April 4, 2000

Media Contact: Kathleen Stoughton at University Art Gallery, (858) 534-0419, or Kate Callen at (858) 534-0361

DIEGO ESPOSITO AT UCSD UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY APRIL 14 - MAY 27

An installation by Diego Esposito will be on view April 14 through May 27 in the University Art Gallery at the University of California, San Diego. A reception for Esposito, who is an Artist-in-Residence and visiting faculty member of the UCSD Department of Visual Arts for the Spring Quarter, 2000, will be held Thursday, April 13, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Gallery.

Esposito's installations focus the viewer's attention on the interval of space and time, accentuating the void that exists between objects. Through experimentation with material, color, proportion, and form, he calibrates a dynamic tension among these elements within the exhibition space.

Esposito employs color in various capacities, imbuing his work with volume, sound, and philosophical content via painted surfaces and light. "I don't see it as color, but as color-form, like a place of echoes, with sounds, with its vibrations," he said. In his installations, the viewer's gaze encounters chromatic, luminous, and harmonic entities. As this experience transforms from the immediate physical realm to a cerebral space, a new orientation is discerned.

Esposito's enchantment with the Mediterranean, Greece, Turkey, Asia, and Japan is evident in his work. His projects evolve over time in travel diaries where he weaves memory, experience, and geography into a spatial itinerary. By integrating a traveler's voyage with artistic language, Esposito creates a labyrinth, leading to the individual in its center. In this way,

the installations reflect a personal journey, the search for knowledge of self, and the willingness to find oneself in comparison to other cultures and understandings. "Borders for me have always been places of attraction, not of separation," said Esposito.

Esposito, a native of Teramo, Italy, lived in the United States, in Philadelphia and New York, from 1968-1971. After his return to Rome in 1972, he moved to Milan, where he held a solo exhibition at the Gallarea dell'Ariete. Esposito has exhibited in Amsterdam, Istanbul, and throughout Italy. He has traveled extensively from Greece to the Middle East, and he has visited Japan several times to pursue his interest in the concepts of space-time and aesthetics in the Far East. He currently lives and works in Milan and Venice.

Diego Esposito: An Installation is presented by the University Art Gallery in collaboration with the UCSD Department of Visual Arts. The Gallery is located at the west end of Mandeville Center on the UCSD campus. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and by appointment for groups of 10 or more. Admission is free. Docent tours are available by appointment. For more information, call the Gallery at (858) 534-2107.