Mats Bergquist's Controminimalist Art at Galleria San Fedele

Galleria San Fedele in Milan presents a solo exhibition of Swedish artist Mats Bergquist (born 1960, Stockholm). The show emphasizes the overall composition and interaction between works and space over individual pieces. Bergquist's art is aniconic, featuring modular monochrome panels and austere oval sculptures evoking heads without external outlets. The exhibition space exudes a Bergmanian silence, but tactile sensations emerge from encaustic panels with wax stratifications and concavities, referencing Russian icon craftsmanship (with crossbars and twenty layers) but devoid of imagery. The most figurative piece is a bronze cast of the artist's hand grasping emptiness; another wall sculpture is a ladder climbing toward nothing. Partial referentiality appears in hanging "ships" with stylized forms and pigment-filled concavities. Upstairs, the show turns white: a double sculpture with wall and floor elements resembles a prie-dieu but remains in the realm of pure form, described as "controminimalism." The final installation pairs two works, creating an aleatory stylized snowy landscape with autobiographical references. Bergquist's works blend Western and Eastern philosophy, literary allusions, and spatial organization akin to a musical score, offering a spiritual and secular interpretation of universal symbols.