I have to been going to Patricia Armocida Gallery openings since it used to be located in Via Lattanzio 77. I’ve always found that we speak the same language, and that the exhibitions showcased a different scenario compared to what’s usually proposed in Milan artistically speaking.
A glimpse on the progressively more frequent scenario of independent contemporary art. If in the past this movement used to stem from underground movements, today it expresses an evolved syntax of the same codes. Outside of common and conventional circuits, the Gallery proposes visual contents that establish a continuous dialogue with the surrounding urban environment.
At the time I didn’t know who the determined pioneer, bringing Milan closer to this vision was: Patricia Armocida. During the opening of her first location in Piola in 2007, the internationally known Brazilian brothers OSGEMEOS were brought to Italy for the first time. Today their gigantic mural Efêmero, part of the “Outside the Cube” project, covers Hangar Bicocca’s majestic façade, casting the local context into an imaginary trip.
Patricia moves her first steps as a sales manager during “Urban Edge”, a massive exhibition in which over 50 national and international artists were involved. But it is only after the thrill of selling her first artwork by Shepard Fairey (OBEY) depicting Noam Chomsky, that she becomes aware of being on the right track.
She later works with Emi Fontana and after a few months she becomes Giuseppe Pero’s assistant at 1000eventi Gallery. She steps foot into the art world with the certainty that one day she’d open her own personal gallery, and back then she already knew that her future spot would feature the Brazilian duo she’d been following for years.
The rest is history.
In January 2016 Patricia opens her new space in Via Argelati with “Previously”, displaying some of the most representative pieces of each artist that had been present in the gallery in the past. During the same year she exhibits important artists such as Eron, Maya Hayuk, Cleon Peterson, Francesco Igory Deiana, Revok and MODE 2.
Between 2017 and 2018 I’ve viewed the richest and most refined selection ever. “Objecthood” where abandoned and unused books become the protagonists of Junkhee Kwon’s works, filling the gallery with the smell of paper, sense and words.
In “Tradizione Proverbiale” eL Seed’s Calligraffiti testify the malleability of Arab writing filtered by the impulsiveness of French urban art.
Abstract chromatic research capturing vision in Nuria Mora’s first Italian solo show “Drishti” (cover image). Ellie Davies and her magical nebulous universes in the English forests with “Nebuale”.
While I wait to hear news on what visitors will have the pleasure to see next, I decide to contact her. I find myself interacting with a woman who has a strong, decisive personality and of an incredible transparency.
. . .
WHY
why and how did you end up in your career path?
After my university degree in History of Art, I came from Bologna to Milan. Due to an incidental circumstance I found myself collaborating as an intern in a place where I’d sent my application to and where I personally knew the artists who were being exhibited.
Besides the logistics I was also entitled to support the artists operationally, and talk the visitors through the biographies and the artworks. In a very natural manner, by recounting the artworks and giving advice, I started selling. At the time I advised a customer to buy an original piece by Shepard Fairey (OBEY) that’s now 10 times worth the price, if not more. That’s when I found out I had a talent I was unaware of. I was simply presenting the works with love. I didn’t have a percentage on sales, but after I sold it I could feel butterflies in my stomach. I understood that that was the direction I wanted to take so I realised that I had to work my way up the ladder in important private galleries.
I start collaborating with Emi Fontana as an intern. Her assistant was awesome; she taught me how the market works and how to relate to the various figures who orbit around a gallery. After that the occasion to be Giuseppe Pero’s assistant showed up. I already knew I wanted to open my own gallery one day – which is also a thing I told him – and in the following 3 years I learnt so much.
At the age of 30 I decided to proceed, he was happy and proud of me. He followed me back then and still does today, glad that I’ve always followed a coherent style that distinguishes me.
By opening my gallery I wanted to fill the gap in the Milanese system. The artists I was trying to represent are part of that global scenario which exploded in the 80s-90s. All that independent scenario, of culture tied to music and to a precise aesthetic. It wasn’t being well-represented in Italy.
In Milan and Bologna I was part of this cultural scenario so I decided to make a precise selection of artists within this culture. OSGEMEOS – who I’m very close to – were the first ones I opened with; they were extremely famous in important galleries and museums, and had never been represented in Italy. So I decided to bring a scenery that didn’t have any galleries representing it. A fresh and innovative style.
WHO
how would you describe yourself in a few words?
Difficult in a few words. Surely I’d say curious, full of passion, idealist, a dreamer. I try to be scrupulous and professional in my work, and I’d also say transparent.
WHAT
what is your source of inspiration?
Definitely a gallery owner who has inspired me and my path. Though I don’t know him personally, I appreciate him for what he has created in Italy in the 60s: Gian Enzo Sperone. He opened the first gallery in Turin in the 60s then in Rome, New York and Lugano. He is the reference person for importing Pop Art in the moment it was developing in NY and the first person to bring it to Italy.
He wanted to be a writer but then became a gallerist. He brought the scenario that he grew up in at Turin and he then also exported it: the “Arte Povera” Movement.
He definitely affected my vision in relation to the direction my gallery has taken, because he managed to bring what was going on in the USA here and vice versa… a pioneer for several movements: for example minimalism in its golden age. He had the vision to bring here what was happening in the moment it was happening. Reading his biography has been really stimulating.
WHERE
where do you go to when you need a break?
To the sea. When that’s not possibile I choose to read a good book for my moments of peace: a good book and a good glass of wine.
WHEN
when and what will your next steps be?
I always try to bring artists who are exhibiting in Italy for the first time. Right now the English artist Ellie Davies is exhibiting, whereas the next will be Korean artist Yu Lim. During my last trip to NY I discovered a Canadian artist who lives in Brooklyn who’s style is very fresh, and his work is very touching, so I’d like to bring him here for the first time.
**WILDCARD
if you could have a tête-a-tête with somebody (living or from the past) who would you want it with and why?
A person who unfortunately isn’t here anymore and that I would’ve loved to know: Bruno Munari. He has given so much on so many levels thanks to his intense creativity: from design, to architecture, to education… all forms of expression. I’d like to hear what he’d have to say now, surely something brilliant and light.