Cadogan Gallery is pleased to announce Stanza, the new solo show by British artist Sam Lock and his third presentation in Milan, after showing in Scalo Lambrate in 2021 and inaugurating Cadogan’s Milanese branch in 2023.
Through more than seventy works, Lock retraces some of the main themes of his poetics, such as the visual transposition of language, the presence-absence dichotomy and the link between the fragment and the infinite. The materiality of language and the rhythm of narration – both at the basis of his artistic sensibility – invade the space of the gallery. The title of the exhibition recalls the poetic definition of a group of verses that are part of the same composition, summarizing the bond between the works on display.
The exhibition alternates between two cores, the first consisting of five large canvases united by their large size and the creative process: starting from the same roll of raw canvas and using pen and ink, the artist created the canvases by cutting, stretching and framing them with aluminium. This cycle of creation led to five works dedicated to five moments, or stanza, part of a single act in which the theme of the fragment and the infinite, the value of the individual work and the choral value of the whole, can be found.
The second core of the exhibition presents an installation consisting of seventy works, each characterised by different signs, brushstrokes and aspects. Created on paper made of resin-coated and then sanded panels, the signs remain suspended on the wall, in a succession of presence and absence. The gaze of the spectator floats between one piece and the other, like a “Map of Looking”, according to Sam, where the possibilities are infinite.
Sam Lock (London, 1973) lives and works in London. He has been represented by Cadogan Gallery since 2015 and has participated in several exhibitions and art fairs in Europe and Asia. He graduated from Edinburgh University and College of Art, earning an MA in Fine Art Painting and History of Art.
© Text and Photo Courtesy of Cadogan Gallery
