Flavio Trevisan: Studies of a New Past
Flavio Trevisan Grey Area 2009 Courtesy Diaz Contemporary / photo Toni Hafkenscheid
Flavio Trevisan’s first solo exhibition at Diaz Contemporary, “Studies of a New Past,” features works that extend from the wall in three dimensions, evoking ancient frescoed reliefs. Alternately expansive and miniaturizing, these maps' acrylic-and-millboard structures conjure not only urban topography, but also the veins and ballast of a single building’s interior. Trained in architecture and a co-founder of the streetside Convenience Gallery, Trevisan here reduces complex city infrastructures to spare graphics and symbolic moods. Carefully, he contours the urban landscape in ways that speak to both the particular—a single neighbourhood, an individual street—and the general, like entire cities. And while many of these works would seem to reference Toronto—an open expanse of drywall becomes Lake Ontario, an elevated line forms the Don Valley Parkway—they also manifest a state of placelessness, acting as elegant pointers to the illustrative systems that mold contemporary geographic identities. (100 Niagara St, Toronto ON)
Flavio Trevisan (from left) (Up Down, Side-to-Side, Round and Round) 2010 Watershed 2008 The Three Dales 2010 Installation view Courtesy Diaz Contemporary / photo Toni Hafkenscheid
Flavio Trevisan The Three Dales 2010 Courtesy Diaz Contemporary / photo Toni Hafkenscheid
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