ABC-ARTE is pleased to present Correspondances, the first solo exhibition by Alan Bee at the gallery’s Milan venue, with critical contribution by Cesare Biasini.
The title refers to the celebrated poem by Charles Baudelaire, in which nature is described as a system of invisible relationships, an interweaving of resonances between senses, matter, and spirit. It is within this space of correspondences that Alan Bee’s research unfolds. His painting does not represent nature; rather, it adopts its generative principle, transforming the artistic process into an organism.
In his work, nature and culture do not stand in opposition but coincide. The bee, already evoked in the artist’s pseudonym, is not a symbol but an operative model. The cellular structure of the hive becomes the matrix of the image: the hexagon is not an imposed geometry, but a natural form that organizes space from within.
If in the history of art honey was taken as symbolic material by Joseph Beuys, who in 1965 with Wie man dem toten Hasen die Bilder erklärt invested it with conceptual meaning, Alan Bee internalizes its logic rather than its symbolism. His work unfolds through transformation and sedimentation, like a hive in constant activity.
Over time, color has become the central element: a fluid and vibrant quality that expands through modules and variations, constructing dense cellular surfaces that are never rigidly pre-programmed. Each painting is both an individual gesture and a fragment of a broader system, a singular act and a collective organism.
Correspondances will be on view from April 9 to May 9, 2026 at ABC-ARTE ONE OF, Via Santa Croce 21, Milan. The opening reception will take place on Thursday, April 9 at 6:30 pm.
