From 6 May to 30 July 2017, GAMeC will hostthe solo show by the artist Pamela Rosenkranz (1979, Uri, Switzerland; lives and works in Zurich), curated by Sara Fumagalli and Stefano Raimondi.

This site specific project refers to the spiritual history of the building that hosts GAMeC – a former convent, whose arched windows the artist has mirrored with replicas which radiate a solid RGB blue. The bright LEDs that shine through the seven Alien Blue Windows produce a spatial experience that is strikingly visual, evoking both a primordial ocean, and symbolic skies prominent in much religious imagery. Consisting of backlit, imageless screens, this new series is a hybrid of paintings and light installation. The immersive environment it produces evokes a digital hue prevalent on the Internet, which here generates an experience that is both spiritual and sensual, thus transcending color’s physicality. As it permeates the Spazio Zero, the intense blue light recreates the view from a window opening onto artificial skies where allegory and technology intertwine.

The light installation is complemented by a new series of paintings entitled Creation, Deterioration, Conservation. These further the artist’s engagement with Renaissance painting, which she first developed when she was researching her work Our Product for the Venice Biennale in 2015. The basis of this series is Gentile Bellini’s Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of San Lorenzo (c. 1500), a tableau that depicts the holy relic being rescued from Venetian waters. The artist has worked from reproductions of Bellini’s original painting, which she found through a Google Images search. Layers of transparent, flesh colored paint are applied to prints from these files, producing a three-dimensional and transparent “skin” of pigments and polymers. The color of the paint refers to the Central European skin tone – a color the artist has used in earlier works such as her iconic branded water bottles and her 2015 Venice Biennale installation, for which she filled the main space with a pale, pink, thick liquid.

For the exhibition at GAMeC, Rosenkranz has made Water under the Bridge of San Lorenzo, a limited-edition lithograph which reflects her ongoing study of Gentile Bellini’s Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of San Lorenzo.

The project would not have been possible without the substantial contributions of GAMeC Club, Karma International (Zurich/Los Angeles), Sprüth Magers (Berlin, London,Los Angeles) and Miguel Abreu Gallery (New York).

The show has been staged thanks to the support of Dielle Ceramiche S.p.A.

Pamela Rosenkranz’s solo exhibition is part of a series of shows dedicated to the collector Arturo Toffetti, whose donation has contributed since 2008 to staging some of GAMeC’s contemporary art exhibitions, allowing the museum to enrich its Permanent Collection with new works.