Curated by Art Directors Carlo Greco and Alessandra Magni Critical texts by Art Curators
Alessia di Martino Alessia Perone Alessia Ventola Anna Panizza Camilla Gilardi Carola Antonioli Carolina Troccoli Cecilia Brambilla Cecilia Terenzoni Elisa Acquafresca Elisa Garosi Elisabetta Eliotropio Elita Borgogelli Erika Gravante Erminia Abbuonandi Federica D’Avanzo Francesca Brunello
Francesca Campanelli Francesca Catarinicchia Ginevra Fisco Giorgia Massari Giulia Zanesi Ilaria Falchetti Lisa Galletti Maddalena Corbini Manuela Fratar Marta Graziano Martina Stagi Martina Viesti Sara Giannini Silvia Grassi Vanessa Viti Ylenia De Giosa
“I am going to sing to the Earth, universal Mother with solid foundations, venerable old woman, who nourishes what is on the surface of it. From you comes fecundity and fertility, O Sovereign !, and it is from you to give and take life from mortal men. Blessed is he to whom you, kindly, honor; he has everything in abundance ... august goddess, generous divinity! Hello, Mother of the Gods, spouse of the starry sky! Grant me a happy life as a reward for my singing! From now on I will remember you in the remaining songs.” (Homeric Hymn) What would man be without the ability to think and ask questions? The most ancient civilizations have given us a gift, not only of answers, but also of wonderful stories in which to be able to discover the mysteries of the world. In ancient Greece it was said that at the beginning of time there was only darkness, a sort of black hole, which the Greeks called Chaos: an endless abyss where nothing is defined and where the concept of order does not exist. From the Chaos emerges Gaia, or Mother Earth, she is a distinct, solid, visible and tangible form. Gaia represents the primordial idea of cosmic order and balance. It will be Gaia herself to generate Uranus, the sky, creating the first principle of absolute balance, a sort of double that stands out above her and completes her. The concept of Mother Earth belongs to many ancestral mythologies; different peoples, in different places, with different names have revered the parent of every living being: Gaia for the Greeks, Tellus for the Romans, Joro for the Norsemen. To incarnate the archetype of the divine, in the most ancient cultures, it is always a female being, since it represents the mystery of birth. If on the one hand the divinity of Gaia has been honored, venerated and invoked through pagan rites, there are few artistic works dedicated to her and that have come down to us, after all -from the Middle Ages onwards- artists have turned their look to Christian representations. Somehow it will be Gustave Courbet in 1866 to remind us that “the origin” is a feminine noun, when he represents in an impeccable way the vulva of a woman and entitled the work “The origin of the world”. This is the time to pay homage to Gaia, bypassing territorial, cultural and religious limits and borders, because we belong to Mother Earth, we owe our life to her, and we will return to her at the fulfillment of our days. Life and death merge into a single mystery, opposites that find balance in the depiction of Gaia, as the one who gives life at the same time welcomes the death of her children in her own womb. “She gives and she takes, She rules until the end of time, She goes her own way”, it is with these words that the band Within Temptation speaks of Mother Earth, in the song of the same name. Gaia walks her path freely, every living being instead seeks that same path -because as much as history and contemporary life distance us from her- we cannot escape the indissoluble bond that exists between us and Mother Earth. The artist’s role is to evoke emotions and memories; through the production of works of art he is called to dig into the most intimate and ancestral memory. The time to pay homage to Gaia is ripe, the right way to reunite and consolidate the connection with her is precisely art. Artists of all times have shaken souls and thoughts, they have moved peoples and cultures, now is the time to recall primordial memories in people and to invoke Gaia. If Mnemosine (or memory) is the daughter of Gaia, art is in some way the daughter of Mnemosine because it has always been the first tool used to preserve memory itself. The “Gaia: The Origin” exhibition aims to retrace history through a series of works, both figurative and abstract, and to bring back sleeping or hidden feelings, intimate and perhaps forgotten emotions. As Gaia represents a sort of splendor, so it wants to be the exhibition promoted by M.A.D.S.: a glow that makes thoughts and emotions explode. With this project M.A.D.S. asks artists to arm themselves with creative ingenuity, to find the right colors, get rid of any iconographic scheme to give life to new and infinite representations of Gaia.
Concept edited by Art Curator Vanessa Viti, graduated in Visual Arts and Art Curator
Adrian Cene
Adrian Cene is an established and talented Albanian artist. His works have been shown in numerous exhibitions and purchased by collectors from all over the world. His art is ethereal, reminiscent of the artistic style of the 20th century avant-garde, but revisited and made modern and personal. The shapes he uses are bold, as are the colours, which are striking and expressive. Adrian paints referring also to his feelings and life experiences, relating them to the different events that took place after the fall of communism in Albania. He tries to find and elaborate a solution in art. He has a powerful approach to the subject of art and yet his message is optimistic and positive. In his work “Nudo 1”, the protagonist is a woman sitting, naked and relaxed, smoking a cigarette. Her face is not visible, except for her lips, and this contributes to a message of universality. The three-dimensionality of the body, which occupies a very precise space, is given by the skilful use of the various shades of colour. There is an evident play of chiaroscuro in the painting. The light gives the figure humanity and places it at the centre of the work. The dark background emphasises the gentle female curves. In “Nudo 2”, the protagonist is again a woman. Her skin appears emaciated, pale. The composition appears less three-dimensional than in the previous work, but in this one, a more defined spatial environment is constructed. She is sitting on a chair. Her face, like her body, seems scarred. Her eyes are closed, but she is not asleep, which is clear from the rigidity of her body. Once again, Adrian plays with the contrast between light and shadow, giving three-dimensionality to the space and to the protagonist with the projection of shadows on the wall. The colour of the skin is light and contrasts with the red and dark green of the background. The thin line almost merges with the colour. In “Nudo 3” there is a woman relaxed on a reclining chair, almost lying down. The face is reminiscent of a primitive mask. The pink colour of the skin tends to yellow. The three-dimensionality of the body is given by the projection of the shadow on the towel. Behind her, the environment is certainly more articulated than in the two previous works. A swimming pool can be recognised in the background. The colours are bright, with a strong presence of yellow and blue contrasting with the pale colour of the woman’s body. The composition appears studied and divided into a foreground and a background. Recognisable in all three works is a reference to Cubism in the shapes, lines and rendering of space and three-dimensionality. There are also hints of expressionism and surrealism, revisited in a contemporary key. Colour becomes a state of mind. Adrian is a skilled artist who is able to convey strong emotions and leads the viewer to an inner reflection. The colours he uses make this process even more immersive. The communicative power of his works strikes the viewer at first sight.
“It’s not what you look at that matters, It’s what you see.” (Henry David Thoreau)
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Adrian Cene
Nudo 1
Adrian Cene
Nudo 2
Adrian Cene
Nudo 3
Ajteni Ramadani
German-based artist Ajteni Ramadani presents at M.A.D.S. art gallery two artworks that she has realized for the “Gaia: the origin” exhibition. The artist is strongly connected to this theme also because of her Macedonian origins and her birth-name “Ajten”, the Macedonian daughter of Zeus, from which derives the name of the Greek city Athens. The artist herself is a very spiritual person and strongly connected with nature. Although Ajteni is mostly concentrated in the creation of abstract works, for this exhibition the artist creates a purely figurative work, leaving its comfort-zone. “Gaia’s mind” is in fact a tribute to the goddess Gaia, the Mother par excellence, the creator goddess of all. The work, made of acrylic and with a vertical composition, celebrates nature in all its beauty: green and blue are the dominant colors, in strong contrast with the red and white that characterize the flowers on the right and the feathers of a beautiful peacock on the left.
Ajteni Ramadani
The elements represented are united, creating a feeling of disorder, as if we were in the middle of a jungle. In the background, behind the flowers, butterflies and plants, you can see the face of a woman: she is Gaia, depicted with emerald green skin and eyes closed, in peace between nature that she herself created. The work evokes great tranquillity and conveys a need for connection with nature. The bright colors jump to the eye, creating a strong contrast, just like the works of the Fauves artist. The second work on display is entitled “Tree of Life” and more fits the style of Ajteni. It is in fact an abstract representation of a tree, made using dripping, a technique developed by the American painter Jackson Pollock. The artist also in this work plays on the visual contrast given by the combination of green with orange and red, colors that undoubtedly refer to nature in a direct way.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Ajteni Ramadani
Gaia’s mind
Ajteni Ramadani
Tree of Life
Aleksandra Bokan
Aleksandra Bokan is a Serbian self-taught artist and a professional hair stylist, based in Sweden. Her artistic production is mainly focused on the creation of abstract works, she herself says: “I enjoy living in the abstract side of reality”. Her profession of hair stylist influences her art, and her art influences her work. The two realities are strongly connected and represent her artistic expression. Her inspiration comes from nature and the people she meets in her life. Aleksandra is guided by emotions and this is evident in admiring her paintings: they are never the same in style and color. Her works vary according to her feelings and experiences. However, a characteristic of her art, which makes it unmistakable, is the trait that she inserts in all her works: small dots arranged one in a row invading her compositions. Emblematic is the work that the artist exhibits at M.A.D.S. art gallery in Milan, on the exhibition dedicated to Mother Nature: “Gaia: the origin”. The work is titled “Frozen City” and is made of acrylic on canvas. The work is elegant and refined. The background is entirely made with silver paint that the artist applies in large quantities, leaving in some places the painting not laid out completely that, drying, appears in relief. On the sides Aleksandra inserts its typical traits in gold, copper and black. At the centre they become smaller, appearing almost like the pattern of an electrocardiogram. The heart beats hard at the beginning and at the end of the painting but in the middle it slows down. The title “Frozen City” suggests a moment of frost, of coldness. This work expresses emotions, can be interpreted in different ways by observers and its beauty lies in it.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Aleksandra Bokan
Frozen City
Alexandra Kapogianni-Beth
Alexandra Kapogianni-Beth is a dynamic artist with an incredible artistic production, the use of materials such as rock, plaster and clay allows her a manipulation that creates living and energetic works. At the international contemporary art exhibition “GAIA - The Origin” of the contemporary art gallery M.A.D.S. Alexandra exhibits “Falling Icarus” a work with a strong mythical and legendary evocation. The subject of artists such as Antonio Canova, Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse, Icaro, thanks to the wings attached to his body with wax, manages to escape from the labyrinth of Crete, but getting too close to the sun the wax melted and Icaro fell into the sea. The depiction of Alexandra captures the moment when Icarus falls, with his face turned towards the sun, his right hand stiff as if he had been looking for something to cling to, the muscles of the whole body are contracted. Icaro’s face is stretched out, relaxed, his lips closed, but his eyes are wide open, incredulous, resigned, but they also express determination and confidence. In his left hand Icaro holds two feathers, the grip is anything but tight, the open index finger recalls a relaxed grip, as if Icaro was holding back a hope, a dream, a memory. “Falling Icarus” expresses a sense of energy and movement, the materials are masterfully and consciously worked, they convey numerous emotions and feelings.The observer feels immersed in the history of the subject, feels his aspirations, his dreams, the desire to live every moment to the full. Icaro didn’t just want to fly until he felt the warmth of the sun on his skin, Icaro wanted to live according to his choices, to build his destiny.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Alexandra Kapogianni-Beth
Falling Icarus
Alexandra Papadopoulou
Greek artist Alexandra Papadopoulou presents at M.A.D.S. art gallery two works which are strongly connected with the theme of the “Gaia: the origin” exhibition. In her vision, mother nature is a woman. It was Courbet who first attributed this faculty to the woman: he called the work representing the female genitals “The origin of the world” - literally the origin of the world. Today it is obvious to associate Mother Nature to a woman, but it has not always been so. Alexandra Papadopoulou shows us her vision of nature through two paintings made of oil and acrylic on canvas, in a purely impressionist style. In both paintings are depicted two women immersed in beautiful natural landscapes and both evoke a desire for freedom. That feeling of freedom you feel only in contact with nature. The work “Nymph” is undoubtedly a tribute to the great French painter Claude Monet. The title already recalls the great series of paintings that Monet dedicated to the water lilies of his garden in Giverny, also Alexandra represents a lake full of water lilies.
Alexandra Papadopoulou
Even the style, as mentioned above, follows the teachings of the Impressionist painters, from which Alexandra takes the immediacy of the traits derived from the “en plein air” technique and the study of light effect reflected on the water. Nevertheless, the artist follows a more expressionistic style, almost reminiscent of the French painter Maurice de Vlaminck’s naturalistic works. The subject is a woman immersed in a crystalline lake, through which you can see her naked body, symbolizing a complete connection between body and nature. The second work, entitled “Nature’s bounty”, follows completely the Impressionist teachings completely, giving color to patches and without using any kind of contour line. The color is used in a pure way and the composition of the work presents a photographic approach. A woman is portrayed from behind, while riding a bicycle in the middle of the fields. Alexandra Papadopoulou fully grasps the theme of the exhibition and makes it her own, showing us a great desire to live and a desire for freedom. She shows us how nature can be our dearest friend, giving us back the joy and serenity that the industrialized world steals from us.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Alexandra Papadopoulou
Nature’s Bounty
Alexandra Papadopoulou
Nymph
Alicia Nathai-Achong
Alicia Nathai-Achong has honed her artistic skills throughout her life path. Starting as a hobby, painting has guided her towards discoveries of different kinds, arriving today at the awareness of her propensity for the encaustic technique: a mixed technique that involves the use of heated beeswax to which coloured pigments are added on a woody surface. Fascinated by the translucency of the result, by its water-like sheen, by the multidimensional feel of the work as layers of wax are built to create an image, Alicia is fascinated by the multisensory experience that combines the aroma of wax, the sight of the warm paint and the feel of textured wax layers as the paint cools. The inspiration for this work, titled “VEINS OF THE EARTH”, was the beauty and vitality of a pristine river landscape, the gentle flow of its vital fresh water flowing gently over the river rocks, altered over the centuries into perfectly rounded gems. Therefore, we can say that the main inspiration are the beauties of nature, and encaustic as a medium, lends itself to representations of abstract or informal art, on the poetics of object-painting. Thanks to the teachings of the last century and above all to the artistic work of the great master Alberto Burri, extremely concrete in her works: tangible, material, which seems to invite you to touch them to explore them with touch, the investigation on the subject is becoming ever stronger, enough to establish itself as a solid link between painting and sculpture. As we study the concept of Gaia as an advocate of nature, we observe a limited colour palette in soothing organic hues, used to echo the hues found in nature and the sense of peace that flows through us in such a sacred space.
“If Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life, as represented in Greek mythology, then rivers are her veins - the veins of our earth, living vessels of precious freshwater, sustaining so many species” (Alicia Nathai-Achong)
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Alicia Nathai-Achong
Veins of The Earth
Alicja Małkiewicz “I love nature, I love the landscape, because it is so sincere. It never cheats me. It never jests. It is cheerfully, musically earnest.” (Henry David Thoreau) Alicja Małkiewicz is a Polish artist who loves nature and everything that belongs to it. The quote from the famous American philosopher Henry David Thoreau perfectly describes Alicja’s though: nature is sincere and pure; it is always our ally and not our enemy; you have to trust her because that is where our origins come from and that’s where we take refuge when the world oppresses us. Growing up in the countryside, she has always had a magical and profound relationship with her, so much so that several of her works have as their main subject snowy landscapes characteristic of the places in her native country. Painting is a hobby for her, but at the same time art is an integral part of her life in which she can express herself freely and bring her creativity into play. “Breath of Earth” was created in 2021 with the technique of acrylic on canvas. Green pines can be seen in the snow that covers the high mountains. Looking at the work, the viewer begins an imaginary journey that projects him directly into the spectacular landscape represented. The title is very evocative and perfectly describes the atmosphere of the canvas: breath that refreshes, breath that brings a wave of change, breath as a break from the city that oppresses man without leaving him a way out. The work is not only a simply a landscape portrait, but an invitation to the viewer to set his imagination in motion and to understand the importance of preserving nature in all its aspects. The colors of the canvas are cold just like the painted environment: dark green and blue contrast with the white and the light blue creating a strong, but at the same time pleasant color effect. Alicja is an artist who, in addition to creating technically high-level works, is able with them to make the viewer reflect on important issues and at the same time to involve them emotionally.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Alicja Małkiewicz
Breath of Earth
Alin Sookezian
For the second time at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Alin Sookezian presents her artworks. Without abandoning the instinctive use of colours, that recall to mind the ‘action painting’ technique, the artist realizes “The Explosion of Creation” and “Existence”. By watching the two pieces, what suddenly comes out is the continuity between the two scenes. Concerning the concept of the exhibition ‘Gaia: The Origin’, Alin Sookezian has done her interpretation of Mother Earth, impersonating her with the Natural Power of Creation. The brilliant red spot in the middle of “The Explosion of Creation” – is the allusion to the core of the Earth, from which everything is generated. Instead of creating a dark Universe, the artist has chosen to give birth to a limpid air with a white background, covered by numerous and colourful particles that fluctuate all around.
Alin Sookezian
The strong colours and the reflection of the real feelings of human beings, are the elements that attract the viewer and represent, without doubts, the artist’s signature. Passion; vitality; energy; heat and hope, are some of the emotions that guided Alin, the artist, while composing the paintings. The result of all of these perceptible inputs is “Existence”. This second piece can be read as the final process of the Creation, and so, as the title lets imagine, the existence itself. All the fluid and falling brush strokes representing the artist’s emotions, have something special that attracts the viewer. The stylised hands - that are distinguished in the lowest part of the canvas – allude to the viewers’ will, to catch the positivity that Existence offers. The meaning of these paintings and so, the artist’s aim is to be opened to solidarity, especially in this difficult moment that ‘Existence’ has generated, trying to share the vitality we have, through what makes us feel better.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
Alin Sookezian
Existence
Alin Sookezian
The explosion of creation
Alla Laycock
Artist not by choice but by necessity, Alla Laychoch is an emerging artist of Ukrainian origin, transplanted to England. Born as Engineering System Analyst, she never expected to be able to define herself as such, but the world of art is a genital world, without descriptions of any kind, where the only thing that matters is personal experience, the interpretation and sometimes aesthetic taste. Alla uses her creativity as an expression of her inner world, helping herself to communicate her personal way of interpreting the “blows” of life, fighting stresses, and reacting to the forced loneliness, typical of the historical period we are experiencing. The techniques she has experimented with in recent years as a student are many, such as the use of acrylic and mixed media, but the work she has decided to bring to M.A.D.S. art gallery, for the exhibition “GAIA. The origin “, is a virtual drawing made with Tilt Brush, entitled “Birth of the Earth”. Virtual reality is used by her as a method of self-expression, thanks to her incredible ability to create an immersive multimedia response. Particularly, this software made it possible to choose brushes and colours, and then paint whatever you want in your dream in three dimensions. The environment you are in becomes a canvas and there is no limit to creativity. This infinite and immense environment offers alternative abstract qualities that allow the experiences of physical and emotional environments to be transcribed into works, in a clean and orderly style like that of the great EXTRAWEG. Drawing inspiration from nature, her works are a contemplation of the beauty of our planet and a story about the uniqueness and incomprehensibility of the Earth.
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Alla Laycock
Birth of the Earth
Amalia Syakirah “Feelings can’t be ignored, no matter how unjust on ungrateful they seem.”(Anna Frank) Amalia Syakirah is a multidisciplinary artist. In her art she involves her passion for martial arts, which has a significant weight in her life. A mix of strength, passion and energy that are also reflected in her lively and brilliant works. She lets herself be guided by inspiration, conveying strong and powerful emotions. She is not afraid to be daring with colour and form. She lets her instincts guide her and creates beautiful, original compositions that generate strong feelings. Of the series of paintings that are part of the ‘Hit List’, she is exhibiting three. This series of artworks represents an extreme struggle between wanting to forget and wanting to forgive. She paints not to please the public but to create a dialogue, a confrontation. She is not afraid to expose herself and presents these works by laying bare herself, her soul. In the work “Amy’s ex best friend”, she places a primitive mask with irregular geometric shapes at the centre. Bright colours such as red, pink and blue are outlined by a black line. The lips are fleshy, the gaze looks at a fixed point. The nose starts from the forehead and creates an element that can be traced back to the male universe. Inside the face there are small details, a subdivision of spaces through colour which is left free to express itself. The line is spontaneous, instinctive. In “Ella Yang Karat” a series of irregular geometric elements create an original composition in which a human face is recognisable. The nose seems squashed, the lips large and the eyes half-closed. These elements blend in with the colour and shapes. Blue, yellow and pink dominate the canvas and appear as bright, vivid colours. The artist’s resentment of this subject is strong. The characters are deformed by the artist and the colours are chosen according to the feelings Amalia feels at the moment of execution of the work. This is also evident in “Mr Chin Chee Bye”. The background is yellow and homogeneous, the face very deformed and decomposed, it looks like a composition by Joan Mirò. From the left side of the subject protrude two shapes with the money symbol inside. An intense red blotch starts from the top and breaks over the subject. Amalia plays with shapes, creating unusual compositions. Her references to the simple but expressive forms of Keith Haring, the surrealism of Miro, the aggressive and instinctive painting of Basquiat, the originality of Marc Chagall’s language are evident. Contemporary art has a strong impact on the artist, especially in terms of the expressive power it intends to communicate to the public. The means and tools that Amalia uses can be traced back to her personal experience and to the various sensations that the subject she represents arouses in her. With these works Amala puts herself to the test. They represent a mix of different emotions: euphoria, melancholy, dark but inevitable impulses. Human beings have always been overwhelmed by a mix of emotions that are often conflicting, but which are naturally part of the human soul and should not be repressed. The artist uses art to get rid of these feelings, to question herself and open up to the viewer. She expects the viewer to feel the same, to look at the force of the colour on the canvas. Amalia sees art as a means to free herself, to unleash her maximum emotional and creative charge. She puts herself on the line like a real fighter. She uses colour and shapes to communicate, to arouse emotions.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Amalia Syakirah
Amy’s ex best friend (The backstabbing sexual predator)
Amalia Syakirah
Ella Yang karat (The rusty ass downgrade)
Amalia Syakirah
Mr Chin bye (The loudmouth wife beater)
Amber Del Torchio “Like a kaleidoscope which is every now and then given a turn, society arranges successively in different orders elements which one would have supposed immutable, and composes a new pattern” (Marcel Proust)
Amber creates artworks out of any scheme or canon we have ever seen. Her digital creations are real journeys into the mind of man and the unknowable nature of the world. A tangle of colors fit together like a kaleidoscopic vision of the universe that is reflected in human’s eyes. Movements, dynamism and rhythm permeate Amber’s creations that want to show themselves for what they are: a hallucinogenic gift, an encounter between the different elements of nature, the fantasy and the unpredictable creation of Gaia.
Art Curator Cecilia Brambilla
Amber Del Torchio
Kaleidoscope “karaaaa”
Amber Del Torchio
The Colors of earth For Real!
Amber Del Torchio
The Quilt aspect to life runs through and through Mesh!
André Romijn For the third time at M.A.D.S. Milano Art Gallery, the artist André Romijn presents three of his female portraits: “Persephone”; “Hestia” and “Gaia”. Each of them, with an important title that recalls to mind the ancient and mythological goddesses. Concerning the concept of the exhibition - that refers to Gaia, Mother Earth - with his artworks André Romijn perfectly gives us his interpretation of Gaia and all the legends that surround this goddess figure. The ‘Gaia’ of the artist, depicted with oil and cold wax on multi-panel wood, represents here a posed figure with her head proudly held high. With the eyelid going down, the gaze of the goddess seems to be absorbed in some thoughts, or it can be explained as a sort of concentration in bringing under control the natural elements that compose the background of the painting: the sky and the ocean. André Romijn’s interpretation of Gaia, is of a tamed woman with delicate features that make Mother Earth a sensual and elegant figure. However, what immediately stands out is the big, purple cloth that is stylishly worn by Gaia. With this particular, carefully depicted in its details, the artist is able to confer a material perception that contrasts with the slender neck of the goddess. Such a strong stiffness that permits her to support the importance of her role. In Greek mythology the link between goddesses and nature was of great importance. Persephone too, Proserpine in Latin, in ancient mythology was the all-pervading goddess able to give birth and destroy, at the same time, nature. Differently from the representation of Gaia, here the ‘Persephone’ of the artist André Romijn, is closed in features with a common woman. The great use of the light, given by the oil and cold wax technique, confers on the figure, noble features with pale skin and red, long hair. This time, by looking at the portrait, we can notice a sort of melancholy in the gaze’s expression, that is emphasized by the sad chubby mouth. These particulars that describe the woman, giving to her a more human personality, allude to the version of the myth that sees in Persephone the personification of the fertility of vegetation and the symbol of immortality. Under a more divine light André Romijn paints ‘Hestia’ the virgin goddess of the heart. Recalling to mind the upright posture of Gaia, depicted by the artist, here the female figure stands in front of the viewer without looking away. Observing at the figure, what immediately stands out is the golden halo taken from the byzantine depiction of Christian saints, that assumes a deep meaning and that can be read as a sort of admonishment: “The ancient Gods are still around us”, as the artist says. This time, André Romijn – the artist – focuses his attention especially on the objects and the elements that adorn Hestia and that emphasize the woman’s details. Apart from the gold halo, the heavy scarf that covers the neck of Hestia, intensifies her body, and her slender but elegant chest. Thanks to the artist’s ability in playing with colours and their lights, the viewer can analyse the figures and engage with them; to read their emotions and to interpret them.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
André Romijn
Gaia
André Romijn
Hestia
André Romijn
Persephone
Andrea Osterhout “What is harder than rock, or softer than water? Yet soft water hollows out hard rock” (Ovid)
Water, among all the elements, is the one that best expresses the strength of Nature, a power that can be both creative and destructive at the same time. Without it no being would have a way to live, yet sometimes it is itself death, in this way a perfect circle is made as is nature itself. Andrea’s work has as its subject the element of water, a wave in the foreground, with this work the artist pays homage to Gaia, in the international exhibition dedicated to her. A wave or perhaps a splash of water stands out strongly in the center of the whole composition, charging the work with strength and liveliness. The same prevailing colors are vivid and strongly luminous, they come to life, they follow the movement of the shapes that outline the water, giving balance to the entire work. Arthur Golden wrote “Water never waits. It changes shape and flows around things, finding secret paths that no one else has thought of: a hole in the roof or a small hole in the bottom of a box”, what Andrea does with her work is just that, that is to find a new path, an innovative artistic path. Drawing inspiration from nature, she creates innovative works that refer to Pop Art for the vivacity of colors, for the departure from the real form, but at the same time her art evokes emotions and memories. In front of Andrea’s work thoughts resurface, the sound of the lapping of the waves comes to mind, or the roar of showers, or the gush of water drops, and the smell of wet earth. A great harmony is established in the whole work, impetus, strength and in the same way a sedate calm emerge from Andrea’s work, a balance that somehow pays homage to the mystery of life. In that wave there could be everything: the beginning and the end of everything.
Art Curator Vanessa Viti
Andrea Osterhout
Drenched
Anit Kaur Singapore-based artist Anit Kaur presents at M.A.D.S. art gallery five artworks strongly connected with each other and realized for the “Gaia: the origin” exhibition. This theme, strongly connected with nature and which leads us to reflect on the origin of things, leads our artist to create spiritual works. Emblematic is the work entitled “God is one”: this work reflects on a very delicate theme, religion. The work, realized in medium mix on canvas, represents six symbols: the top left image is Lord Ganesh from the Hindu religion (who is shaped as an elephant), on the top right is represented Lord Buddha; in the middle left is Guru Nanak Dev Ji of Sikhism and in the middle right it is Guru Gobind Singh Ji of Sikhism. The bottom two symbols are the symbols for God in the Sikh religion and in the Hindu religion. In the centre the artist draws a hand with one finger up and prayer beads to show that God is everywhere, and God is one. She herself says: “I believe that there are many rivers that lead to one ocean. And no matter which path we take, be it religious, spiritual or any path that feels true to us, that path will lead you to the one truth that the Universe loves us all and we are all connected”. The works “Bliss”, “My sanctuary” and “Inner warrior” are combined by style: all have raised elements and the final effect looks like a wrinkled fabric. The material style that derives from it can only make one think of Alberto Burri’s style and his famous series “Sacchi”. In this case, the artist adds figurative elements that load the composition of deep meanings. In the case of “Bliss”, in which the burgundy and the celestial blue are in strong contrast, dominating the composition, the artist depicts petals falling from paradise and resting on the throne of the Guru, she says: “We use a “throne” for our Guru because respect we give is like that of a King”. The last work is entitled “Flowers at God’s feet”. This painting is meant to represent God walking the Earth: everywhere he touches, beauty comes to life. The contrast with the cold colours and the warm colors at the centre, accentuate even more the message that Anit Kaur wants to give. The artist is undoubtedly very spiritual and clearly conveys a message of hope to her audience.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Anit Kaur
Bliss
Anit Kaur
Flowers at God’s Feet
Anit Kaur
God is one
Anit Kaur
Inner Warrior
Anit Kaur
My Sanctuary
Anna Trevisan “One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.” (Friedrich Nietzsche)
Anna Trevisan was born in Venice in 2001 where she is now studying Philosophy, International and Economic Studies. She is also a brilliant and mystic self-taught artist. In the year 2020, she was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and was hospitalized in a residential unit. Days in the hospital during Covid19 can be very long, so Anna finds in drawing her first way to pass the time constructively. They bring her sheets, pens and the necessary materials, so Anna begins her first pieces. The place where she is and the very particular time, allow her to reflect on her path and how anorexia has had an impact on her life and her physical and mental well-being. Through drawing Anna manages to give an image and a value to what she has inside: soon her drawings become rich in symbols, animals, dreamlike landscapes and archetypes. The images that Anna decides to represent are the ghosts that live inside her, the loved ones but also her fears and insecurities related to her illness.
Anna Trevisan
Her first series is so complex and intrigued that she decides to call it Chaos because her first artworks are born from it. This experimentation will be a tool to look within and give shape to her feelings and deepest bonds. People next to her realize that Anna’s artworks are loaded with meaning she also starts sticking them in her hospital room, intriguing doctors and nurses who ask her what her drawings mean to her. The artist doesn’t know how to answer, she is in an unexpected creative process and she is still understanding how her drawings are helping her. Anna will add many more details to her artworks, giving them darker or bizarre connotations, even the animals begin to have human characteristics. She opens an Instagram page for her art and starts sharing details and images… She immediately achieves a high number of followings and she starts participating in art contests. Nowadays, the artist Anna Trevisan is still hospitalized due to anorexia but she desires to continue drawing and start selling her artworks.
