Hasted Kraeutler is pleased to announce The Infinite City, by Paolo Ventura beginning May 2 and running through June 22, 2013.

Paolo Ventura’s Infinite City, is composed of sets of unique hand painted, 4” x 5” photographs. The works are groups of either 5 or 10 images, all framed individually, hung together to create a skyline of an imagined city.

Inspiration for the infinite skyline came from trips the artist took on the “Q” train, from Brooklyn to Manhattan and Italian writer, Italo Calvino’s book, Invisible Cities. In a conversation between two characters, Calvino’s book explores imagination and what is possible through the descriptions of cities. The book consists of brief prose poems describing 55 cities, where there are short dialogues between the two characters, interspersed every five to ten cities. The book is structured around an interlocking pattern of numbered sections, where the length of each section’s title graphically outlines a continuously oscillating city skyline.

“From one part to the other, the city seems to continue, in perspective, multiplying its repertory of images: but instead it has no thickness, it consists only of a face and an obverse, like a sheet of paper, with a figure on either side, which can neither be seperated nor look at each other.” - Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Paolo Ventura describes his Infinite City, as “a visual story of an imaginary city. My infinite city is viewed in profile, as if passing on a train before entering; or by foot, when one walks around its margins and everything is seen from afar. In fact, it is the profile of the place of which I speak. A place where you can’t enter because you don’t know the way, or you are afraid to enter and find that it doesn’t really exist.” Hasted Kraeutler’s exhibition will include an installation of the “Infinite City”, consisting of the models built and used to create the series.

The Magician, will also be on view, and tells the story of a magician and his young assistant that disappears one day in the fog of Milan. All the roles in the series are played by the artist and his son.

Paolo Ventura has received a commission from the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome in 2012 and his works were selected for the Italian national pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2011. His works have been acquired by prominent public collections including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and the Martin Margulies Collection in Miami, Florida. Four monographs of Paolo Ventura’s work have been published: War Souvenir (Contrasto, 2006), Winter Stories (Aperture and Contrasto, 2009), The Automaton (Peliti Asociati, 2011) and Lo Zuavo Scomparso (Punctum Press, 2012).

For press inquiries or further information, please contact Hasted Kraeutler at info@hastedkraeutler.com.