TARO NASU is pleased to announce a dual exhibition by Jonathan Monk and Salvo, “Salvo Stage Sets”.
Salvatore Mangione, known as “Salvo”, has been active as a painter since the early 1960s. To make a living, Salvo is said to have sold inexpensive portraits, landscapes, and forgeries of works by famous artists.
Monk has been releasing a series of works, namely “Salvo Trees”, since 2016. In this series, Monk prints out images of Salvo’s landscape paintings on A4 paper or magazine advertisements, canvases, and then covers the background with acrylic, gouache or watercolors, leaving only the trees that belong to the original composition. Monk, who often uses “appropriation” as one of his methods, here focuses on the concept of repetition, providing a new perspective on Salvo’s artistic approach, as well as his own. 

In addition to the latest 12 works from Monk’s “Salvo Trees” series, “Staged Salvo”, for which the artist has included images of renowned musicians, this exhibition will feature 5 Salvo’s works, created around 1980-2000.

Jonathan Monk
Born in Leicester in 1969. Currently lives and works in Berlin. 
Recent exhibitions include “S L” Mahler & LeWitt Residency, Torre Bonomo, Festival dei Due Mondi, Spoleto, Italy (2024), “Metallic Sunsets” Dvir Gallery, Paris, France (2023), “Exhibit Model Six – The Tel Aviv Version” CCA Tel Aviv, Israel (2019), “Lenticular LeWitt” TARO NASU, Japan (2018), “Exhibit Model One” Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz, Switzerland (2016), “Anything by the Smiths” CAN Neuchâtel, Switzerland (2015), IMMA Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland (2014), “COLOURS SHAPES WORDS (pink, blue, square, circle)” CAC Malaga, Spain (2013) and more.

Salvo
Born in Leonforte in 1947 and died in Turin in 2015.
Salvo, born as Salvatore Mangione, spent his childhood in Sicily and moved to Turin with his family in 1956. He first created portraits and landscapes before becoming involved in the emerging Arte Povera movement. He used conceptual strategies to explore the role of the artist and created staged self-portraits representing various identities. From 1970s, he shifted focus to figurative painting, with an emphasis of psychological narratives and the passage of time, resulting in a visually rich body of work characterized by vibrant landscapes and cityscapes.
He took part in numerous international art events, such as Documenta 5 (1972) and the 41st Venice Biennale (1981), and had a retrospective exhibition at Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in his hometown of Turin in 2007. Recently, the focus of attention on Salvo has increased even more. His oeuvre has been featured in museums and galleries throughout Europe and the States, including a retrospective at Museo di Arte Contemporanea di Roma (2021).