“I am my own muse, I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better.” (Frida Kahlo)
Art Curator Elisa Garosi
Anna Trevisan
Untitled 1
Anna Trevisan
Untitled 2
Anna Zubets-Anderson “I believe that every individual is a creative being, and that being creative is first and foremost, a process of inner transformation that is accessible to everyone.” (Anna Zubets-Anderson) American artist Anna Zubets-Anderson presents at M.A.D.S. art gallery five artworks for the “Gaia: the origin” exhibition. Her recent productions see as constant the presence of female bodies. She says that this choice comes from the desire to celebrate the freedom of the female body and its belonging to the natural world -- in contrast with the patriarchal culture that for centuries has controlled the figure of the woman, suffocating and judging her. The artist is also strongly inspired by nature, as in the case of the work “Sedna” in which a woman is portrayed as a sea goddess, immersed in a clear river, contemplating two red koi fish swimming free. She says: “My work also aims to repair the rift between the modern psyche and the environment.” As such, the artist fits perfectly with the theme of the exhibition, which spurs the public to the connection with nature, to which we all belong. A work similar to “Sedna” is “Between Two Worlds”: a goddess of water is again the protagonist. As in “Sedna”, the woman is immersed in clear waters, from which you can see the refraction of external light. Water and light are rendered in small brushstrokes, reminiscent of the teachings of Impressionist painters, the first to study the effect of light on water. The woman is depicted with her eyes closed, guided by her third eye, open and alert. It is considered to be the seat of the soul and the guide of the spirit. The latter becomes the focal point of the composition also thanks to the red hair of the woman that surrounds it. The artist comments on this work: “Between Two Worlds is about the human condition being both physical and spiritual, about interconnectedness of all things. And it’s about feminine intuition being a force of nature on the one hand, and the expression of the soul on the other.” The other three paintings, “Inspiration”, “Streaming with the elements” and “Planet B”, seem to depict the same red-haired woman with a powerful and sinuous body. “Inspiration” and “Streaming with the elements” are made with the same technique to depict the backgrounds. The technique is that of pouring, made from layers of different colors juxtaposed. In the first case the woman’s body is in contrast with the background as she is rendered in a completely different technique, of fast, bold and colorful brushstrokes. In the second above-mentioned work, a naked woman is depicted lying down, diagonally occupying the composition. She lies between the two elements: water and fire, cold and heat. The artist says: “This work shows the female body as one with nature, just another element to make the whole.” The last work in which we find the same protagonist is “Planet B” that stands out from the previous ones in terms of technique - in fact here the artist also uses oils- and also in terms of style and setting. The mystical environment is depicted with the starry sky and the big planet that serves as a visual fulcrum. The latter is one of her most recent creations and its evolution is in fact evident, increasingly in the figurative direction and attention to detail. It is also evident that a Surrealist influence leads her to explore environments related to space and the world of dreams. The artist says “This work in some ways is a play on a phrase “There is no planet B” - which is what we commonly say (in the environmentalist world) to express the urgency with which Earth’s ecosystem needs to be protected (and it’s also a title of a book on this subject). Some scientists say that Jupiter’s moons are potential candidates to host life, and so I got lost in imagining what those worlds might be like. This woman is alone on an icy, cold planet (possibly one of Jupiter’s moons), gazing at Jupiter in the distance. In many ways, this scene reflected my emotional state at the time. But perhaps this work also serves to remind us that the only Planet B we will ever have is in the world of our imagination. Our minds can travel far, but our soft, squishy, watery, warm bodies will always belong to Gaia.”
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Anna Zubets-Anderson
Between Two Worlds
Anna Zubets-Anderson
Inspiration
Anna Zubets-Anderson
Planet B
Anna Zubets-Anderson
Sedna
Anna Zubets-Anderson
Streaming with the elements
Anni Kuismin
Anni Kuismin roots lie in Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland and the beating heart of Northern Finland. Anni spends her spare time taking slow walks by the sea, reading and occasionally practicing circus. “I’m still learning”, stated Michelangelo at the age of 87. That is the goal for Anni, to never stop learning. She truly believes that art is freedom and does not want to lock herself in any narrow box. Anni gives a glimpse of her personality through her works, mostly inspired by the nature that surrounds her, and through more experimental works, in which she seeks a combination between the figurative and the abstract. Her most lively phase is undoubtedly expressed by the work “The beauty of wisdom” on display at M.A.D.S. art gallery. The work depicts Nefertiti, the Beautiful Egyptian Queen. The work is the result of the artist’s strong interest in Egyptian art, in particular hieroglyphics, which she inserts into the background. Anni shows her figurative skills, painting half face in a totally realistic way and the other half instead looks like a mosaic, it seems as if her face is crumbling. This contrast indicates a reflection, the artist herself asks: “Was she beautiful on the inside, as well? What she thought about her life as a woman at that time?”. The many layers that make up the painting offer us food for thought: the history of humans, the history of the Earth is made up of human actions, each layer represents an event, a progress, which led man to be so. The other two works in the exhibition are more figurative. “Elegia” is a work strongly connected with the theme of the “Gaia: the origin” exhibition. It represents Ilmatar (Airress), an epic character in the Kalevala poem. According to this poem, Ilmatar is the one who gave birth to the world. Once again, even in Finnish mythology, the woman is the one who generates life, the one who gives origin to the whole. The work is made in mixed media, the artist combines different techniques, applying the silver leaf in relief over the head of the woman, thus giving her a regal appearance. The colors are soft: white, gray and blue dominate the composition. Anni Kuismin fully captures the soul of Illmatar: she is air, floats light, surrounded by small butterflies that for the artist symbolize freedom and change. The last work, “Rinascimento”, is certainly the closest to reality. Once again, a woman is the protagonist. She is represented in a statuary way, placed on the right of the composition and recalls Giorgio De Chirico’s statues. Yellow and blue are in sharp contrast to each other. The woman throws her head backwards, in a position of total freedom. The clear sky recalls the first days of spring, the period of rebirth. The artist paints this work by listening to Vivaldi’s Primavera, stating even more how much she herself is inspired by music, nature and emotions.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Anni Kuismin
Elegia
Anni Kuismin
Rinascimento
Anni Kuismin
The Beauty of Wisdom
Anri Saito
A great stain of colors takes possession of the representative space. It conquers with force all the attention of those who look at the work aware of possessing within itself a vigorous expressive power. A red spot, fiery and bright, stands out on the canvas to be covered by several layers of pigment. These are indefinite stains in which one can glimpse different methods of application: at first the pigment is vigorously spread with the brush and then blended to create combinations of different colors or removed, as in the evident trace left by a sort of bubble wrap applied and then removed while the color is still wet. In any case, however, in every form of color application, the expansive component of representation is extremely felt. The color does not remain still and motionless, it is not satisfied with the space at the edge of the painting intended for it. The pigments expand, take possession of spaces on the canvas not intended for it. A transparent violet color desperately drips downward to reach its destination, the edge of the canvas; a fluid blue stain expands upward through thin filaments of color that reach the upper limit of the composition. The spot of color engages with the structure of the work, making its presence felt and expanding, and, perhaps, recalling other pictorial spots. Above, in the far right corner of the painting, a bright red stain is about to enter the space of the composition, attracted by the power of the original large colored stain. This motion of expansion and gravitational force, qualities with which color is endowed, are the focus of Anri Saito’s painting, a totally abstract composition that summarizes in its forms and colors her studies on metalworking, design, music and the psychology of color. The expressive power of the painting is clearly comparable to the vital energy of the liquid metal that, just melted, lies inside the furnace. The metal appears almost alive, it shifts at the first movement and rivulets and ever-changing stains are created on its surface. It is a process in which the matter changes its state, a moment in which the atoms change their way of amassing; it is the period in which the energy inherent in the matter is most visible. So, like liquid metal, Anri’s painting carries with it its intrinsic strength, all enclosed in the stain of colors that stands out on the canvas, a stain that carries within itself the vital energy of matter.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Anri Saito
Daydreaming
Ansje Visser “Light can do everything. The shadows work for me. I make the shadows. I make the light. I can create everything with my camera.” (Man Ray) Ansje Visser is an extraordinary photographer and all-round artist. Her photographs are interesting glimpses of reality that leave the viewer astonished and amazed at the multiple points of view of the real world that she gives us. For Ansje, the process of photography is the art of observing, of finding in everyday life that detail, that interesting element that embellishes the ordinary. In her photograph “Gaia 1” her artistic photographic concept is very evident. Ansje plays with the contrast of light and shadow using different shades of the same colour. There are several elements in the photograph that bring us back to nature. The viewer’s perception is that of some branches being reflected on a water surface. Here nature triumphs and gives us hope. Ansje lets herself be guided by her instinct and captures moments of everyday life, which she makes magical and unrepeatable through the play of contrasts of light and colour. Here the work has warm colours that immediately take us back to a dimension of peace, familiarity and tranquillity. The viewer is overwhelmed and at the same time manages to establish a deep contact with nature, which appears so alive and present. Light plays a fundamental role in this photography. It reflects, it bathes the surfaces, it creates three-dimensionality. Light is a symbol of hope. The branches of the tree that wind and expand in space, taking up their own space, are synonymous with life. They create an unexpected composition that almost detaches itself from reality. Small plays of light and reflection create elements similar to holes that seem to decorate the branches. A game of overlapping and balancing. “Gaia 1” is a triumph of nature, a tribute to Mother Earth who gives mankind a mix of contrasting emotions every day. The artist does not merely look at but interprets nature, capturing its value and returning it to the viewer. All five senses are involved in this photograph: looking at it you can hear the rustling of the wind, the imperceptible sound of the animals. Ansje teaches us that everything that exists is extraordinary, starting with the wonder of nature. The wonder of nature is the key to creativity. Nature gives us hope, an incentive to move forward, the knowledge that every day we wake up immersed in something bigger than ourselves. One of the extraordinary abilities that Ansje reveals through her work is her innate ability to observe the world with a creative eye. She is inspired by small things, such as nature, and is able to create compositions from a few elements. Ansje is constantly stimulated by everything that surrounds her and by her experiences. The camera is always with her during this continuous process of artistic and creative growth.
“Photography is an art; indeed it is more than an art, it is the solar phenomenon in which the artist collaborates with the sun.” (Alphonse de Lamartine)
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Ansje Visser
Gaia 1
Arnaud Verhulst “The universe is wild and full of wonders” (Dylan Thomas) Gaia, Mother Earth, is life, is light, is wild, Arnaud’s works totally represent these characteristics of Gaia. Where there is color and joy, there is Arnaud, no doubt it is. His works, always of Pop imprint, are the perfect balance between dream and reality, arousing in the observer those emotions of joy and amazement that belong to children. Arnaud, through his artistic work, awakens in the viewer the child he was in the past, bringing to the surface those unique sensations that belong to the pure soul of a child. Gaia’s free spirit finds fulfillment in the bright, brilliant and lively colors that the artist uses with great ability, the contrasts between light and shadow emphasize even more the sense of freedom that belongs to animals in this series of works by the French artist. The black background of the work “King Parrot” could be the infinite space in which nature has the freedom to move, to live and to feel the master of this world. The intense eyes of a tiger become the wild gaze of Gaia, who dominates everything and has generated everything. Arnaud’s artistic work does not pretend to bestow teachings, but it certainly provokes reflections and arouses emotions, this is precisely the artist’s great ability. His works catch the eye and grab the observer’s heart without any presumption. Quoting Lucy Lippard “More extrovert than introvert pop art gets to the point instantly”, and that’s exactly what Arnaud does with his works, he gets straight to the point, in no uncertain terms he tells, in this case, the savage as it is , with a pinch of irony and curiosity. Arnaud’s artistic work is the perfect harmony between light and dark, between movement and stillness, between joy and melancholy, it is total balance between opposites. A succession of bright colors, a free flight towards the extreme beauty of nature, all this is what the viewer experiences through Arnaud’s work.
Art Curator Vanessa Viti
Arnaud Verhulst
Dans le placard
Arnaud Verhulst
King Parrot
Arnaud Verhulst
T4
Arnaud Verhulst
The bird on the pop wall
Arnaud Verhulst
Zebra
Arturo Salgado “Art, freedom and creativity will change society faster than politics.” (Victor Pinchuk) Arturo Salgado is a young and promising artist. He uses colour in an innovative and impactful way. Gesture and instinct guide him in the process of creating original and lively works. The colours he uses invite the viewer to explore the different sensations and emotions they convey. He invites the viewer not to be afraid of the different and contrasting emotions he feels, but guides him to become aware of them. In “The beginning” his concept is very evident. This work contains a positive and encouraging message: every morning is a new day in which man is free to live, to be reborn, to enjoy all the privileges he has been given. All this is expressed with very bright and energetic colours that are mixed together to create strong and energetic combinations. Orange, red, purple and blue are the colours that dominate the canvas. Arturo uses an abstract painting style that best expresses his emotions and those he would like to convey to the viewer. The colour is pure and is left free to express itself. It moves lightly and nimbly over the surface at his disposal, cleaning the impure forms. The composition appears harmonious and decidedly well balanced. The colour gives off the passion and impetus with which the work was painted. The artist is driven by the desire to communicate a different feeling with each colour. Every day, man is stimulated and surrounded by a million emotions that are often in conflict with each other, as in this work. This is normal and we have to take note of it. Man can be scared and happy at the same time, or thrilled but worried. The emotions that Arturo gives us through this explosion of colours correspond to the different facets of the human soul. The artist teaches us that each day represents a new beginning, a new day for the soul. Each day is a new opportunity to do what makes us feel free, happy and grateful. It is useless to waste this opportunity because of worries or fears. It is normal to be frightened by a new beginning, but the desire to live and start again must prevail over negative emotions, as Arturo demonstrates by making orange and red prevail over blue, which, although bright, is still a cold colour. Through colours we can explore the human soul, learn about life and open ourselves up to new experiences. What Arturo proposes on the canvas is the exact transposition of what he feels and invites the spectator to look inside himself, to reflect himself in those pure and free colours. Every day corresponds to a new opportunity that we must not let slip away, but live it intensely, appreciating that immense gift that is life.
“Even in the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” (Victor Hugo)
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Arturo Salgado
The Beginning
Aurora Ritika
Aurora Ritika is an Indian artist who loved to paint from a very young age. Aurora is a fearless artist and her art is a vehicle to make meaningful connections. She wishes to inspire people to take the plunge into unforeseen lands of the destiny god has planned for them. She wishes to bring out the extraordinary from the ordinary. Her art is expressed through figurative paintings, in which the woman is undoubtedly the undisputed protagonist. Another equally important subject is the horse, an animal that occupies much of her production, sometimes inserted in her works with female subjects. Red and blue are the dominant colors in her works, in which you perceive a magical feeling, you are transported in a fairy-tale dimension. An example is undoubtedly the work exhibited at M.A.D.S. art gallery, entitled “Enthroning” in which a beautiful woman occupies the central part of the painting, staring at the viewer and wearing a crown. The woman’s face is inspired by that of the beautiful supermodel Gigi Hadid and behind her open two huge red wings.
Aurora Ritika
The work, composed of two panels joined together, is made in mixed media and oil on canvas and shows different Aurora’s technical skills. The face as well as the woman’s dress is painted in detail in a realistic way while the wings and the background are made in an abstract way, through the use of inks and the insertion of the gold leaf. Semantically, the artist wants to send a message to her audience: “It’s your time to spread your wings to make what you want to make of your life. Go live the life of your dreams!”. The other work on display is entitled “Embracing her Wildfire”. Here the technique is the same and this time she used a vertical composition. The title itself suggests the theme and message behind this painting. The connection with the theme of the exhibition, “Gaia: the origin”, is strong. The artist invites the public to abandon themselves to their own nature, so as to discover their true identity. A woman is represented with her eyes closed, she seeks the truth within herself, while she is surrounded by birds in flight, a symbol of freedom.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Aurora Ritika
Embracing her wildfire
Aurora Ritika
Enthroning
Ayano Nakamura “Remember, a line cannot exist alone; it always brings a companion along” (Henri Matisse)
Ayano is a young japanese artist, her approach to art could be summed up with the sentence: “Draw freely” as someone said to her when she was at the beginning of her career. Emotions and instinct are extremely important in Ayano’s communication, as is the choice of using pens and paper for drawing, such a delicate decision if we think about the visual impact of her artworks.
Ayano Nakamura
In front of her creations we realize that art, with Ayano, means codes: her lines represente unexpressed thoughts, they are the result of the patience and the perseverance of concentration. Ayano demonstrates having, in addition to a deep technique and knowledge of materials, an extreme emotional sensitivity. Like a hurricane, like something stronger than human beings, her works force us to tune into a tumult of lines and remain twisted in them until we look away.
Art Curator Cecilia Brambilla
Ayano Nakamura
Going around in circles
Ayano Nakamura
Hidden moon
Basma Nimri “Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.” (Oscar Wilde) Basma Nimri is a Jordanian artist who, as the quote from the famous Irish writer states, when she creates portraits, she uses the brush not only to paint faces, but also to color the canvas with emotions and passion. For her, art is not just a hobby, but a way to express herself in all her facets. Her works, therefore, represent exactly the mirror of her person, of her feelings and thoughts. Versatility is one of the peculiar characteristics of the artist: her works range from canvases made with different techniques of which the main subjects are faces, to sculptures and vases. “I am within the whole and the whole is within me” was made with the oil on canvas technique in 2020. The protagonist is a dark-skinned woman whose body we can see from the shoulders up. The figure is delimited by a black outline, her features are angular and marked and remind those of the women depicted by the great Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani: the face is long and thin, the nose is narrow, the mouth is small. Even if the eyes are barely visible, we perceive that the woman’s gaze is profound and that she wants to communicate a message to us. The title of the work is very evocative: the woman captures the essence of every little thing in the world she lives in, but at the same time she wants to give the world a part of herself, part of her happiness, part of her pain. She immerses herself completely in the reality that surrounds her because she wants to leave a trace of herself, she wants others to remember her. This painting is a clear proof of the artist’s great technical skills: broad brushstrokes meet with other more subtle ones; light colors mix with darker shades creating a strong, but at the same time pleasant chromatic contrast. Background and subject of the work almost merge, making the painting original and harmonious. Basma is an artist who, through her works, expresses a deep and magical inner world into which she invites viewers to plunge completely, offering them the precious opportunity to identify with the characters she depicts.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Basma Nimri
I am within the whole and the whole is within me
Bea Kunysz “Choose only one master nature.” (Rembrandt)
Bea Kunysz is a self-taught artist. As an international marketer for the tourism industry, she is an avid traveler and blogger. Born in Poland (in 1975), she grew up in Germany. Through her art she tries to interact with people, the main source of her inspiration, especially women where she likes to capture their energy, their sensuality and spirituality. The colors used are those of the “Pachamama”, that is the “Mother Earth”; She who generates everything, animals and people. With her works Bea seeks communion with it, according to the Andean and South American peoples in general, it is possible to reach the “Vivir bien”, living well, in the sense of profound and spiritual realisation of the person. A vision that opposes the search for “well-being” and “better and better” living of Western peoples, based instead on the accumulation of things and money. Since the beginning Earth has hosted us, fed us, cared for us; it has taught us to live through the words of those who knew how to interpret its “signs”.
Bea Kunysz
We can see through her expressionism and her brushstrokes how Bea tells us about the relationship between Nature and the Divinity that governs the cycles of life, death and rebirth. With the representation of “Lust” we can conceive the connection with the great power and its vital instinct as an inexhaustible generator. Instead in “Tree Woman” takes on the symbol of life in evolution, the tree connects the three levels of the cosmos: the underground because of the roots that dig the depth into which they sink, the surface of the earth for the trunk and branches and finally the skies for the upper branches and the top attracted by the light of the sun. It is the multifaceted metamorphosis of a woman who loves, cries, gets angry but at the bottom of her heart, lies the heritage of the world itself. A path and a comparison, that of Bea’s works, to experiment with creativity the most sacred and living aspects of one’s own essence; new energy of the feminine to maintain and expand it. Acute perceptions where the woman continues to nourish herself through her roots, regenerates to maintain her vital spirit so as to be able to generate new shoots to entrust with this priceless inheritance.
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Bea Kunysz
Lust
Bea Kunysz
TreeWoman
Bianca Arntz “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” (Edgar Degas)
This painting, oil on canvas by Bianca Arntz, breaks with the traditional use of the technique, so often associated with the work of art par excellence, giving a new visual materiality. In “Cornelia”, the picture is made up of a few colors including brown, cream and ocher, which describe the subject with delicately hinted light and shade. Thin contour lines, tell a feminine face with decidedly elegant features, falling in a contemporary language, the teachings of the master Franz von Stuck. The clear silhouette of the woman stands out against the dark brown background, while the cream-colored backdrops give a feeling of unfinished which, however, becomes more precise and material in the topside of the face, where the eyes are deep and intense. The jute insert on the cover part of the chest is interesting, which also connects the work to the research of Arte Povera, whose goal was the use of simple and artisanal materials, in contrast with technological design and the consumption’s culture. Arntz’s work is, for this reason and for the choice of colors used, in close connection with the earthly element, thus highlighting the need for a representation that carries with it an ancestral meaning in which the woman, Mother Earth, is life emblem. The very name “Cornelia”, deriving from “horn”, takes on a decisive meaning, a symbol of abundance and power.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Bianca Arntz
Cornelia
Bianca Dakli Bianca Dakli’s paintings, here exhibited at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, are the reflection of her love for natural movements. Improvisation is the engine of her way of painting, spontaneous and instinctive. Concerning the concept of the exhibition “Gaia: The Origin”, Bianca Dakli realizes three paintings with natural subjects that recall to mind our world and that express the beauty of unpredictability. “Forest in Gold” and “Mountains” refer to natural landscapes and they convey the reality of the places they refer to. Bright and vibrant are the colors used for “Forest in Gold’’ – as the title lets imagine – where there is the prevalence of three colours: green, black and gold. The deep brush strokes with which the artist represents the subject give a dynamic atmosphere as an allusion to a windy moment of the day where the grass and the trees fluctuate and swing quickly. The big and gold spot of colour in the foreground, represents the main character of the painting. Recalling the Kintsugi technique of the Japanese art with which artists used to repair broken pottery, here it can be read as the artist’s aim to repair something broken in her soul, due to the difficult moment that she was living while painting. However, another interpretation sees, in this gold spot, a big tree trunk. Softer and more peaceful appears “Mountains” where the delicate colours used for the representation of the sky, broke the strong impact of the indigo acrylic used for the mountains. The ability of the artist to represent a dynamic scene emerges through the clouds that cover part of the mountain chain and that seem to head towards the wind’s blowing. The same movement is repeated by the grass in the low foreground. Leading to the emotions and the feelings that push the artist to draw there is “Festival”, rich in colours that move from the left side of the painting, to the right one, as if they were carried by the current of thoughts that animate the artist’s soul. Realized during the first lockdown, the painting seems to represent Bianca Dakli’s dream to turn to ‘normality’. The vividness of her paintings is visible through the use of different colours that contrast between them, as a vent of uncontrollable emotions.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
Bianca Dakli
Festival
Bianca Dakli
Forest in gold
Bianca Dakli
Mountains
Birgit Barkhoff
Birgit Barkhoff is a German artist, whose approach to art begins at a young age. For many years she drew with pencils and charcoal, and then approached acrylic painting. The encounter with acrylic changes her artistic direction, so much so that she herself says:” I found what I was always looking for.” She then began to paint intensively, being inspired by the colours and various techniques. The artist thus develops her own style, certainly influenced by Abstract Expressionism and Abstractionism. The primary role of her art is to capture feelings on canvas. Her visual influences come from buildings, people, and life. Speaking of her own creative process, she says: “I take photos or sketches in my head. I take my time in my studio. Time for the journey to transform the inspirations and impressions into colourful compositions. I want to move people with my pictures and touch them”. Birgit Barkhoff presents at M.A.D.S. art gallery the work entitled “EMOTION”. It is a biochromatic work, composed of oil blue spatula and yellow flue traits made by spray can. The background is left white, creating a feeling of emptiness on the canvas. The strong contrast between white and colour “drawings” recalls Zen Buddhist art, also for the immediacy of the gestures and their non-premeditation. The title “EMOTION” recalls the message that the work conveys: emotions are uncontrollable just like the gestures that create the forms on the canvas, are instinctive, and must be followed. From the compositional point of view, the artist follows the teachings of the painter Franz Kline, skilfully balancing the voids but at the same time filling the white space through the aura that is created by fixing the yellow line flue. The eyes are enchanted by the light and calmed by the oil blue. The artist creates an overlap of planes that degrades from the initial shock towards the void of the white canvas.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Birgit Barkhoff
Emotion
Birgit Roschach “Taking a photograph means aligning the head, the eye and the heart. It is a way of life”. (Henri Cartier-Bresson)
As a nature lover, Birgit Roschach could only be selected for this incredible exhibition entitled “Gaia. The origin” by M.A.D.S. art gallery, that she joined with “Paradise III”. We are talking about a photographic artist born and based in southern Germany, but who has lived in pristine places like the Caribbean and many years in Brazil where she found her artistic passion and studied traditional analogy photography. She lives in Bavaria, near a large lake where she finds infinite inspiration for her photography, creating small mystical and fairy-tale worlds that lose the ownership of a flat image becoming a landscape with a vivid texture, a vivid Garden of Eden heavenly. Everything is transformed into a heap of moving signs, aggressive and lively colour contrasts, and details more or less covered by shades and blurs. The photograph was taken right on the lake of her home combining three small worlds such as the shore, the lake, and the island in a surreal and mystical paradise. The clear desire of the artist is to transfer the observer to the place and make him experience the space, just like Birgit does every day of his life: listening to the same sounds, smelling the same perfumes, and touching all the multiplicity of surfaces present in a weaving mill wooded and rich in vegetation. There is a strong melancholy impressed by the artist who tries to save her memories on the work of art to make them immortal, relivable, and shareable.
“Nature is the true artist who overwhelms us with her beauty” (Birgit Roschcach)
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Birgit Roschach
Paradise III
Briana Zacarias
“Intruders” is the painting that the American artist Briana Zacarias presents at M.A.D.S. Milano Art Gallery. Concerning the concept of the exhibition, titled “Gaia: the origin”, the artist reflects her interpretation of Mother Earth with a female and nude figure embracing herself in the middle of a mysterious and chaotic atmosphere. Every piece starts off with a source, a poem, and a set of acrylic inks that leads to a dance with the canvas that illustrates the story of the artist’s life. Through a technique she calls “kissing the canvas” she gives the inks a nudge in the right direction while allowing them to flow however they desire. The colourful background that composes the scene can be seen as a whole natural landscape, in which the four natural elements clearly identify their position. The vivid flame on the lower part of the scene enters with insolence in the water that appeases its energy, in order to let the ship sail in tranquillity. It is precisely from the fire that the female figure is born and, quickly, tries to reach a space in which takes a deep breath and starts to dominate the Earth. What suddenly stands out by watching the painting, is the strength of the whole scene, so touching and captivating, that is able to influence the viewer.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
Briana Zacarias
Intruders
Cap Pannell “Nature is a mere pretext for a decorative composition, plus sentiment. It suggests emotion, and I translate that emotion into art.” (Georges Braque) Imagination is the key point of creativity, just as an artist could not elaborate any artwork without it. This is the essence of the award-winning artist Cap Pannell, who for years has continued with his research into inspiration through nature. Among his paintings, the landscapes and cloudscapes invoke serenity, a peaceful view, full of awe and wonder, as if we were there in the first person. The oil technique allows him to grasp the distinctive traits of natural elements on the canvas, making them as truthfully as possible. His various works remind us of Impressionism - the art of Edward Hopper and some 19th century English artists. Each of them has given his own interpretation of nature: making it appear so fascinating to our eyes and surprising us in a different way. Hopper himself also took inspiration from Impressionism, giving it an innovative intuition in the representation of American landscapes. In 7 PM, Pannell elicits these sensations of innovation but simultaneously captures the core of the landscape’s quiet at this time, which from the colors and shades, or rather the gilding of the sky, suggest it is representing a sunset. The natural scenarios mixed with what looks like an isolated country house among the trees resemble those depicted by Hopper, between melancholy and serenity. As if it indirectly represented one of the principles of man and nature relationship, in which it takes refuge to shelter. That moment of day when night begins to approach. Probably, it is the same moment that we see in Gulfstream: reminiscent of the name of the current, portrays a glow of light in the clouds. The artist evokes a sense of escape but at the same time, as in many other paintings, he gives us an unequivocal tranquility. Perhaps an invitation to carefully observe what our Mother Earth has given us, its marvels and power. And how our mind wanders every time we stop to look at the sky. Pendant, moreover, is reminiscent of William Turner’s vehement skies where everything dissolves in swirls of color, blurred strokes and pastel shades. The title spells out something that is in the middle, sloping. Thus, like this painted sky, it can have a double interpretation: the rising sun and one setting. As the power of the natural elements reflects the weakness of existence. The beginning and the end. Dusk and dawn. Nature, as represented, is perhaps absolutely one of the evocative places, it can not only inspire us and is an inexorable source of vocation and a point of reference for many artists but also a safe place in which to recognize ourselves, to dream. The same impact, which comes from art through its means and which the M.A.D.S. Art gallery wanted to represent it with the GAIA exhibition.
Art Curator Ylenia De Giosa
Cap Pannell
7 PM
Cap Pannell
Gulfstream
Cap Pannell
Pendant
Carina Jäger
In ancient Greece, it was said that at the beginning of time there was only what the Greeks called Chaos: an abyss where nothing was defined and where the concept of order did not exist. From the Chaos emerges Gaia, or Mother Earth: she is a distinct and tangible form. Gaia therefore represents the very idea of order and balance. In the work presented here, “Overload”, by the young artist Carina Jäger, it seems to observe this cosmic Chaos, in which all the elements, such as fire, rock and ice, are united in a dense magma: they are union and fusion of opposites. To incarnate Gaia, in the most ancient cultures, it is always a female being, as a representation of the mystery of birth. And so, also in Carina’s work is a female figure who, thanks to her strength and her mind, manages to unite all the elements and shape chaos, giving life to life itself and the world in which to express it. In her works, Carina expresses herself and what she has in her deepest soul. She manages to convey her inner chaos, transporting it to the canvas and thus transforming it into art and harmony. In her works, Carina represents, as here, the union of opposites, which meet and merge giving life to a unique new world. This work is a real - I would dare to say literal - explosion of strength and energy, which is released from the female figure on the canvas and from it reaches the viewer who is captured by it. A pronounced sentence by the artist herself perfectly describes why making art is life for her and what her art is able to express through colors: “There are not enough words to explain art. Colors communicate on another level. They are vibrations of emotions. So, I paint to relieve my soul “
Art Curator Silvia Grassi
Carina Jäger
Overload
Carlos Ribeiro “Unpredictability is something unwanted in traditional programming practices, which is why more experienced programmers reading these words may be finding some of these ideas unpalatable. But trust me: it’s for your own good. Nonlinear approaches to the familiar can be healthy for the brain.” (Matt Pearson)
“Unpredictability is something unwanted in traditional programming practices, which is why more experienced programmers reading these words may be finding some of these ideas unpalatable. But trust me: it’s for your own good. Nonlinear approaches to the familiar can be healthy for the brain.” Matt Pearson’s phrase is the perfect description of Carlos Ribeiro’s works that stand out for the simplicity of the technique, ballpoint pen on 200g/m2 cansos paper, which stands out perfectly against the white background of the sheet. Simple works developed through a technique that, although not entirely foreign to the art world, is to the eye of the viewer unusual and often underestimated. These are not the works that we are used to seeing every day or that we imagine in our heads when we think of art, yet it is precisely this characteristic that makes them fascinating, engaging and unique. DIFFERENT. The alternation of the two main colors, blue and black, and the diversity of the strokes on the paper create a three-dimensionality within the abstract representation. In the works there are no contours that establish a visual order, but the distribution of blurred lines that intersect each other makes the eye able to interpret the meaning and to grasp the charm. Nothing, however, is left to chance, each line is designed to alternate lights and shadows and to arouse curiosity in the viewer. The works you don’t expect and a perfect encounter between order and complexity, despite their simplicity.
Art Curator Carolina Troccoli
Carlos Ribeiro
Untitled 1
Carlos Ribeiro
Untitled 2
Carlos Ribeiro
Untitled 3
Caroline Reid Caroline Reid lives and works in her home and studio in Canberra, Australia. After 25 years of pottery making, she studied painting, drawing and soft pastel, the latter in Oregon. Caroline has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions, and she has also won some awards. The Australian artist describes her artwork as follows: “ “Spuma” is an imaginary hot beach scene with a few salty puddles leading out to the seashore where the froth (“Spuma”) of the waves can be seen, fading in to the mist of the distant headland. There are no humans in this image - the earth and the water have their own place - perfect and complete.“ The lowered point of view and the horizon line located in the upper half of the artwork, intensify the monumentality of the scene and increase the involvement of the viewer. Also, this particular choice of framing, makes the land, more precisely the sand, the visual protagonist; but it is at the upper end of it that we find the true protagonist of the work, the bubbling foam of the sea that explodes and splashes into the air. The viewer, furthermore, immediately realizes that the sand in front of him is hot, thanks both to the colors used by the Australian artist, an opaque, arid orange, and a dark red; and the choice of the pictorial features: wide, shaded and irregular, which seems to create the optical effect of the trembling of the ground. This pictorial technique is somewhat the artistic signature of Caroline Reid, and we can see it in all her artworks, especially in those of the series “Terranum” (Earthly), of which this work is part. This style reminds us of the Impressionist style that which caused such a sensation at the end of the 19th century because, in full opposition to academicism, it produced a synthesis of reality, capturing only the general “impression”. In “Spuma”, in fact, our artist does not focus on individual grains of sand, for example, but she makes the scene in its entirety, as we really perceive it. Caroline Reid has captured in her work all four natural elements: the water - present in the foam and puddles, the air - visible in the leaden sky, the earth - both in the sand and in the mountains in the distance and finally the fire, symbolically invoked by the fiery heat of the soil. A complete representation of Gaia.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Caroline Reid
Spuma
Catarina Diaz
Catarina Diaz is a London-based analog collage and mixed media artist. The Catarina Diaz art is a hybrid between realism and surrealism, the creation of collages allows her to create works using hyper-realistic elements thanks to old magazines clippings, combining them in order to create representations that are completely detached from reality. At the “Gaia - The Origin” International Art Exhibition of the Contemporary Art Gallery M.A.D.S. She exhibits two works “Mellifluous” and “Once Upon a Time”.”Mellifluous” tells a surreal world, the protagonist of the work seems to come out of the collage, completely dressed in yellow is the element that most captures the look of the observer, thanks to the contrast with the background in black and white.The pink of flamingos and birds in flight frames the girl, whose look is safe, determined, almost challenging.
