CAPTION
Elizabeth Dee, New York
September 20 – November 4, 2017
Perfect Flowers introduces twenty-five original compositions on the theme, expressed in metaphorical dimensions that illuminate the physical senses. Occupying the ground floor gallery, these works on canvas can be combined and read in multiple contexts from different points in space.

Giorno’s show, over two years in the making, marks a high creative period for the artist’s visual practice. The Perfect Flowers series explores new content that the artist began working on in the early 2000s, expanding on previously known lines and cadences around the topic. The result is a series of luminous new paintings with enriched surfaces that elevate the artist’s recent writings.

Additionally, the continuation of the exhibition on the second floor is devoted to graphic works on paper in two site-specific installations. The watercolors highlight the chromatic diversity and illuminate the attitudinal content in Giorno’s boundary crossing works. In contrast, the graphite works in the adjacent gallery are smaller and more intimate. They employ handwriting on themes past and present, evoking a quality of line that is both raw and intensely energetic.
Following the conclusion of UGO RONDINONE: I ❤ JOHN GIORNO, the successful multi-venue retrospective collaboration in New York this year, Perfect Flowers, further focuses on a spectrum of the artist’s ongoing and new directions. Works as exquisite and cutting as CHERRY BLOSSOMS ARE RAZOR BLADES, CARNATIONS GLORIOUSLY SELF-SERVING and SNOW DAHLIAS SHARP AS CAT PISS, provoke and acknowledge earlier subtexts in the work in new compositions, such as, I WANT TO CUM IN YOUR HEART, BAD NEWS IS ALWAYS TRUE or GOD IS MAN MADE. The frankness of Giorno’s communication is at play, as it translates differently each time it is seen, heard or spoken in a rapidly evolving political and social landscape.

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