Marcello Concari

Leather Sofas Langstrasse
January 20 through February 23, 2022

The Lighthouse introduces Marcello Concari for his first public exhibition: Leather Sofas Langstrasse. Born in Milan at the end of the 80s, he first started painting during high school where he received training in the classical style. Later he studied design at the Toschi Institute in Parma and then Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano. Having lived in Zurich since 2013, he gradually returned to painting full time, progressing as an autodidact.

Langstrasse, the early portrait series, consists of 12 oil portraits on canvas paper, inspired by the artist's experiences on the historical street. The works are developed through a collection of references such as snapshots, rough sketches of brief encounters, anatomical drawings, and an archive of images collected from the internet. During the painting process these images have been revised, reinterpreted and mixed together in order to reach a final result. The viewer perhaps references Da Vinci’s Grotesque, night life's aesthetics, Chicago Bar, introspective isolation, methadone features, and a reflection on the human condition.

Leather Sofas, a more recent series, consist of 14 oil paintings on stretched canvas, also inspired by a lifestyle not too distant to that of the infamous street. The works are developed with initial sketches, then research begins across eBay, Walmart, and other e-commerce sites, and finally conceptualized within photoshop before the painting begins. The works inspire thoughts of North Italian clubs near the highway, the hardcore scene in the early 2000s, Lou Reed’s trousers, fake luxury, middle class living, sex, and leather subculture.

Together the series share an empathetic relation for the impact of abuse over time. What do those eyes see, what do those cushions feel? We can only imagine, but we can be sure that they once lived with great hope.