Catarina Diaz
The urban scenery in black and white background creates a dynamic contrast with the subjects of the work, making them suspended in a moment, capturing an instant that seems to come to the future. “Once upon a time”, it is the story of a story, a fairy tale, you feel immersed in a reality totally different from the one in which you live. The flowers covering the woman’s face protagonist of the collage recall the art of Frida Khalo, the hummingbird and the tiger seem to represent two emotional and characterial sizes of the protagonist, the romanticity of the work is also provided by the choice of the colors used, which from one side illuminate the piece and on the other they provide the feeling of being fallen into a timeless fairy tale.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Catarina Diaz
Mellifluous
Catarina Diaz
Once upon a time
Catherine Pennington-Meyer “I see my painting as a kind of language that translates what I feel or feel to those who see it. I am naturally attracted by the creation of rough, emotional, expressionist pieces, mostly abstract, which distill a subject up to its feeling”. It is with these words that Catherine Pennington-Meyer describes her art, whose research focuses on abstract expressionism. This pictorial current that springs mainly from the despair and the crisis of creative values linked to the particular historical period, America of the ‘40s, characterized in the artistic field, and not only, by a “huge void”. With Expressionism comes the action painting, an immediate painting, free, spontaneous, in which the whole body of the artist is involved in the realization of the work, the execution of which is entrusted to the gestural arm, a painting made with spray, stains, color dripping (dripping) from the brush. The work of art becomes an expression of an exasperated subjectivism, of the automatic action of the unconscious, the canvas is a means and means between the material, the color, the sign, and the ego of the artist, so much that Pollock writes: “When I paint I do not have the exact perception of what is happening, only after I realize what I have done “. “Bali” by Catherine Pennington-Meyer, consistent with the expressionist canons, is characterized by fast brushstrokes, calligraphy or nuanced with layers of color. The artist is inspired by the nature, the landscape and the time of childhood places. Her painting is reflective and contemplative, in which the emotional force of color takes on a predominant role. The artist is, in fact, the master of a spontaneous and sensual style, founded on a free dissemination of the thousand shades that speak and communicate to the public. A way of doing abstract painting, developing a particular stylistic feature, in which even poetry occasionally takes shape. The artist’s individuality plays, therefore, the central role in the work, which is realized through the development of a pictorial language in which no definite forms appear, far from any figuration to move towards individual diversity and freedom of expression.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo
Catherine Pennington-Meyer
Bali
Célia Braga
Nature’s sounds and noise of what surrounds her, are the elements that inspire Celia Braga while depicting. The portuguese artist exhibits at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, during “Gaia: the origin” exhibition, two of her paintings, similar between them but with different subjects and in the atmosphere too. Starting from ‘Hot City’ Celia Braga shows her interpretation of the city in which she lives, that is given to her by the whole environment. Letting her guide by the intuition of what she hears from her apartment, Celia Braga creates a busy city. This perception of frenzy that transpires from the piece, is visible through the thick brush strokes that represent the city’s buildings. Some palaces are taller than the others but everyone seems to aspire to reach the top of the canvas. We can imagine that the artist is depicting during a hot summer day thanks to the hot colors she uses for the lower part of the piece and the sky. The orange and the yellow, give to the scene a sensation of heat that embraces its subjects and the viewers, as well.
Célia Braga
Watching the composition, we can also see the black spot that surrounds the highest skyscrapers, as if it alludes to the effect of an industrial city. More soft to the sight and less complicated to identify in its subjects is “The Tower”. Always in an urban atmosphere Celia Braga, this time focalizes her attention on a particular element that composes the city: the white outline tower that suddenly stands out from the scene, just in the middle of the composition. Thanks to the delicate colors on the right side that oppose the marker ones on the left, the artist wants to give to the tower a great importance, giving it the role of the main character. Looking at the two paintings what immediately results is the vertical dynamism of the elements and of the entire scene. However Celia Braga uses oil, acrylic and gold leaf to realize her canvas, the single ‘buildings’ recall to mind the collage technique.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
Célia Braga
Hot City
Célia Braga
The Tower
Charlie Vicars “For the first time I realized my infinite smallness and the fact that our land was nothing more than a pebble on a beach where there were millions of pebbles.” (Fred Uhlman) The artist Charlie Vicars at the International Art Exhibition “Gaia - The Origin”, exhibits a painting that fits and is perfectly suited to the object of the exhibition. When they first heard about the theme of this exhibition, immediately understood that wanted to present an ode to a mentioned painting in the title of the exhibition itself. In fact, the title of Charlie’s work is called “The Origin of the Universe”. It was built in the last year, a period in which they had the privilege of dedicating themselves full time. Their artistic artwork is an expression of their deep connection with nature and love for it, expressing their love for nature and the human form through the use of watercolor, ink and acrylic on canvas. They have a creative passion in many forms of art in addition to these, such as collage, graphite, but they are also dedicated to book making and pastels. But watercolor is the language they can best understand, a natural way to connect and truly express Mother Nature in strokes of water and pigment. This painting depicts Gaia, the primordial goddess, the divine power of the Earth. The colors used in this painting are bright, with bright tones, flooding the whole canvas with a certain vitality and energy. A vulva that generates life is depicted, a colorful and sparkling cosmos. The thighs, on the other hand, are green trees and splendid poppies in bloom; up to the top, two high mountains are drawn on the two splendid breasts that rise against a blue sky. The Great Mother is the great goddess mother, goddess of land, agriculture, and fertility; the primordial female divinity and that in it reside a wide range of symbols that inevitably refer to the perpetual cycle of birth-growth-decline-death which inevitably follows the new generation. Charlie didn’t create this painting just for themselves. Their goal is to share their journey of self-love and love for nature through watercolor. It is a great joy for they to know that other people can participate in their artistic journey and that they are encouraged to continue this magnificent adventure. Painting and pursuing their greatest passion were a truly incredible experience.
“The unconscious is a very important element of modern art and I think that the drives of the unconscious have great significance for those who look at a painting.” (Jackson Pollock)
Art Curator Francesca Campanelli
Charlie Vicars
The Origin of the Universe
Chris Kamprad
Chris Kamprad is a German artist who focuses more on the creation of abstract and gestural works. She herself interprets her art with these words: “Art for me is movement and development, it has been made with tension, speed and courage. I am influenced from all that has been, is and will be”. The artist is guided by the energy that gestures emanate and during the creative process tries to move away from any kind of thought. Her art is completely free from the patterns, it is an art strongly connected with feelings and energies. The work that Chris Kamprad decides to exhibit during the “Gaia: the origin” exhibition is a clear example of her creative process and what her art transmits to the public. The work, entitled “The rose that comes from Heaven”, can be placed in the sphere of Abstract Expressionism. Though in an abstract language, the work clearly expresses what the title describes: a rose gently floats in the air, plummets from above, falls from Paradise to reach the earth. The feeling of movement is clearly perceptible thanks to the spatula of red and pink that fade and blend with the intense light blue of the background. The chromatic contrast creates a feeling of peace, dictated above all by the calm evoked by the blue. In the upper part of the painting, in the left corner, is placed the focal point of the composition: three petals have detached from the abstract rose and are accentuated by the background that in that point becomes almost black. The delicacy and sophistication of this painting transports the viewer into an oriental dimension and in some ways ethereal.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Chris Kamprad
The rose that comes from Heaven
Christina Walsh
American painter Christina Walsh exhibits at M.A.D.S. art gallery five works strongly connected with the theme of the exhibition dedicated to nature, entitled “Gaia: the origin”. The artist expresses her art with these words: “Through colour, texture, and gestural strokes, I enjoy exploring different ways to convey both emotion and a sense of place. There is usually an entrance, whether it be a door, or gateway to something I think of as being in a state of being inside the painting, a more immersive experience. In the case of figurative abstract painting, the use of bold colours conveying shadow and light, as well as spatial integrity”. The works entitled “The Gods discuss the Plan” and “Che Guevara VI” fully express her unique style, in which a reference to cubism is clearly expressed. Christina Walsh takes up Pablo Picasso’s technique of decomposing the faces, using very bright colors and numerous textures. Through her works she creates puzzles, mysteries that observers want to unravel. She creates questions in people’s heads, leads them to imagine and observe the work very carefully, to discover all its details and details. The work “Che Guevara VI” is a clear example: the artist paints a fish on the head of the man represented here and she herself says: “..when people ask why he has a fish on his head, I like to remind that Che was a force of nature, and though many were silenced, they were indeed with him”. The other three works differ from her usual style, “Spring of Hope” retains the classic abstract background and clearly represents a flower at the time of flowering. The work was conceived by the artist during a moment of strong connection with nature: in a park with secular trees the artist finds her inspiration through reflection. She says: “Seeing the macroworld in the canopy of life that lives within the universe of the tree. A gentle reminder that we are but a fleeting moment in the scheme of things”. The last two works belong to a moment of experimentation of the artist: “Primordial study in yellow” and “Heart and Soul” offer a possibility to understand the moments of reflection and study of the artist. “Heart and Soul” comes from a prolonged observation of the sky, Christina Walsh becomes obsessed with the yellow and orange of the sun, which in her words: “I continue to find it more interesting when veils of blues and greens, or of sky, can be seen when spending more time with the piece”. The work in fact shows a dualism: the warm and cold colors are placed in contrast to each other, divided by a wavy line, as if they were a yin and yang. The last work is certainly abstract and the most conceptual. It is the result of an understanding night of color experimentation, wet layers of color overlapping each other. Observing the work, which appears as a red rectangle on an orange background, other colors come out: yellow and blue become lighter. This work leads to reflection: perhaps the mind and the eyes need more time to understand the “true” reality. Christina Walsh comments as follows: “This repeating look that we tend to do as we inspect the edges of colour, allows us to dissect colour, allowing us to see what makes yellow – which is how it plays with the colours around it. I purposely included several layers of blues, greens and reds in the yellow, so that eye travels between the two fields. There is a feeling of movement that occurs when we repeat the edges in our minds eye like the burning surface of the sun”.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Christina Walsh
Che Guevara VI
Christina Walsh
Heart and Soul
Christina Walsh
Primordial study in yellow
Christina Walsh
Spring of Hope
Christina Walsh
The Gods discuss the Plan
Cianni Kleber
With the life motto “Here I exist - I belong - I am art”, the Brazilian artist citizen of the world Cianni Kleber, likes to take refuge in his art offering himself as a tool to transform the common world into a superior, supreme one: a place where there are no limits and boundaries, a space without time in which he feels the light present in everything and everyone, inside the body for saying that “A living inspiration in some part of the universe decides to be born right here, in me”. He presents at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, during “Gaia: the origin” exhibition, the artwork entitled “Beijo”, where the use of features that evoke human ones are a sign of hope that the artist’s ideal of life may be closer to us, more than we can imagine. Albeit of a completely different style and aesthetic taste, the concept of dualism between the “search for the form” as in abstract art and the “attempt to follow the traces of the psyche, as in Surrealism, evoke the work of Barbara Hepworth: the grafting of two hybrid form and small form” from 1934. We find ourselves facing two semi-abstract subjects, fused together in a sort of act of love that unifies them in a single body. Its biomorphic forms designate a psychological condition or emotional relationship. The sexual organs represented are both male and female, affirming a gender equality on which to have a reflection necessary to guarantee an optimal start for the ascent to the “perfect world”. Colours are bright and lively, a symbol of positivity, also evoked by the flat festoons in the background. The dripping hearts and inexpressive eyes of the figures send us back to Planet Earth, where all this has yet to come true.
“Focused on the process, I let my body free to tell the images of the ancestral stories that come as breaths in my ears” (Cianni Kebler)
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Cianni Kleber
Beijo
Corrina Cooper
Corrina Cooper was born in the South East of England. In 2010 she moved to Lincoln to study at a BA in Fine Art at the University of Lincoln. Corrina Cooper’s career spanned the education sector, focusing upon teaching and learning within a creative context. Simultaneously, and despite the restrictions of lockdown, she has started to push her creative practice further. The confines of a flat, and lack of being able to escape, has unintentionally created a creative bubble. Her style is easily distinguishable: Corrina Cooper uses geometry to recreate shapes and objects. Admiring her works we find ourselves faced with a fragmented reality, as if an object is reflected in a broken mirror. The resulting optical effect is elegant and refined. The colors that the artist uses are vivid and strong, capturing the attention of the observer. The influences clearly derive from Cubism and Abstractionism, although a clear reference to Art Nouveau and decorative art is more evident. The work exhibited at M.A.D.S. art gallery is entitled “Shelf” and better represents Cooper’s style. This work has a decidedly decorative character: the branches and leaves are reminiscent of those used by the painter Alfons Mucha to decorate his beautiful women. Corrina Cooper contrasts the rigidity of geometry with the dynamism of nature, highlighting the composition of the world: chaos and order coexist and are in harmony. “Shelf” is indeed a harmonious result; it is an orderly chaos. Against all odds, so many different colours placed side by side, neat shapes and random lines, have found their balance. Corrina Cooper’s work gives peace and tranquillity and allows the observer to get lost between the colours and lines.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Corrina Cooper
Shelf
Craig Mann “What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.” (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)
In this painting, the California desert captures the scene thanks to the colours that reminds to the tension and the contrast, characteristic appearance of this place. Mr Craig Mann is an accomplished fine arts painter; he likes to experiment amongst different artistic movements: from the impressionism to the realism, from the cubism to the abstractionism. In “Mother Earth”, the artist underlines the strong connection with the nature, using different shades of natural colours. Green, brown, ochre, mixed together, convey a powerful feeling of belonging to the earth. From this canvas come to light a sense of motherhood, reminding us from where we come. A distinctive feature of Mr Craig Mann’s artwork is his way of drawing: the colours are spread out following a soft development. The artist recreates the movement of the Californian soil through the waves of colours; in doing so, there is a cross-reference to the natural phenomenon of the earthquakes, typical of this area. The energy that arises as final result, points out endless beginnings. So, the artist creates always new perspectives, that change according to who is looking at the painting; this means that also the feeling - experienced by the audience – will be different. Mr Craig Mann leaves the viewer with a question. The painting is divided by a straight line: it can be a border, but at the same time can be a connection. So, what is its meaning?
Art Curator Manuela Fratar
Craig Mann
Mother Earth
Dalia Slep
“Abstraction allows man to see with his mind what he cannot see physically with his eyes....Abstract art enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible, to extract the infinite out of the finite. It is the emancipation of the mind. It is an exploration into unknown areas.” It is from the quote of the American artist Arshile Gorky, a leading exponent of abstract expressionism, that I would like to analyze the work “Joy of Life 2” by the Lithuanian artist Dalia Slep. The painting is characterized by an expressive force and by the use of bright and warm colors that concur to give a sense of pleasant calm and tranquility. The contrast generated by the juxtaposition of red and blue generates not only a pleasant aesthetic return but also helps to balance the painting in its entirety. The work presents itself as a clear reference to the artistic production typical of the abstract period, in particular I would like to recall the figure of Carla Accardi. The Italian painter, active since the end of the 1940s, is remembered not only for having allowed the affirmation of abstractionism in Italy since 1947, but above all for her canvases. These are distinguished by a clever use of sign and color and a unique mark that has made her internationally famous and recognizable. Similarly, the work of Dalia Slep is characterized by an expressive force and a stroke that characterize it and make it unique. The vertical lines that cover the painting in its entirety seem to resume the dripping typical of Jackson Pollock’s production, although in Dalia Slep’s painting this pattern does not seem to be the result of a total casualty but rather a declination wanted and sought by the artist.
Art Curator Anna Panizza
Dalia Slep
Joy of Life 2
Dario Darius
In 1908 Matisse had negatively defined some of Braque’s works as “small cubes”, and the following year the critic Louis Vauxcelles judged the same “cubist bizzarie”. The starting point of Cubism, a current born in Paris in 1907, is the opposition to the mechanical reproduction of reality and the presumed superficiality of observation, typical of Impressionism. For cubists it is not useful to reproduce reality as we see it, because it is not in that form that we come to know it. Its essence can be “rendered” only by decomposing it into countless faces and re-composing it by placing one face on the surface of the canvas. And it is at this point that to the usual three dimensions, a fourth is added, understood in a sense not only spatial but also temporal: a cubist picture cannot be understood and “internalized” with an instant glance, but it must be analyzed in its individual parts and reconstructed mentally, through a “reading time”. The work “Brooklyn” by Dario Darius takes shape on Cubist philosophy, whose decomposed figures upset the canons and proportions of the subjects depicted. Rounded lines, but at the same time angular and geometric, mark the profiles of the man and woman, whose details strongly mark the difference between the two. Green eyes and elongated eyelashes for her, deep look for him. The contrast is clearly reinforced by the use of colors that best represents the body language that forms and deforms in many variations; a technique that uses white for the female figure and gray for the male color making them both deformed and musical.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo
Dario Darius
Brooklyn
DARU DARU is an extremely creative and original Italian painter. She paints transporting the viewer inside a whirlwind of emotions that she creates by carrying her personal life experiences and feelings. DARU is able to create very original compositions, rich in different colours, shapes and textures. She has an innate creative ability and makes it possible for the viewer to create a close bond with the work, making it her own and seeing her projected emotions within it. In her artwork “Movimento primordiale e perenne” this ability is very evident. Nature becomes an expression of the human soul, all the natural elements create a continuous whirlwind that gives life, strength and vitality. Using bright, energetic colours, the artist composes an innovative artwork that draws on abstractionism. Water, earth, air, sky are involved in a dance that forces them to unite, merge, meet to create new movements. All this happens without our knowledge, every day, when nature awakens and decides to give us life, this movement is forever imprinted in the human soul, in the beating of our hearts. On the right-hand side of the work, the colours are arranged and shaded to form a multicoloured wave that rises ever higher. The chromatic alternation is also found in the left-hand side of the canvas, but in this case the colours are fewer and able to evoke less abstract and more real forms. In the centre, the chromatic vortex creates a sort of blue chasm, the true focus of the work. DARU plays with contrasts of colour and lightness, giving three-dimensionality through brushstrokes of bright white. The artistic gesture is remarkable. The brushstrokes are instinctive, full of passion and feeling, as is the choice of colours. Each of them is capable of emanating different sensations. Sometimes the marks left on the canvas are short and energetic, at other times softer, calmer and more nuanced. This juxtaposition generates a subtle balance that is identifiable both in nature and in the world of art. This artwork therefore opens up to multiple interpretations, but with a single univocal key: nature as a mirror of the soul. The vision of colour has evolved hand in hand with the development of colour signals in order to enable humans and animals to grasp the hidden and encrypted meanings inherent in nature. These messages that nature sends us every day are as diverse and open to multiple visions as the DARU’s artwork. But they all have the aim of attracting our attention, transmitting sensations and striking the viewer’s emotions. Light also intervenes in this man-nature mediation, with the phenomenon of refraction. DARU uses both warm and cold colours, contrasting them. They have intrinsic psychological meanings and the artist is aware of this when she uses them. Colour is vital energy, the result of a subtle balance of different factors, as is nature. It generates life, enables survival, gives hope. With this artwork, DARU pays homage to the world of nature by emphasising its instinctive, primordial side, which underlies everything.
“Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
DARU
Movimento primordiale e perenne
Dave Thomas Dave Thomas’ artistic production can be immersed in the realistic representation of the world, but the works he exhibits at “GAIA - The Origin” have a surreal and fairytale extension. Of all five works on display, the protagonist is a woman, a dancer. “Equinity” is a work with contrasting facets, on the one hand the dancer symbol of elegance and sinuosity, on the other the horse emblem of the wild world, but also elegant and both self-confident. The creation of the work sees the union of the two figures who seem to be suspended in the air, in a moment of absolute sharing and freedom. “Majestic” is the supreme representation of grace and majesty, the silver pieces that create a spiral, refer to past moments, memories, trails of feelings experienced by the dancer. The muscles of the body are in tension, but the simplicity of the movement reigns and dominates the work. “Transition” is the emblem of metamorphosis, of change, of the transition from one being to another, the two versions of a being, the reverse of the same coin, the two dancers, opposite, but so united, in movement, in position , in the pieces that are missing in one, reveal themselves and compensate for each other in the other. The evocative and emotional power is overwhelming, the viewer feels dropped in a moment of visceral change, so profound that they feel it too. The other two works on display always have a dancer as their subject, but the context in which she is dropped is different, no longer dreamy, on the contrary, in fact, the brightness of the works is developed in a totally different way. “Sideview” sees a dancer positioned in profile, the face is almost hidden and in dim light, but this does not prevent the observer from imagining the cabaret show of which the dancer is the protagonist, “Please be Seated” is also part of the same collection , in this case the dancer is sitting with her face turned towards the audience, but the facial features are missing, this allows to focus on the physicality and on the way in which the dancer is dancing. All of Dave’s works express freedom and will to live, emotions and feelings that enter the heart and mind of the beholder.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Dave Thomas
Equinity
Dave Thomas
Majestic
Dave Thomas
Please be Seated
Dave Thomas
Sideview
Dave Thomas
Transition
David Pou “To paint means to make an image appear that is not the natural aspect of things, but that has the force of reality.” (Raoul Dufy) The artist David Pou participates in the “Gaia The Origin” International Art Exhibition, with three amazing paintings. David prefers to draw and paint, especially the figure. In his works, the artist loves to experiment and use different techniques, different textures, and new materials, such as graphite, charcoal, lead pencils, markers, acrylic colors and watercolors. The first artwork exhibited at the “Gaia” exhibition is titled “I’m Free”, made on a CNC-cut wood, a particular process of milling the wood on a base of gold paint and a drawing made with Judean bitumen, a material widely used for decoration works. This painting is a tribute to personal freedom, freedom of thought, the desire to be what you want without ever having to give a justification. The woman depicted in the artwork, standing, with her arms folded behind her head, naked, devoid of any dress, is exhibited not only physically but also sentimentally. She is sending us an important message; she wants to tell us: “let me be what I want”. In the depictions of mythological figures, nudity takes on a different meaning every time. The artwork also clearly recalls the object of the exhibition, Gaia, Mother Earth, creator of the Universe. Very often it symbolizes fertility; context in which the female figure has always been able to appear without veils. In mythology, certain features, such as full breasts, wide hips, large thighs, and prominent buttocks, were signs of a fertile body. The second artwork that the artist exhibits is entitled “Enjoying the peace”. A lady is sitting on what looks like a newly designed sofa, intent on relaxing and enjoying the peace, just as the title of the painting states. The yellow color and the use of admirable chiaroscuro reproduce the lady’s blouse, as well as her long red skirt. The face is indefinite, but even here, thanks to the use of chiaroscuro, it is possible to identify all the somatic features of the subject. The protagonist of the canvas enjoys the peace, the one that very often today, due to a hectic lifestyle, we cannot find. The last artwork that David exhibits in the exhibition is called “Intensity” and was created like the first painting, on a CNC-cut wood, but this time on a blue paint base. The subject’s face was made with the red and white color which, using chiaroscuro, makes the facial features defined. The subject’s intense and profound gaze is quite awe-inspiring, almost as to lead the observer to look away from it. The subject depicted could embody Gaia, our Earth. We must have a certain respect towards her, realizing the degree of responsibility we have towards her. Because today more than ever the future is in our hands.
Art Curator Francesca Campanelli
David Pou
Enjoying the peace
David Pou
I’m free
David Pou
Intensity
David Ruban “Creativity takes courage.” (Henri Matisse) David Ruban is an artist of the new generation of creatives born in the digital age. With courage and boldness he expresses his feelings and emotions through shapes and colours on the stretched canvas. He explores his deepest emotions and transmits them to the viewer, who is able to rework them and transpose them into his human existence. His works leave room for countless interpretations. David deliberately leaves them open to multiple interpretations so that anyone who looks at them can identify with these feelings and draw a profound reflection from reading his soul. In his work “Sunflower” all his original and daring style shines through. On a yellow ochre background, reminiscent of the colour of sunflower petals, different shapes and lines are juxtaposed with different textures and thicknesses. The brushstrokes alternate between those that are more studied and composed and those that are more instinctive and raw. The main colours are blue and light blue, which contrast with the warmer colours of pink and red. It is an abstract and extremely innovative work. David plays with contrasts, not only in terms of colour but also in terms of the acrylic brushstrokes he leaves on the canvas. Some of them are more spontaneous and energetic, almost aggressive. Others are more composed, orderly and studied. Calm and energy collide, creating a powerful and unusual mix that is mediated by the warm yellow in the background. It is also interesting to observe the three red dots, which are of different sizes. Their triangular arrangement could signify the constant search for an emotional balance that corresponds to the desire to achieve an artistic equilibrium of shapes and colours. The pictorial gesture is remarkable, as is the application of colour, which is changeable, sometimes more spontaneous and sometimes more controlled and measured. The geometry present in this work makes the structure pleasing and very harmonious. By elaborating this arrangement of forms, David brings the viewer towards the centre of the work, the true focus, leaving the background freer and more uncontaminated. David is bold and unafraid to explore the deepest parts of his soul, translating his emotions and moods through the strength of colour and the power of line. It is impossible not to notice the explosive force inherent in his works, the desire to have his say despite his young age. David is a promising artist who still has much to say and give through his innate ability to create and communicate with his art. In “Sunflower” there are some references to the abstract current of Paul Klee and Vasily Kandinsky, such as the search for a new spatial and expressive organisation, geometric shapes and pure colour. The sunflower has always been a symbol of energy and vitality. This symbolic meaning enriches the work with a positive message referring to nature. Nature that is able to welcome and patiently listen to the different feelings and needs of man. David is a young artist who is not afraid to dare and to tell his vision of the world through his originality.
“When the inspiration does not come to me, I go halfway to meet it.” (Sigmund Freud)
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
David Ruban
Sunflower
David Solanilla Mejía “Soft as the earth is mankind and both need to be altered.” (W. H. Auden)
A myriad of colors blend into each other, creating completely unpredictable effects to the eye of the beholder. Delicate shades gently accompany the gaze, on a journey through a world where Nature shows itself in all its strength, in an explosion of life. In the paintings of David Solanilla Mejía, a Colombian artist, the use of color takes on central importance. It is difficult not to notice the research that the artist carries out, given the precision and visual balance of the paintings, which are so extremely accurate. Strongly linked to an abstract expressiveness, his work opens up a new gaze aimed at investigating the Earth and its innermost energies. What most characterizes the style is precisely the study of shades. They gently widen in space, interrupted in certain points by lines, streaks and inaccuracies that create a pleasant and enveloping rhythm. In “DeTerra IV”, yellows, blues, oranges and whites merge with each other in a dance, whose time is marked by the depth of the chiaroscuro and the strokes of the palette knife. A vision where different levels of consciousness overlap and, at the same time, condensing and nourishing each other. Solanilla Mejía, here manages to express the power of Nature in a condensation of fluctuating vibrations, which emanate from the ripples of the surface, enveloping the observer and taking him to another dimension. A journey to rediscover one’s origins, distant in time, but always connected to a single source of life: the Earth.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
David Solanilla Mejía
DeTerra IV
David St Maur Sheil “One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken.” (Lev Tolstoj)
From the merger of natural colours and soil, David St Maur Sheil finds his own way to express himself. The artist combines his love for the organic and biodynamic farming with his passion for arts. This combination gives birth to his powerful artworks. At the root of this, we find a deep connection with the earth and the exploration of the soil and its healing potential. David Sheil allows himself to be inspired by the nature around him; in according to give different meanings and perspectives, both the artist and the viewers will be involved in the natural environment, in which they live. The artworks od David Sheil take inspiration from the natural cycle of the seasons, by referring also to the earth in a motherhood sense as a generating force. The life force rises towards the lights – passing through the dark soil – to be held in a calm, quiet and warm embrace in which an unseen creative force is enclosed. The artist, to give greater strength to the connection with the earth and the soil, researches natural materials: he focuses with intensity on the use of natural colours and their shades preferring paints to explore the diversity of shades and earthy textures within a palette of yellow chromes, red ochres, browns – using natural earth soils that he collects from gardens and countryside fields. David Sheil, in this manner, gifts us his own message: behind his paintings, there is the awareness of the beauty and, at the same time, the fragility of the soil, on which we sink our feet.
Art Curator Manuela Fratar
David St Maur Sheil
Awakening 1
David St Maur Sheil
Earth Patterns 1
David St Maur Sheil
Earth-mother
Debarghya Chaudhuri
Debarghya is a young teenage artist. Several of his works have been exhibited in different exhibitions in Indian cities. As a person with autism, he faces many challenges every day, but thanks to his determination and creativity, he is able to overcome them and strive for independence. He likes to paint abstract pictures that reflect his pure and youthful emotions. His art is extremely striking and impresses with its bright, bold and brilliant colours. In his work “Devine Joy”, Debarghya pays homage to the harmonious energy that is able to give life and bind every single living being. The colours are extremely bright. The background has cool tones of blue and green. In the middle are warmer colours such as orange, yellow and red. The primary colours are certainly the protagonists of the abstract composition. They are juxtaposed with each other, creating games of slight overlapping and merging. They are merged with each other but maintain their bright and defined tone. The artwork well describes this perennial and intense movement that nature makes every single day, pouring forth in a pure and vital flow of energy. Despite this force unleashed by nature, the outcome is extremely balanced and harmonious. Debarghya succeeds in fully capturing the spirit of GAIA, the right contrast between the boundless force of nature and its ability to maintain balance and life. The young artist has a remarkable gestural expressiveness, spreading the colours on the canvas with instinctiveness and spontaneity. It is clear that he is still searching for his own way, like any teenager, and he does this through the use of shapes and colours. He seeks his autonomy in art. The link between the artist and the natural world is important. Adolescence allows young people to bloom, to blossom, to become autonomous and independent. Just as spring, a metaphor for adolescence, gives us the blossoming of fragrant, colourful flowers, pristine blue skies, rain and rainbows. The energy that drives the artist to create this work is a pure and uncontaminated force, and the artistic gestures and mastery of colour show that Debarghya paints with spontaneity and truth. He is not afraid to paint his emotions, he is not afraid of growing up but welcomes his feelings and materialises them in the form of a work of art. He is not afraid of the judgement of others or of expressing too strong emotions, as adults often do. In this transitional phase towards adulthood, art is a means of liberation for Debarghya, to unleash his pure and vital force, like that which unleashes GAIA. Looking at the work, the viewer is drawn in by the primary colours that are arranged on the canvas in a harmonious and at the same time energetic, bold way. The message perceived is one of positivity and hope. A message that leads us to see nature as a starting point for the expression of our most hidden emotions. Debarghya teaches us not to be afraid to be ourselves, with our weaknesses, frailties but above all with our talents and abilities.
