Comunicato stampa | Press release

Matèria is pleased to present Common Ground, a special project conceived for the fourth edition of Contemporanea – Roma Gallery Weekend, opening on May 14, bringing together the works of José Angelino, Fabio Barile, and Stefano Canto.

 Conceived as a focused and time-bound intervention within the gallery’s program, Common Ground takes the form of a short-format exhibition developed specifically for the Capital’s Gallery Weekend. In this sense, Common Ground offers an opportunity to activate agile, project-based dynamics, opening a space for dialogue that unfolds in parallel with the gallery’s annual program.

 The exhibition takes its title from the idea of a shared ground from which three distinct artistic practices emerge, understood as a point of departure for dialogue. It brings together three mid-career artists - all based in Rome - distinct in language and approach, yet connected by a broad spectrum of interests that over time, has generated moments of proximity and exchange. The project also reflects the evolving relationship between the gallery and the artists: Stefano Canto and Fabio Barile have long been represented by Matèria, whose practices the gallery has supported and developed over time, while Common Ground marks the beginning of a new collaboration with José Angelino.

 Common Ground is conceived as a space of coexistence. The project presents three recent bodies of work, each occupying the space autonomously while remaining open to dialogue. Sculpture, installation, and photography unfold in parallel, tracing distinct - at times converging - paths around questions related to structure, perception, and the relationship between natural and constructed systems.

 In different ways, the practices of Angelino, Barile, and Canto engage with the tension between order and unpredictability, between the human impulse to define and the inherent complexity of observed phenomena. Through material processes, spatial interventions, and investigations into image-making, their works articulate a continuous negotiation between control and contingency - a way of inhabiting, rather than resolving, this dynamic. Stefano Canto extends the research developed in his recent solo exhibition Sogno di Pietra, further elaborating a dialogue between the ephemeral and the permanent through sculptural processes that interrogate transformation and the resistance of matter. For this occasion, José Angelino presents a site-specific installation conceived in direct response to the space, engaging with its architectural and perceptual conditions. Fabio Barile premieres a selection of new works, the result of an extended period of experimentation in photographic production, new technologies, and an ongoing reflection on the relationship between the contemporary image and the traditional canon of art.

 By bringing together three individual trajectories, the project outlines a broader perspective on the gallery’s commitment to supporting and consolidating artistic practices over time. Matèria positions itself in dialogue with the artists it represents and with the context it inhabits; it opens to different formats and to the possibility of working in public space through its Vitrine and Luci di via projects, challenging the format and space of the traditional gallery and defining its identity as an interlocutor for the artists with whom it collaborates, actively engaged in building long-term research.

 The exhibition thus marks the beginning of a conversation; a dialogue that originates within the shared space of the gallery and extends outward, inviting further exchanges and developments. It is therefore both a presentation and a proposition: a first chapter in an encounter that the gallery intends to cultivate with its artists in the future.