and cultural context which surrounds him. By linking these means of expression to his emotions, he creates an extremely powerful bond between the contents and the container, thus achieving a work which binds together aesthetic involvement, emotional impact and sudden flashes of intellectual insight.

The Gallery will exhibit some of his most important works: large oils on canvas, sculptures created with canvases, first torn then folded over, and various installations which fully represent the output of this young artist, a rising star in the worldwide firmament.