“Look deep into the nature, and then you will understand everything better.” (Albert Einstein)
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Debarghya Chaudhuri
Devine Joy
Delicia Pinto Bascuñan
Born in Chile, Delicia Pinto Bascunan started her career as a self-taught artist. Thanks to her great vocation, she began with private oil and acrylic lessons at the prestigious Pinacoteca of the University with prominent artists from the region, expanding her painting techniques as well as batik and loom courses. Toking up art in parallel with writing and other studies such Design, Citing and Confection, she become the complete artist that she is today, with lots of personal characteristics which can only been noticed with a careful look: in “Mujer 2020” we can see fabrics, industrial objects, and design decorations, that are incredibly uniformed with the rest of the artwork. The beautiful girl seems like Mother Nature that appears to us like an epiphany, with flowers and a butterfly on her mouth, to show her superiority to our mortal world. The objects act as a link between the divine and the “real”, a way to be able to communicate with humans and bring an important and revelatory message to us all. The mixed technique is a certainty of expression for the artist, that presents it also in “Nevados de mi Chile” and in “Tramas de la vida”, but this time with an abstract subject. The pairing of contrasting colours plays different roles: informative, seductive, and iconic since red and blue behave like synecdoche, that rhetorical figure according to which a part, in this case a pair of colours, refers to the whole. Especially in the first case, the symbolism of colour is particularly strong and used masterfully.
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Delicia Pinto Bascuñan
Mujer 2020
Delicia Pinto Bascuñan
Nevados de mi Chile
Delicia Pinto Bascuñan
Tramas de la vida
Denise Vakili “I am pushed to sketch, to create certain forms by an emotional state, in order to try and transmit and provoke similar emotions in the viewer... I like to act on the canvas. This desire moves me: the desire to leave a trace of my action. It is all about the act of painting, of drawing, of scratching, of grating.” (Hans Hartung)
Denise Vakili is an American artist based in San Diego. Choosing to pursue an artistic path was a natural fit for her, having grown up in a stimulating and creative family environment. In all of her works, Denise offers the viewer a reassuring visual experience that becomes almost an escape from the chaos of everyday life. Using textures and a color palette that can instill soothing vibrations in the viewer, her artistic style is spiritual and profound yet cheerful and colorful. Denise is strongly inspired by the surrounding nature and in particular the magic of the Pacific Ocean. Perfectly interpreting the concept chosen for this exhibition, Good Things Come In Threes, enhances the primordial elements of earth and water, evoked on the canvas by green and blue tones. Through her work Denise exalts the strength and power of nature, suggesting an idea of ascension through the pictorial motif that recalls the shape of peaks and valleys, celebrating the personal journey that each of us makes through the hurdles of life. A journey full of emotions and exciting discoveries that the artist urges us to undertake in order to discover the majestic nature that surrounds us.
Art Curator Marta Graziano
Denise Vakili
Good Things Come in Threes
Diane Kuster “You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.” (Friedrich Nietzsche)
Diane Kuster’s work immediately shows itself to be influenced by American art of the Second World War, in particular by Abstract Expressionism and Action Painting. The overwhelming gestures belonging to “stille Nächte im Winter”, relentlessly dragging the viewer’s gaze along the entire canvas. The study of chiaroscuro and depths has a strong photographic component, certainly deriving from the artist’s past who sees a period in her life closely linked to the use of the darkroom. The broad brushstrokes move tortuously in space, enveloping the colors in grayish blue shades, reminiscent of a seascape during a storm. In the foreground, with a completely different drafting, other warmer and clearer pigmentations take hold, arranging themselves like flames, whose sparks expand in the air like glare of light. Then, suddenly, the eye moves downwards remaining captured by a bright blue band, which runs horizontally from left to right. Here, everything subsides. The blue passes veiled, revealing the dark background and giving the painting a more mystical depth. Order is born from chaos. For Plato, Chaos is the primeval place of shapeless and rough matter from which the Demiurge draws for the formation of the ordered world, the Cosmos. The two apparently opposite aspects actually coexist. The Earth shows itself, in Kuster’s work, charged with energy in its primordial elements, where water and fire stir in an apparent chaos, finally giving new light and new life.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Diane Kuster
stille Nächte im Winter
Dmitriy Polizhaievskyi “To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts – such is the duty of the artist.” (Robert Schumann) Dmitriy Polizhaievskyi is an emerging international artist of Ukrainian origin. His works are mostly done in oil on canvas and have a style reminiscent of abstract expressionism. He lets himself be guided by his instincts, pursuing a search for himself through the creation of abstract forms and colour applied to the canvas. This path has led him to an awareness of his artistic and communicative power. In his work “Untitled”, the technique used is oil and acrylic paint on canvas. The colour is released onto the surface and is free to occupy all spaces. Brighter colours such as red, blue, yellow and green alternate with black, which blends in with the latter to create a new and original composition. The colour is applied spontaneously, thus leveraging the different sensations that the canvas can trigger in the viewer. His work aims to render the emotional value of experience. In his work “Untitled 3”, the colours are softer, softer and more nuanced than each other. The acrylic brushstrokes on the canvas become blurred, the blue blends into the pink. This painting also shows hints of Impressionism, both in the application of colours and in the study of light. The reading of the work varies from subject to subject, but the feeling of peace and harmony that this painting instils is extremely evident. The composition appears harmonious, homogeneous and pleasant. In addition to the influence of the Expressionist movement, his work “Untitled 8” also shows some Futurist hints in the rapidity of the gesture and the dynamism of the composition. Unlike the previous work, this one is more energetic, more animated. A whirlwind of strong emotions that mingle to stimulate the deep stirrings of the human soul. Against a blue background, brushstrokes of blue, yellow and red break through trying to take up their space. The painting shows the desire for continuous change, the endless search for oneself through a mixture of contrasting emotions. The viewer is placed at the centre of the painting. The work is abstract and tends to eliminate any kind of real form, focusing on the purity of the colour and the continuous change of direction of the brushstrokes, which the artist once again achieves by relying on instinct. Dmitriy demonstrates great communicative and artistic ability: he plays with colours and lights without ever planning compositions. He starts a painting without knowing what it will look like when it is finished, he simply lets himself be guided by destiny. The colour changes, transforms, changes direction. Deliberately, these works have multiple interpretations because every man is different, with different experiences and character. Every story can be told through these canvases, every story is plausible. There is no right or wrong. It is as if they paint themselves, take shape independently. His soul unconsciously guides him in the application of oil paint. Dmitriy invites the viewer to go further, to push his mind beyond all boundaries, to fully immerse himself in the chromatic and artistic dimension that leads to an inner and introspective reflection.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Dmitriy Polizhaievskyi
Untitled
Dmitriy Polizhaievskyi
Untitled 3
Dmitriy Polizhaievskyi
Untitled 8
Donna Fleetwood “You may find a face revealed in my art. The tilt of a lip or the narrowing of an eye can reveal the one’s inner world. Something hidden. Something exposed. The emerging image is a conversation.” (Donna Fleetwood) The artist Donna Fleetwood expresses many pure and graceful sensations capable of immersing the viewer into the painting, starting from the process of creation until the last stages of its realization. The artist succeeds in capturing the viewer’s attention thanks to the skillful use of different tools and materials, by merging together drawing, painting and collage. In addition, the act of representation itself is fundamental, which involves a series of actions clearly visible on the canvas: from the sequence of brushstrokes to the dripping of colors, up to gluing different cutouts on the pictorial surface. In fact, the link between these artistic methods is present in the work presented at the exhibition “Gaia, The Origin” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in Milan: in “It Feels Like Hope”, Donna Fleetwood frees the painting from all preconceived notions and preconstructed forms, emphasizing even more the use of the line and the ability to elaborate an image that emerges from the canvas. One perceives a flow that inevitably binds the body of the woman depicted with the surrounding space, creating a spiritual and mystical atmosphere, originated by the synergy of neutral colors that recall the Earth and the swirling and expressive signs. The young woman is savoring and absorbing a vital and positive lymph, becoming an integral part of this idyllic environment. All these gestures become symbols capable of conveying emotions, attributing to each specific technique a defined function. The artist introduces a clear art, which investigates the true essence of the image by reaching the crucial part of the composition, merging the human figure and the lush nature, exploring by doing so, a dreamy and suave setting.
“Hope is something that has wings, which lies in the soul and sings the tune without the words, and it never stands still.” (Emily Dickinson)
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Donna Fleetwood
It Feels Like Hope
Doortje Hefting “You and me are the same, creatures of Mother Nature and nothing more and nothing less” (Doortje Hefting) The young artist Doortje Hefting presents at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, during “Gaia: the origin” exhibition, five artworks that recall the essence of Mother Earth and that are inherent with the artist’s artistic vocation. After trying to create paintings with different subjects, Doortje Hefting has found her true passion in painting wilderness scenes. The paintings here exhibited - all realized in Mixed Media Acrylics on gallery-wrapped canvas - present the same subjects that linked together human beings and nature, in a lovely atmosphere. Brilliant and vibrant colours are the characteristics with which Doortje Hefting introduces herself and her way of painting. Deep brushstrokes full of colours, perfectly define the main characters of each painting. A touching atmosphere, full of passion and sentiment shines through the faces of the main characters of “The Merging” and “Entwined’’. In the first one, the artist’s attention to the profound bond of love is given by the connection between the personification of two different forms of nature: the jungle, and the ocean who, through their love, merge together. This passionate love is, consequently, the main character of the second piece that identifies it with nature itself. The title “Entwined” refers to the position assumed by the two subjects, who are closed in a warm hug but, it alludes also to the wild forest where, branches and leaves are all entangled in a big, living and loving mess. In a more brilliant way, given by the orange light of the undefined background, that emphasizes the two figures, the artist with “Sun Loves the Earth”, gives another image of nature’s relationship. <<I like to see the Sun as someone in love with the Earth. When you feel loved by someone, you feel the warmth of this person. Just like on Earth we feel the warmth of the sunlight. And when you feel loved by someone, that person can help you grow. Just like the sun makes everything grow on earth>>. Staying coherent with the theme of the exhibition, Doortje Hefting in “You and Me” shares her awareness to be part of Nature, as all human beings and animals too. This is why she creates the depth in the jungles inside the two subjects of the painting: the lake inside the woman and the path inside the leopard. The metaphor of the relationship between a rider and her horse, is the starting point through which we can read this softer and always touching painting: “Nightrider”. Presenting the ‘sleeping’ side of Nature, the young girl depicted with long and white hair is the personification of the Moon, the nocturnal element that wakes over the sleeping jungle, as a sort of guardian, the guardian of her love for what stays below her: the forest, nature’s daughter. Here taking the features of a wild horse. What immediately stands out watching at Doortje Hafting creations, is her careful attention to the single element that composes the scene. This interest in giving to them a deep meaning, is the reason why the artist realizes the subjects as if they fluctuate in an undefined background.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
Doortje Hefting
Entwined
Doortje Hefting
How the Sun Loves the Earth
Doortje Hefting
Nightrider
Doortje Hefting
The Merging
Doortje Hefting
You and Me
Doris Judith Rosales “Let your instinct guide the way and explore your own worlds, the meaning it’s about discovering, practicing and learning” (Mozart) Doris Judith Rosales is a self-taught artist, born and raised in El Salvador. The artist claims to be inspired by people, particularly those from whom he learned, including artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Salvador Dalì and the Austrian musician Mozart. She herself states: “Vicent Van Gogh inspires me since he found it almost impossible to communicate with others, so this path to painting gave him the opportunity to express his feelings and emotions to others. Claude Monet, taught me if you want to be a great painter, you have got to appreciate a great painting, and mother nature is the best paint that has existed in all the time. Salvador Dalí taught me that you don’t have to be scared of being you, that’s important because when you have self- love you can create art, because you have something important that I call confidence in you…”. Doris Judith Rosales combines all her artistic knowledge and inspirations to create a unique style. Her production ranges from the representation of cities, people caught in everyday acts, common places such as bars, portraits and nature. In this case the artist presents her work “Peacock” on the occasion of the “Gaia: the origin” exhibition. Doris Judith decides to show a work very dear to her as it reflects her thoughts on art. The undisputed protagonist of the work is a peacock that occupies the entire composition, barely leaving a glimpse of the background. The artist uses bright colors, of which blue is the protagonist. The choice of this subject is not unfounded, Doris Judith in fact compares the skin of the peacock, defined “indestructible”, to the art. It is in fact indestructible as long as the soul of the artist resides within it. Doris Judith writes a poem about this which reflects her thoughts: “We were running after a peacock. We are running on time. Everything was like a peacock. I don’t know if it was a peacock. Or it was the plumage of an oriental bird. It is showing off its plumage. Of unmatched colors. Beauty and love. They are like a peacock. They endure and transcend for eternity. What beauty, what love, are the feathers of a peacock that fly for eternity!”.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Doris Judith Rosales
The peacock
Dorota Kwiatkowska Dorota Kwiatkowska is an artist who expresses her most intimate feelings through painting, just like the artworks exhibited in the “Gaia” exhibition. They best represent the subject of the exhibition: in “Tree on fire” we clearly understand how Mother Nature is asking for our help, since we depend on her, her well-being is consequently also our well-being. Her decay will also involve ours, being her a giver of life and nourishment. The fiery red color emanating from the sun that can be glimpsed in the background almost completely invades the canvas, immediately attracting our attention. A human figure materializes around a tree, clinging to it, almost as if it wanted to give support and support to nature, to become one. If you look very carefully, a newborn seems to materialize in the center, synonymous with life, birth, hope. The two opposing but dependent powers that Mother Earth possesses are thus represented. She can be a giver of life, but also a cause of death, a cave that protects from her own calamities, but she is also a burial place for bodies. The second work that the artist exhibits at the exhibition is “Dream”. In this work, the human being becomes part of nature. The depicted woman, lying on a green lawn, appears happy, blissful and at peace with herself and with what surrounds her. The characteristics of the environments have a particular value in the process of forming human cognitions and emotions and in this work, contact with the earth, with nature generates a feeling of bliss with the whole world. An insect is represented next to her, often associated with the idea of dirt, in this case it represents the good, the healthy. The liveliness of the green color of the grass gives the painting a special joy, conveying hope, to which it is no coincidence that the color green is attributed to this feeling. The third work entitled “Silence”, tells us to observe it in silence and to “listen” to our deepest emotions. Through her artwork, Dorota expresses the will to surround herself with nature, because her will give us the opportunity to be reborn. A human face hides among the leaves, depicted with closed eyes, intent on immersing himself and identifying himself with all of himself in nature. For the human being, in fact, it could be advantageous to “acculturate” through a process of humanization. In this way it would become less automated and more natural, aware of being earthly, of the Earth.
“It seems to me that we all look too much at Nature and live too little with it.” (Oscar Wilde)
Art Curator Francesca Campanelli
Dorota Kwiatkowska
Dream
Dorota Kwiatkowska
Silence
Dorota Kwiatkowska
Tree on fire
Els Van Egeraat The artist Els van Egeraat presents for the exhibition “Gaia - The Origin” three works through which the act of painting is mixed in an innovative way with the experimentation of further techniques and the use of different materials. The use of magazines or wallpaper helps the artist to enter into a new dimension: the collage breaks the schemes, not only for the technique, but also for the form and content, opening the doors to fantastic worlds in which everything is possible; moreover, it allows to create a new connection with painting, so that the artist is able to give free space to her creativity. In addition to all these concepts, Els van Egeraat connects with what surrounds her, being able to see new and different realities and drawing inspiration from everything that can evoke positive feelings in her. An example of this is represented in the work “Open Mind”: through this large canvas, the artist represents a long trail of many small floating elements, originating from the woman’s head. This appears happy and relaxed, as opening one’s mind to the universe means being able to understand and learn new things every day, letting oneself be transported by incredible experiences. Everything is immersed in this particular shade of azure with blue brush strokes: in fact, this color represents the mind and truth, conveying serenity and harmony in the whole composition, by giving a considerable depth not only to the pictorial surface but also to the figure of the woman. Instead, in “Vivid”, the artist focuses on the representation of one of the most important elements of the Belle Époque period, the hat. Made with the technique of collage, through the use paper including wallpaper, Els van Egeraat seems to recall the portraits of the young women portraited by Gustav Klimt: in fact, this technique becomes the main character of the work and the artist focuses on highlighting every single detail of this element, defining both the texture and every fold of the hat. The young woman is caught which she is looking at someone or something, by turning her gaze to her left and, as in a photograph, the artist represents on the canvas a specific and significant moment. In addition to that, the white background emphasizes all the nuances used on the canvas to their fullest, giving a slight luminosity to the composition. Finally, in “Water Earth Sky” the artist highlights abstract shapes, letting herself be guided by the pictorial matter. Starting with a paper and acrylic bases, she focuses on the color layering of the painting, in which each shade has the aim to express peace and intensity. All the elements are represented following the natural tones, emanating brightness and accentuating the different chromatic tones. Everything merges with the blue’s essence: the observer is immersed in a reflective state that brings him/her back into his/her own introspection, binding him/her in an indissoluble way with nature and the surrounding environment. Through a slight dynamism, the matter emerges from the canvas, where water, earth and sky invite the viewer to explore a parallel universe, a three-dimensional space consisting of numerous details and hidden cracks.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Els Van Egeraat
Open Mind
Els Van Egeraat
Vivid
Els Van Egeraat
Water Earth Sky
Elsa Egon “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” (Pablo Picasso) Elsa Egon is an Italian artist who has been working in Paris for a long time. Her works have been shown in various exhibitions. She conceals important meanings in her works, which are very studied and have extremely well thought-out compositions. She uses different materials that are combined with each other, creating incredible works that are very original and harmonious. In her work “Woman at the sea” her artistic concept is very evident. Realised in Paris in 2020, it depicts Marianne, an allegory of the French Republic and holder of its values, alone and powerless in the face of the barbaric events that have recently taken place in France. Episodes such as the murder of Professor Samuel Paty, the attack on the Basilica in Nice, Notrê Dame. Marianne is the emblem of loneliness, represented as a silhouette, deprived of vital forces, bewildered by the barbarities that have bathed French soil in blood. She is powerless and alone, desolate. A woman who is always associated with the French flag, and here too she is no exception. Behind her, the colours of the French tricolour deform. Marianne’s feet are in the water and the sky is painted red to commemorate the blood of the victims. The colour gold embellishes the composition, creating a sort of golden aura. In the red sky, brushstrokes of a more intense colour representing clouds are clearly recognisable. Marianne, with her head slightly bowed, a sign of yielding, is still looking forward. Life confronts her with another great challenge: Covid19. Elsa Egon’s work creates a mix of contrasting emotions in the spectator. On the one hand it confronts man with reality, reminding him of the many problems that affect our society today. On the other hand, although Marianne seems empty, at the limit, her forward gaze opens up a faint ray of hope and invites the viewer to look forward, never back. The section made of gold leaf helps to amplify this message of hope. Better times will come, but man must look at his past mistakes so as not to repeat them in the future. France, especially in recent years, has had to deal with various barbarities, terrorist attacks, unforeseen events. Once again it is faced with a seemingly insurmountable challenge caused by the Covid19 pandemic. A period that the whole world is experiencing today, which has arrived unexpectedly and which has rendered man powerless. Life has once again presented him with a challenge that is perhaps greater than himself. The colours are not spread flat, but have more consistent brushstrokes that give the apparently two-dimensional work threedimensionality. The spaces are well defined. There are some references to avant-garde painting, particularly Expressionist, and everything seems still, motionless, timeless. Marianne has run out of steam. Even nature, faced with all this, screams and is distorted. With her work, Elsa Egon is able to generate a profound reflection that leads man to an introspective and immersive reading.
“Life is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms.” (Laurence Olivier)
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Elsa Egon
Woman at the sea
Emily Long “And this life of ours, away from the crowd, finds tongues in the trees, books in the streams, sermons in the stones, and everywhere good.’’ (William Shakespeare) Looking on the artworks of Emily Long, we are catched immediately by a oneiric atmosphere, linked to a far pacific and pure world. To lead us in this surreal trip are the subjects of the artworks, female figures of golden beauty, that placed in the centre of the scene ad undisputed protagonists of the painting. In each of them we read different characteristics and attitudes, precisely because they are carries of different and unique stories and mythologies. It is not a case that the artist places them in various natural contexts, in some magical places with a metaphysical flavor. I have said metaphysical because the landscapes depicted by the artist are refeared to hedonistic, calm, pure reality, far away from any spacetime conception. Emily Long carries us in mental, ideal landscapes, clouded by a vanished atmosphere, with lively colours, that resurface feelings of astonishment and grace in the viewer. The pictorial language used results fresh, clear, direct, and balances very well with the wide chromatical and compositive choice. These characteristics, in harmony with a mature graphic ability, stand out better the richness of the details shown in the artworks of Emily Long, that result as visionary tales soaked of mithyc references reassessed in a contemporary key. We can define the art presented by the artist Emily Long as a quoteist art, intellectual art, metaphysical art. As spiritual echos, the figures that the artist paints are mythological goddesses, belonging to pagan religions, that present themselves to the contemporary reality to regenerate in the aim of men the feelings of gratitude and veneration towards a now denatured nature. Always in the history the myths are considered as religious tales with fanciful flavor, whose purpose is to answer to the questions of man has about life, about own origins, about knowledge. The myth is a visual key of reading that crosses the threshold between past and present, to light the future walk. Emily Long recovers the Classic world, that results to be an infinite source of inspiration for the artists and, at the same time, it rushes the look of the viewer, making the artwork an opened interaction to new scenarios. Analysing lenght the mythological figures depicted in the painting, we meet in ‘’ Goodbye Salacia ‘’ the goddess of sea, of salt water, who with Neptune holds the kingdom of sea. The story narrates that she, to preserve her purity, had gone away from the god, taking refuge in the ocean dephts. From this episode, the goddess holds the ocean dephts and she is the personification of calm and sunny sea. The mythic tale, remade in a modern key, crosses differents contemporary themes, as the oceanic preservation, but also the violence against women that, since remote time to today, are some allarm bells more and more frequent. In the second artwork ‘’ Smooth Seas ‘’ the subject is goddess Moon, that is in couple with god Sun. She is a part of the ‘’ diva triformis’’, and she represents one of the three faces of goddess Ecate, in which she is united to Diana and Proserpina. In the past inconographies she is shown with a sickle in her hands and she is placed on a two horses chariot, one black and one white, symbols of the lanes of the morning and of the night. These elements mean her power on the earth, on the sea and on the sky. She is a warrios that fights to preserve the fertility of the earth, of the nature, the same nature that had bored us, the same nature which we feed, to which we don’t anything give back. Protagonist of the third artwork is goddess Vesta. For the classic mythology, she is the virgin goddess for excellence, which sacred temples had been committed. In these took place the cult of fire, symbol of eternal purity, that was nourished and defenced by the vestals. These were priestesses that renounced to the life temporal pleasures to serve the goddess, protecting the fire and preparing sacred rites in her honour. In ‘’Vestas song’’ the artist revisits the divine figure, making her a participates of the worldliness. From the summit of the skies, the goddess looks on the contemporary world and nourishes her flames, burning all the futile things that invade our everyday life, that in this case are identified in a newspaper burnt. The goddess, burning all the world, reveals a detectable necessity. Everyday the man is filled by news, informations, useless notions that disturb his nature. He needs to make him free from this chaotic state, to find the essencial truth of things, of life and of knowledge. Through an essential language, the artist is able to communicate directly with the audience, considering themes more interesting that we find in everyday life. If in the XX century an artist as De Chirico has got back the classic art through the use of an enigmatic language, Emily Long makes the same without veils, recalling the mythological figures to help the contemporary world’s condition. The leap in the past explains the will to search the authentical values, as for example the veneration of the nature, that can re-emerge a primitive phase of the universe, in which the men considered all the elements of the nature lively, and the events connected to it as divine miracle.
Art Curator Alessia di Martino
Emily Long
Goodbye, Salacia
Emily Long
Smooth Seas
Emily Long
Vesta’s Song
Emre Gurgur “Maps encourage boldness. They’re like cryptic love letters. They make anything seem possible.” (Mark Jenkins)
Emre Gurgur is a Turkish artist who has shown his interest in art from a young age. Moving to Australia he begun experimenting with unconventional techniques mainly centered on abstract ancient maps. Inspired by Piri Reis, a famous navigator, he begins to realize these testimonies in a precious way as his works are a source for the knowledge of the ancient knowledge. Geographic maps that are transformed into works of art, creations whose value goes far beyond their simple practical utility. As Boetti produced his famous tapestries representing the planisphere, Emre generates concept maps that don’t limit us to the vision of a simple thematic map but to the idea of its interpretation.
Emre Gurgur
His creative processes is spontaneous; the ideas are restructured, he has various interpretative keys to understand situations. In “Hydrosphere” and “1513” we can see mental landscapes that are trying to strike and interest those who sees them. Colors are used that give the feeling of harmony, colors that recall nature and attract attention. Notes in which the artist himself states ‘’ Abstract art is like a world without borders and the world is an illusion with borders. ‘’
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Emre Gurgur
1513
Emre Gurgur
Hydrosphere
Esteve Prat Paz “Painting is not for me either decorative amusement, or the plastic invention of felt reality; it must be every time: invention, discovery, revelation.” (Max Ernst) Esteve Prat Paz is a Spanish artist who, thanks to his studies and continuous experimentation, is able to use different painting techniques in order to create works of all genres, including landscape, still life and portrait. “Three figures on red background” belongs to this last category and it is created in 2020 with mixed media on paper. The title describes exactly what the viewer’s eyes see when observing the painting: three human figures, two girls and a boy, emerge on a red background created by matching large brushstrokes. Thanks to the skillful use of perspective, the artist paints a female figure in the foreground, just behind the second, while the boy in the background. The subjects from their clothes would appear to be doing physical activity; Esteve loves to represent athletes who practice different disciplines so much that we can find these characters in many of his works. The two girls head determinedly for the left, while the boy looks perplexed and turns his gaze back looking at the ground. Their bodies are toned and their faces, although partially covered by the visor of their caps, reveal their linear features. The red background makes it possible not to locate the subjects in a precise space, leaving the viewer the possibility to give free rein to their imagination thinking about them while they are walking on the street, while running in a park or who knows where. As the quote from the famous painter Max Ernst states, for Esteve art is not only a pleasant hobby, but on the contrary it is synonymous with in-depth research, careful analysis, and surprising discoveries. He has dedicated and continues to dedicate his life to art; thanks to his unmistakable style he creates unique works from both a technical and semantic point of view.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Esteve Prat Paz
Three figures on red background
Eva Breitfuss
For the M.A.D.S. art gallery exhibition, Eva Breitfuß combines her particular type of art, the “art of presence”, with her way of living and working in the field of consciousness as an inspirer and mentor. We are talking about a specific branch of the Conceptual Art of the precursor Sol LeWitt, which Joseph Kosuth coined in the sixties of the last century. Art founded on thought and no longer on a now misunderstood and equivocal aesthetic pleasure, but any artistic expression in which the concepts and ideas expressed are more important than the aesthetic and perceptive result of the work itself. With these works, Eva deepens this type of discourse, taking us into a personal dimension where everything and nothing can fit together in the same canvas, addressing all people interested in experiencing their own conscience to witness and consciously redesign their own reality. A multitude of textures with only ink on paper or acrylic on canvas, can express more than a thousand words, more than a specific figurative image and more than complete gestures, conveying a slew of feelings, emotions and energy. The results are usually balanced compositions, also given by the element of “void”, which makes its official entry into western works in the mid nineteenth century, thanks to trade exchanges with the East and above all with Japan. She teaches us that “Everything is real, it depends on what you want to live”. Eve’s attempt to put us at ease with creation is evident, in peace and harmony with our life and with what has been offered to us by it.
“Everything in life can be reduced to a single dot” (Eva Breitfuss)
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Eva Breitfuss
Dimensions
Eva Breitfuss
I am
Eva Breitfuss
Safe Space
Eva Doelker-Heim
The dramatic color combined with a vigorous pictorial technique is the key element of Expressionism, an artistic current born in the early years of the twentieth century in Germany. Expressionist painting was more concerned with the use of color and its physical qualities as a means of expressing one’s feelings about the subject rather than simply describing it in a traditional way. “Lake Lucerne” by Emile Nolde is a classic example of expressionistic pictorial technique. It is painted more by memory than observation, using the natural fluidity of watercolor to reflect the changing mood of the landscape. Initially Nolde absorbs his sheet and builds the shapes of the mountains with washes in different shades of blue, more intense in the foreground that become lighter in the background. This creates an impression of aerial perspective while the tones of colors seem to fade into the distant landscape. Incisiveness of the sign, chromatic accentuation and an artistic experience aimed at striking the emotional sphere, therefore, distinguish expressionist artists. A dip in the interior that brings Eva DölkerHeim to the realization of works made of the raw material of the soul, colors. Dark, tenuous, nuanced, whose mixture determines the coexistence of more sensations within a same composition. In “Masel Tov”, “Beyond the Horizon”, “Lass Dich Von Mir Nicht Trennen” black, yellow, blue lines and trails seem to float in the artist’s compositions and completely depart from the real world, independent of concreteness and materiality, where nothing, or almost, is ever recognizable.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo
Eva Doelker-Heim
Beyond The Horizon
Eva Doelker-Heim
Lass Dich Von Mir Nicht Trennen
Eva Doelker-Heim
Masel Tov
Evgenio Olentuch
Evgenio Olentuch is an artist originally from Belarus, based in Israel. At M.A.D.S. art gallery, on the occasion of the “Gaia: The Origin” exhibition, the artist exhibits three works: “Flowers in my garden”, “Rooster” and “Awakening”. All three works were created using the technique of cast acrylic, a technique that Jackson Pollock experimented during the XIX century. What the three paintings have in common is the abstract representation at the centre of the work. Modern abstract art is based on the liberation of lines, shapes and colours, and no longer on a real representation of objects, figures and landscapes. Only in the first work, “Flowers in my garden”, is it initially possible to recognise flowers at the base of the canvas and other large flowers in the centre which, as we continue to observe the painting, fade away and blend into the bright colours that complete the work. The other two works are “Rooster”, in which blue prevails and mixes with red, yellow and green tones, and “Awakening”, in which warm tones prevail over blue. In both canvases we find distinctly anti-naturalistic and screaming colours. The viewer is asked to keep a proper distance: not too far away, as this would lose the complexity of stratifications that is fundamental to understanding the artist’s poetics; not too close, as this would annihilate the perception of the subject. Observing these two latest works, in particular “Rooster”, the observer is brought back to the vision of the Earth from Space. Winds, clouds and earth are immortalised in a shot, all summed up in swirls of colour.
