Loading...
Loading...

GI-023. Luce Gallery

Luce Gallery

  • Address: C.so San Maurizio, 25 10124, Torino, Italy
  • Owner/Director: Nikola Cernetic

Nikola Cernetic (N): The gallery is basically an open space. It’s located in the centre of the city attached to the most historical part of it. Even though it’s located there, it looks more like an industrial space. At the same time, I feel it has a little taste of the classic. In fact, we have hardwood floors.
I immediately liked the space when I came into it because it’s adaptable to the different installations. Like it’s supposed to be. I think it smells of young, emerging artists, like the program, but as I said before, it has a bit of a classic feel too.

N: Before opening the gallery, I was a lawyer for around eighteen years. Step by step, over the course of a decade of experience, I became closer and closer to some artists. Then I began to collaborate with a gallery in Milano, and I also curated some exhibitions. I was feeling like it was not enough for me, cause I wanted to be more involved with artists. So I began to think about having a gallery that is fully involved and commissioned to artists, and when I found this space I opened it.

N: I think the work we are doing is mostly discovering young talent and promoting them in the right way.
I love the conversation with artists about the work. My goal is to give curatorial help to the artist, while at the same time let him be free to make what he wants, but still going deeper and discussing the work’s direction.
During this time, some of our artists passed from being emerging to more established. We are now beginning to have some very good relationships with institutions and we are approaching some shows in museums, either in Italy as well as outside Italy. We like to help manage the artist’s career, and also organize outside shows, catalogues, or monographs. I would say we like to try to help with the full management of our artists.
Plus I feel there’s a good number of international collectors that follow our program closely. They’re very serious collectors, which is what we like. This helped the relationship with artists, because they understood that we take care of them.

N: We are searching for a bigger space right now, so this is the next goal. But as always, we are searching for new artists to add to the program.

N: Torino is a great city for contemporary art. We have a deep tradition and compared to bigger European cities there is a more affordable approach. Having a gallery here is sustainable and this gives artists more opportunity for experimentation.

N: My all-time favourite artists are Franz Kline, Wayne Thiebaud, Eduard Monet, and Andy Warhol.
Throughout his career, Warhol’s work became 360 degrees innovative. He’s the father of video art, Pop art, repetition art, commercial art, mass production art, sex art, business art, process printing paintings, photography in paintings, and more.
Kline is unique in innovation of the sign, while Thiebaud in unique in elegance and technique, and Monet is incredible.

N: In April next year Davide Balliano will have his first solo museum show at the Marca museum in Catanzaro, Italy. This will be a great and important exhibition.

N: I look at the work and the person. I try to imagine if he/she is good for a much bigger step in his/her career.
The question is about the same: will the work still be good after twenty or more years?
The language that a work speaks to me with is important.

N: Try to work with the right galleries. Go slowly with rising prices and production. But at the same time work hard to practice and be better. And put only the best works out of the studio.

N: Good schools could help a lot but at the same time an artist without an educational formation could be interesting as well due to not having any influence.

N: The market has seen recently the rise and fall of many galleries. This shows how it is a difficult job. Although throughout the years we’ll become part of a more established and step by step bigger market, with an increasing number of important art fairs and increasing numbers of collectors.

Nikola Cernetic
  • Photos courtesy of Luce Gallery