Fridge Covered in Magnets Becomes Art at Quartz Gallery in Turin

Quartz, a micro-gallery in Turin, celebrates its tenth anniversary with a dialogue between artists Isabell Heimerdinger (Stuttgart, 1963) and Jonathan Monk (Leicester, 1969), who are also a couple in life. The exhibition features a wooden table shaped like the Italian peninsula, with ceramic vases by Heimerdinger placed at cities meaningful to the pair: Turin, Milan, Padua, Bologna, Rome, Naples, Bari. The shape references Luciano Fabro's "Italie" series. Monk's playful refrigerator, covered with 105 magnets—mostly Vespa reproductions—evokes Mario Merz's igloos; a portrait of Merz is revealed inside. The gallery owner Francesca Referza notes Monk wanted a Zanussi fridge but only an Ocean was found. Monk inaugurated Quartz in 2014 and has shown there multiple times. The exhibition also includes the neon "Le silence," alluding to Merz, and a diptych of mosaics by Heimerdinger, both never exhibited in Europe before.