COME CLOSER AND SEE

Modica, 2025 September 27th - December 7th
GARAGE FONTANA

From 27 September to 7 December 2025, GARAGE FONTANA will host COME CLOSER AND SEE, the new exhibition curated by Margherita Ratti.

COME CLOSER AND SEE invites visitors to enter a multifaceted natural environment, a setting for encounters and interactions between flora and fauna. A place of beauty and danger, partly real and partly deceptive, populated by life-size and oversized animals, hybrids between humans and animals, humans and ceramics, animals and ceramics, and verisimilar vegetation.

The exhibition space is filled with Antonino Sciortino's large iron clovers, sculptures whose subtle, thread-like presence visually overlaps with the other works, causing a vibration in the gaze. A slight movement alters their very sharpness. At the centre is an object made of straw and terra cruda, created for the occasion by Peppe Arena, based on a design by Biagio Luca Intorrella. It evokes a kiln and houses a collection of ceramics (“dieci vasi”) born from experimentation and the expressive affinities of unurgent argilla + marə. 

Walking through the exhibition, one loses awareness. The works destabilise our perception of space and things. On the walls is a hybrid between painting and sculpture, “Inchoate Interstice”, 2025 by Phillip Zach. The canvas is stretched over a structure made of found materials and protrudes from the wall, part nest, part ruin, part skin. Three ferocious dogs chase each other in a spiral in Michelangelo Menu's oil painting “Three Dogs Running Behind A Fence”, 2025. We look at them through a fence, without interfering. A female creature emerges alongside dog figures from Rossella Poidomani's encaustic paintings, suspended between myth and folklore. We feel observed by the eyes of shapeless faces, by the same artist.

Gordon Plus's red ants in procession are two-dimensional and oversized. As a result of their artistic mutation, they appear less “menacing”. The facial mimicry of Ottavia Ciaceri's colourful fish surprises us. Their human expressions reveal their feelings. The visual realm, the natural world, the external environment and the intimate sphere are interconnected. On a bookstand/oracle, visitors can consult Marco Terroni Grifola's artist's books “La tua guida sia la Natura” (Let Nature be your guide), 2025, which are dense with allegories and symbols and illustrate the final stage of chemical transmutation in alchemy: RUBEDO. Through sublimation, the fusion between the ego and the Self is achieved.

COME CLOSER AND SEE is a world “close to the ground” (to quote Isidore in “De Natura Rerum”), made up of conceptual perceptions and natural materials. It is filled with strange creatures and imagination-fuelled illustrations, which may leave some people feeling alienated while others will connect with the works on display.  

Works by Phillip Zach, Antonino Sciortino, Michelangelo Menu, Rossella Poidomani, Gordon Plus, unurgent argilla + marə, Marco Terroni Grifola, Ottavia Ciaceri. Straw and terra cruda artefact by Peppe Arena.

The poster “WOOOOOOOOLF” by Enrico Gisana x GARAGE FONTANA has been printed for the exhibition.

EXHIBITION VIEWS

Copyright : Natale Leontini (exhibition), unurgent argilla + marə (dieci vasi), Studio Phillip Zach (Inchoate Interstice)

Three Dogs Running

Behind A Fence 

Michelangelo Menu

Oil on canvas

Dim 200 x 150 cm

2025

WORKS

Attenti al cane 

Rossella Poidomani

Encaustic on paper and wood 

Dim 24 × 17 cm 

2025

Inchoate Interstice

Phillip Zach

Oil and oil pastel on canvas on a construction of found plastic, textiles, and wood

Dim approx 32 x 69 x 28 cm

2025

Cane mangia cane

Rossella Poidomani

Encaustic on paper and wood

Dim 10 × 5 cm 

2025

Lupo Bisalta

unurgent argilla + marə

Gray clay from Bisalta

Wood-fired in an anagama kiln

Dim H34, Ø13 cm

2025

Vacche d'Ardèche

unurgent argilla + marə

Stoneware and granite from Ardèche

Wood-fired in an anagama kiln

Dim H25, Ø21 cm

2024

Quadrifogli

Antonino Sciortino

Metal and paint

Series of 30 sculptures

Dim apprx H 230 cm

2025

100 POZZI

Rossella Poidomani

Encaustic on paper and wood

Dim 20 × 10 cm 

2025

Gallina Bisalta

unurgent argilla + marə

Red clay from Coumbe, Bisalta

Wood-fired in an anagama kiln

Dim H37, Ø15 cm

2025

Formiche Rosse

Gordon Plus

Galvanised metal sheet, car paint

Edition of 35 x GARAGE FONTANA

Dim 16 x 42 cm

2025

Senza titolo

Rossella Poidomani

Pen on paper

Series of four works

Dim  A4 (21 x 29,7 cm)

2017

Biacco Bisalta

unurgent argilla + marə

Red clay from curva del

serpente, Bisalta

Wood-fired in an anagama kiln

Dim H46, Ø26 cm

2025

Vacca Kržišče

unurgent argilla + marə

Pink clay from Slovenia

Wood-fired in an anagama kiln

Dim H33, Ø17 cm

2025

Evoluzione

Ottavia Ciaceri

Glazed ceramic

Dim 27 x 28 x 37 cm

2025

Serpente di Karlovac

unurgent argilla + marə

Red clay from Croatia

Wood-fired in an anagama kiln

Dim H39, Ø22 cm

2025

Vacca Karlovac

unurgent argilla + marə

Red clay from Croatia

Wood-fired in an anagama kiln

Dim H34, Ø21 cm

2025

Evoluzione

Ottavia Ciaceri

Glazed ceramic

Dim 16 x 23 x 41 cm

2023

La tua guida sia la Natura

Marco Terroni Grifola

Mixed media on paper

Series of four artist's books

Dim closed book 26 x 32,5 cm

2025

Capra Bisalta 

unurgent argilla + marə

Red clay from Coumbe, Bisalta

Wood-fired in an anagama kiln

Dim H26, Ø13 cm

2025

Vacca Lago d'Orta

unurgent argilla + marə

Kaolinitic clay from Lake d’Orta

Wood-fired in an anagama kiln

Dim H36, Ø15 cm

2025

Vacca Puisaye

unurgent argilla + marə

Pink clay from Slovenia

Wood-fired in an anagama kiln

Dim H34, Ø22 cm

2024

EXTRA CONTENTS

Graphic design: GG-Office

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