'Push Power'
Orlando Museum of Art
2024 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art
Curator: Coralie Claeysen-Gleyzon
Artwork & Animation: Francesco Lo Castro
Sound: Danny Daze
Light Programming: Mikhail Mansion
Fabrication: Miami Grill Giftshop & BEK Milling
Lead Preparator: Adam Lavigne
The Florida Prize in Contemporary Art is organized by the Orlando Museum of Art to bring new recognition to the most progressive artists in the State. Each year OMA’s curatorial team surveys artists working throughout the State before inviting ten to participate.
Artists range from emerging to mid-career, often with distinguished records of exhibitions and awards that reflect recognition at national and international levels. In all cases, they are artists who are engaged in exploring significant ideas of art and culture in original and visually exciting ways.
The Florida Prize in Contemporary Art underscores the commitment of OMA to the art of our time, and to supporting artists who live and work in our State. This year will mark the tenth edition of the Florida Prize in Contemporary Art.
Push Power (2024) is very much influenced by the general energy of the last few years; the divisive thoughts, confusing conflicts, and polarizing debates prompting people to take sides on what appears to be an ever-increasing rift. To create this new piece, Lo Castro used 3D printing technology and computer animation graphics.
For years, he collaborated with motion graphic designers, striving to bring his visions to life. Eventually, he mastered the technology himself to create his animations. Push Power, Lo Castro says, is a testament to “existential forces consistently trying to assert their dominance and take ownership of the environment.”
Expressed through abstraction in the form of a slender sculptural form, the piece is infused with the assertiveness and tension intended by the artist. The structure that appears as a towering building bathed in a striking red light, can in the span of a moment transform into the slopes of an icy glacier or iceberg in shimmering aqua and fuchsia hues. This combination of strength and fragility which is echoed in the animation is intentional, as the artist mentions man’s aim to constantly build towers to his own glory, leading to an ultimate tumbling down of the ecosystem.
Around the room, multidimensional wall panels, constructed from glossy layers of epoxy resin, coating a mix of dark colors and shapes, give the sleek environment an air of sophistication and mystery. On the way out of the gallery, the visitor is faced with an elegant rose gold mirror which propels their reflection back into the work, as a way of both acknowledging their presence and questioning their involvement in the system.
“We often want to distinguish ourselves, to be separate from each other, from technology, from nature, not realizing that we are part of an ever-evolving organism, at the mercy of much larger, ancient forces, dancing between efficiency and entropy,” says Lo Castro, “molecules pushing other molecules.”
Merging art and technology seamlessly, Lo Castro's installation reflects man's interplay with architecture, nature, and societal networks. As environments and landscapes are viewed from multiple perspectives, a link between physical reality and its hidden power structures is exposed, continually addressing civilization’s expanding impact amid accelerating natural evolution.
-Coralie Claeysen-Gleyzon, Chief Curator, Orlando Museum of Art
