Thorns & Roses

An existential exhibition about beauty, illusion, pain and death, experienced through thorns and roses. Thorns & Roses - a title that, like the artist himself, Eugenio Percossi, references the topicality of immortal themes and variations in their interpretation. The unifying element not only of Percossi’s works, but also of the visual style of the exhibition itself, is the thorn and its unmistakable properties - it is sharp, it protects, touching it is often unpleasantly/pleasantly painful, it can puncture the surface, etc. The exhibition is full of thorny objects - realistic paintings where the dominant element is the previously mentioned thorn, graphic patterns composed by hand from thousands of thorns or alternate sculptures full of thorns. The selected header font Apoc, from the French typefoundry Blaze Type, catches the eye with its “thorny" ending of some of the letters, also used in the typesetting as drop caps. The thorns are not explicitly depicted in the graphical materials, but it is the effect of scraping through layers which is used. The catalogue, invitation and other printed materials were scratched by hand using thorns through 2 surfaces - the red paper (evoking blood and passion), comes through onto the surface of the clean, white graphic paper.

Initiator/Client:
Bold gallery

Year:
2021

Design:
Tomáš Brychta
Sára Bergmannová
Karla Gondeková