José Angelino, Fabio Barile, Stefano Canto | Common Ground | Matèria
May 14 – June 6, 2026
Matèria is pleased to present Common Ground, a special project conceived for the fourth edition of Contemporanea – Roma Gallery Weekend, opening on May 14, bringing together the works of José Angelino, Fabio Barile, and Stefano Canto.
Conceived as a focused and time-bound intervention within the gallery’s program, Common Ground takes the form of a short-format exhibition developed specifically for the Capital’s Gallery Weekend. In this sense, Common Ground offers an opportunity to activate agile, project-based dynamics, opening a space for dialogue that unfolds in parallel with the gallery’s annual program.
The exhibition takes its title from the idea of a shared ground from which three distinct artistic practices emerge, understood as a point of departure for dialogue. It brings together three mid-career artists – all based in Rome – distinct in language and approach, yet connected by a broad spectrum of interests that over time, has generated moments of proximity and exchange. The project also reflects the evolving relationship between the gallery and the artists: Stefano Canto and Fabio Barile have long been represented by Matèria, whose practices the gallery has supported and developed over time, while Common Ground marks the beginning of a new collaboration with José Angelino.
Common Ground is conceived as a space of coexistence. The project presents three recent bodies of work, each occupying the space autonomously while remaining open to dialogue. Sculpture, installation, and photography unfold in parallel, tracing distinct – at times converging – paths around questions related to structure, perception, and the relationship between natural and constructed systems.
In different ways, the practices of Angelino, Barile, and Canto engage with the tension between order and unpredictability, between the human impulse to define and the inherent complexity of observed phenomena. Through material processes, spatial interventions, and investigations into image-making, their works articulate a continuous negotiation between control and contingency – a way of inhabiting, rather than resolving, this dynamic.
For the occasion, José Angelino presents a kinetic installation entitled Bisogna immaginare Sisifo felice (One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy), composed of suspended discs rotating in delicate balance on slender metal rods, animated by the continuous airflow of a model-aircraft fan. The work originates from a reflection on the myth of Sisyphus — condemned to endlessly push a boulder to the summit of a mountain, only for it to fall back each time — reinterpreted through the thought of Albert Camus.
Fabio Barile premieres a new body of work developed through an extended process of experimentation, investigating the relationship between photography and painting through the use of the large-format camera — a central tool within his practice. By imposing an inverted vision of reality, the device initiates a gradual process of abstraction.
Stefano Canto further expands the research developed in his recent solo exhibition Dream of Stone, deepening a dialogue between the ephemeral and the permanent through sculptural processes that investigate the transformation and resistance of matter. This new series, entitled Cloacina, emerges from subterranean Rome: an invisible city stretching beneath our feet, composed of conduits, cavities, traces, and sedimentations.
By bringing together three individual trajectories, the project outlines a broader perspective on the gallery’s commitment to supporting and consolidating artistic practices over time. The exhibition thus marks the beginning of a conversation; a dialogue that originates within the shared space of the gallery and extends outward, inviting further exchanges and developments.
Matèria
Via dei Latini, 27
Roma