Céline Condorelli: Pentimenti (The Corrections)
2023 National Gallery Artist in Residence
The National Gallery, London
13 September 2022 – 7 January 2024
Exhibition view: Céline Condorelli: Pentimenti (The Corrections), 2023 National Gallery Artist in Residence, The National Gallery, London.
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Naturally occurring iron earth pigments feature in many of Poussin’s paints. He may sometimes have added these not for their visual effect, but for their relationship to the subject and setting of his painting.
Artist in residence Céline Condorelli took inspiration from this way of connecting material and concept: ‘In the installation here in Room 31, I followed Poussin’s attempts to unite perspective, atmospheric optical effects, and material properties together with humankind’s relationship to nature and the world.’
Céline Condorelli, Bulk: Everlasting Colour, 2023. Acid dye on textile. 640 x 340 cm. Unique
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Céline Condorelli, Bulk: Everlasting Colour, 2023. Printed rug. 640 x 340 cm. Unique. Exhibition view: Céline Condorelli: Pentimenti (The Corrections), The National Gallery, London, 2023
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As artist in residence, she came to understand museums as ‘machines for seeing’ that teach us how to perceive and value art. Condorelli invites us to become aware of our own way of seeing, to pay attention to the space and materials of the National Gallery, how we behave in it and how it is connected to the world outside.
Céline Condorelli’s installation exposes our surroundings in ways mostly invisible to the naked eye. ‘Pentimenti’ (Italian for ‘regrets’) are the early stages of a picture, which when revealed by scans show evidence of an artist’s corrections.
Céline Condorelli, The Force that Seems to Beckon, 2023. Installation. 4 metal grates and UPRISINGS (troppo lento), 4-channel audio by Hannah Catherine Jones. Unique
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Through the air vents on the floor, voices and music flood the room, seemingly coming from Trafalgar Square, outside the Gallery.
This soundscape fusing reality and fiction was produced with artist Hannah Catherine Jones.
It includes recordings of historic demonstrations on the square, important calls for political representation, public demands to be seen.
Abstract forms on the grates over the vents recall the jaws of dragons depicted in the collection. These act as mouthpieces for the myriad voices that have remained outside.
Céline Condorelli, UPRISINGS (troppo lento), 4-channel audio by Hannah Catherine Jones, 2023 (excerpt)
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Her installation transforms the room: a richly coloured print drapes and filters daylight entering through the skylight. A large rug replaces the museum’s benches. Sitting or lying on it, we can look at the ceiling and listen, or observe the paintings from a different point of view. The printed textiles contain technical images of all the materials in this room – such as marble, wood and wall fabric – made with the National Gallery’s Scientific Department using methods usually applied to paintings. Working with graphic designer James Langdon, Condorelli combined these scans with microscopic photographs of pigments found in the pictures around us, digitally creating new ‘paintings’.
Céline Condorelli, The sun shines through a hole in the clouds, 2023. Vegetable dye on textile. Variable dimensions
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Céline Condorelli, The sun shines through a hole in the clouds, 2023. Dyed textile. Variable dimensions
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Exhibition view: Céline Condorelli: Pentimenti (The Corrections), 2023 National Gallery Artist in Residence, The National Gallery, London, 2023
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Céline Condorelli: Pentimenti (The Corrections)
2023 National Gallery Artist in Residence
The National Gallery, London
13 September 2022 – 7 January 2024
More information
Artist website
Exhibition images: Commissioned by the National Gallery, London, as part of the 2023 National Gallery Artist in Residence programme ©️ Céline Condorelli, 2023
Press: “Céline Condorelli: Pentimenti review – have a lie down in front of the cardinal“, review by Adrian Searle in The Guardian
Céline Condorelli lives and works between London and Lisbon.
A selection of exhibitions and projects include: Céline Condorelli: Pentimenti (The Corrections), 2023 National Gallery’s Artist in Residence, National Gallery, London, UK (2023); Céline Condorelli: After Work, South London Gallery, UK (2022) and Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, UK; Our Silver City 2094, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK (2022); Dos años de vacaciones, TEA, Tenerife, Spain (2021); Deux ans de vacances, FRAC Lorraine – Metz, France (2020); Ground Control, Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden (2020); Every Step in the Right Direction, Singapore Biennial (2019); Art Encounters Biennial, Timisoara, Romania (2019); Céline Condorelli, Kunsthaus Pasquart, Biel, Switzerland (2019); Host / Vært, Kunsthal Aarhus, Denmark (2019); Zanzibar (commissioned sculpture), King’s Cross Projects, London, UK (2019); Geometries, Locus Athens, Greece (2018); Anren Biennale, Chengdu, China (2018); Céline Condorelli: Epilogue, P!, New York, USA (2017); Wall to Wall, Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig, Germany (2017); Proposals for a Qualitative Society (Spinning), Stroom Den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands (2017); Corps à Corps, IMA Brisbane, Australia (2017); Conversation Piece (commissioned sculptures), MASP, São Paulo, Brazil; The Eighth Climate (What Does Art Do?), Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2016); Liverpool Biennial, UK (2016); 20th Biennial of Sidney, Australia (2016); Display Show, Stroom den Haag, Eastside Projects, Temple Bar Gallery, The Hague, Birmingham, Dublin (2015–2016); bau bau, HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy (2014).
Artist CV
