Reception for the Artist 6 June, 6 - 8 pm

ELISABETH SCHERFFIG Almost a Landscape 6 June - 1 August, 2003 Reception for the artist 6 June, 6 - 8 pm Following the success of her 2001 exhibition, Faggionato Fine Arts is pleased to announce their second Elisabeth Scherffig show, Almost a Landscape. The exhibition presents ten large-scale drawings (120 x 160 cm) each illustrating an urban landscape of on going or abandoned work sites. With small repeated monochrome marks in chalk lead (dark sepia) on slightly textured Arches paper Scherffig patiently describes matter inch by inch. Large gutted industrial structures emerge from the rubble around them, the collapsed beams and structural supports providing a hint of their past. These familiar but often overlooked landscapes of cables, pipes, timber, bricks and girders, reconstructed from her memory with no actual visual reference, stand as ciphers of an ignored reality. Scherffig’s training as a composer may provide her with the necessary tools to visualise these imaginary environments in their entirety before she makes her first mark. Amidst the complex surface lie small areas of untouched paper, which provide a striking contrast to the obsessive intricacy of the interlocking marks and bring a brief respite to the eye, dispelling claustrophobia by accentuating an airy sense of depth. By generating this space Scherffig demonstrates the importance of creating an equilibrium between solid and void, recognising that the stability of the whole composition hinges on this balance. Elisabeth Scherffig (1949) was born in Dusseldorf (Germany) and has lived in Milan since 1970. To cite a few of her solo exhibitions: 2003, Como, Borgovico 33.; 2002, Milan, Galleria Maria Cilena; 2001 London, Faggionato Fine Arts, 2000 Bologna, Studio G 7; 2000 Milan, M.Valsecchi; 2000 Verona, Colpo di Fulmine; 1997 Dusseldorf, C.G. Boerner; 1997 Milan, M. Valsecchi; 1996 London, Berggruen & Zevi.