Preview - Moneyless “Tornando” @ White Walls Gallery [SF]

Alpha and Omega 001 SF
Spray paint and acrylic on wood panel,
47×67 inches / 120×170 cm

If one was to google search “Moneyless,” they would most likely be flooded with links pertaining to Mark “The Moneyless Man” Boyle, author of The Moneyless Manifesto, in which the writer explores the potentialities of existing beyond “monetary economics,” essentially surviving in society without the need for orthodox currency, in an attempt to challenge our current economic structures and blow soccer moms’ minds the capitalist world over. Likewise, the art of Italy‘s Moneyless (born Teo Pirisi) offers some incredibly expansive and seemingly limitless use of dimension, virtually obliterating the typical restraints that confine the average gallery pieces and visual art. Initially utilizing a text-base style, he developed his skill throughout the 1990s graffitti scene in Tuscany, later furthering to develop his technique and hone his identity while studying Multimedia and Communication Design at Carrara Fine Art Academy and Isia in Florence, Italy, Pirisi progressed into his signature aesthetic of spirograph-like geometric wormholes and plays on dimensionality. His visually arresting public murals that he crafts manage to alter the structures of the spaces in which they are created, all together, mutating entire environments into abstract territories where conventional time and space seem to evaporate. Moneyless‘s installation works take that exhilarating yet baffling use of perspective even further; while his paintings deliver a surprising amount of depth, his 3-dimensional sculptural installations appear to float from all angles, defiant of the laws of physics and suspended like interdimensional hyper-cubes, threatening to fold within themselves tosucking reality as we know it into their atmospheric whirlpools at any moment.

Opening this Saturday, October 11th at White Walls Gallery in San Francisco, Moneyless will display his latest collection of works titled Tornando, which, as the press release explains, “translates to return or to come back in English” and consists of a one-month residency at the gallery, which involves the artist creating ” all new works on panel as well as a site specific installation for this exhibition.” With meticulous, intricate line work and the occasional tasteful, yet sparse incorporation of color, the acrylic and panel pieces in Tornando both pop off and hover within their primarily pitch-black backdrops, displaying a remarkable ability to not only warp the environment around them, but to move, twist, levitate, and breathe. If you’re able to get down to White Walls this month it should be fascinating to experience these pieces up close in person.

The following excerpts, taken from the official press release, elaborate on Pirisi and his art.

Whether it be painting or sculpture, the art of Teo Pirisi, otherwise known as Moneyless, is never tied down by the weight of any fixed form. Through the juxtaposition of pure geometric shapes and natural surroundings, he describes his work as geometric ontology. The artist’s aesthetic suggests a Platonic vision where geometry is represented as the structure and foundation upon which all nature is built. […] Born in Milan in 1980 and raised in Tuscany […] Teo Pirisi, is characterized by an investigation on the most raw elements of life and focuses on a process of continual evolution.

Check out preview images for the exhibit below the following event details…