
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