Giacomo Santiago Rogado is a Swiss painter of Spanish-Italian origin who lives and works in Basel and Berlin. The artist is currently featured in two exhibitions in Thun, Switzerland: at the Thun-Panorama and the Kunstmuseum Thun. It’s the first time an artist is showing work simultaneously at both venues. For the Thun-Panorama, Giacomo Santiago Rogado has developed an expansive installation that examines its surroundings. The Kunstmuseum Thun presents an overview of the artist’s career. In this video we attend the opening reception of Giacomo Santiago Rogado’s retrospective at Kunstmuseum Thun. The exhibition, curated by Helen Hirsch (Director, Kunstmuseum Thun), runs until July 28, 2024.
Giacomo Santiago Rogado: All That You See / Kunstmuseum Thun. Vernissage, May 10, 2024.
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Illusion, intuition, inspiration and transformation are catchwords that are often applied to Giacomo Santiago Rogado’s work. And he also uses them himself to describe a process-oriented practice that, intriguingly, leaves a great deal to chance. Viewers might also think of such terms when they discover that his work delivers not definitive truths but rather food for their own thoughts. For over 20 years, Giacomo Santiago Rogado, who has been honoured with prestigious prizes such as the Swiss Art Award (2007), the Manor Cultural Prize of Central Switzerland (2009) and the Recognition Prize of the City of Lucerne (2013), has been fascinating the public with his paintings. They draw the eye deep into a picture space with no evident boundaries, thus opening up an infinite expanse.
Giacomo Santiago Rogado is known for arresting compositions that betray an thorough exploration of colour and form. Continually embarking on new paths as an artist and researcher, he playfully probes the limitations and conditions of contemporary painting in ways that are sometimes quite spectacular. Viewers have the opportunity to experience a low-threshold introduction to Rogado’s astonishing creative power and joy in experimentation by contemplating the juxtaposition of a work such as Bellevue with the walk-in installation Growing together through emotions over time (see selected images). Not only the route from figurative to abstract painting becomes apparent here but also Rogado’s increasing focus on what remains when all that is superfluous is simply omitted. Or, as he puts it: “when you integrate the spiritual into the technical”
Giacomo Santiago Rogado, born in Lucerne in 1979, is a Swiss painter of Spanish-Italian origin who today lives and works in Basel and Berlin. His works have been shown in numerous institutional solo and group exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad, including at the Städtische Galerie in Delmenhorst (2021), Kunstmuseum Solothurn (2019), Helmhaus Zürich (2014), Museum im Bellpark in Kriens (2013) and Kunstmuseum Luzern (2009) as well as in group exhibitions at the Centre d’art Pasquart in Biel (2022), Aargauer Kunsthaus in Aarau (2014) and Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2010).
