Ateliers Courbet is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of Italian artist Mauro Mori, unveiling new sculptures carved in wood and stone. The exhibition will open on November 12th, 2024, at the Chelsea Gallery (134 Tenth Ave., NY, NY 10011). Marking the Milan-based artist’s fourth exhibition at the gallery, the presentation is a reflection on the artist’s nearly 40-year career as a sculptor and woodcrafter, and a celebration of his reverence for organic materials. The exhibition will include the unveiling of six new functional sculptures resulting from the dialogue between the artist and gallery founder Melanie Courbet. Expanding upon Mori’s Portraits series, this exhibition reflects the artist’s continued interest in pushing the boundaries of traditional sculpting techniques, while honoring the natural characteristics and qualities of his chosen materials.

Inspired by the raw beauty of natural materials and the intimate relationship between artist and medium, Mori crafts both functional and non-functional sculptures that celebrate the inherent characteristics of wood and stone. His works, meticulously carved on-site, often begin with personally selected marble blocks from Carrara, Italy, or Albizia Rosa wood sourced in Seychelles. Central to Mori’s artistic practice is his philosophy of subtraction, where simple shapes emerge through a process of removal, allowing the material’s unique qualities to inform the final form.

Initially unveiled at the gallery in 2021, the Portraits series results from a ten-year collaboration between the artist and Ateliers Courbet founder Melanie Courbet as part of the gallery ’s Editions Courbet program. The program, creatively directed by Melanie Courbet, aims to further support today’s rarefied master artisans by fostering and initiating new collaborations with contemporary artists, thus creating and supporting new bodies of work.

“This new series is close to my heart as Mauro Mori and I have spent extensive hours discussing the creative direction, the materials, drawing inspiration from the artistic periods and sources that Mauro and I have long shared. The boldest example being the Cycladic and Primitive Arts forms, which can be found both in his body of work and in the gallery’s selection and curatorial choices.”

- Melanie Courbet