The collective exhibition, created by Alberto Balleti and deliberately set up in the sixteenth century location of the Oratorio di San Ludovico in Venice, wishes to create a kind of Venetian Pantheon bringing together in one place all the portraits of the “new doges” that, publicly or secretly, still control the fate of the lagoon city. Representing the Venice of today, portraying, exposing and putting to shame its strong powers. This is precisely the aim of the exhibition NeoDogi, through the works of Balleti and his 24 young students of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice: to explicitly denounce and, at the same time, to ironically exalt the old oligarchies that, then as now, still control every aspect of social and civic life of Venice. Moreover, the artists aspire to regain their role as free interpreters of the society and the contemporary. The spontaneous complaint, inspired by the values of freedom of press and expression as felt in Venice since the times of the Republic, now replaces the portraits made thanks to the patronage of the ancient nobility. The exhibition will in fact made up of 14 'metopes' including paintings and engravings all depicting the NeoDogi, 2 sculptures, an audiovisual installation, and a series of prints with same measures performed by 20 artists, all starting from the same picture of a well-known character of Venetian politics. For the occasion, in memory of the oldest Italian newspaper La Gazzetta di Venezia, the exhibition catalog will be printed and freely distributed at the show location. Works by Alice Andreoli, Alberto Balletti, Qedim Bacci, Chiara Bettoncelli, Alice Biondin, Ana Brumat, Gabriele Salvo Buzzanca, Maddalena Checchin, Geng Zhong Qi, Gabriele Grones, Lavinia Longhetto, Chiara Mantello, Sabrina Mocellin, Giacomo Modolo, Jacopo Pagin, Gianluca Rossitto, Caterina Tomaello Salvi, Thomas Santelia, Lisa Stefani, Marco Trentin, Giulia Vecchiato, Giuseppe Vigolo, Wang Jue, Nicola Zolin.

Alberto Balletti is graduated in painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Brera in 1990, achieving in 2003 majoring in Design and Production of Visual Arts at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura in Venice. Since 1996 he has taught engraving in the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, Sassari, Naples, Venice, Catania, and Foggia. Sito web: http://www.albertoballetti.com/?page_id=21440

The other 24 participants are young artists of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. All of them are or have been Prof. Alberto Balleti’s students during his years of teaching in Venice. The exhibition is organized by Nuova Icona Nuova Icona (nuovaicona.org) New Icon is a cultural non-profit organization founded in Venice in 1993, dedicated to the support and the promotion of contemporary visual arts. With an experimental attitude towards contemporary art, New Icon sees itself as an organizational element, the active layer between the audience and the artist, a workshop where new projects can be realized. The main activities are the organization, care and management of exhibitions and conferences and the publication of catalogs. Inauguration: Friday 4th March h. 18:00 Opening: from 5th to 27th March Opening Hours: from Thursday to Sunday, h. 2 - 6 p.m. Special opening on Monday 28th, h. 2 p.m. - 6 p.m. Curators: Alberto Balletti, Vittorio Urbani The exhibition is organized by Nuova Icona @ Oratorio di San