“For me, colours are living beings, highly evolved individuals who integrate with us and with the whole world. Colours are the true inhabitants of space.” (Yves Klein)
Art Curator Elisa Acquafresca
Evgenio Olentuch
Awakening
Evgenio Olentuch
Flowers in my garden
Evgenio Olentuch
Rooster
Evi Catrin Wifling
Evi Catrin Wifling is a self-taught artist based in Germany. Her artistic production is mainly focused on the creation of abstract works and recently begins to experiment with a new style, inspired by the works of Cubist masters Pablo Picasso and George Braque. Three great examples are on display at M.A.D.S. art gallery, on the occasion of the “Gaia: the origin” exhibition. Two of them follow an abstract style, prone to abstract expressionism, in which the power of gesture is the great protagonist. The work “Heart” is composed of red, blue, yellow and white spatulates. The primary colors are combined with each other, without merging. The layers of color are given only after the previous ones are already completely dry, to avoid mixing. Importance is given to the purity of color. In this sense, the work can be combined with the famous Mondrian’s work “Composition with red, blue and yellow”, as if it were a tribute to the artist and, at the same time, a “mix” of the original work. The same procedure of “Heart” can be found in “Fulfillment”, here, however, the colors are many and fuchsia prevails among all. Finally, the third work, “Clay”, is the bearer of the style that best defines the artist. It represents a tennis racket “decomposed” and sectioned. It is the cubist representation of a common object. The red background refers to clay tennis courts, the artist also realizes a green version referring to grass ones. Evi Catrin Wifling is therefore a versatile artist, divided between abstractionism and cubism, expressing through them different moments and different emotions.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Evi Catrin Wifling
Clay
Evi Catrin Wifling
Fulfillment
Evi Catrin Wifling
Heart
Fabrice Espiard
In occasion of international art exhibition Gaia the artist Fabrice Espiard presented three artworks called Musique, Océan and Renouvellement. Starting from the line and the geometry that emerges in Musique from the background. At first this line seems to be lighter and thinner. It seems to cut the canvas to create small slits from which to filter lighter, other colours. If we investigate the intersection of the lines, it is easy to give a shape to this first composition: it seems to mark a grid, which emerges slowly, latent from the backdrop. An elegant abstract passage meaningful. In a second moment: the geometry made by the colours that seems to be part of a game of irregular rectangles. Could be more fascinating putting the attention on this last expression. Irregular rectangles. Is this expression a way to express the real meaning of the music (referring to the title of the painting) and the art in general? What does irregular rectangles mean? This expression wants to intend the way the art is able to have rigid rules but also the freedom to speak the language of the emotions and the feeling. As the artist says: <<I work with emotion, desire, the feeling of the moment, a canvas is a bit of a “world” in itself and in a moment “T”. The “style” is often variable, like the emotions ... but also cyclical, the “styles” return in turn according to the needs of expression of the moment>>. The research of the style tries to follow the instinct of the moment. What am I feeling at this moment? The answer becomes the canvas in front of the artist. If we consider the other paintings created by the artist, we could see a different style used. For example in which way is used the figure of the rectangles in the painting called Océan? At the first glance, emerges the defined construction of the shapes: two rectangles put into another rectangle, two tonality of light blue and two different colours used for the protagonist pieces of the artwork. What does the artist want to say with this minimal composition? As the artist Fabrice affirmed, the two lands represent not even just two continents, but two different ideas of the world, old and new, calm and stormy. As if the artwork wants to tell us about the opposition of two concepts, the beauty of the contrary. The elements of the sea and the ocean becomes the unifying element in which everything merges and finds its conjunction. That is why the protagonists are not the two lands, the two different blocks represented by the rectangles, but the protagonist is the light blue of the background: the ocean The last work is a little more different from those commented. Analysing Renouvellement emerges at the first glad that the technique used is that of abstract painting and the action painting. So what is important of the composition is the gesture beyond the final product of the artwork. As the artist says talking about the artwork Renovellement:<< This work wants to represent the eternal renewal and alternation of feelings like a bubbling stirring up colors like emotions>> A post-expressive research, where the unconscious comes out by the vision, to try to understand itself. This means that the artist’s will to assert himself, as a perceptive instance, a presence that exists and reacts to otherness in all its possible manifestations. If we want to use an expression to describe this concept, is like to say after waking up: ‘I don’t remember much about the dream, but I could say that I was there too’
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Fabrice Espiard
Musique
Fabrice Espiard
Océan
Fabrice Espiard
Renouvellement
Faiza Mubarak “I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it.” (William Shakespeare)
Faiza Mubarak’s art is of a seductive meditative calm, strongly influenced by the artistic-pictorial current of Informal Art and, in particular, by the materiality of European artists who, among the masters, includes Jean Dubuffet. Clusters of chromatic paste treated as sculptural material, where color no longer has a figurative purpose, but a tangible one. The cracks that characterize the surface of his paintings are easily recognizable in Mubarak’s works, even if the subjects told reason in different forms and in close connection with nature. Vibrant surfaces, bring to mind the corrosive action of atmospheric agents, especially the salt which, remaining deposited, reveals interesting designs made of concretions over time. Blue-azure hues alternate with plays of light thanks to the use of gold leaf, favoring an almost tactile visual perception. Mubarak, opens us to a reading towards a very personal and profound silent journey, where every sign or ripple is the trace of an inner analytic passage. The result is a slow and immersive reading, which leads the observer almost into a state of absence and hypnosis. An artistic research, which has its roots in the deepest Earth, to find nourishment especially in water, air and in the chemical transmutations of these elements, one with the other. A symbiosis with nature, a journey to the origins of humanity, in search of the source to which we are all closely connected and well attached. Like a concretion on a surface.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Faiza Mubarak
Destiny
Faiza Mubarak
Lost in Dreams
Faiza Mubarak
Transcendence
Florinda Guarrato “Gea, the original matter from which all things take life, is highlighted in the artist’s self-portrait that everyone can read as Gaia’s. A sweet feeling, this feeling is the ‘sensitivity’. Our mind needs to fall in love with every message that history and realty reserve. Sensibility allows us to enter in contact with humanity and reality, it is an ‘habitus’ we need to revitalize.” (Florinda Guarrato)
The relationship between the observers and the Creators is the heart of Florinda Guarrato’s “Emersione”, the painting with which the Sicilian artist joins M.A.D.S. Art Gallery. The interaction between gesture, colours and pigment, assumes a dynamic relationship and requires the viewer to enter the works and participate in the material flow. The artist’s aim is to capture the soul and the essence and, in doing this, she experiments the use of different types of materials and surfaces. Her art, in fact, has the function of rediscovering the play of matter, the beauty of expressing herself through painting without obstacles and to make the work become functional through a space of expressive freedom of matter. Florinda’s particular way of painting gives a sensation of movement to the scene and the use of the gold foil confers an elegant and a brilliant atmosphere. As Gaia represents a sort of splendour, the sitting and fluctuant female figure at the centre of the painting, recalls this ichnographic allusion. Soft and calm is the sensation that suddenly stands out by watching the whole scene in which, the blue acrylic that takes the shape of a cloud in movement, can also be read as Gaia’s wings, born from her feet. This second consideration makes Mother Earth a Natural and Divine figure that from her position controls the world.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
Florinda Guarrato
Emersione
Fokion Zissiadis “I must stay alone and know that I am alone to contemplate and feel nature in full; I have to surrender myself to what encircles me, I have to merge with my clouds and rocks in order to be what I am.” (Caspar David Friedrich)
Exterminated frozen surfaces and endless expanses of water stretch out between the mountains that emerge proud and imposing. Vast landscapes, icy and majestic, spread out before our eyes, overwhelming our gaze with a sublime note. These are the images of Greenland by Fokion Zissiadis, a Greek photographer from Thessaloniki who, for years, has been traveling the world to reach the most desolate places, in order to document their distant and inaccessible wonder. Wide-angle images that engulf the space, give us an impetuous aerial vision, provoking contrasting emotions in the observer, at the same time of beauty and restlessness. Voids full and dense with feelings, with difficult interpretation, make the work of Zissiadis an evocazion of late 18th and early 19th century romantic art.
Fokion Zissiadis
A gaze turned to Nature, which becomes an expression of the divine on earth, the immanence of the absolute in the sensible world, of which man is but a fleeting manifestation. He analyzes Mother Earth in her details through a journey made of macrovisions, where the planet shows itself in all its beauty and longevity and where the wrinkles of her skin sinuously run along the surface. An amazement made of dismay, a whirlwind intertwining of emotions. The Earth, in these photographs, thus becomes a sumptuous body of flesh in its imperfections. Pulsating veins, unfold far away from our gaze, along the glaciers and inside us. Inexhaustible sources of life, which remind us where we come from.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Fokion Zissiadis
AERIAL I
Fokion Zissiadis
AERIAL II
Fokion Zissiadis
AERIAL III
Fokion Zissiadis
AERIAL IV
Fusun Ürkün
Turkish artist Füsun Ürkün, presents at M.A.D.S. art gallery one of her paintings belonging to the series “My windows glance”. The work was selected for the art exhibition “Gaia: the origin” and reveals something intimate. Fusun creates a series of works that depict women behind lace curtains, which let you see their faces. The work on display, reveals the presence of a beautiful woman holding a bouquet of purple flowers. The work is painted in a very detailed way and totally faithful to reality, but an important detail moves away from it. The woman is accompanied by two other women which seem to be part of her, as if they represent the good part and the other the bad part. It is a very philosophical painting, which conceals a great meaning that the viewer is intrigued to reveal. The woman is perhaps intent on hiding parts of herself, so much so that Fusun places them behind the curtain, leaving only the woman in the center to see clearly. The technical ability of the artist allows us to perceive the feelings of the woman, clearly expressed by the face: it is in an act of reflection, troubled by something. In this sense the curtains can be compared to a curtain of a stage, open only for half, as if the show is about to start and so we can know only a part of her. Füsun Ürkün is undoubtedly a very reflective artist with great technical skill, whose style can be traced back to the Renaissance but, at the same time, her reflection leads her to explore different types of subjects and situations, that undoubtedly place it in the contemporary scene.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Fusun Ürkün
My windows glance
Gabi Domenig
The work “Queen of the nature” by the Austrian artist Gabi Domenig is the perfect exemplification of “Gaia the origin” exhibition theme. It is indeed clear the tribute to mother nature, to the world of plants and animals declined through the use of bright and warm colors that contribute to give a sense of fairy-tale unreality to the painting. The central figure of the canvas is a woman, surrounded by different animals. She has assumed a regal position and a fixed gaze towards the viewer who in turn feels drawn into the work. The elements of the painting are not coincidental, everything contributes to create a sense of balance and the elements that are part of the painting appear as an interlocking puzzle, a set of elements and figures that together return the image of a utopian and ideal natural world. There is a clear reference to the typical production of Expressionism, in particular to the artists Emil Nolde and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, for the use of warm and intense colors, such as red and yellow. Gabi Domenig’s artistic research is closely linked to the figurative part of this current, in fact she does not limit herself to the use of colors as a vehicle of meaning but declines them within a formal realistic representation.
“…and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?” (Vincent van Gogh)
Art Curator Anna Panizza
Gabi Domenig
Queen of nature
Gabrielle Tolliver Gabrielle Tolliver is a promising young American artist. Her works are abstract and there are clear references to Kandinsky’s artistic current of abstractionism. Her works are able to trigger an unusual mix of feelings and emotions starting from the shapes and colours Gabrielle uses. Between acrylic paint, ink and watercolour, human and natural forms are stylised and freed from all limits. Chaos mixes with creativity, creating works that are as studied as they are instinctive and original. The artist’s concept is clearly visible in her work “Chaos”. Drawing on extremely contemporary themes and her own life experiences, Gabrielle uses watercolours and ink to arrive at a critical reflection. Today’s world is so blinded by chaos, daily distractions and vices that man is distancing himself from his needs and remains at the mercy of the constant search for himself. We should try to bring some order and go in search of what really counts: truth. The work is on paper. In the foreground is the ink, applied with free but at the same time studied gestures. The colour changes and transforms. It is left free to drip, to expand, to create paths and circles, shapes of all kinds. The colour black is a metaphor for chaos, while underneath it is hidden the truth, realised with oranges and yellows, softer and less energetic colours compared to black. In the work “Meta”, Gabrielle evokes nature. A beautiful butterfly is being released from its cocoon, giving the viewer a sense of peace, hope and beauty. Metamorphosis is synonymous with change, with novelty. The butterfly is often associated with inner change in the human soul. The chrysalis is man with his potentiality of being and the butterfly is the extreme manifestation of it. The use of watercolours makes this work light and ethereal. Veils of colour overlap each other gracefully, creating unusual compositions. Yellow, pink, green and blue mingle. The ink line is thin. Abstract painting with real shapes dissolving and colours as protagonists is an expression of the inner world of the human soul. The artwork expresses a desire to escape, to go beyond nature in order to make man reflect on himself. In the work “CHNG I”, colours are the real protagonists of the work. Green invades the space of yellow, red, blue and orange. The approach to reality is irrational and underlines the empathy capable of adhering to the world. Spiritual and symbolic matrixes mix. Gabrielle invites the viewer to reflect on his or her own individual path, which is often not easy to find. In each of her works of art, watercolour and ink conceal very deep reflections that lead the viewer to look within. Her artworks appear alternately calm and dynamic. She often alternates lighter tones in the background and superimposes more powerful and energetic colours in the foreground, as if to conceal this harmonious background. Gabrielle’s painterly gestures encourage the viewer to ask himself questions, not just to look but to grasp the hints hidden under light veils of watercolour.
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” (Lao Tzu)
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Gabrielle Tolliver
Chaos
Gabrielle Tolliver
CHNG I
Gabrielle Tolliver
Meta
Gaby Buenrostro “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” (Helen Keller) Gaby Buenrostro is an artist always in motion: research and experimentation combined with instinct and playfulness are the main ingredients of her works. Her brush is handled harmoniously and in different directions to create abstract paintings in which shapes and colors meet, overlap and merge. “Solo” was made with the acrylic on canvas technique. In the work we see one of the geometric figures to which she is most linked, and which often accompanies her during the creative processes: the circle. This, in addition to being a clean and light element on an aesthetic level, in the history of art takes on an important semantic value: characteristics associated with it are perfection, homogeneity, absence of division and distinction. The dominant colors of the work are black and white explored in different shades and interrupted by yellow brushstrokes which give a touch of liveliness and brightness. “Solo” is a profound title that leaves the viewer the opportunity to interpret it according to a personal vision. Alone as a human being in search of his own path, alone as a person suffering from loneliness, alone as one who takes a break from the noisy world to reflect on his life. The artist invites viewers to become one with her works not only by observing them, but by making contact with them. The eyes of the beholder are the starting point for an extraordinary imaginary journey that stops at the mind to think and reflect, but which inevitably reaches the heart that is moved and retains the memory. As the quote from the famous American writer and activist Helen Keller states, the best things can neither be seen nor touched but felt with the heart. Gaby’s works precisely achieve this goal: they are creations that come to life, that speak; they are a symphony that plays to get straight to our soul.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Gaby Buenrostro
Solo
Gen Sei Kawamura Stains of pigment that stand out on the canvas. Stripes and streaks of color overlapping one another in an emphatic passionate dance. Full areas of extremely intense and pigmented color, areas of diluted and transparent color blend in unison to give strength and character to the composition. It is an intricate alchemy of colors, built on a continuous layering of color, thoughts and ideas. Gen Sei’s works invite us to the question, to the inquisitive and investigative question, to the calm and silent interrogation of the processes of the universe and of the human soul. Where do people come from? Where are they headed? Two existential questions, two primordial woodworms to which the human being has tried to give an answer for centuries and that the artist tries to unravel in his work Where to go. It is peculiar for the human mind to think of the here and now, of the present situation and of our time. It is an inevitable attitude and one that fits well with the intricate socio-cultural fabric of which it is a part. Yet, we exist because someone - or something - existed before us; we exist because someone will exist after us. The present as a segment of time in the timeline does not exist, it is rather a point in constant motion that oscillates between past and future: the future becomes present and the latter immediately turns into the past. Hence, the importance of the past and the consequent amount of information it contains within it is crucial. We ourselves are the past - he created us - and we ourselves will create the future. In the contemporary world, so fast and dynamic, our mind thinks of the present, leaving to the “others” - to God, to Buddha and to religion in a broad sense - the memory of the past and the discovery of the future, an infinite journey made with slow steps, a wandering beyond time that only Gods are able to accomplish. We have lost - or we never had - the ability to have a complete vision of our existence, of the before and after of it, we forget how everything is connected and how everything is physically formed by a finite number of atoms of matter. Astrophysicist Carl Sagan said that we are all stardust. A romantic phrase but that hides a deep truth: the atoms that make up man and our earth come from stars and nuclear fusion that occurs in their nucleus. The universe as an incubator space of the elements that compose us is taken up in Black Hole. In the work, the black hole - by definition characterized by the absence of color because of the time-space distortion on which it feeds - is an extremely colorful space, equipped with spots of intense color that overlap each other creating new shades and new tones. It is a container of shapes, stains and pigments; a container of ideas and memories, of flashes of our life that slowly accumulate on the support. There is no black, there is no darkness. Inside there is everything that the life of a human being has produced and experienced, a place where the present - which has become the past - is not eclipsed into oblivion but, sure of itself, is disguised in colors and shapes to give luster to what has been.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Gen Sei Kawamura
Black Hole
Gen Sei Kawamura
Portrait of “Sir George Henry Martin”
Gen Sei Kawamura
Where to go
Giorgia Fundoni “The life, friend, is the art of the encounter” (Vinicio De Morales) <<The life, friend, is the art of the encounter>> This is the title of a famous album made by Vinicio De Morales a Brazilian poet, singer, composer, playwright and diplomat. What does the title mean that the poet gives to us as a gift and a confidence? What kind of connection could it have with the artwork created for the international art exhibition Gaia, the origin, by the artist Giorgia Fundoni? Firstly, the idea that the encounter is the element that distinguishes the concept of life in an ontological sense is an idea that comes from one of the greatest philosophers in history: Aristotle. Hi has affirmed in fact, that the persons are social animals, that they can only be defined by the presence of the other. The painting presented by the artist Giorgia Fundoni wants to demonstrate this own idea. Colours used, definite shapes and forms are all elements called upon to underline the protagonists of the painting that are put in the centre of the artwork: two stylized persons that seem to be involved in a dance and in an encounter. The dynamism made by these figures sets in motion all the elements of the artwork to create a painting that wants to communicate a movement, something that is happening now, in the moment of watching. The painting is a pretext to talk about the relating to others in some event that are happened in the past and could define the personality of the fellow, as the artist says: <<Colour sand intimate dreams are bond together, in a rather incomprehensible moment of life, and here a first-time chaos enters the scene. A relational instability comes into play too, souls lose their way, they chase around and finally meet again>>. The element of the chaos of which she speaks, is another important characteristic communicated by the artist that could be the keys to understanding the real meaning of the artwork. The confusion that comes out in special moments of life, in which it seems that things are messy but it could be the beginning of a never seen awareness about yourself. In the end to come back to the concept of the encounter, this painting and the expression made by Vinicio De Morales could be the real answer to the question: -what is life?.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Giorgia Fundoni
Rhapsody
Gro Heining “The wealth I achieve comes from Nature, the source of my inspiration.” (Claude Monet)
The artist Gro Heining is exhibiting two works at the event “Gaia - The Origin”, through which her love for nature and the animal realm predominates. The surrounding environment is emphasized at its best, with the aim of overwhelming the viewer in an aura of well-being and serenity, as immersing oneself in an uncontaminated and harmonious climate relaxes body and mind, releasing the tensions accumulated during everyday life. This is why nature becomes synonymous of peace, other than being an unstoppable strength! In fact, Gro’s works reveal this fundamental aspect: all the energy and vitality emerge from the pictorial surface in order to entrancing the viewer, inviting him/her to appreciate the planet in which he/she lives and evolves. The message that can be drawn from these paintings is so clear and decisive and emphasizes the unparalleled power of Nature in creating wonderful things, animals and plants, all united by an indissoluble bond. As for example in “Mother Earth II - The guardians of the planet” the artist represents the evolution of the Earth, as if she wanted to enclose all the memories of the universe. Above our planet there are various animals, such as a rhinoceros with a beak and a body made up of many living creatures; or the whale and the turtle, symbols of longevity; finally, a magnificent bird, surrounded by a flock of doves or seagulls, which give the whole work a gentle dynamism.
Gro Heining
The attention to details is remarkable and this helps the viewer to recognize the beauty of these living beings, creating a mixture between the animal, terrestrial and celestial realms. Gro shows love for each individual without any distinction, reminding us that the life on the Earth began in this way, with the appearance of animals and later of the humans. The artist invites the viewer to take care and safeguard their planet! In her second work, “Tree of Creation”, Gro Heining is inspired by the beauty of nature as well, representing all the majesty of the tree as an ancestral symbol of birth, regeneration and energy. As being so lush, it encloses a multitude of plant species, alluding to all-natural habitats on the Earth. As a primordial sign, it gives life and prosperity to every living being, human and animal. The four elements are associated with the tree, making them crucial: water and the Sun help it to grow, the earth nourishes it and the air makes it part of nature. In addition, the total presence of greenery further underlines the excellent qualities of the subject, including the abundance and flow of lifeblood, the pure and unconditional love, and the stimulation of the noblest feelings in the viewer’s soul.
“Look at the trees, the birds, the clouds, the stars... the whole of existence is filled with joy! Everything is pure happiness.” (Osho)
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Gro Heining
Mother Earth II - The guardians of the planet
Gro Heining
Tree of Creation
Hamed Nasseri “What moves men of genius, or rather, what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.” (Eugène Delacroix) Hamed Nasseri is an artist who, thanks to his great spirit of observation of the world around him and his depth of thought and soul, is able to create amazing works both visually and semantically. Nature has always been his friend, his adviser and above all his inspiring muse. By interweaving fantasy and reality, Hamed gives his own personal and interesting vision of the world in which he lives through art, an integral part and essence of his daily life. “Earth Sky Alliance” was created in 2015 with the technique of acrylic and ballpoint pen on paper. Observing the work, the technical skills of the artist seem evident: with extreme accuracy and incredible attention to detail, he makes the protagonists extremely real, so much so that they seem to come out of the canvas to meet us. As the title itself says, the work is a representation of the relationship between earth and sky which, united together, are able to give life to spectacular feats. The natural world and the human world meet, they mix until they merge. A lion with a majestic mane is surrounded by a bird whose wings join with a human face whose profile we see. At the center of the work, there is a tree whose branches are reunited with the king of the forest. At its roots extends a long chain of mountains interrupted by a stream from which a divine creature with human features emerges. In his right hand, he supports and at the same time protects a village, while in his left he holds a sphere, a symbol of magic, or a sun or a moon, symbols of light and life. Warm and cold colors meet creating a strong and pleasant chromatic effect. The artist invites the viewer to set his imagination in motion in order to give a free interpretation to the work. Hamed, a talented artist with a strong personality, wants us to understand the enormous power and eternal beauty that nature possesses and, precisely for this reason, the importance of preserving and admiring it every day.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Hamed Nasseri
Earth Sky Alliance
Haneul
Incandescent magma bubbling in the depths of the earth. Its movements are slow, its motion is wave-like, circular. Gases and molten metals mix in unison in a dance that has continued unabated for billions of years. An ocean composed of a viscous fluid at high temperature and high pressure is the heart of our planet, the most intimate point of our Earth. Invisible to the eye and unreachable by any living thing, the ocean of magma literally holds up the earth’s crust and molds it at will as it spills out onto the surface. We walk on a hot and dense fluid, on the magma boiling in the bowels of our earth. Haneul is aware of this and in Energie there is all the power and inexhaustible force of molten rock. A particularly bright red dominates the entire composition, blinding the eyes at first glance and disorienting the viewer. It exudes power and an inestimable amount of energy. The vivid red is then soiled by darker spots, by a black pigment “stretched” on the support. It is the genesis of new earth, new life. Energie contains within itself the destructive power and vital energy of magma. A shapeless mass of rock and liquid metal that comes out abundantly from the earth’s crust is a sign of destruction, of natural disaster. Nothing and no one can do anything against the destructive power of these tongues of fire. Man is small in front of them, he has no choice but to run away and watch -from a distance- nature take its course. Yet, our own earth billions of years ago was formless magma.
Haneul
The same lava that flows in spurts from the cracks in the earth’s crust and from volcanoes is the creator of new earth and consequently of new life. A continuous cycle of destruction and recomposition, annihilation and rebirth is the legacy that magma leaves us, the heart or rather the vital and inexhaustible bowels - of our Earth. To counterbalance the expressive power of Energie there is Grace. Painted in shades of blue and green, it tells us about the marine world, the underwater world that occupies a large part of the earth’s crust. Against a background of bluish spots, ultramarine blue drips gently from the top of the canvas and crosses the whole composition. Water - by definition the creator of life - cradles us and transports us into a muffled and silent world, calm and out of time. Like the water that descends in rivulets from the side of a mountain, the color makes its way along the deposits of color, turns and curves, arches and changes direction for a moment. Yet -listening to nature- the only possible direction is one. Gravity inevitably pushes it downwards and towards the center of the earth, it pushes it into the warm bowels until it virtually evaporates. Water itself is subject to gravity and, as if pushed by a magnet it always falls downwards, at our feet, under our feet. Everything returns there, in the beating heart of our planet, in the infinite expanse of magma that lies under our feet. Let’s close our eyes, let’s try to perceive the inexhaustible force underneath us.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Haneul
Energie
Haneul
Grace
Hanna Brown “I see everywhere in nature, for example in the trees, the capacity for expression and, so to speak, a soul”. (Vincent van Gogh) If there is magic and poetry in this world, certainly we must look for it in nature, it is necessary to get lost among the plants, touch the flowers, the hard bark of the trees and contemplate their beauty. Nothing is more intense than the inspiration that nature can give, and what the artist Hannah represents in her works is certainly the result of the great sensitivity she possesses in admiring the details of nature. The works of the artist Hannah are intense and full of emotions, undoubtedly charged with emotionality. Natural landscapes appear before the eyes of the spectator and break any type of barrier, the observer’s eyes follow the faint lines that the artist has drawn, giving life to trees, bushes and flowers. Those trembling lines come to life, move in space and make the whole composition lively and suggestive. The colors used are sometimes vivid and bright, other times darker, so that the works appear complete as a whole, they contain the opposites that create the perfect balance. Through her production Hannah pays homage to Gaia, Mother Earth, in a commendable way, from her works emerges the great power of nature, that force that shakes the unconscious, that makes the soul vibrate and that makes us feel part of nature itself. Hannah’s artistic work refers to the works of the great masters of Impressionism, color is certainly the protagonist element, it is it that gives shape to the entire composition. It is easy to imagine Hannah creating her works immersed in nature, a bit like the great painters who, armed with easels, brushes and colors, were going to paint “en plein air”. Meeting Hannah’s artistic work means getting lost in nature, experiencing wilder places, sensing the smells of the woods, leaves and flowers. The observer makes a journey towards beauty, extreme enchantment, towards that perfect aesthetic that belongs only to nature.
“The clearest way to the Universe is through a wild forest” (John Muir).
Art Curator Vanessa Viti
Hanna Brown
Old Tree #2
Hanna Brown
Peace of Mind – Self Portrait
Hanna Brown
Wildflowers 2
Hanne Holdorf “Nature is the source of all true knowledge. It has its own logic, its own laws, it has no effect without cause or invention without necessity.” (Leonardo da Vinci) The artist Hanne Holdorf for her paintings often finds inspiration in nature and what she tries to portray is the emotional imprint left by the human being. In the painting that Hanne presents at the “Gaia - The Origin” International Art Exhibition, there is all the empathy towards the subject being represented. The title of the painting is “Gaia’s fury” and concerns our individual relationship with the Earth, places us in front of the reality of the facts, makes us aware of our responsibility and re-evaluates our personal bond with Nature. High snowcapped mountains lash out against a red sky that evokes sensational power. The painting emanates a particular emotional charge, given by its darkness but which at the same time appears luminescent through an exceptional use of white color that gives brilliance to the canvas. The attention to detail and the meticulousness with which the peaks have been represented are amazing. On the right side of the painting, below, the artist uses the dripping technique, letting the paint pour directly onto the canvas. Technique developed in the late 1940s by Jackson Pollock. This detail gives the artwork greater passionate power. The fury of Gaia is the emblem of how the relationship between man and Nature is a dynamic reality and how it has changed over time. Human beings are part of her, and we all depend on the other living beings around us. The relationship between man and Nature is sometimes experienced incorrectly as it is seen as conflicting and deleterious, but Nature does nothing but her course: new species that are born, others that evolve, others that are extinguished. Nature is our home and for this reason we must respect her, assuming our responsibilities, respecting our role and finding our balance. Through her artworks, Hanne hopes to personify these natural landscapes, making them emotionally traceable to the viewer.
“All creatures tremble in the face of violence. All fear death. Everyone loves life. See yourself in others. And at that point who can you hurt? What harm can you ever do?” (Buddha)
Art Curator Francesca Campanelli
Hanne Holdorf
Gaia’s fury
Harry T. Burleigh “I think that having the Earth and not ruining it is the most beautiful form of art one could wish for.” (Andy Warhol) For the international exhibition “Gaia - The Origin”, Harry T. Burleigh presents an absolutely fascinating and intense work: with “Geomantia”, the artist wishes to highlight the aspect of Creation and the gods conceived with an aesthetic key. The representation of the goddess Gaia, who suddenly emerged from Chaos, personifies a primordial concept of order and balance in the cosmos. Gaia generated Uranus (the sky), the mountains, Pontus (the sea) and Typhoeus. One of her children, Uranus is of particular interest, as he is her equal, a kind of double figure who stands above her and completes her, representing all in all a symmetrical replica of her. This established universe has two dimensions, enshrined in its above and below: in fact, with Uranus and Gaia the concept of duality in the sense of “man and woman” is born. All this is visible in Harry’s work: everything is enveloped in a luminescent yellow/golden aura, from which emerge two very intense faces at the universe opposite poles: these would represent Gaia and Uranus as they are shaping the whole planet. Moreover, he recalls the theory of continental drift, where the earth’s plates separated over the millennia up to their present position, the artist depicts the Earth and the formation of the Italian peninsula. The Italian peninsula, located at the center of the globe and enveloped by the sea, becomes the vital core of the world, a beating heart that emanates energy and pure light, radiating the surrounding atmosphere. Like guardian angels, Gaea and Uranus protect and safeguard the planet, instilling peace and serenity. In terms of the technique used, the light blue brushstrokes blend perfectly with the brighter orange ones, giving the whole work an undulating dynamism in which the viewer can immerse himself/herself and let himself/herself be lulled by the vortex of emotions and moods. Each color is emphasized as much as possible to extrapolate all its depth and luminosity, and the numerous chromatic nuances give the canvas an absolute harmony and balance.
“I have nature, art and poetry... And if that is not enough, what more can I want?” (Vincent Van Gogh)
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Harry T. Burleigh
Geomantia
Héctor Romero
Héctor Romero is a Spanish artist, with a strong geometric and architectural imprint. Studying interior design and having worked for several architecture companies, he has developed perspective skills that allow him to play with the human eye and conceive space in complete freedom. Encouraged by some recognitions and good critics, he focused his studies on a pictorial style that is a mixture of surrealism, minimalism, expressionism, and metaphysical. The result is a clean and skillful technical drawing for the creation of desolate and anonymous spaces, with a common link that combines large blocks or forceful volumes of different colors - emphasized by the light and shadows generated in them - creating a touch of mystery and optical illusion. It almost seems that the artist is inviting us to participate in one of his nightmares, in which he has to take an important choice: different planes to observe the scene from two points of view, represented by two human figures, who are perhaps the same person represented at the same time in the same place, but in a different position, as if he is get involved and asking us to advise him on the correct way, the most just to get to your destination. Hector Romero presents at M.A.D.S. art gallery, during “Gaia: the origin” exhibition, the artwork entitled “Cúbico”, a piece of the “Blocks” series. This is an acrylic paint on a forex, composed of an iron frame. It is the representation of a reflection about our fate in life, the bivalence of our choices and the consequences of our decisions. Interesting is also the point of view of the observer who, on the one hand, identifies with the trapped figures but on the other controls their movements from above.
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Héctor Romero
Cúbico
HEINGA
At the heart of the work of art by the artist HEINGA: the Universe and us. The artist painstakingly and carefully realizes and deepens a profound analysis of the concepts of force and energy guided by the Universe and linked to our life. An artist who helps us to reflect deeply on life and its extraordinary meaning it represents for each of us. An invitation to cultivate it without thinking about the results dictated by too rational control. To put our concentration on our forces that we constantly put into our lives without thinking about everything that may happen, only in this way will we be able to understand, as the artist suggests, that the Universe is actually us with our energy, our own. come on, our being part of something unique. Great space is left by HEINGA within her work to the law of the Universe to induce us to reflect and to invite us to go beyond the logical and emotional sphere and to believe in our extraordinary strength. An artist who captures our attention with works with a great visual impact and careful composition. An artist who helps us to reflect deeply and to take care of our most intimate being.
