Italian Kinetic artist Ben Ormenese was born on this day, March 3, 1930 in Prata di Pordenone. While he has now been aligned with Kinetic artists such as Alberto Biasi, Edoardo Landi,Hugo Demarco, Horacio Garcia Rossi, Julio Le Parc, Francisco Sobrino and Franco Costalonga, Ormenese worked, for the most part, independently and was not professionally associated with the group. In the sixties he began to make complex three-dimensional canvases by inserting painted projective planes into the frame that created a play of shapes and shadows on the multilayered surface. During the 1970s, Ormenese continued to develop three-dimensionality by constructing forms out of lacquered and sometimes burned pieces of wood. He has exhibited paintings from this period in Italy, Germany, Spain, and the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
In 1978, unexpectedly, Ormenese abandoned his studio in Milan and his ties with the art world. Moving back to Friuli, he continued to work, nonetheless, creating ever more ambitious sculptural works that completely left behind any previous relationship his work might have had with painting and the wall. He lived and worked until 2013 in Sacile, near Pordenone. A year after his death the Archive Ormenese, was founded for the protection and enhancement of the artist’s work. The foundation is currently working on the publication of Ormense’s catalog raisonné.
ITALY, 1969, wooden colored pieces in relief
LAM series, 1970, wooden colored pieces in relief
Untitled, 1970s, wooden colored pieces and glass in relief
Untitled (Blue), 1970, wooden colored pieces in relief
ZC-12, 1972, burnt wooden assemblage in relief