****** ROBERTO OPALIO & MCIAA @ SONIC YOUTH etc.: SENSATIONAL FIX ******

ROBERTO OPALIO & MY CAT IS AN ALIEN will participate to the forthcoming SONIC YOUTH etc.: SENSATIONAL FIX museum exhibition, that focuses on the multidisciplinary activities of the groundbreaking experimental guitar band Sonic Youth since its formation in 1981. It features the band's collaborations with visual artists, filmmakers, designers and musicians, as well as a choice of other works selected by the band. Through the multidisciplinary output of Sonic Youth and related works by other artists in the exhibition, an alternative history of contemporary culture is being uncovered in which the division between 'high art' and 'low art' is being called into question, while issues are explored such as teenage rebellion, adolescent wanderlust, gender, fame, fashion, sexuality, and religion.

ROBERTO OPALIO will present an exclusive installation entitled 'Alien Guitar Case #6', and his film 'Alien Blood' with soundtrack appositely created by MY CAT IS AN ALIEN.

Roberto Opalio - paintings, drawings & installations

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Biography

Roberto Opalio is a visual and sound artist from Torino, Italy. His work includes painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, poetry, glass art, film/video, sound installation, and performance.

Opalio's working process takes various elements of highly physical, terrestrial nature (glass and crystal fragments, wax, rocks, bark and branches, iron wire, etc.) and changes them into pure cosmic matter, returning them to the atemporal dimension of the Spheres, through a personal proper ritual, whose process originates, develops and is achieved like an act of violent determination, stretching out to fulfil its destiny without any kind of filter or compromise with the outside world. A boost that comes from the interior world and is projected directly into hyper space, where both a strong intellectual awareness and the pure unawareness of the fortuitous moment melt in a clash / crash which is performed around an action in real-time. Opalio's visual and audio visual performance, wheter in painting, music, photography, video or installation, is the result of this process.

This aesthetic is described by Opalio as "space art". The extra-terrestrial nature of his work claims its ontological status in the act of creating a non-finished, otherwordly dimension - a proper alien dimension.

Since 1998 Roberto Opalio acts as musician (together with his brother Maurizio) in the avant-garde improv duo My Cat Is An Alien, as well as a soloist; his special works of art represent the trademarked style of all the limited art-edition releases issued on the brothers' own Opax Records imprint.

In the last few years Roberto Opalio has performed his videos and specific audio visual installations in various arts & music spaces and festival in Italy and Europe, including the Sage Gateshead Newcastle and CCA Center of Contemporary Arts Glasgow in UK, Victoria Hall Geneve and Fri-son Freiburg in Switzerland, Les Instants Chavirès Paris in France, Galeria Ze' dos Bois Lisbon in Portugal, Torino BIG Biannual of Young Artists 2000, Interzona Verona, Init and Rialto S.Ambrogio Roma, Zo' Catania in Italy; group exhibition at Promotrice Delle Belle Arti Torino, as well as many private audio visual solo performances in secret non-art locations of the Western Alps.

Roberto Opalio's drawings and poetry works have been published in journals worldwide, including Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal, Thee Flat Bike and Dream Magazine in USA, Cocktail Molotov Journal in Brazil, The Sound Projector in UK, Sloow Tapes' My Favourite Magazine in Belgium among others.

In 2005 Roberto Opalio has been invited to contribute one of his original paintings for one of UK The Wire magazine's exclusive limited art t-shirts.

From October 19th to November 11th 2007 Roberto Opalio's 'Frammenti Cosmici' personal exhibition, featuring SPACE ART videos, installations, paintings, photos & art books, art-edition records and live performance, took place at Zuni in Ferrara, Italy; recommended event by The Wire. 

June 2008 - Roberto Opalio participates to SONIC YOUTH etc.: SENSATIONAL FIX exhibition, contributing an installation entitled 'Alien Guitar Case #6' and his film 'Alien Blood' with soundtrack by My Cat Is An Alien. The exhibition is initiated and curated by freelance curator Roland Groenenboom in collaboration with the band and will be presented at LiFE, St. Nazaire, France (from 17 June to 7 September 2008), MUSEION, Bolzano, Italy (from 10 October 2008 to 4 January 2009), and Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Germany (31 January to 26 April 2009). Further venues in Europe, the US and Asia.

Maurizio Opalio - Installations