Art Curator Giulia Zanesi
HEINGA
The law of the Universe
Helena Nissinen “The beauty of gardening: hands in the dirt, the head kissed by the sun, the heart close to nature. Cultivating a garden does not only mean nourishing the body, but also the soul” (Alfred Austen) <<The beauty of gardening: hands in the dirt, the head kissed by the sun, the heart close to nature. Cultivating a garden does not only mean nourishing the body, but also the soul>>. This verse made by the British poet Alfred Austen is the perfect way to introduce the work made by the artist Helena Nissinen. This artwork called Garden of plenty is a message directed to us to express the beauty of nature with the image of a simple garden. The melting pot of colours that emerges from the canvas remind the vivid colours of a garden of plenty. The painting wants to demonstrate the method used by the artist for the composition. Making a gesture that tells us about the energy and the emotions of the painter. As if the canvas wants to be animated to tell us about flowers and the beauty of nature. Is the composition that directs the intention of the artist Helena Nissinen, she wants to abandon herself at the artwork maybe also to explore a new perception of the world and the reality. As she says: << Happy accidents are most welcome. I don’t plan too much ahead, I enjoy seeing the painting revealing itself. Usually there are a lot of layers upon each other, revealing and hiding details in the process>>. The artist uses the same technique for the other artwork presented to the exhibition like Gone with the wind. Starting from the shape that she used: something that remained flowers and fruits, leaves and plenty. At the same time, what emerges in a strong way from the composition is the movement made by the element. We can see an energy that comes from the bottom of the painting and moves the object in the artwork to give us the idea and the power of the wind. In fact the protagonist of the painting is the power of the wind. The movement of it in the painting took the observer in a vision and imagination where enjoy the beauty and the power of it. Referring to technique used by the artist Helena is magic to think at the idea that the element comes in a spontaneity way from the imagination, there isn’t an exact project before the artwork but shapes and colours used come out freely. As if the composition was an impression of the feeling and the emotion that the artist has when she enjoys the beauty of the wind. Painting for Helena is discovering a new way to intend the reality, and she decided to take the observer with her in this process. From the other side of the canvas the observer feeling accompagner in this travel around her imaginary and her vision, that is composed by the energy of the action and the energy of the colours. Also in Cold coast the important element that emerges is the movement of the sea that seems to come from the right of the painting. This gesture reflects the desire of the artist to give at the painting the emotion of the life that stay in the things In the end what is important of the Helena’s artworks is that the painting is revealed to our eyes without any expectation, and the magic peculiarity of the Helena’s art is that is the same also for her.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Helena Nissinen
Cold Coast
Helena Nissinen
Garden of plenty
Helena Nissinen
Gone with the Wind
Helena Olausson
Symbol of wisdom, patience and even chastity, the elephant was depicted seamlessly in the art of every era. It is perhaps considered the oldest artistic object ever produced by man. African cave paintings. Coins minted by Alexander the Great. Terracotta sculptures at the time of the Second Punic War. They have in common a recurring symbol: the elephant. Eadweard Muybridge, in 1884 studied the movement of the elephant through the technique of chronophotography, of the repeated shot. But the passage to the new century establishes the departure from the concreteness of reality in favour of surreal and dreamlike imagery with Salvador Dalì, with long, slender legs, similar to those of a spider, in connection between heaven and earth. The animal in the common imagination hides behind a mastodonic shadow a fragile, shy and reserved nature. The artist Helena Olausson captures this contrast through the thin line of the design configuring it as a symbol divided between strength and weakness, in an artistic tradition that dresses him as a warrior in a fairy tale with an exotic taste. The colors used by the artist are strong, bright, and intend to emphasize the nature of the animal in “Tembo” and “Beautiful”, works that portray the same identical subject but what changes is the intent of the artist. Helena intends to communicate to the viewer the dual nature of the portrait by helping with the hatching of the line and the use of color. Explosive technique that reuses also in “Chaos under control”, where the chromatic element is the real subject, lightened by abstract signs and symbols.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo
Helena Olausson
Beautiful Creature
Helena Olausson
Chaos under control
Helena Olausson
Tembo
Hella Ridder Dawn has its own mysterious grandeur which consists of a residue of dream and of a principle of thought. (Victor Hugo)
Through her enchanting artworks, the artist Hella Ridder tries to express and unlock the most intimate and hidden feelings of our own soul. Her will is to touch the observer in depth, awakening the most intense emotions in her, which can directly lead to an inner connection between the viewer and the painting itself. Hella aims for a lasting and profound effect of the images on those who are looking at her paintings at that moment. For the artist, it is much more important to achieve a long-term effect, rather than temporarily impressing the observer, given the very intense color contrasts of her artworks; this is because she believes that the first moment of observation can disappear completely after a short phase of intense image perception. There are three paintings that Hella exhibits at the “Gaia” International Art Exhibition. In the painting “A Moment of Understanding”, the brushstrokes are broad, dense with color and decisive. The background is a midnight blue and, in the center, it is possible to observe light colored brushstrokes almost as if they wanted to symbolize a lighthouse that guides us in the night. And in fact, in all three of her artworks, this beam of light is present, what she defines as an “access to light”. An opening that allows us to enter this magical moment, or the moment of introspection. In “And still We hope”, we always find “access to light”, but this time the base color changes. We find green as a background, a color that is often associated with hope, as the title itself suggests. It could be a cry for hope, to always become the best version of ourselves. Through this artwork, Hella allows the viewer to gain access to their inner self, to the inner light of our own soul, which can often only be achieved through feeling but not through ratio. In the latest painting “Being reborn in a new Day’s Dawn”, light has invaded almost the entire canvas. And it is perhaps at the dawn of a new day that the human being is less sure of the existence of the world. The sun has not yet risen but a new identity is rising within us. For the artist, painting is a door that leads to the most intimate part of the human spirit, which she tries to unlock with every picture anew. “The earth provides us with more teachings about us than all books. Because he is resisting us. Measuring himself with the obstacle, man discovers himself. But to do that, he needs a tool. He needs a plane, or a plow. The farmer, in plowing, gradually snatches some secrets from nature, and the truth he draws is universal.” (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)
Art Curator Francesca Campanelli
Hella Ridder
A Moment of Understanding
Hella Ridder
And still We hope
Hella Ridder
Being reborn in a new Day’s Dawn
Hermanni Pellinen
<<Painting is about just playing with colours first in canvas, and then taking colours off with an art knife. Then I started to see these things, jungle and a forest, and began to paint it>>. To understand the paintings made for the international art exhibition Gaia, the origin, by the artist Hermanni Pellinen, could be more important to start from his consideration. He affirms that the act of painting is not something that is projected before the creation, but this practice starts as a game, a play with the canvas and then this game becomes an artwork. This means that is the canvas that suggests to the painter the imagine to realize. This consideration reminds an idea made by the great sculptor and artist Michelangelo Bonarroti, who had affirmed that the art is imprisoned before the creation into the pieces of marble, the artist’s work consists into bringing to light this art already in itself existed. The Hermanni idea seems to be in harmony with Michelangelo’s thinking about the art. In fact he seems to say that the art is like being imprisoned into the canvas and he wants to discover what is the new message sent to us by it. Starting from Green energy: the painting wants to tell us about the power of unspoilt nature where the dark of the forest and dense vegetation want to give way to the light, that now seems to cut the canvas, and radiate the face of the observer. In a similar way Happy Autumn wants to celebrate the season of the autumn, with his colours and his suggestions. The image represented is a piece of a lake, which is enclosed by a dense vegetation. The predominant characteristic of this painting is the chromatic range used. Warm colors that remind me of an exact moment of the day. As if the artist wants to say to the observer: <<in this place and at this moment I feel in this way>>. His emotions are underlain by the intense tonality of colours used. The last work presented is Heal that would be in the style a little different from this Green energy and Happy Autumn. The artwork seems to use both surrealism and abstract language. This choice depends on the intention of the artist to find a language that is able to help him to express exactly what he feels. He tries to resume and make a check of his life in the painting and tell us the truth about his feelings and emotions. A commoving element put into the painting is the little eyes on the top that is crying. In this way the artist Hermanni tells us in a very simple way about sad moments or his emotions on the concept of the heel. Spherical shapes in the foreground remind the idea of the universe, and the little letters put inside maybe could represent the desire of the artist to self-assert as a strong presence in the world. On the right of the painting could be seen the image of the city like something that is seen from a distance, that is detached from the subject. In this painting Hermanni gives to us, to the observers a big gift, as someone that after a long silence wants to tell us in a very intimate way, about his life, his universe and himself.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Hermanni Pellinen
Green energy
Hermanni Pellinen
Happy Autumn
Hermanni Pellinen
Heal
Hilde Carling “The contemplation of nature can free one of the ego – the great troublemaker.” (Eckhart Tolle)
The power of water and the silence of nature that moves without making any noise. This emerges from Hilde Carling’s photographs, in particular from the shot entitled “From Above”, where we see the famous meeting of the two seas, the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. A phenomenon visible only in a few places in the world, including Grenen, the northernmost point of Denmark. The Earth lives, and continues to live, even in our absence and, when we decide to listen and observe it, it can offer our eyes stupendous imaginary, which at times even appear uncanny. Carling guides us in a different vision of this place, in an aerial photograph where people with soaking feet are tiny and engulfed by water, whose presence is preponderant.
Hilde Carling
A clear reference to Romantic Art and to the painting “The Monk by the Sea” by Caspar David Friedrich, where man, a finite being, can do nothing before the immensity and boundlessness of Nature which, so beautiful, and at the same time disturbing, has always created mixed feelings. A tale of the sublime, the pleasure one feels looking at the power and vastness of Nature, that could, however, also prove to be destructive. A seductive and bewitching beauty, in a black and white that does not want distractions, if not to tell the ephemeral manifestation of man on Earth. At the same time, the meeting of the two seas becomes, an embrace that welcomes humanity to itself, without however guaranteeing real security, whispering an apparent balance.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Hilde Carling
From Above
Hilde Carling
Gaia
I-Vanessa Rumstajn
I-Vanessa Rumstajn is a Sweden artist who develops an entirely unique style. I-Vanessa combines abstract backgrounds with human figures made in a cubist way. Her inspiration in fact comes from the world of street art. The artist also claims to have been inspired by Greek mythology, from which she takes some iconographies. I-Vanessa exhibits at M.A.D.S. art gallery a rather intimate work, selected for the “Gaia: The origin” exhibition. The work is entitled “Balance” and it is just balance that we speak. The exhibition Gaia asks artists to dig inside themselves, to seek their origins, to get in touch with nature to find their own balance. The work is made in black and white, through the use of acrylic that, in certain points of the background, is left to dry in large quantities, thus appearing in relief. A girl is the protagonist, her eyes are hidden by the long black fringe and she holds between her lips a cigarette, or perhaps a brush. A gold line cuts the composition horizontally in two, symbolizing the balance needed to live. The inclusion of gold refers to many cultures, including the Japanese one, that uses gold as a symbol of wealth and fortune, and later, in Kintsugi practice, it unites and repairs what seemed lost. The artist explains the work: “Balance can principle be described as having the appearance of essentially being a muse, summarily, collecting the paintings. Meaning the paintings together, which she has overall painted and also paints.”
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
I-Vanessa Rumstajn
Balance
Iisakki Ratilainen “I took a moment to admire the glorious landscape around me, to take a look at where I had come from.” (Nelson Mandela) The Finnish artist Iisakki Ratilainen is exhibiting at the international exhibition “Gaia - The Origin” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in Milan an absolutely fascinating work, rich of nuances and brightness. In “Birch Forest” the beauty of nature is emphasized through the use of shades typical of a vegetable environment, where the green with its lightness becomes the main character of the whole painting. This type of forest is a typical scenario in his homeland, and that’s why the artist depicts it by focusing on the nuances, the slight chiaroscuro effects and the verticality of the immense wood. As if it were a close-up photogram, Iisakki creates a perpendicular texture where the blue-grey lines of the birch trees, almost straight and parallel, are translated into a highly decorative panel. Each element of the forest does not escape from that sense of order which dominates the composition: what is very interesting, from a technical point of view, is the undergrowth’s color modulation, which takes on an almost golden tone, giving an intense light to the whole environment. As in the works of the Impressionists painters and those of Gustav Klimt, this luminous phenomenon is also accentuated by the color contrasts spread regularly across the paint surface, echoing symmetrically in the canvas with golden reflections. The trees placed in the foreground are intended to create a stability of perception, while the ideal intersection between the vertical lines of the trunks and the horizontal lines of the ground give a certain dynamism to the painting. The painting offers the viewer a natural landscape from where it is possible to grasp all the vital energy, the sense of meditation and contemplation of the place; an unspoiled dimension, where the green color gives the canvas harmony and serenity.
“Once on the summit, we turned around and a beautiful view opened in front of us. The splendidly clear atmosphere, the deep blue sky, the deep valleys; all this together created a scenery that no one could have imagined.” (Charles Darwin)
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Iisakki Ratilainen
Birch Forest
Ilan Cohen
Ilan Cohen is an Australian filmmaker whose films allow for important reflection. At the exhibition “GAIA-The Origin” he exhibits a filmic work with an incredible reflective and denouncing power. “A Burning Forest” is a raw work that reflects the moment in which the earth is. The first scene is reminiscent of the shooting of the 70s movies, it is the image of a galaxy, the planets and stars are not defined, but this in no way excludes the artist’s ability to bring the viewer into a vision of the world and the universe that the human being tends to forget. “This life is a twisted charred log” is the first sentence of the film, the word “twisted” is underlined by the flames, emphasizing the paradox in which we live. The entire filmic work is built on the denunciation and communication of the violence that we use every day against ourselves, others and our land. The images that follow are strong images, with an incredible emotional impact, fires, smoke, desolate and fire-ravaged landscapes. The music used to accompany the words reflects a feeling of desolation, melancholy, sadness. Whoever looks at the work feels immersed in the desperation that the images convey, the powerlessness, but also the sense of guilt lead to deeper reflections. The filming of a seagull changes the pace of the opera and with it comes a different music, there is a sense of rebirth, a flowing river, therefore the life taking its course.You see plants, flowers, and more water, lush forests, and you return to planet earth, to the stars, to the galaxy. The observer is struck by reality, but also by a sense of hope.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Ilan Cohen
A Burning Forest
Inge Gecas “Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye. It also includes the inner pictures.” (Edvard Munch) How the nature around us can achieve its own intrinsic equilibrium? The artist, Inge Gecas explores and transposes this question into her artworks. In her paintings she expresses a deep sense of empathy for and connectivity to her subject; in doing that, she likes to mix different artistic techniques: In her symphonic mixing of techniques, she mirrors the chaos and cacophony of nature. She starts focusing the background to the painting technique; here the colours find a total harmony to each other and allow her to freely explore, conveying a new connection between organic and non-organic forms, source of her experimentation; This juxtaposition is the root of her work’s exploration. The artist – Inge Gecas- researches a process of transformation to obtain a new and personal form of nature, arriving in this way to abandoned the old structures and to shift her work into something entirely new and metamorphosed. What really characterize Gecas’ method is the combination of traditional painting and dripping with digital tools: using camera and different set up of lighting system, she involves her environment in her artworks. The use of digital resource follows the complete creative method: Inge’s work; her incorporation of photography allows her to manipulate her environment into each individual piece. Inge Gecas uses the camera to record and document not only the final result but the executive procedure. In this way the artistic process can became a prominent aspect of the artworks itself. This strong connection with the nature emphasizes a symbiosis that involve the main subject of the paintings: between subject and artist and opens a channel for intuitive experimentation that mirrors the organic world. In this space of fluidity, past and nature can live in equilibrium with future and technology; a unique balance which Inge’s work strikes.
Art Curator Manuela Fratar
Inge Gecas
Equilibrium
Inge Gecas
Fairy tale
Inge Gecas
Purity
Isabel Mortensen
The ability to develop and use abstract concepts such as fantasy and freedom is one of the most sophisticated abilities human beings possess and differentiates them from other primates. The elaboration of abstract concepts involves, more than concrete ones, the perceptive system. Isabel Mortensen and her works are a detailed analysis of what is dear to her and highlight in her the potential of a careful and meticulous observer of reality and its hidden contents. What is most evocative is the nature of the territory in which it lives. And it is precisely among the most dense and daring memories that the artist has managed to find an intimate dimension. If nature is a metaphor of life, of the inner self of the individual, Isabel’s intent is not to exalt its beauty, but to seek among its earthy corners the creative and creative flicker. In the casual forms and reckless dispositions of nature, the artist glimpses the causality of the abstract world, so that the intricate games of lines and color drips let glimpse a whole new and original texture.
Isabel Mortensen
A female body, sensual and elegant, seems to reveal the need for an introspective pictorial work that transcends the simple beauty of the depicted, but that addresses the human ability to renew punctually their imagination freeing from the initial cue. So in the images depicting countless abstract forms, you can see as many possibilities, and everyone can see himself. Isabel Mortensen seems to have obviated the search for reality by looking not too far away, not at a rare event, but at the encounter with the surviving nature, a spark of creation from which we can only extract deep teachings, images and meanings.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo
Isabel Mortensen
Mother Earth
Isabel Mortensen
Naked Soul
Jac Kritzinger “To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.” (Mahatma Gandhi)
The Nature. Mother of all things and all living beings, divine power and welcoming home, the place from which everything is born and to which everything returns. It has always been a great source of inspiration for the man who, over the millennia, has wanted to represent her, giving her, every time, new faces. Mother Earth, is the common personification of nature focused around the aspects of life-giving and nourishment, very often embodied in the mother figure, or in any case associated with the female figure. In the “Strayed” project by Jac Kritzinger, a South African photographer, we find a new vision of Nature, catapulted into the contemporary world and dragged into its beauty before the eyes of the 21st Century.
Jac Kritzinger
Without any post-production intervention, Kritzinger deliberately places a mannequin in the middle of pristine landscapes, thus creating a sense of estrangement in the observer. After a first moment of amazement, a feeling of rejection takes over, for the simple reason that an artificial element, in such a context, screeches heavily. Mountains and lakes stretch behind this plasticized and completely naked female body. So perfect inside a shop window and so imperfect surrounded by nature, a visual antithesis, which becomes like a shock, aimed at creating a disturbance in the observer. In a historical period in which man has allowed the system to distance him from his origins, Jac Kritzinger intervenes, decontextualizing the capitalist element par excellence and thus creating powerful images, in order to recall man to his true essence.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Jac Kritzinger
Strayed #2
Jac Kritzinger
Strayed #5
Jacqueline Joosen “This is my mother: the ocean.” (Björk)
Jacqueline Joosen is an Australian Dutch artist who has a very diverse artistic creation behind her, with the use of different media such as sculpture, ceramics and jewelry. However, painting represents her strong point and all her pieces refer to mixed techniques. The painting “Coastal fragments no. 2” is an abstract tribute to the paradisiacal Australian coast, where the artist lives. The various shades of blue emerge from the white, a bit darker and dirtier in most of the painting, as if to recall the sea foam that forms when the water approaches the coast. The color is not homogeneous and we also notice subtle darker strokes on the surface; an action that makes the painting more material and places the accent on the various procedures. This heterogeneity of matter and color makes the work suggestive, giving us the ability to travel with our minds in a timeless earthly paradise, where nature reigns as the absolute protagonist. The artist is strongly inspired by natural landscapes and it’s the intuitiveness of her art that makes it special. Her attitude towards her works is comparable to a stimulating adventure where what matters is not the final aesthetic result but the entire creative process. The gestures are free and spontaneous just like the primordial elements that make up our earth, seeking the beauty and wonder of every natural element. The story of nature in an abstract style will create a suggestive and meaningful atmosphere where the viewer can immerse himself completely.
Art Curator Elita Borgogelli
Jacqueline Joosen
Coastal fragments no. 2
Jaime Caba Rodriguez “The beginning is the most important part of the job” (Plato)
Asking ourselves questions about what the beginning of the world was like, and trying to give answers is undoubtedly what all thinking beings do in their lives. Jaime in some way gives his answer or simply an interpretation, his work is a celebration of the Beginning, of that prelude from which everything originated, not surprisingly the title of the work is “Origin”. Two elements appear evident within the composition: light and shadow, one the opposite of the other, one continually wins over the other in a continuous movement and change that creates a perfect balance. In fact, religions of all times have placed light that wins over darkness at the center of their cult. Jaime’s work is undoubtedly of great impact, in front of it the observer gets lost in infinite space, losing awareness of time, making a journey back in the history of the universe. Observing the Spanish artist’s work “Origin” also means experiencing absolute silence, as if one entered an anechoic room, no noise distracts the mind, nothing all around. The encounter with Jaime’s work becomes an experience that touches the sublime, something extremely out of the ordinary. The focus, the central point of the work is that glow that captures the viewer’s attention, while the darkness that is equivalent to nothing falls around him. In a certain way, Jaime’s work brings to mind a great eye, which sees beyond everything, which knows how to go beyond space and time, enclosing in it the mysteries of the universe. A radiance that gives life, the light that allows you to see, an eye that is given the ability to observe, the great arcane of the world hover around the entire work of the artist Jaime.
“Observing is not just a receiving, a revealing, but at the same time a creative act” (Soren Kierkegaard)
Art Curator Vanessa Viti
Jaime Caba Rodriguez
Origin
Jane Gottlieb Travel is a way to know the world through our senses. Andrej Tarkowsky said: “In truth,the journey through the countries of the world is for man a symbolic journey. Wherever he goes, it’s his soul that he’s looking for.” Travel means to seek the soul, means opening the mind and creating new thoughts and feelings. Travelling is a form of origin, it is a search within us that allows us to get in contact with new worlds and new civilizations and also with the deepest part of ourselves. The American artist Jane Gottlieb tells us her journey with artworks, with bright colors, where the color is the principal component of the artworks. The bright colors that Jane uses attract the eyes of the viewer and stimulate the mind to travel to another world, in a new visual universe, in places where her soul dwells. These colors enhance the figures of the walls of steel of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in “Disney Hall Wonder” and create chromatic contrasts with the orange, warm color of the background. There is a perfect balance of warm and cold colors, the warm orange tones are in contrast with blue, cold tones, and the purple colors. The shapes of the walls look like sails moved by the wind, but the viewer has the feeling of being in the desert. The blue color of the swimming pool in “South of France” is confused with the lilac color of the sea and the sky with clouds… the water looks like a single endless veil with floating yellow umbrellas on the top, in the horizon. In this artwork there are all the four natural elements: the water of the sea, the air represented by the clouds moved by the wind, the earth represented in the foreground with the vase of pink flowers and the fire represented by the reflection of the sun’s rays on the balcony. Those colors make the viewer hear the sound of the quiet waves of the sea, the sound of France. In “Bilbao in Technicolor” the colored shapes of the fountain recall the buildings with which children play. The water of the fountain gives a feeling of tranquility and freshness. In Jane’s artworks we are safe, in a world full of wonders.
Art Curator Sara Giannini
Jane Gottlieb
Bilbao in Technicolor
Jane Gottlieb
Disney Hall Wonder
Jane Gottlieb
South of France
Jane Savage
Can you be certain that something existed before Gaia, the Earth? It is difficult to imagine, as our mind and our senses are irrevocably intertwined with all the life experiences on this planet. The beauty of this green and blue hemisphere, populated by countless species of animals, plants and other forms of life, is magnificent enough to grant it respect and protection. Gaia is the name of the Goddess through which the ancient Greeks honored the Earth. According to this belief, Gaia would have existed before any other form of life. Starting from this postulate, the artist Jane Savage has chosen to dedicate a work entitled “Gaia, Disco Solare”, referring to the ancient cult of the sun with golden solar discs. This piece, made by Jane, is a gold leaf disc, placed in the corner of a room to allow its surfaces to reflect on each other and project golden light into the surrounding space. The precious gold in the eyes of man is undoubtedly its color: glorious, shining and yellow as the sun. Since prehistoric times the star was a symbol of the main deities in the archaic pantheon and the same were given cults of great importance that recognized in it the first source of life. Whenever one wanted to recall, through art, the deity, often gold was used in figuration and whose golden matter, in addition to being associated with the sun, also becomes a symbol of incorruptibility and immutability, so of all that is sacred and eternal.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo
Jane Savage
Gaia, Disco Solare
Jay Chung “The only way art lives is through the experience of the observer. The reality of art begins with the eyes of the beholder, through imagination, invention and confrontation.” (Keith Haring) Jay Chung is an artist originally from South Korea who, as the quote from the famous American painter Keith Haring states, is able through her works to set in motion the imagination of those who look at them. This makes art immortal, the constant relationship between the work and the eyes of the viewers: eyes that change over time, eyes that take flight to travel far away, eyes that dream. Starting from the suggestive titles of Jay’s abstract works, our mind goes in search of meanings, explanations, or simply lets itself be carried away by emotions. “Map of wandering Mind. You know the Path. WALK. “ it is a representation of the strange paths that the human mind takes: it wanders, often does not know where to go. “You know the path”: the artist remembers that everyone knows inwardly which path he must take, and this must help him never to get lost. “Sound of Inevitability IV” and “Sound of Inevitability V” are a symphony that speaks of us, which accompanies us throughout our lives, changing rhythm and intensity based on the difficult challenges or fantastic adventures that the universe has in store for us. Jay’s works are profound stories that speak to us, but above all they speak of us, so much so that everyone can identify with them. The versatility of the artist is demonstrated by the many techniques that we can admire in the three works described: sumi ink, acrylic, charcoal, and collage elements on stretched canvas. Large splashes of color meet with thinner lines, warm colors are combined with cold colors. These contrasts make her works of great character and help to create a harmonious and dynamic movement. Jay is an artist who paints not only with a brush, but also with her heart: on the canvas she imprints deep reflections, life experiences, strong emotions. These ingredients give life to works that are able to amaze not only for their beauty, but also for their intensity.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Jay Chung
Map of wandering Mind. You know the Path. WALK.
Jay Chung
Sound of Inevitability IV
Jay Chung
Sound of Inevitability V
Jeanette Gunnarsson “As you dream amid nature, extrapolate art from it, and concentrate on what you will create as a result.” (Paul Gauguin) Living in a small town in Sweden sprinkled with natural beauty, the artist Jeanette Gunnarsson empathizes with what surrounds her. She conceives the moment of creation as an act of liberation, where, through artistic tools, she can give vent to her inspiration and imagination. Between the figurative and the abstract: “I never decide what I should paint - it is the canvas itself that tells me what it should be. [...] Every painting comes as a surprise for me.” She seems to follow a period of the German artist Gerhard Richter, in which in the phase of abstract paintings, he let himself be carried away and created artworks intensely rich in colors but some of which also recalled natural elements. In fact, the three different works that Jeanette exhibits revoke all of this, with lines and shades, creating a very suggestive effect. She felt so close to the concept of GAIA exhibition and the target to represent through art an homage to our Mother Nature, precisely “Gaia”. That is how Waterfalls was born: recreated by quick white brushstrokes, characterized by green - light blue - reddish shades, typical of the waterfall area, despite not having depicted them in a recognizable way. The painting gives the idea of this mystical area, generally a suggestive one. The waterfall is a miracle before our eyes: it is created by the disruption of water, the strongest of the elements, which erodes the ground and causes the water to fall instead of flowing. An indomitable symbol of strength, a pure representation of Mother nature’s power. We find the same magic, shades and colors in The Houses by the bridge. It shows the fascination of the Nordic houses usually located near the water. A fairytale place, like it was enchanted. In The Golden Leaf, instead, we have a change of subject. The leaf, historically widely used in the decoration of temples and statues for the association with divine aspect, in this artwork seems just representing a real leaf with some soft shades; specifically between the shades of bright green, white and red. It appears on the sides almost branching off from the canvas itself. Over the centuries, painters and artists from all periods have made extensive use of gold leaf, as an exaltation of sacredness, purity, wealth and power: here it is quite the opposite. A representation of a natural element and what it can evoke, without any double meaning. In her artworks, Jeanette introduces us to the rural, true, powerful aspect of nature and its fruits. Isn’t it the same sensation that art causes, bursting and incredibly spectacular?
Art Curator Ylenia De Giosa
Jeanette Gunnarsson
The Golden Leaf
Jeanette Gunnarsson
The houses by the bridge
Jeanette Gunnarsson
Waterfalls
Jenni Jussila
Jenni Jussila is a self-taught artist from Finland. She only began painting a year ago but, from the very beginning, proved her abilities. Her inspiration comes from her thoughts, music, books and society. Her thoughts and imagination are fundamental and this is clearly perceptible in admiring her paintings. Her production ranges from completely abstract to figurative works. On the occasion of the exhibition “Gaia: the origin” organized by M.A.D.S. art gallery in Milan, Jenni Jussila realizes the work entitled “Prelude to them all”. The work, made in mixed media on canvas, represents the artistic maturity of Jenni. It is certainly a turning point in the artistic path of Jenni Jussila, which defines the path that is taking her style. Her thoughts and emotions are guided by images; the surrealist influence is evident. Jenni takes inspiration from the teachings of the great Salvador Dalì, especially from his famous faces. The artist can be inserted within the contemporary current that develops Surrealism, like the Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli. The work “Prelude to them all”, shows a woman’s face who appears as cut out and glued on a flat orange background. The woman’s left eye is completely swallowed up by a chasm that opens in the face, it represents perhaps a way to her mind, an invitation to enter. The face is black and white, referring to an ancient photograph, as if she belonged to another time and another space. Is it perhaps Gaia? The Mother Earth?
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Jenni Jussila
Prelude to them all
Jenny Lennhammar Art often stands as an expression of beauty, capable of arousing emotion, conveying messages that have the power to bring us back to the essence of things. It has always been a source of inspiration for painters and poets. Not a mere representation of what you see. To emerge, brushstrokes after brushstrokes, word after word, are the emotions that man feels in the natural element. Art has always found a natural referent in nature. Whether it’s a benevolent Mother or a cruel Stepmother, many artists choose to express it through art, accompanied by a sense of quiet and serenity. In contemplating the immensity of its beauty, which comes to us as a charge of energy, the human being is grasped by feelings and emotional impulses. The same impulses that led the Swedish artist Jenny Lennhammar to realize the work “Be you, just you- YOU ROCK!”. It is tangible how the artist for the realization of this work drew deep inspiration from the natural landscape around her and that the emotional impact, often even dramatic, exerted on Jenny profound and personal interior changes. Through her colorful way, the artist wants to inspire power and self-esteem. She wants paintings to convey a message through color, form and words. Her artistic research is based on the rediscovery of a new confrontation and dialogue with Mother Earth: Jenny focused on the various meanings linked to earthly life and the rediscovery of the roots on which man depends. From the concept closer to the relationship of contemporary man with the places where he lives, until the birth of a renewed respect for the “earth” as a place of rebirth and life. The theme proposed by the artist, at times idyllic, sees the human being as part of a whole that understands and respects. A whole that also becomes conflictual, because man, who feels threatened by nature, exploits and damages it. “ Be yourself, only you ... YOU ROCK!” is a tribute to the human being, to what it should have been. Unique in a world, which has its own laws but which often ignores or forgets.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo
Jenny Lennhammar
Be you, just you - YOU ROCK!
