Atto 1/3: Sotto la Luce
October - November, 2025

Bigaignon Gallery & Rhinoceros Gallery
Via del Velabro 9A
Rome, ItalyJames Howell’s first exhibition in Rome. Atto 1/3: Sotto la Luce, presented by Bigaignon Gallery in collaboration with Rhinoceros Gallery, inaugurates a three-part project dedicated to light as subject, medium, and metaphor.

In this exhibition, Howell’s subtle gradations of tone and light enter into dialogue with Hungarian artist Máté Dobokay, offering two distinct yet resonant approaches to the materiality of light. While Dobokay’s photographic investigations examine the physical and atmospheric conditions of illumination, Howell’s paintings articulate light through disciplined tonal modulation. The result is a quiet yet profound exchange between surface and depth, material and perception.

At the center of the presentation is 48.17 11/26/00 (2000), acrylic on canvas, 66 x 66 inches (168 x 168 cm), a work that exemplifies Howell’s mature practice. Through meticulously calibrated layers of pigment, the painting reveals a field of grey that appears at once stable and shifting, inviting sustained attention and perceptual attunement. As in much of Howell’s oeuvre, structure and intuition coexist: a precise internal logic governs the surface, yet the experience of the work unfolds slowly, through light and time.

Situated within the architectural setting of Rhinoceros Gallery in the heart of Rome, Atto 1/3: Sotto la Luce positions Howell’s practice within a broader European discourse on abstraction, photography, and the poetics of restraint.