BIO
Andrea Samory (b. 1991) is a self-taught Italian visual artist based in Tokyo.
After opening his sculpture studio in Tokyo in 2021, he now exhibits regularly in Asia and Europe. He has been featured in international websites and zines. He has exhibited in Italy, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Seoul and Australia.
STATEMENT
Andrea Samory’s approach is based on a post-internet vision of art as the process of materializing virtual images and intangible forces. He focuses on the biological body in relation to the stereotypical concept of nature, and on how familiar images, when released from their idealized context, can become a mirror for collective anxieties and expectations towards the future.
In his work, the philosophies of Speculative Realism and Assemblage Theory get infused into the genres of Sci-Fi, Body Horror, Cosmic Horror and Magical Realism - a narrative created as a response to nowadays incessant flux of both dystopic and utopic information regarding global society, climate, politics, technology.
His vocabulary takes advantage of shiny, soft and colorful materials to attract the viewer into a world of natural corruption and uncannyness - provoking the ambivalent feelings of repulsion and fascination, alienation and familiarity, recognition and corruption. This approach takes inspiration from how virality (both as a biology-related concept and an internet-related concept), and intangible forces in general, shape our everyday lives.
The recurring themes of growth, entropy, mythology and human hybris are given shape through the recombination, aggregation, distortion, and assemblage of natural textures and figures. He combines 3d sculpting and 3d printing with SFX and more traditional sculpting techniques, to attract the viewer into a world of natural corruption and uncannyness - provoking the ambivalent feelings of repulsion and fascination, alienation and recognition.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023| “Overgrowth” at Contrast, Tokyo, Japan
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024| Art Central HK Art Fair, Main Entrance Installation, Wan Gallery, Hong Kong
2024| One Art Taipei Art Fair, Wan Gallery booth, Taiwan
2023| “Reverberating Things” at Candy snake gallery, Milan, Italy
2023| Night Art Fair Taipei, with Contrast Gallery, Taiwan
2023| “Generation(Z)” by BOOMing art show, at DumBO, Bologna, Italy
2022| “Chimera” at Candy Snake Gallery, Milan, Italy
2021| “Mirror Room” at Edicola Radetzky, Milan, Italy
2021| “The Garden” at Candy snake gallery, Milan, Italy
2020| RE_Act + Harddisk Museum Isolation Residency online exhibition
2020| “Holomovement” at Dimora Artica, Milano, Italy
2019| “Secret Cabinet” at Dimora Artica, Milano, Italy
2019| WET Residency Exhibition for emerging artists
2019| “Tetsuo’s Body”, Artist run space Merdre, Tokyo, Japan
2019| “Tetsuo’s Body”, 9Hrs Capsule Hotel Otemachi, Tokyo, Japan
2018| Pavillion “Namako” Canberra Design Festival, Australia
2018| Pavillion “Namako” CMP Block Museum of Arts, Taichung
2018| “Nature is Viral—Paradise lost” in Palazzo Sgavuzzo, Palermo, Italy
2018| “Kuma Lab: Weaving” in Lixil Gallery, Tokyo
PRIZES
2024| “99 Future Blue Chip Artists Prize 2024” Finalist
EDUCATION
2017-2019| Kengo Kuma Laboratory, University of Tokyo, Japan. Research Student
2011 - 2017| Ferrara Architecture University, Italy. Master Degree in Architecture 110/110
2014 - 2015| Kengo Kuma Laboratory, University of Tokyo, Japan. International Researcher
2014| Department of Architecture, KU Leuven Faculty, Belgium
SELECTED RESIDENCIES / WORKSHOPS
2020| RE_Act + Harddisk Museum Isolation Residency
2020| Art residency at Kohei Nawa + Sandwich Inc., Kyoto, Japan
2019| WET Residency
2017| UTokyo + Princeton Super Jury at Princeton University, US
2015| AA Summer School London
2014| Existenz workshop, KU Leuven, Belgium
2013| CEPT Uni. + Ferrara Uni. workshop in Jodhpur and Ahmedabad, India
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2024| “99 Future Blue Chip Artists 2024” Book by Artsted, Artisfact Ltd.
2023| NONFICTION Issue 04
2022| NONFICTION Issue 03
2018| Wattention n.29, Sept. 2018
2016| Ed.: Takero Shimazaki, Erika Suzuki, “T-sa Forum Vol.6: Renewal Emotion” AA Publications, London
SELECTED PRESS
2023| Overgrowth on Kubaparis
2023| Generation(Z) on Il Resto del Carlino
2021| Mirror Room on Artribune
2020| Re_Act
2020| Holomovement on Artland
2019| Tetsuo’s Body on OFLUXO