Jenny S. Jonsson For the international exhibition “Gaia - The Origin”, the artist Jenny S. Jonsson is exhibiting three works (“I am confident”, “I am grounded”, “I have the power to manifest my dreams”) inspired by the beauty of nature and the realm of fantasy. One of the key elements is the eye, called the “Winter Eye”: small or large, visible or well-hidden in the paintings, for the artist it symbolizes the protection against negativity. In fact, the sight is represented by the eye, it is inextricably linked to the eternal light. Like the one of the god Honrus or Ra (god of the Sun), it is a magical sign, a symbol of creativity and healing. As the eyes are the mirror of the soul, capable of reflecting moods and feelings, Jenny makes the fruition of her works even more intense and immersive through this element: it is as if a telepathic communication is established between the “Winter Eye” and the observer’s eye. The viewer is invited to explore a new dimension, fantastic and dreamlike, in which to see the invisible, what lies behind all that is material, and therefore the spiritual sphere. Just as in “I am confident”, the large eye emerges from the center of the canvas and radiates the surrounding atmosphere. It captures the viewer’s attention, actively drawing him/her into the painting. Its upper and lower eyelashes stretch out like the branches of a tree, touching every point on the painted surface. At her side, it appears a nature nymph or a fairy, holding an arc, as if it comes from a parallel universe, coming directly out of the eye. The young girl could also represent the goddess Diana (Artemis), protector of wild animals, thus an excellent reminder of the natural environment. In the background, as the Sun is setting, a multitude of stars with the Moon make the moment absolutely enchanting and profound. Every color and shade present gives the work strength and dynamism! While in “I am grounded”, Jenny depicts the wonders of a forest, so harmonious and imaginative, capable of conveying special feelings to the viewer. Two figures appear on the left of the canvas: one is the “Winter Eye”, observing anyone who admires the painting; the other is a personification of a deer, a symbol of life and growth, which may always allude to the image of the goddess Diana, as according to mythology, she is always accompanied by this graceful animal. The young woman looks to the right, towards the four feathers: turned towards the sky, they are a clear invocation of spirituality and the protection of the celestial sphere on the Earth. Finally, in “I have the power to manifest my dreams” the artist depicts four symbols: in addition to the eye, there are arrows, signs of vital energy and courage, indicating the direction to take within the canvas; on the right there is the talisman of dreams, a reference to the dreamlike and magical dimension of both the artist and the observer. But it is the beautiful and majestic unicorn that is the focus of the whole work: it is strongly associated with femininity and the divine power that nourishes all living beings. Extremely detailed and full of creativity, Jenny S. Jonsson’s three works accompany the viewer into a journey, helping him/her to bring out his/her emotions within a colorful, magical and harmonious world.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Jenny S. Jonsson
I am confident
Jenny S. Jonsson
I am grounded
Jenny S. Jonsson
I have the power to manifest my dreams
Jess Hedum “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” (Aristotele) The young American artist Jess Hedum has completely dedicated herself to Art. She recognizes it as the only possible way to express her real self. She always wants to make her art enjoyable for the viewers, by letting them free to interpret her paintings and being herself the first to be curious to discover the different emotions and sensations she has been able to instill in them. Thanks to the combination of her studies of both psychology and art, she has developed the interest in creating sensory paintings as to permit to directly and physically feel her art, aiming to reach to a specific group of people who suffer from mental health disorders, stress or traumas. By following the same intent to spread emotions through her art, Jess realizes a series of landscape paintings in order to emphasise the beauty of nature. “Limitless” and “Wheat Field” are two of the paintings from her Field series. They are a mimetic reproduction of two different naturalistic views, where the colours’ contrast of the fields and the sky gives a subtle balance to the entire work, making the representations even more realistic. Another element which contributes to transmit this sense of realism in her paintings, is the technique of “simulated texture”. This effect is created by the intense alignment of the pictorial detail and the multiple layering of paint, which confers a vibrant sensation to each and every element of the composition. Beyond the shared features of pictorial technique, in the third piece, titled “Wildflowers”, it can also be noticed a peculiar trait in the use of colours. The contrast of the gloomy grey’s shade of the sky and the brilliant green of the field creates an imaginary line which divides horizontally the canvas into two almost opposite sceneries. The lively green of a sun-kissed field on a spring day, and the darkening of the sky filled with murky clouds preparing for a storm. The realism of these paintings offers the possibility to be carried away in those lands and to get rejoined with nature and feel a part of it. She paints to reach her aim “Painting for me is purely for the joy of creating and allowing others to experience art in their own way”, and to create, for herself and for everyone, a therapy through her art.
Art Curator Ginevra Fisco
Jess Hedum
Limitless
Jess Hedum
Wheat Field
Jess Hedum
Wildflowers
Jill Moody-Ledbetter “Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.” (Henry Ward Beecher)
The Arkansan artist Jill Moody-Ledbetter finds her preferred way of expression and creativity in the abstract composition, the ultimate creative form of art. Her interest in the theories of the greatest artists of this movement, can be straightforwardly recaptured in her picturesque paintings and in the way she uses colours. The impetus which guides her hand on the canvas is mainly ignited by the stream of her emotions, by her state of mind and her impulses. To create her artworks she gets inspiration sourcing from the purest of the elements that surround us: Nature. The four basic elements: water, earth, air and fire, fulfil her soul and lead her to spread through her paintings this overwhelming beauty. On the artwork “On Fire”, the superposition of colour stains makes the composition look chaotic at a first sight, but going deep on the intent of the artist, everything becomes remarkably balanced and glaring. Every stroke on the painting is the imprinting of a sensation, a trace left by her spirit. Paint is an instrument for the artist herself to free her own soul, but also to transmit her inner self to the viewers, establishing with them an unintelligible connection. Jill Moody-Ledbetter makes the expression of her very emotion her artistic manifesto, exposing through each layer of colour on the canvas her realest sensations, every time she paints.
Art Curator Ginevra Fisco
Jill Moody-Ledbetter
On Fire
Jimena Azuaga
Jimena Azuaga is an Argentinian artist. Since childhood she has developed a passion for the visual arts. After carefully studying painting techniques, she discovers a passion for oil painting. At M.A.D.S. art gallery, on the occasion of the “Gaia: The Origin” exhibition, the artist exhibits the work entitled “Naturaleza como objeto de contemplación”. Looking at her painting, we seem to be immersed in the foliage of a tree in the first days of autumn, when the trees begin to transform and the leaves turn yellow, orange and red before falling to the ground. Like life, nature also cyclically renews itself, changes and transforms itself in search of a “dynamic equilibrium”. We recognize the figure of a leaf that is repeated, like a drawing, on the whole canvas. What differentiates the leaves are the colors based on their arrangement. If we divide the work into levels, we notice that the elements in the foreground stand out thanks to the warm colors of the oranges and reds, hues that recall the artist’s native Argentina. We find the same warm colors in the works of many South American artists in homage to their homeland. In the following levels, as the depth increases, the leaves take on shades of green, first bright then weaker and then darker until they get lost in the delicate transparencies. The observation of this work shows how incisive the sensitivity of the artist was in leading the observer to retrace the work not only once but several times, trying to find a different reading or interpretation. Jimena’s research is based on how nature, like life, changes and renews itself: “Nature is life that is born to be reborn and therefore to continue to evolve”.
“Besides, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what more can I want?.” (Vincent van Gogh)
Art Curator Elisa Acquafresca
Jimena Azuaga
Naturaleza como objeto de contemplación
Joana Ribeiro da Silva “The artwork Silence in Between, inspired by the calm music of the Lamb group, reflects the essence of life, love, which is found in men and animals, which is transmitted in silence, which hovers in the air.” (Joana Ribeiro da Silva)
Joana Ribeiro da Silva is a Portuguese artist whose artistic production is at the center of a dualism between realism and pop art. At the international art exhibition “GAIA - The Origin” held by the contemporary art gallery M.A.D.S. she exhibits “Silence in Between”, a work with a wonderful impacting power. The subjects of the work are two zebras, extremely close, representing the apex of what is wild and with it a return to the origin, to what is ancestral. The artist tells of having observed the scene in which two zebras were surprised by a lioness, the intensity of the moment also leads to the impulse of the survival instinct, such a characteristic element of every living being, emblem of what it is deeper, the attachment to life. The wild world of which the zebras are a representation leads back to the origin of life itself, and to the birth of the world, before the superstructures, a moment in which the protagonist was nature, in all its forms. The primitive form of love is conveyed by the proximity of the two animals, who are obviously accomplices. You feel immersed in a moment suspended in time, immobile, just imagine what the artist was looking at at that moment to feel completely absorbed and amazed by the purity and the same freedom that characterizes the world.
“Zebras transport us to the savannah, where all emotions are lived in the purest and most primitive form, even love. Among the zebras, there is a feeling of strong complicity, to which they are almost alien, which I could register in an intense moment in Kenya, when they were suddenly surprised by a lioness.” (Joana Ribeiro da Silva)
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Joana Ribeiro da Silva
Silence in Between
Johan Hindskog “I’m not afraid to make changes, nor am I afraid to destroy the image, because I know the painting has a life on its own, so I just try to get it out from the image itself.” (Jackson Pollock) At the international exhibition “Gaia - The Origin” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in Milan, Johan Hindskog presents his work “Abstract Universe”: a rhythmic movement that reveals the artist’s ego is exalted, and every vital tension is transferred from the canvas to the observer. He transforms the objective nature and the surrounding reality in his personal and acute artistic poetic sensitivity. The thematic, coloristic and dynamic evolution of this painting is manifested through the use of vivid and vibrant tones, which underline the pure energy of the pictorial surface. The relative objectivity coincides with the absolute subjectivity, highlighting each brushstroke by making evident an infinite range of color gradations. Through these shades and his compositional research, the artist catches the viewer’s attention by transmitting numerous optical-perceptual sensations. Everything revolves around a set of almost fluorescent strokes that form an X: in mathematics, one of the characteristics of this letter is the unknown, and therefore in this case refers to infinity and the universe. This shape seems to move clockwise, giving to the canvas dynamism and vitality. There is a full freedom of movement, a feature which is very common in several Abstract Expressionist paintings, used to underline the way art and nature are represented as an unstoppable force. A strong gestural charge is evident, as well as the use of a spontaneous sign as a symbol of energy and an extension of the action itself. Several constellations appear in the background, which guide this cosmic and magical creation. The manner of execution and the final effects remark the action occurred on the spur of the moment, where the colour strikes the canvas and the subconscious: it is the unconscious part of the psyche that indelibly imprints itself on the work, going beyond the mediation of the brush in order to preserve the immediacy of the creative impulse.
“Painting is not an aesthetic act: it is a form of magic understood as a work of mediation between this foreign world and us.” (Pablo Picasso)
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Johan Hindskog
Abstract universe
Johann Neumayer
Our permanent artist Johann Neumayer, shows every month his incredible discoveries given by virtual reality, 3d modelling and what we call in full voice “digital art”, mixed with his intellect, his artistic spirit, and his infinite creativity. For “Gaia. The origin”, the new M.A.D.S. art gallery international exhibition, the artist reconfirms his incredible skills as a designer and inventor of imaginary spaces and parallel realities. The complexity of what it gives birth to is greater from time to time, thus creating a perfect understanding with the spirit, essence, and aesthetics of our multimedia gallery. His works have something psychedelic and amazing, the same “something” that allows us to interpret the lines and individual shapes as each of us, the better he believes. Everything is so chaotic and confused, that the first impact is always destabilizing, but so innovative as to oblige the observer to a greater and more careful reflection. A single image, it seems a collage of diversified works brought together at a later time, like the one recently created by the great Mike Winkelmann, of inestimable value. The agglomerations of black lines that make up a volume are optically balanced by the smooth and transparent effects of the soft, almost pastel-coloured surfaces of each futuristic space that he gives birth to. It is always very difficult to describe the work of this visionary and innovative artist, precisely because he differs from all the others, offering something unique and inimitable.
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Johann Neumayer
Play Kombi 014
Johann Neumayer
Play Kombi 024
Johann Neumayer
Play Kombi 026
Johann Neumayer
Play Kombi 027
Johann Neumayer
Play Kombi 032
Joost-Henrik Becker
Joost-Henrik Becker is a German artist which art is a representation of abstract expressionism and color field painting. At the international art exhibition “GAIA - The Origin” held by the M.A.D.S. art gallery, the artist exhibits two works “Dream Landscape (1) (Traumlandschaft 1)” which recalls the work “Tutti-Fruitti” by the artist Helen Frankenthaler. “Dream Landscape (1) (Traumlandschaft 1)” is a direct, clear, no-frills work. The observer feels pervaded by a sense of security, the colors are clear, the brushstrokes are confident. The black turns out to be extremely deep and pleasantly compact. From a figurative point of view the shapes are reminiscent of waves or hills, one feels immersed in a reflective and peaceful dimension, almost dreamy although the colors used tend to convey another type of feeling.
Joost-Henrik Becker
The black instead of transmitting a sense of mystery conveys security and tranquility, the movement provided by the shapes and the change of colors keeps you glued to the canvas.”Dream Landscape (2) (Traumlandschaft 2)” seems to be a reinterpretation of “Numero 9, Dark over Light Earth / Violet and yellow in Rose” by Mark Rothko, but unlike the master’s work, “Dream Landscape (2) (Traumlandschaft 2) ”contains sinuous and non-geometric shapes. The black is compact, deep, it turns out to be unique, the brushstrokes are barely distinguishable. The yellow, on the other hand, is contaminated by shades of darker tones, sometimes red, orange, even gray. From a figurative point of view it seems to be catapulted to admire a landscape after a storm, still present in the valley, but not in the sky that is clearing. Another figurative interpretation is that of dawn, the world still asleep, in the dark, the sky, on the other hand, is waking up. The great contrast present in both works is the reason for the emotional power conveyed by the pieces themselves and by the artist.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Joost-Henrik Becker
Dream Landscape (1) (Traumlandschaft 1)
Joost-Henrik Becker
Dream Landscape (2) (Traumlandschaft 2)
Julia Faustin “This is another soothing aspect of nature: its immense beauty is there for everyone. Nobody can think to take home a sunrise or sunset with them” (Tiziano Terzani) <<This is another soothing aspect of nature: its immense beauty is there for everyone. Nobody can think to take home a sunrise or sunset with them>>. This phrase made by a great journalist and Italian writer Tiziano Terazani is the perfect way to introduce the artwork made for the international art exhibition Gaia the origin from the artist Julia Faustin. As Terzani says, one of the better characteristics of nature is the possibility that give to all people to enjoy a vision or a scenery. Nature gives itself continuously, you only need to take with you the right soul, and the right emotions to see and enjoy its gift. The painting made by the artist called the power of light wants to tell us this peculiarity of nature, with realistic representation and intense colours. The stylistic choices made by Julia Faustin justified the desire to underline the beauty of nature and the feeling and emotions that it can communicate. She does not use the abstract language, but she wants to describe us the vision in a very realistic way to valorise its beauty. As if the artist wants to take a pic of the landscape without changing anything. In fact an element more important in this painting is the light that cut the canvas in two parts. As says the title of the painting, the power of the colours used invades the observer and envelops him in a blanket of light. The desire to valorised the nature and the gift that took to the observer come from the desiring instance of the artist in fact she says: -my inspiration most fully comes from the nature in which I find myself every day looking at the beauty of the nature and feeling the atmosphere- This means that the nature in some moments can make artistic creations, the artist are the observer that only wants to describe and tell others about this real beauty. Maybe to come back at the beginning of this speech, to the phrase made by Tiziano Terzani, this is the way we have to bring with us to our house, a sunrise or sunset.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Julia Faustin
The power of light
Juliet Hillbrand Juliet Hillbrand, self-taught artist, has begun her art career in 2015, experimenting with figurative studies as well as less-structured pieces that portray new realities. She has been interviewed by numerous art magazines and newspapers and was nominated ‘International Contemporary Masters,’ and ‘Top Artists of 2019’. Also, her work has been exhibited in dozens of art shows around the world. Inspired by Mother Nature in her endless forms and exploring the collections of ocean energy, nakedness, and metamorphosis, her pieces often involve themes such as nature’s changing tides, shifting moons, and the world’s intrinsic force of transformation. Unable to be tamed to one style, she changes it from time to time. By playing with textures, materials, and natural elements like water and sand, she adds dimension to abstract landscape scenes and offering vibrant colors within the home, whimsical brushstrokes, and medium-mixing for visual intrigue. The results, as the artist said, “are entrancingly cosmic and open-ended, left up to the interpretation of the viewer”. For “Gaia - the origin”, she presents three wonderful works, linked all three, but in different ways, to Mother Earth and Nature. In “Tree of Life II” we see a distortion of the typical representation of this subject. While it is customary to focus on tree branches, make them curl and contort and expand more and more, here, on the contrary, Juliet Hillbrand cuts out that part of the tree from the composition. Its foliage remains outside the composition while all the attention is focused on the roots and especially on the vital vortex full of colors that branches under it. At the same time, on our right, a sunset (or maybe a sunrise?) shows itself in all its beauty, giving a touch of mysticism to the whole artwork. In “Metamorphosis” the atmosphere is more spiritual. Inside a cathedral made of solid trunks and intertwined branches, a woman joins her hands upwards, while her legs merge with the earth and the plants below. Numerous are the Greek girls and goddesses that turned into plants; we can mention Clizia who became a sunflower, or the nymph Piti, transformed into pine, or even Daphne, who to escape Apollo turned into laurel. In the artwork of the Texan artist, however, we do not find impetus during this metamorphosis, as happens for example in the sculpture “Apollo and Daphne” by Bernini, but on the contrary the woman seems to dance, happy, in harmony with what surrounds her. As for “Gaea”, alternative Greek spelling for Gaia, meaning always “Mother Earth”, it makes us think by association immediately to the Earth, both for the circular shape - a bold and refined choice by the artist, and because the “trails” of blue, light blue and white on the surface of the work remind us of the currents of clouds, air and water seen from space. Those touches of pink and gold, however, make everything subjective, differently interpretable. Here is the magic of the works of Julie Hillbrand. By combining realism and abstraction she managed to show us her different representations of Gaia, leaving us free however to interpret them according to our ego.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Juliet Hillbrand
Gaea
Juliet Hillbrand
Metamorphosis
Juliet Hillbrand
Tree of Life II
Juliusz Kegel For the international exhibition “Gaia - The Origin” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in Milan, Juliusz Kegel exhibits five works which enshrine the forces of Nature. In addition to this pivotal aspect, the artist succeeds in bringing out his passion for the color: his paintings are not based on common and static geometric shapes, but he uses different textures and cracks into where each shade can immerse and merge with the pictorial surface. This is combined with the fact that each canvas could represent one of the four universal elements, enhancing their primary characteristics within the work. As for example in “Flowers”, which depicts the Earth: the artist emphasizes the expressive power of color, which is capable of giving to the composition an absolute harmony. By recalling the painting practice of the Fauves, in Juliusz’s art the simplification of these tropical flowers, the abolition of the perspective and chiaroscuro, together with the use of bright and pure nuances, are crucial aspects in this painting, underlying the immediacy and vitality of the work itself. While “Golden Sun” could be linked with the element of fire, where the color gold becomes the true protagonist of the work. The essence and form of every detail in the painting is entirely sprinkled with a single, broad golden shape, creating a stunning monochrome. Since it cannot be reproduced by mixing other colors, it alludes to the unreal, the unattainable, to something mystical, thus emphasizing what is sacred. This tone creates a surreal and fascinating atmosphere beyond time and space, as well as a link between the lines and the rest of the composition. Instead, in “Over the Wood”, the Earth returns in all its strength. Even here one can see the high-level penetration of the matter, where gold is used as a natural and mineral element: a creative act that the artist discovers in himself, capable of expanding the soul and the matter itself, enhancing his perceptive and cognitive capacities. The purple brushstrokes give the canvas a veil of mystery and fantasy, as if the forest depicted was enchanted and magical. In “Water” there is an oceanic expanse that infuses the viewer with serenity and well-being, while the azure and blue strokes contribute to create a relaxing and spiritual atmosphere. These “metaphysical” tones are linked to meditation and states of reflection: they refer to unconscious depths and introspection of human beings. The strength of these colors pushes the various shades to free themselves in the immense surrounding space, until they reach something that is divine. The artist’s aim is to give the viewer a sense of calm and harmony, through both gentle movement and the use of nuances that get into the human nature. Finally, in “Wild Horse” this animal could symbolize all four elements: it is associated to the Sun, and therefore with fire, since the god Apollo moved through the heavens on a horse-drawn chariot; to water because in the ancient world Poseidon, god of the seas, was the owner of herds of horses; to earth, as the Celts always considered it with the personification of Mother Earth; and to air because its carefree and frenetic galloping create a disruptive dynamism that stirs the surrounding environment.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Juliusz Kegel
Flowers
Juliusz Kegel
Golden Sun
Juliusz Kegel
Over the Wood
Juliusz Kegel
Water
Juliusz Kegel
Wild Horse
Kaori Sakaguchi
Kaori Sakaguchi is a self-taught artist based in Fukuoka, Japan. She begins to draw only using the Japanese pen, then adding the use of colours and other media including collage. The artist creates colorful and lively works, proposing her own interpretation of objects, places, and situations. The setting of her works is simple and linear with the contours clearly defined by the black lines. This simple style in which perspective is absent, undoubtedly refers to the style of its fellow Ukiyo-e artists. It is therefore evident a graphic choice that makes her works pleasant to the sight, transmitting balance and peace. A subject that often recurs in Kaori Sakaguchi’s works is the pink cat. It also refers to the Ukiyo-e style: it was Utagawa Kuniyoshi who represented animals, including cats, in human form. Sakaguchi proposes to M.A.D.S. art gallery just a work that has as its subject one of her cats. The work is titled “Adolescence” and depicts a woman with a cat’s face. The subject is placed in contrast with the flat and blue background. The viewer’s gaze is captured by the great angelic wings of the cat-woman made through the reuse of newspaper pages. The artist is inspired by her teenage son and reflects by saying: “Teenagers try to be adults, dressing well, doing make-up, and imitating the behaviour of adults. At this age, their heart is pure and can be easily broken”. From this statement we understand that the two crossed swords, placed over the head of the anthropomorphic figure, symbolize a desire for protection. Even the two swords are made using collage and recovery: the artist uses the envelope of a snack. Kaori Sakaguchi aims at a reuse of materials within her works by transmitting an important message nowadays: that of recycling. In this lies the connection of this work with the theme of the exhibition “Gaia: the origin” which aims at the celebration of nature.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Kaori Sakaguchi
Adolescence
Kathy Stanley The five works of Kathy Stanley presented for the exhibition “Gaia - The Origin” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in Milan, are the result of a careful study of this theme as well as of the beliefs and legends of ancient civilizations: in this way, by combining art and history, art helps the viewer to recover the original contact with his/her own spirit. These thoughts are enshrined in the works of Kathy Stanley: in “Gaia Kalalea” she reflects the figure of the goddess Gaia emerging from the universe, behind her and the sacred mountain Kalalea inspired by a special place on the island of Kauai, one of the main islands of Hawaii. The artist represents this figure as if she had emerged from the surface, in all her beauty and royalty and surrounded by the four natural elements of earth, air, fire and water. Furthermore, the color purple, used to encompass every aspect of the painting, indicates the positive and vital energy that fosters connection with one’s soul, purifying thoughts and developing creativity, as well as referring to metamorphosis and transition. All of this best represents such a goddess! While in “Lemurian Dream”, Kathy Stanley is inspired by the stories of ancient civilizations and megalithic monuments found in distant, almost mystical and otherworldly places. In Lemuria or Mu (Mother), its inhabitants were a peace-loving, community-oriented population and their symbol was the Sun placed at the center of the universe, as the source of life and energy, connecting humanity to the Creator. In fact, the artist depicts that star which radiates the horizon, highlighting the megalithic structures and illuminating the entire scenery, such as the pristine and lush nature and the blue of the sea which is so intense and deep. Instead, “Rainbow Jaguar” is inspired by the Guardians of Wisdom of the High Andes of South America, namely the Jaguar, which symbolizes the ability to walk tall without being afraid; the Snake refers to shade what is no longer needed; the Hummingbird expresses the journey of the soul; finally the Eagle gives a clear view of the world. The central figure of the Jaguar awakens that inner energy capable of resolving every difficulty in life, wishing for a spiritual rebirth, embracing change and evolution. Each animal manages to covey strength and courage to those who observe this work, and the viewer can immerse himself/herself in this mystical and magical setting, knowing that he/she is protected by the Guardians. While in “Rainbow Serpent Shakti”, the artist draws inspiration from the mythological tradition of this animal, linked to both sacredness and Gaia. Kathy Stanley depicts the animal surrounded by its natural environment, as if it was emerging from the ground, with the responsibility to create every natural element, including clouds, water, and mountains. Everything is bewitching and captures the attention of the observer: just like the snake, it can expand its horizons in a universe composed of lights and colors, navigating towards unknown and unexplored lands, where the soul and the body can be refreshed by the surrounding atmosphere. Finally, in “Starry Creatrix” the artist best represents the goddess of Creation: she is creating our globe, together with a vortex of shimmering stars placed above her head. While the universe is visible to the eyes of the observer, each celestial dimension and all the galaxies help the goddess to give life to a flourishing and luminous world, where living beings and plants can grow and evolve endlessly. The harmony is reflected in the composition of the work, giving rise to a dynamic and expressive balance.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Kathy Stanley
Gaia Kalalea
Kathy Stanley
Lemurian Dream
Kathy Stanley
Rainbow Jaguar
Kathy Stanley
Rainbow Serpent Shakti
Kathy Stanley
Starry Creatrix
Kawas Bhasin “ Who we are is God’s gift to us and who we become is our gift to God” . (Eleanor Powell)
The young artist of Indian roots Kawas Bhasin has studied at length the theme of the M.A.D.S. art gallery exhibition entitled “Gaia. The origin”, creating a piece designed to measure for it, with “The bold Gaia”. Lover and supporter of all creation, and incredibly grateful to nature, Kawas decides to express herself through a particular artistic technique achievable through the use of acrylic colours applied on canvas. The result is a conceptually abstract work, but which seems incredibly evocative and immediately attributable to a single precise subject: the planet earth. The circular support that you have chosen certainly helps the unconscious to imagine ourselves floating in space, like a satellite that revolves around the terrestrial sphere, admiring the sweet inaccuracies and the gentle shapes that make up the uncontaminated seas, mountains and plains. The thin lines of matte blue paint created through the artwork, are the representation of the cracks on our mother earth, which gave us life without asking for anything in return. No matter how many natural disasters attempt to destroy it, or how quickly a virus may spread to diminish the population that inhabits it, our mother earth - Gaia emerges through those cracks and remains bold and strong, as ever. As the artist rightly states, when art meets reality, it attracts all the senses into a trance of its own and produces what could be called a satisfying illusion, which in this specific case is functional and well executed.
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Kawas Bhasin
The Bold Gaia
Kayano Ushiyama
Worlds not visible to the naked eye, a glimpse into the infinitely small and the infinitely large. Varied worlds composed of bubbles, stripes, spots of colors sometimes evanescent, sometimes extremely bright. At first glance, Kayano Ushiyama’s works recall those colored images that can be seen through the eye of an electron microscope: a gurgling of tiny living matter - algae, bacteria, single-celled beings - constantly moving in a fluid. They are beings sometimes bordering on transparent, sometimes extremely opaque and identifiable: an ecosystem in continuous development that takes shape on the canvas in all its complexity and structure. This microcosm, imperceptible to the human eye, unfolds and becomes recognizable in the artist’s works in all its colorful beauty and intense cohesion. Organic matter is alive, it changes and moves, it transforms continuously free from any restriction; it degenerates and recomposes itself, it cancels and reforms in a continuous cycle of reformulation of matter. Yet Kayano’s works also remind us of the infinitely large, the macrocosm which, impossible to see, is also difficult to imagine. These explosions of color, these orbital spots that rotate in the composition, areas characterized by intense pigments that gradually fade into transparency remind us of the existence of the cosmos just above our heads, our cities and our existence. The universe in all its infinite expansion and power. In Particles of the Universe it seems as if a Supernova is about to explode. The death of a star is paradoxically the beginning of something new, perhaps new existences in distant parts of the universe. Oxygen, carbon, iron and other chemical elements are violently ejected from the body of the dying star and, dispersing into deeper space will provide the basis for the creation of new elements and - perhaps - new life.
Kayano Ushiyama
The earth and the living beings themselves keep inside them atoms coming from these immense and violent stellar explosions, atoms essential for our existence, for life. The microcosm and the macrocosm merge in Kayano Ushiyama’s works and the common denominator between these two visions is existence. Acrylics, gouache, pastels and watercolors are put at the service of the representation of our most ancestral and profound nature. The different means of representation merge: watercolor is compared with the opacity of acrylic, gouache with its lightness mitigates the intrinsic hardness of the pastel stroke. What comes out is a riot of colors and shapes that almost seems to move tirelessly within the space of representation. A world - a universe - in continuous change and movement. From the infinitely small to the infinitely large, in Kayano’s works there is life understood as the founding material of everything we feel, touch and breathe. There is the foundation of existence, a journey that begins in the belly of a dying star and ends in the creation of the cell, the building block of life. Kayano has succeeded in giving her own characteristic image to what the human being cannot see, to what is difficult for man to understand. She has succeeded and her works smell of joy for life.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Kayano Ushiyama
Aurora
Kayano Ushiyama
Dream Forest
Kayano Ushiyama
Earth Dance
Kayano Ushiyama
Particles of the universe
Kirsten Niegel “No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist” (Oscar Wilde) Kirsten’s eyes certainly have an attentive, scrupulous and above all imaginative look, from simple and commonly used objects the artist derives and models surreal and extremely suggestive images. Meeting Kirsten’s work means being transported into a dream made of bright colors, shapes that at first sight are incomprehensible and intense lights. As if we were looking into a kaleidoscope, the observer finds himself in front of atypical images, which seem not to belong to reality, but are only an illusion, precisely because Kirsten takes photographs of everyday objects. The artist’s great ability consists in knowing how to see the reality around her with ever new eyes and pulling out of simple things, indecipherable works with a thousand meanings. For the colors, for the continuous repetition of the image, Kirsten’s artistic work brings to mind Pop Art, it is clearly inspired by pop but with surrealistic echoes, a play of lights, colors and a lot of imagination. A pop art but with the prerogative of leaving ample room for interpretation and suggestions, getting lost in the colors to find yourself in memories. Images that explode with energy, colors that intersect and chase each other, in a frenetic game of expressive freedom and imagination. Kirsten’s work allows you to experience, a visual and emotional experience, her photographs place the viewer in front of the spectacle of the emotion of a dream, of rediscovered feelings and the amazement of the infinite possibilities that the surrounding reality offers us. Giving new life to common objects, without any pretense, Kirsten’s art becomes a path parallel to common normality, a new way of seeing and discovering life, the artist gives the observer the liveliness and lightness of discovery. Kirsten’s art. It takes us where we want, imagining travels, places and emotions.
“Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere” (Albert Einstein)
Art Curator Vanessa Viti
Kirsten Niegel
Bags and Boxes
Kirsten Niegel
Fireworks
Kirsten Niegel
Teapot meets Salts Shaker and Drip Catcher
Kirstine Marie Moos “The essence of drawing is the line exploring space” (Andy Goldsworthy)
Fluid, simple and elegant, this is how Kirstine’s line comes to life on canvas. Her creations try to exploit the dynamism that comes from the juxtaposition of two colors: white and black, a constant present in all the series. The paintings are made with faces, with human beings expressions but especially with lines that, through a dance of emotions, bring a story back to life. A story of someone we do not know but who presents himself with a few and synthetic signs.
Kirstine Marie Moos
The technical approach seems to recall the Cubist lesson which involves studying an object from multiple angles. The result is a continuous line that portrays different faces and stories, a refined work that in its simplicity wants to amaze and captivate the imagination of the fruitor. In the simplicity of a two-dimensional and bichromate drawing, Kirstine creates intimate and intriguing portraits ready to be read and welcomed by her viewers.
Art Curator Cecilia Brambilla
Kirstine Marie Moos
Familia
Kirstine Marie Moos
Homini
KonKa
A single glance is enough to catch the expressive strength and the communicative power that characterize the work “Don’t gain me the world” by the Greek artist, currently living in Sweden, KonKa. The absence of a subject within the painting does not limit the expressive power of the latter, indeed we can say that to a certain extent amplifies it, as the viewer must necessarily move away from figurative paradigms to better understand the work of the artist. The canvas appears as an abstract surface with different shades and material features. In particular, the work is closely related to the theme of the exhibition Gaia the origin, presenting itself as a direct tribute to the natural world. It visually and materially recalls the natural resin of trees. In addition to this, the work evokes the artistic production typical of “Arte Povera”, an artistic movement that arose in Italy at the end of the 1960s, characterized by a direct use of materials that were subsequently treated and shaped in order to return the material and tactile appearance. In particular, I would like to recall the artworks of Alberto Burri, a leading exponent of the Arte Povera, which were characterized by a direct use of materials, as in the case of “Cretti” or “Combustioni”.
