Carmine Iacolare creates space — for action, for being, and for healing.

In contrast to a noisy, deceitful world, he offers a quiet, balanced in-between space where introspective truths can flourish.

His untitled mixed-media works consist of delicate skins or membranes: layers through which hope and meaning gradually seep, while vulnerability and the process of healing lie hidden beneath.

The title IN BETWEEN leaves us in doubt. For —as we all know— the truth lies somewhere in between.

This doubt invites us to question the superficiality of our existence. Iacolare delves into what lives between the different layers: meanings concealed behind, beneath, or between apparent realities.

In this inner space — a waiting room or a side chapel where candles burn— he discovers that vulnerability forms the essence of truth. And it is exactly this vulnerability that gives meaning to our thoughts, our sorrow, and our hope.

Iacolare’s art serves as a form of grounding, a process through which the poison of media nonsense and false appearances can flow away. Using primary materials such as transparent calfskin, mink oil, and horsehair, he brings us back to the origin.

Here, he reveals genesis: the pure, the untainted. This original vulnerability is carefully cherished and lovingly tended. His practice becomes a kind of therapy, where the elements he uses are curated and cared for like patients in an aesthetic sanatorium.

The artist constantly plays with contrasting material metaphors: horsehair is combined with fine calfskin; the antler of a reindeer pierces a rubber membrane.

By sharpening these contrasts, Iacolare invites us to look inward.

Where are our rough edges? Where are we too soft? Where does our morality sputter?

And why does there seem to be shame surrounding suffering?

It is here that IN BETWEEN emerges – an interspace of ineffable clarity. A realm of silent certainties, truths, and a timeless stillness imbued with hopeful anticipation.

Carmine Antonio Iacolare, °1998 Traunstein (Bavaria), Germany.

Left the small village Siegsdorf, with few people, many animals, long roads, big forests and big mountains, for Antwerp, in November 2020.

His oeuvre includes conceptual work such as mixed media, photography, performance, and non-traditional film photography.