Italian Exhibition 18 March 2020

18 March - 6 April

ITALY

For over 25 years International Art Centre has represented Italian based artists in New Zealand. This exhibition is a celebration of the diversity and style embodied in paintings and ceramics imported directly from their studios. Highlights include a new series of Gufi italiani (owl) frescoes by Maestro Anselmi along with Andrea Mazzoli’s unique mixed media pieces. Carlo Mirabasso’s collection of exceptional ceramics complement Paolo Canetti’s contemporary works uniquely portraying the Italian lifestyle.

Paintings by leading Australian artist Kasey Sealy, who paints and teaches in Tuscany feature in this bi-annual event, along with those of our own Simon Williams. These antipodean artists spent time working together in Italy. Here, they join their Italian colleagues in strengthening the creative bonds between our two lands.

Frances Davies

This large, modern day fresco of Anselmi’s wide-eyed, green and gold owl is a fine example of one of the artist’s signature subjects. The owls of Anselmi, beloved for over thirty five years both here and in Italy, convey the artist’s skill and humour.

This particular guffo, framed by foliage and bathed in moonlight, engages the viewer in a spellbinding, curious gaze.

Lucignano | Oil on canvas board 26 x 32 cm | $2,250

In this small impressionist masterpiece, a pale luminous moon rises above the fields and hills of Lucignano.

Nature’s ever changing canvas, with clouds of lilac and pink, are captured to perfection by the artist’s confident brushstrokes.

Andrea Mazzoli lives in the Friuli-Venezia region of north east Italy. His small village, Maniago, is listed as one of the most beautiful in Italy. Mazzoli’s Porta Series are of doorways to village apartments. Mazzoli’s smaller works of tiny finches and birdlife from the Messenger Series are particularly appealing and although the subject matter is traditional, Mazzoli introduces a touch of modernity through the handling of his dry-brushed backgrounds.

Since the early 1990s Mazzoli has concentrated on creating paintings for the European market exhibiting recently in Amsterdam and earlier this year at the Bologna Art Fair. A skilled artist who specialises in portraying and capturing the energy of the natural world in his uniquely presented works of art.

Carlo Mirabasso celebrates the birth of our new decade, 2020 with the release of this latest collection of ceramics. An egg is a symbol of birth, regeneration and new beginnings. Mirabasso adorns his ceramic eggs with uniquely joyful, hand-painted images and symbols.

Living and working close to Assisi, the birthplace of St Francis, Mirabasso draws upon the visual history of his region which he renders with a touch of humour. Neo-classical architecture, rainbow winged angels, sunflowers, cyprus trees and the tall towers of San Gimignano all feature in this latest, fabulous collection along with the artist’s trademark colourful bouncing ball.