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Power of Colour
Mario Arlati
25June – 25 September 2016
105 New Bond Street, W1S 1DN

Power of Colour features a definitive collection of works that explore the artist's complex chromatic understanding and deft manipulation of materials. These are unique artistic traits that have earned Mario Arlati recognition in a global arena and the rightful reputation as a ‘master of colour’.

Born in Milan in 1947, Mario Arlati received his formal artistic training at the Castello Sforzesco Art School. Following his study here, Arlati initially pursued a purely figurative style within his works. However, it was upon discovering a life in Ibiza in the late 1960's that his artistry truly emerged. Here, in the smallest of the Balearic Islands, Mario Arlati came to develop the uniquely informal and textural style that he is now recognised for the world over.

Inspired by the textured walls of Ibiza’s buildings, cracked by the heat of the sun and the salty sea air, Mario Arlati’s works reflect the narrative of the environment from which they originated. Through the relationship between his gestural mark making and considered implications of colour, Arlati presents his subjects as a living source, revealing the transitional nature of the Mediterranean's sunlit spaces. This early artistic oeuvre, known informally as Arlati's 'Walls of Ibiza', would prove to be his painterly genesis, from which begun a wealth of further chromatic exploration.

Using colour as his primary tool, Arlati has continued to transform the mundane happenstances of life into vital works of art. Indeed, through his practice, discarded selvages from the textile industry are once more invigorated through colour and transformed from their previously redundant state into multifaceted works of art. In the same vein, Arlati also applies these techniques to ornate, once-forgotten frames, scoured for in the flea markets of Europe. In this way, Arlati creates works that guide the viewer through a perceptual exploration of both colour and texture, drawing attention to the varying nuances that make each work so exceptional. For Arlati, art is "a passion - a movement like acting or dancing. I believe that the spirit is the same whatever art you are engaging in.” Typically for the artist, Arlati is fervent in developing his own practice and Power of Colour will begin to explore these future discoveries.

Arlati's work has been celebrated worldwide with gallery and museum exhibitions in USA, Tokyo, Brazil and Russia, to name but a few. Collectors of his work can be found in all four corners of the globe, perhaps most notable of all being the world renowned patron of the arts Steve Wynn, for whom Arlati's works feature prominently in his collection.

A testament to the continuing brilliance of the artist, this year will also see the completion of one of his most monumental and ambitious projects to date. In collaboration with Architectural bureau Dante O. Benini, Arlati has designed the five skyscrapers that will make up an innovatory new residential complex in Moscow, aptly titled 'Living Art'. This project symbolises a new era of architecture in Russia and is described as having been "created at the junction of architecture, fashion and art". Once complete, the Living Art complex will be included in the Guinness book of World Records as the world’s largest work of art - an exemplification of Mario Arlati's true artistic significance.
