Mario Testino at Patricia Low Contemporary

Equus zebra hartmannae, Namibia, 2022. Photo: Mario Testino.
Baroque Venus and porcelain still lifes intersect in this exhibition by Mario Testino at Patricia Low Contemporary, staged in Venice — a city historically associated with spectacle — as a play between two opposing aesthetic poles. On one side, the Peruvian photographer revisits Venetian Rococo excess: in "Stella Tennant, New York, American Vogue" (2006), a John Galliano haute couture dress adorns the British model, in dialogue with the "Meissen" series (2019), portraits of historical porcelain vases representing the four elements. On the other side, Testino seeks the classical ideal of symmetry and perfection in "Horses (II), Urtasaray, Uzbekistan" (2023) and in a portrait of Vittoria Ceretti for Vogue Paris (2017), both featuring the almost sculpted presence of ancient marbles. Uniting the two lines is nature: monumental floral panels like "London" (2019) and "Tokyo" (2018-2019 II) revisit ukiyo-e and ancient Japanese screens used to bring light and landscape into domestic environments — an invitation, in the context of the exhibition, to consider photography as a tool for idealization and memento mori, capable of preserving beauty beyond its natural duration.