Three years after his first Italian solo show at MAN, the Art Museum in Nuoro (Sardinia), and six months since his last European solo show at Tim Van Laere Gallery in Antwerpen, Belgium, Ed Templeton is back in Europe, opening a solo show at Jerome Zodo Contemporary in Milan, Italy. A Gentle Collision is opening on Sept 19th, and the artist prepared a wide range of works for the show, from photographs, to paintings, silkscreens, drawings and sculptural works.
Templeton became popular as a professional skateboarder back in the 90s. Living a 24/7 life of a skater in those years, he had a great opportunity to capture this influential movement and everything that was connected to it. From art to music, from world travels to local spots, from stories of success to stories of hard failure & great misfortune, and everything in between. Constantly influenced by this dynamic lifestyle that was powered by a young generation, he started combining his love for skateboarding, with photography and art. The result were ads for his company Toy Machine, that always stood out in every mag they would appear in. Combining great photography, with humor, over sized text bubbles, strange quotes or statements and weird drawings, these ads were the base for what Tempelton focused on later in his art career.
Fast forward two and half decades later, and he is bringing his latest body of work to Milan, the city where he got his big official photo work approval by winning the first prize in an art competition called Search for Art in Milan back in 2000. Still intrigued by the street life around him, the artist is on the constant lookout to capture those scarce, significant moments in everyday life of random people. Whether he is capturing it with his camera, painting it on a canvas, sketching it on a stationery paper, creating a sculpture of scrap material or writing about it in his diary, the result is always a recognizable testament of a moment in life of a real person.
For this show, it looks like Templeton is still developing new concepts, sharpening up his style and techniques, pushing his own limits, and creating more coherent and more complex work. If you’re familiar with his earlier works, you’ll surely notice how far he pushed himself with these pieces he prepared for his Milan solo. The exhibition is on view until November 22nd, so make sure you check it out of you’re in Milan.
Discuss Ed Templeton here.
