
Alps – Geographies and People #17, 2012, 45 x 60 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
Alps – Geographies and People #16, 2012, 45 x 60 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
Alps – Geographies and People #13, 2012, 45 x 60 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
Alps – Geographies and People #8, 2012, 45 x 60 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
Alps – Geographies and People #7, 2012, 60 x 45 inch or 85 x 65 inch archival pigment print
Alps – Geographies and People #6, 2012, 45 x 60 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
Alps – Geographies and People #4, 2012, 45 x 60 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print.
Alps – Geographies and People #3, 2012, 45 x 60 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print.
Adriatic Sea (Staged) Dancing People #8, 2015, 65 x 96 inch or 44.5 x 65.5 inch archival pigment print
Adriatic Sea (Staged) Dancing People #9, 2015, 65 x 96 inch or 44.5 x 65.5 inch archival pigment print
Adriatic Sea (Staged) Dancing People #10, 2015 65 x 96 inch or 44.5 x 65.5 inch archival pigment print
Adriatic Sea (Staged) Dancing People #11, 2015, 65 x 96 inch or 44.5 x 65.5 inch archival pigment print
Adriatic Sea (Staged) Dancing People #15, 2015, 65 x 96 inch or 44.5 x 65.5 inch archival pigment print
Adriatic Sea (Staged) Dancing People #17, 2015, 65 x 96 inch or 44.5 x 65.5 inch archival pigment print
Capri #8, 2013, 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
The Dolomites Project #3, 2010, 45 x 60 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
The Dolomites Project #8, 2010, 45 x 60 or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
The Dolomites Project #13, 2010, 45 x 60 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
The Dolomites Project #14, 2010, 45 x 60 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
05_site specific_VENEZIA 09, 2009, 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
site specific_VENEZIA 09, 2009, 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
site specific_VENEZIA 09, 2009, 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
site specific_CATANIA 09 #2, 2009, 61 x 45 inch or 85 x 65 inch archival pigment print
site specific_LAS VEGAS 07 (Red Rocks Pool), 2007, 45 x 61 inch archival pigment print
site specific_LAS VEGAS 07 (Neon Boneyard), 2007, 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
site specific_LAS VEGAS 07 (Golf Course), 2007, 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 archival pigment print
site specific_NYC_07_(United Nations), 2007, 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
site specific_NEW YORK 07 (Flatiron), 2007, 48 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 archival pigment print
site specific_NEW YORK 07 (Coney Island), 2007, 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
site specific_ROMA 04 (Pantheon), 2004. 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
site specific_ROMA 04 (Piazza del Popolo), 2004, 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
site specific_Roma_04_(Colosseo), 2004, 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
site specific_BRASILIA 09, 2009, 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
The Waterfalls Project (Iguazu), 2007, 61 x 45 inch or 85 x 65 inch archival pigment print
The Waterfalls Project (Iguazu), 2007, 61 x 45 inch or 85 x 65 inch archival pigment print
The Waterfalls Project (Iguazu), 2007, 61 x 45 inch or 85 x 65 inch archival pigment print
The Waterfalls Project (Victoria Falls), 2007, 61 x 45 inch or 85 x 65 inch archival pigment print
The Waterfalls Project (Niagara Falls), 2007, 61 x 45 inch or 85 x 65 inch archival pigment print
site specific_LOS ANGELES 05, 2005, 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
site specific_LAS VEGAS 05, 2005, 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
site specific_LAS VEGAS 05, 2005, 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
site specific_MONTREAL 04, 2004, 45 x 61 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
Lugo e Il Mare XXI, 2005, 60 x 45 inch or 85 x 65 inch archival pigment print
site specific_SHANGHAI 04, 2004, 45 x 61 inch or 85 x 65 inch archival pigment print
Stadio Palermo, 1999, 45 x 60 inch or 65 x 85 inch archival pigment print
Flippers #6, 1978. 19 x 13 inch archival pigment print
Flippers #7, 1978. 19 x 13 inch archival pigment print
Flippers #9, 1978, 19 x 13 inch archival pigment print
Flippers #10, 1978, 19 x 13 inch archival pigment print
Firenze #3, 2002, 48 x 60 inch archival pigment print
Canaletto, 2002, 40 x 80 inch archival pigment print
Firenze #9, 2002, 48 x 60 inch archival pigment print
Italian artist Olivo Barbieri is known for creating photographs that destabilize our understanding of humankind’s relationship to both urban and natural environments. Begun in 2004, Barbieri’s expansive series, site specific_, presents us with a unique vision of major cities such as Rome, Las Vegas, Shanghai, and New York. Taken from a helicopter and utilizing a large format camera with a tilt-shift lens, Barbieri’s photographs reduce these vast metropolises to mere models.
Subsequently turning his attention to the spectacle of nature in series such as The Waterfall Project (2006/7), Dolomites (2010), and Alps – Geographies and People (2012), Barbieri continues to play with the idea of scale. Adopting the same method of photographing from a helicopter, he reflects upon the entertainment value we now ascribe to natural phenomena such as waterfalls and mountains; waterfalls exist to be photographed by the masses, and mountains are to be ascended by fearless climbers.
Using additional devices, such as manipulating color, or deleting specific details, Barbieri aims to disrupt visual perception. The feeling produced when looking at his photographs is one of disorientation, akin to the vertigo one may feel when gazing down from a great height. In doing so, Barbieri highlights the ambiguity of all vision, ultimately forcing us to consider the relationship between reality and representation.
Born in Carpi, Italy, in 1954, Barbieri lives and works in Modena, Italy. In addition to his photographic work, Barbieri has directed critically acclaimed films, such as site specific_ROMA 04, site specific_SHANGHAI 04, and site specific_LAS VEGAS 05, which were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Tate Modern, London, the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, among other venues. His films were featured in the 2005 Toronto Film Festival and the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.
Barbieri’s photographs have been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art, and the International Center of Photography, New York. He has participated in the Venice Biennial (1993, 1995, 1997, 2011, 2013), the Prague Biennial (2009), the Seville Biennial (2006), and most recently in the Biennial of Photography Knokke-Heist, Belgium (2016). He was the subject of a major retrospective, Olivo Barbieri Images 1978 – 2014, at the MAXXI in Rome (2015).
RETROSPECTIVE AT MAXXI, ROME
May 28th - October 11th, 2015.
A major retrospective that frames, through six sections and over 70 works, the diverse themes or areas of research around which Olivo Barbieri has developed his artistic work. Photographs and films illustrate the photographer's career from the late 1970s to the present. Read more.
OLIVO BARBIERI, FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA, REGGIO EMILIA
May 15 - July 26, 2015
Gathered from his travels through Europe, Japan, China, Cairo, and the US, the series ERSATZ LIGHTS represents Barbieri's night photography from the 1980s until now.