Presented by Zuecca Projects, and hosted at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, “Paradise Garage” was the first solo exhibition in Italy of American photographer, Jeff Bark, curated by Alessio de-Navaseqes. Featuring over 50 works never before displayed for the public eye, the show (which closed June 28) was as a tribute to the Eternal City in an environment that removed all boundaries between art and viewer.
After a trip to the Italian capital two years ago, Jeff Bark was inspired to recreate his tour of the Bel Paese, but in a space somewhere between the realms of abstraction and reality. Within his garage in Upstate New York, he conceived mysterious scenes, composed of iconography from the past and objects found in American flea markets.
Bark made still lives, interiors, portraits, and natural landscapes, all alluding to painting collections found in Roman palazzi—including works like Early Sunday Morning, depicting a Flemish-reminiscent fruit and floral still life with a breast-like pitcher in its midst; and a portrait of a young boy in period garb, entitled Little Romeo.
Meticulous and cinematic, the curious works appear familiar in nature due to their common genres. But upon one’s immersion into the universe of “Paradise Garage,” a game of perspectives and opposites challenge the viewer to re-evaluate and re-envision temporal norms.