“The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke.” (Jerzy Kosinski)
Art Curator Anna Panizza
KonKa
Don’t gain me the world
Korinna Janssen Growing up in The Netherlands, Korinna Janssen was drawn to the arts from a young age, but after she moved to Israel, the feeling of alienation meant that art temporarily took a back seat. Fortunately, a couple of years ago, she rediscovers painting as her way of self-expression and she created a ‘new home’ in it. Her art reflects a lot of these emotions: loneliness, bewilderment, and fear, contrasted by shadows of hope, love and vital energy. We can perceive the desire to know, but also the maturity of those who manage to grasp the negativity of a place, of an emotion or a past memory, making them harmony on canvas. Elements are represented in the form of shape and colour, in such a way as to give the audience the feeling that the artist wants to convey, attempting to create an emotional “broadcast” of a certain moment or memory. Lines and flat backgrounds that do not minimize space but reveal it. The results are usually balanced compositions, also given by the element of “void”, which makes its official entry into western works in the mid nineteenth century, thanks to trade exchanges with the East and above all with Japan, impressing the generation of European impressionists. Right now, she is exploring themes like Impermanence and Buddhism, constantly looking for new ways to express herself, while staying close to the direct human experience. As a Zen teaching says, “it is emptiness that makes fullness meaningful”. She works with photography, mixed media, oil paint, acrylic paint, found objects and natural materials, exploring the ever-changing natural world around us, based on a world view centred on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. Even if that is not enough, we could define her art as a homogeneous set of artistic styles. We notice an abstract side (typical Mondrian asymmetry, in Flow), in which the use of colour is fundamental, but also a symbolist side where shapes play as protagonists (like the flowing water - symbolizing hope and chance, in Margaret Island - Danube Budapest or River Tales).
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Korinna Janssen
Flow
Korinna Janssen
Margaret Island - Danube Budapest
Korinna Janssen
River Tales
Kumiko Suzuki “Living is the act of expressing. Expressing will turn into a power to live.” (Kumiko Suzuki)
Artworks that are teeming with life, feeling and joy. Kumiko Suzuki paints the light of life, the glow of existence inherent in everything. The vital aura - intangible by definition - is represented here in all its original power, in all its vital will. A seed is something small and fragile, a round, opaque and at first sight inanimate element. And yet it contains within itself a great treasure: inside its hard shell it jealously preserves all the information and all the nourishment that one day it will need to grow, reach the surface of the earth and blossom in all its wonderful will to live. Kumiko’s works seem to tell this precise moment in the life of every living being, that moment when the vital spark takes over and transforms inert matter into existence. The God of Thunder summarizes the inestimable amount of energy of the new life that blossoms: on a whitish background colored spots are concentrated in the center of the composition. One on top of the other they force each other to form an indistinct mass of elements. Blue, black, green, red and fuchsia pigment are here united in an amalgam of matter, one is indispensable to the other and every stain, every smear of color is indispensable and irreplaceable in the formation of life. A genesis that is also well represented by bluish graphic signs that stand out in the center of the composition. The stroke is nervous, extremely agitated, cerulean lightning bolts that affect the pink stain below them.
Kumiko Suzuki
It is the impetus of life spreading through the amalgam of matter, a whirlwind of energy that becomes the origin of the whole, the origin of a new existence. Kumiko’s works flow impetuously directly from her soul, from her sensations and feelings. No filters are allowed, they would not be able to contain and limit the ancestral joy of the vital process. The interiority of the artist is expressed, it is thrown and hurled on the canvas in its purest form and without sweetening. Art therefore becomes a necessity, a marvelous form of communication that is entirely the artist’s own. It wields the sensations arising from the five senses, emotions and memories of the artist. The generous intuitions contained in the deepest soul of Kumiko are shaped and distilled in the form of patches of color and nervous graphic signs. The invisible is now visible, what is difficult to say with words - what cannot find suitable words to be pronounced - is now thrown violently onto the pictorial support. The imperceptible mental idea is transformed into color, the memory is converted into form and the vital energy -invisible breath of life- takes shape, is shaped and completed on the pictorial support becoming at the same time signifier and meaning of the entire painted work. Kumiko Suzuki’s is a journey inside the motions of her own soul, a colorful approach to the feeling and joy of living inherent in everything.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Kumiko Suzuki
Aqua
Kumiko Suzuki
Protean Clouds
Kumiko Suzuki
The God of Thunder
Kumiko Suzuki
Venus 02
LAJUBU “Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphor. It has been rightly said that mythology is the penultimate truth - penultimate because the latter cannot be expressed in words. It is beyond words.” (Joseph Campbell) “In the beginning there was Chaos”… When Gaea, mother earth arrived, the planet was a wasteland without life forms. An unexplored and immature territory ready for the explosion of creation. Uncharted Territory is a painting that tells the story of the navigation path, not always linear, in an unknown emotional terrain that we have yet to discover, understand. An unexplored and immature territory ready for the explosion of creation. Uncharted Territory is a painting that tells the story of the navigation path, not always linear, in an unknown emotional terrain that we have yet to discover, understand. It is a journey that lasts a lifetime exactly like the creation and evolution of those wastelands born of mythology. There will be days when the viewer may relate more to one body than the other, as we lose or gain clarity at different layers or moments in our life. Laura Buitrago (Lajubu) focuses on the entire spectrum of human emotions and the journey within them. She believes that giving to the spectator the opportunity to interpret any work of art is a unique gift for each viewer, as it is a message for them; just like a dream would be interpreted. Free interpretation in scrutinizing this painting leads to the meaning of the entire human existence. What would man be without the ability to think and ask questions? Gaia, mother nature, Gaea are all the same entity: the primordial and unknown soup that allowed the evolution of creation and of the human being. In a surreal landscape you meet elements that refer to the metaphysical art of the early twentieth century, these long and intense chiaroscuro, the unreal atmosphere, the solitude that hovers in this unknown landscape is all to be discovered.
Art Curator Erminia Abbuonandi
LAJUBU
Uncharted territory
Lau Freitas
“She is Mad” is the painting that the artist Lau Freitas exhibits at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery during “Gaia: the origin” art exhibition. Just as the title lets imagine, the piece refers to a woman’s face, with a touching gaze; a gaze that ices the viewer and makes him feel smaller than the subject of the painting herself. This perception can perfectly reflect the artist’s uncertainty about what pushes her to paint, if she uses art to balance the seriousness of her work as a lawyer, or, if she uses her lawyer work to prevent her from drawing in the world of paint. The red and thick brush stroke, that symbolizes the lower eyelid, is an additional element that alludes to the description of the woman, given by the title. A face composed by numerous and different geometrical figures is what immediately recalls to mind the techniques of the Cubism artistic movement. Bright in colours, the piece lends a more animated atmosphere that contrasts with the big and black spots used for the nose, the left part of the neck and the corner on the right top of the scene. In an original and busy composition, the artist Lau Freitas is able to hurl a deep meaning and to represent a real subject, following in the technique, the artists who joined the Cubism tendency. What can be perceived by watching at the painting is Lau’s love to meditate while experimenting with strong colors and soft shadows, marks, curves and angles, living in between the abstract and what she calls her twisted memory.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
Lau Freitas
She is mad
Laura Valladares “Color and I are one. I am a painter” (Paul Klee)
Laura is a Spanish-Uruguayan artist, deeply connected to her homeland and cultural heritage that belongs to South America. Her art is an illustrated story, with continuous and precise references to a collective imagination, to symbols that refer to a specific culture. The scenes capture the autochthonous life of the Pueblo, giving back -in an emphasized way- the colors, the climate and the emotions. Her canvases are dominated by fluorescent colors, curvy lines and an accurate landscape that frequently reproposes the same elements: nearby houses with bright colors, the sea, the birds that fly in a light blue and pacific blue sky.
Laura Valladares
The whole is positioned like an illustration, like a two-dimensional story to be leafed through like a scrapbook. Laura gesture seems to want to make a contribution to the landscape artists who have been very successful since the end of the 18th century and during the 9th century. The artist also dedicates her work to Naïf art, with a style full of imagination and insightfulness, she creates scenes of contrast and dimensions that capture the essence of daily life. Her artwork is a tribute to this land, it is a commemorative act, it is a declaration of love for a distant place but lived extremely close to her heart.
Art Curator Cecilia Brambilla
Laura Valladares
A Sunday Morning
Laura Valladares
Capoeira
Laurie Blanchard
Laurie Blanchard is a California native, a professional musician and an emerging artist. She works primarily in acrylic paint and acrylic ink, and she love working on big canvases. She has been a professional musician since she was a child, but some years ago, after her father’s death, she began to do art more seriously. Between the pandemic and lockdown, all her gigs were cancelled, but something wonderful stepped in to fill that space that music normally occupied. Through the worry, the loneliness, and the boredom of the last 12 months, art, nature, and exploring has sustained her, and so she tries to do art every single day. The subject represented in the work, in fact, is not a landscape of simple fantasy, but we could almost speak of an epiphany occurred to the artist, a moment of serendipity. She tells us: “Last fall, I went for a long drive in the mountains to find a grove of aspen trees. I spent time photographing them, drawing them, painted them in watercolor, and once I came home, painted them in acrylic over and over. I find myself still trying to capture the movement of the leaves, the golden light, and most of all, trying to represent the feeling of peace they give me.” She says that place moved her to the point of being almost mystical. Many artists have had their own inspiring muses, and just as water lilies were for Monet and Polynesian women for Gaugin, so aspens trees are for Laurie Blanchard. In “The aspens of Monitor Pass”, more precisely in the upper part of the work of the Californian artist, we can see how she had a postimpressionist approach, also called “pointillisme”, in the realization of the leaves of the aspens. The leaves are rendered with simple dots, “point” in French, sometimes with hyphens, of pure colour - brown, yellow, green, black, beige - which are juxtaposed one on the other to create, through the fusion that happens in the observer’s retina, that thick golden foliage that so much struck the artist. The same juxtaposition of colors is also found in the trunks. However, here, they are stretched out with quick brushstrokes, so that the trees really seem to swing with the wind. In this dark period for everyone, the emerging artist found in nature a starting point to reborn. Just as Gaia adapts, reinvents, changes continuously, so Laurie Blanchard has transformed a difficult moment into a new opportunity.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Laurie Blanchard
The Aspens of Monitor Pass
Lee Parent
Lee Parent introduces a particular type of art to the M.A.D.S. international exhibition, entitled “Gaia. The origin”. To tell the truth, it deals with many types of arts, put together to converge in a single creative result and extremely scenographic impact. Everything starts from the so-called Body Painting, a particular trend that we trace back to the African, Indian, and Central American populations, but relatively recent and unusual for all Westerners. Probably evolved from the concept of “informal art”, it expires as an artistic experience in which the aesthetic result no longer resides in the finished work, but rather in seeing the artist at work. This expressive method recognizes in the artist a strong maturity and knowledge of the art world, as it is characterized by a scarce diffusion and in-depth knowledge. Lee also decides to capture this technique in a subsequent step, namely that of photography and post-production, finally engraving everything on a traditional canvas. The deep gazes of the subjects and the static poses of the same, evoke a Renaissance style, softly softened by the aggressiveness of the material and decisive brushstrokes, lively and expressive. The predominant colours of the three works, such as red, black, and blue, seem to evoke the elements of fire, water, and earth, perfectly in line with the theme addressed. The fire personified by “Cinnamon eyes”, is strong and tenacious, but romantic at the same time. The water of “She Has Guided us” and the earth of “Intense Rest 2021” appear on the other hand in a softer, gentler and decile way: almost intent on showing us their “fragility” and their limits. The message of environmental protection and the cry for help of nature, arrive strong and clear, in an extremely complex artistic process, such as to hide within itself a superfine intellect and a natural artistic spirit.
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Lee Parent
Cinnamon Eyes
Lee Parent
Intense Rest
Lee Parent
She Has Guided Us
Leira “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” (Rachel Carson)
Leira Cruz Càliz is a self-taught Puerto Rican artist who moved to the United States where she now lives and works. She loves to use any technique she can get her hands on, whit many layers of colors, lights and lines up to the final achievement of the work. In 2020 she starts a project called “Juanas” based on the important female characters of her life and Puerto Rican history until he reaches “Atabey” goddess of the Earth and of all water bodies. Leira also adds a text dedicated to her where she states “She was once a goddess, respected, adored, loved. She was once a goddess, devoted, loving and ... too forgiving We were blind to her pain, We are blind to her rage, because all we see is a naked woman squatting. “ Here we can find the themes of fertility, pain and rebirth. A lively return to origins, an explosion of colors carefully chosen by the artist to depict this primordial divinity in a simple form. I like to imagine that the drops of blood that have fallen on Earth can generate extraordinary beings. Leira, through Atabey’s story, unconsciously wants to induce us to be grateful to all that Gaia gives us and the nourishment she grants us. The Great Mother is not bad. The Great Mother is not good. She is simply, she is balance, she is movement, she is life and death at the same time, our every life is not even a single breath of her infinite existence.
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Leira
Atabey
Lena Blyckert
The artwork of the Swedish artist Lena Blyckert is characterized by a material aspect that enhances the canvas in its entirety. In particular the observer’s gaze is attracted by the textural consistency given to the central part of the painting. “Girl Power”, this is the title of the painting exhibited on the occasion of Gaia the origin, is a perfect sample of the visual capacity given to paint and to the combination of colors that contribute to create a pattern somehow natural and organic. The work recalls the typical artistic production of the 40s and 50s of XX century, characterized by the direct handling of canvas and materials. Specifically I would like to recall the artistic movement “Arte Povera” and one of its leading exponents, Alberto Burri. Burri’s “Sacchi” are renowned for the material consistency that the fabrics give to the canvas, in the same way the artist Lena Blyckert managed to render the work somehow alive, to confer a reality of its own to the canvas. The canvas is also reminiscent of the production of the German painter and photographer Wols, for the expressive capacity given by the medium itself, whose background and elements combine to create an overall expressive force. In addition, there is a clear and direct reference to Chinese culture through the use of two ideograms, placed on opposite sides of the canvas, which indicate “Woman” and “Strength”.
“Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.” (Jackson Pollock)
Art Curator Anna Panizza
Lena Blyckert
Girl Power
Lena Silva “The soul must discipline itself, while the body must be left in peace” (Odd Nerdrum)
Lena Silva is a contemporary, modern, expressionist artist of Portuguese origin residing in the United Kingdom. Lover of the arts, refinement and simplicity, she is strongly influenced by the Renaissance artistic period. For her, art has been a revelation, where she immediately could projects her feelings, her extremely subjective mood; she is rich in social content, dialectical ideas and dramatic testimony of reality. Light is the key to everything, pervading the space and the figures. Her work is also an expression of her wonder about the survival, persistence and perpetuity of human life: an attraction to life and its meaning, its kinship in direct relationship with the beauty of experience. Paintings are an overwhelming force in which she abandons herself to become her own defender. Fascinated by the Renaissance, she searches through various techniques to convey a sense of spiritual tranquility, a transcendental light. She generates “poetic moments” in which poetry becomes painting, her life is transformed into a work of art and associates its creativity with the creation of nature, often using female portraits or the analogy of flowers and their life cycles. We could define her as an “artist of life” with a connection between the human species and the creation of nature dazzled by the multi-sensory experience that the latter can give. Her art attracts the gaze with its lines of force by emitting light rays that we immediately see radiating to us and so we cannot avoid being instantly involved, the eye and the mind captivated by that scene, even before starting to decipher the subject of the painting.
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Lena Silva
LACHRYMOSE
Lena Silva
OEILLADE
Lena Silva
SERENITY
Lerox Maze
A simple and innovative canvas colors our eyes like an explosion. It is the abstract representation made by the artist Lerox Maze. A contemporary work characterized by signs that shape a chaotic image, an irrational and informal interweaving of colors, the result of a random gesture that wants to bring to the surface the hidden motives of the unconscious. Shades that tell the expression of a state of mind, the burst of a charge of energy, the explosion of an inner drive that are not extrinsic according to a predetermined project, but almost automatically follow an uncontrollable impulse of the deep, with clear references, although with completely different formal outcomes. Lerox Maze is an artist attracted by the full of genius from the study of the unconscious, from Jungian psychoanalysis, from excesses, from freedom, from improvisation. In “Ardagon” the new coordinates of the image are constituted by the chromatic relations, by the oscillatory course of the sign and by the capillary dripping. The chromatic fields penetrate, merge to create a unicum that involves and hypnotizes the viewer. A technique that is so reminiscent of the American dripping of Jackson Pollock, and that allows him to obtain a highly homogeneous spatiality without hierarchies or boundaries.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo
Lerox Maze
Ardagon
Leslie Lachiche “Wise is the man who contents himself with the spectacle of the world.” (Fernando Pessoa) Leslie Lachiche is a French artist based in rural Hong Kong where she produces her artwork inspired by her surroundings. Using various techniques and tools, shapes and colours, she creates mostly abstract works that appear harmonious and pleasing in their colour and style combinations. Her artistic style is mainly inspired by the natural world, water, earth and the natural elements with which she is in contact. The emotions she transposes onto canvas become one with nature. The artworks she creates are truly unique and original pieces that are inspired by nature and then create a whirlwind of feelings and emotions that have to do with the complicated human soul. In her work “Origin (Gaia)”, this connection is absolutely highlighted. Leslie uses the technique of fluid art with bright and striking colours. The different shades of blue and azure immediately immerse the viewer in a relaxing and peaceful atmosphere. It is an abstract interpretation of an aerial view of the earth. In this work, all the natural elements are constantly searching for connections. They meet, collide, unite and mingle. The details of the artwork are very careful and every single centimetre of the canvas hides unique details. Water, wind, earth, air and fire are hidden among the marks that the colour leaves on the canvas. A tribute to nature, the great vital force that has always guided men and given them life. A tribute to Gaia, spirit of the earth, creative entity and protector of life. The earth is represented with an abstract technique capable of drawing the viewer’s attention to focus on the endless beauty of nature, its nuances, its colours, its shapes. Leslie creates a kind of photograph, capturing a moment that remains fixed in time, immortal and ethereal. Influenced by the power of nature, she lets herself be guided by gestures and emotions. Looking at “Gaia” you can feel the gentle blowing of the wind on your skin, the freshness of the water, the warmth of the sun at midday, the earth crumbling under your feet, the warm sand of the beach. The paints and acrylics melt and mix, one on top of the other, creating new combinations that are at the same time extremely familiar to the viewer. Beige, light blue, blue and brown are arranged on the canvas and are enhanced by the colour white, which not only gives light, but also creates different shapes, giving the work multiple nuances. The colour white creates the foam of the sea breaking on the beach, the cloudy atmosphere of grey days, the clouds hiding the sun on spring days. In Leslie’s artwork it is as if all of nature is incorporated and represented in a single frame that makes it eternal in time. All the life force of the earth with its elements is enclosed in this canvas, capable of unleashing powerful emotions. The artist’s ability to create this kind of relationship, starting from what seems the simplest, that is, starting from her surroundings, is extraordinary. She starts with simple elements that are not so simple as air, earth and water. Everything is in balance, everything is harmony. With her art, Leslie creates harmonious compositions such as “Gaia” and places them within spaces, embellishing and enhancing them. With her creations she brings nature into relationship with human needs and emotions. The viewer is enraptured by such beauty, brilliant colours and nature that is released in a few centimetres of artwork.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Leslie Lachiche
Origin (Gaia)
Levi Gabos “Painting is silent poetry and poetry is painting that speaks.” (Plutarco) Levi Gabos is an artist of Transylvanian origin who has always dedicated his life to the world of art, first to music and then to painting that is for him a way to give free rein to his creativity, his emotions, a means to give shape to his deep inner world. Nature is a recurring subject in Levi’s representations which, through his very personal interpretation, manages to give them uniqueness and particularity. BLUE HEAVEN was made with the acrylic on canvas technique in 2020. In the work, the sky is seen not only as a natural element, but also as a metaphor for peace, serenity, and harmony. The dominant color is blue which, used in different shades, creates a pleasant contrast with the yellow of the light. PLAYFUL is an older work, made in 2016 with mixed media on canvas technique. The painting is characterized by an interesting chromatic play created by the combination of warm and cold colors. As in the great works of the famous Russian painter Kandinsky, different forms meet, touch and at times blend, giving life to an original and dynamic abstract work that seems to come alive to play a magical symphony. Finally, STARS was made in 2018 with mixed media on canvas technique. As we can deduce from the title itself, it is a representation of the stars of the sky: this, in the artist’s mind, is not blue as we usually see it, but silver. Numerous orange stars illuminate it, leaving the trail of their fleeting movements. Orange and brown stand out and are enhanced by the light background. Levi is a self-taught artist who, thanks to his continuous experimentation, has been able to cultivate his talent by managing to achieve important goals. Shapes, lines, and colors are the undisputed protagonists of his works through which he wants to tell us a story, he wants to make us feel emotions, he wants to set our imagination in motion.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Levi Gabos
BLUE HEAVEN
Levi Gabos
PLAYFUL
Levi Gabos
STARS
Lika Ramati “The world is changing rapidly, on so many layers, from Tec to Nano existence, and from patriarchal culture consciousness to a profound woman, who no longer needs the power of feminism to establish her presence in the main river of being.” [Lika Ramati] Who is Gaia? In the most ancient cultures, Gaia is always a female creature, because she represents the mystery of birth. In fact, the subjects present in Lika Ramati’s works are only women. The woman doesn’t need to connect with a being who is her opposite or complementary. She is the only parent of our species: “Mary” is a demonstration of this. In the Christian religion, Mary is the mother of all: she received from the archangel Gabriel the announcement that she would conceive the Son of God, without a man. Mary can be also compared to a simple woman. A woman who, in the short time of a cigarette, loses herself in a thousand thoughts and fears that she has to face every day. Lika’s women embody the archetype of the divine: they are pure Chaos. They self-generate and they break down in pieces at the same moment in which they manifest themselves, leaving her sign on earth, through solid, visible and tangible forms. “Gaia”, in fact, is the personification of nature, goddess of motherhood, fertility, creation or destruction. For this reason, the Universe is her body. In Lika Ramati’s painting, Gaia appears as a full-length woman, lying on the earth, blended in green and mixed with fruits and seasons, associated with the four natural elements: water, wind, air and fire. We can find the first three in the painting’s colors such as green, blue, white and yellow. The element of fire, instead, appears in another work of Lika: “Bona Dea”. She is the goddess of fertility and life worshipped in a secret temple on the Aventine Hill, in Rome: only women could participate in her rituals. Also known as the Roman goddess “Fauna”, ancient peoples linked the concept of female gender with the earth because women were the first farmers and seed gatherers. In fact the survival of the tribe depended on their activity. The color is brown, mixed with red and yellow that recall the fourth element: fire. All this is wrapped in a golden aura that the goddess emanates when the act is concluded. Golden like the small statue that appears at the center of another work by Lika, entitled “Between the Seasons.” Similar to a miniature votive statue, the raised hands generate the seasons, the time, the day and the night. A bright violet point advises the creation happened. The woman’s power is emphasized by the noise, you can almost hear it, caused by the galloping horses. The power is also evident in the work “The Great Mother”, also known as Cybele, who in Greek culture is represented seated on a chariot drawn by two lions placed at the sides. On the head, however, she has a crown decorated with jewels and precious purple fabrics. “The Great Mother” is the Great Mother of the Gods. Anyone who tries to prostrate to her, is captured by her hypnotic eyes. Her face, like a statue, conveys a feeling of extreme inner peace and perfect cosmic balance.
Art Curator Alessia Ventola
Lika Ramati
Between the Seasons
Lika Ramati
Bona Dea
Lika Ramati
Gaia
Lika Ramati
Maria
Lika Ramati
The Great Mother
Lily Dimcheva “Every artwork tells a fairytale.” (Lily Dimcheva) The contemporary artist Lily Dimcheva presents an energetic work at the exhibition “Gaia - The Origin”: in “Forest” one can see her continuous search for inspiration and experiences which both are conceived to improve everyday life. Starting from a journey into her own introspection, Lily wants to capture that deep mixture between the brilliant colors and the shapes, and the way they combine among themselves on the paint surface. Every feeling, vibration and movement is represented: the artist immerses herself completely in the work, following her perceptions and opening up to an absolutely imaginative and magical dimension. In fact, the work stands out from any pre-established form, where strong sensations are fully realized through lines and colors blended in freedom or combined outside from a rational order. The instinctive impulse prevails over the reason, catching the viewer’s attention with all the dynamism that is generated inside the painting: this movement affects every part of the body, as well as every perceptive sense. Through such an immediate and spontaneous technique, free from any scheme, a close bond is created between the artist, the painting and the observer, which all of them come together with the pictorial material. As in Jackson Pollock’s artworks, in this painting one can notice a chaotic image, characterized by an interweaving of lines and nuances, resulted from an impetuous and vital gesture. The abstract and geometric themes originate from the deepest parts of the mind, bring out what are the most unconscious motivations of the individual. The sketches of color with their different liveliness are constantly assembled and mixed, and at the same time they emphasize an intense harmony. By expressing all this energy, Lily gives rise to an explosion of chromatic nuances and contrasting feelings in the observer. Without the limit of the frame, but rather beyond that border. The dynamic action and the different moods generated in the canvas create a powerful and expressive language, in which the observer is involved, letting himself/herself be carried away by the impetuous atmosphere of the work.
“The big moment came when it was decided to paint... Just to Paint! The gesture on the canvas was an act of liberation.” (Harold Rosenberg)
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Lily Dimcheva
Forest
Linda Hayden “Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye... it also includes the inner pictures of the soul” (Edvard Munch)
Linda is a living example of how a precarious situation can become a moment of analysis and self-construction. How an obligation can turn into a moment of artistic creation and knowledge of one’s existence. So Linda started painting, in her home, and now she can definitely define herself as an artist. Her artworks are backgrounds of color that drip and meet on the canvas. They are tales of emotions and thoughts that in an abstract way ask to be told and heard. Her attitude is abstract and expressionist, as can be seen from the use of the material and the technique she chooses to use, but her action is dramatically and poetically emotional.
Linda Hayden
With indefinite and soft signs, as pungent and rigid, the artist manages to return an idea, an abstract image of a sensation or a period of time. Linda’s curiosity is that many of her creations draw inspiration from nature which turns out to be the reserve of her creativity. The world is translated and paraphrased by Linda, who, like a poet of color, translates the essence of existence into her canvases. A sacred place where she is, but where the public can also find a sense of completeness and wholeness.
Art Curator Cecilia Brambilla
Linda Hayden
Covid Gaia
Linda Hayden
Healing
Lisa Lorenz
Lisa Lorenz exhibits at M.A.D.S. Milano Art Gallery, during “Gaia: the origin” exhibition, three of her lively and vivacious compositions, consistently delightful to look at and that evoke a sense of happiness. “Aquatic Jewels”; “Umbria Bouquet” and “Tropical Gems” are the result of the artist’s aim to create colourful paintings through the use of a radiant palette. Lisa works mainly from her imagination and her work is characterized by creative compositions, exaggerated perspectives and her strikingly effective use of colours and patterns. The artist herself describes her use of colours in these words: <<my lively artwork features realistic subject matter that I stylize with vibrant colour, bold lines, form and a fanciful decorative allure>>. “Aquatic Jewels” presents natural elements, such as juxtaposed white-water lilies providing sanctuary to three Koi fish swimming around them. The title of the piece alludes to the big aquatic flowers that adorn the piece, as jewels adorn a crown. Similar to “Aquatic Jewels”, “Tropical Gems” presents the rich flora that thrives in the tropics. These two paintings, with their intensity and vividness, in which the elements are distinctly drawn into its outline, have the power to pull the viewer inside them. This attention to detail, gives Lisa Lorenz’s artworks a beautiful stainedglass effect infusing a vibrant energy. A vibrant energy and a visual “3D” effect is ever present in Lisa’s third piece “Umbria Bouquet”. Here, the vase is the main character of the piece standing out from the clear-blue background, as if leaning on a windowsill. This visual effect is created by using the cloisonné technique, where a fine brush stroke emphasizes the artworks.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
Lisa Lorenz
Aquatic Jewels
Lisa Lorenz
Tropical Gems
Lisa Lorenz
Umbria Bouquet
Louisa Kruger “All that the sun shines on is beautiful, as long as it is wild”. (John Muir)
Louisa Kruger, a contemporary impressionist artist, matured a personal artistic form of expression. Her own take on the origin of art: “Doesn’t art sprout from pain and oppression; breed in the miry clay? Like character grows in hardship, and life formed from mere dust or gold refined through fire - from the first Artist, it’s a gift in winter. “ Louisa Kruger, using colours and raw textures, in what seems to be a free dance, creates powerful paintings, where a strong sense of rebirth comes to light. The light finds its way to arise from the dark, conveying a perfect calm in the middle of chaos, a glimmer of sun in the storm. She is inspired by the beauty and details of the natural world to choose her subject: florals, portraits, animals, landscapes, and bold abstracts - expressing a style that is versatile, vibrant, and free. Through her female portraiture, the artist praises the motherly and nurturing aspects of women, who are characterized by grace, beauty, and resilience. These features are intrinsic also to the Creator, who laid the foundations of the earth and gives life and breath to all creatures. He is the word itself and everything is created through him; his light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it. (See John1:1-5 NLT). In conclusion: Louisa Kruger’s paintings carry across a message of overcoming, a deeply rooted hope, and a fearless freedom, irrespective of one’s circumstances.
Art Curator Manuela Fratar
Louisa Kruger
Anna
Louisa Kruger
Maya
Louisa Kruger
Meena
Luisa Barba “Γαῖα” is the painting made by the artist Luisa Barba. Mother Earth has come among us. She has gone through Chaos and now she shows herself in her shimmering glow. The contrast between light and dark tones immediately suggests the dichotomy between Chaos and Order, a central feature of the painting. In the work, Chaos is represented with a black background which is an allegory of disorder, of the indefinite and the intangible. A sort of black hole, an endless abyss where nothing is defined and where the concept of order does not exist. On the other hand, Gaia manifests herself in a clear, definite and tangible way with a distinct and geometric shape. This is the distinctive feature of Luisa’s artistic style. The oval face is framed by her long hair, gathered in a golden, almost transparent, stole. The almond-shaped eyes, the pronounced nose, the lines of the lips and chin slightly oblique recall the “archaic smile” of the Ionic sculpture, typical of the micro-Asiatic areas, dating back to the seventh century BC. The smile without any three-dimensionality expresses a state of luminous serenity and inner harmony. Mother Earth is enveloped in an aura of extreme peace and imperturbability. The clenched eyes, in fact, suggest the link that exists between her, the Cosmos and Humanity. In the most ancient cultures, the archetype of the divine is always embodied by a female creature, because it represents the mystery of birth. In the painting this idea is suggested by the use of the veil that partially conceals the woman’s face. Gaia gives us life and, at the same time, she welcomes us to the fulfillment of our days. Always the most revered divinity by all peoples, for the artist Luisa Barba, the mother goddess shows herself elegant, radiant, without any temporal dynamic, without materiality. Although she is immaterial, she makes everything tangible. The divinity was invoked and the artist Luisa Barba, through her work, conveys to us strong and clear emotions: joy, quietness, harmony between man and Creation.
Art Curator Alessia Ventola
Luisa Barba
Gaia
Luz Sanchez
Since ancient times the nature is associated with Mother Earth, a female goddess who creates all the animals and the natural elements. With her artworks Luz Sanchez wants to communicate the power of the nature, its beauty, its complexity and also its simplicity. Luz represents the nature in a simple but effective way that tells, with her figures, the myth of the Mother Earth. She fuses all the symbols of the nature in her paintings.“Conmocion” tells a story of Mother Earth, who is portrayed while feeds her sons. She holds in her arms a baby and, with the other hand, gives food to a hummingbird. This artwork is the portrait of the personification of the nature and the colors transmit tranquility and peace. Luz represents Mother Nature like a woman without a human face because her face is the river, the mountains, the land and the white sky. “Renacer” shows the power of the fire in the volcano, the wildness of the water in the waves, the mystery of the night and the day and the strength of the earth in the flowers. This is a complex artwork which represents the circle of the life through all the four natural elements. In “Gaia simple y generosa” Luz Sanchez makes a different color choice. The artist uses various shades of blue to create the ponds where the frogs have laid their eggs. The frogs are in the corner of the picture and watch the ponds, looks they’re waiting...In this artwork the birth is represented in other way: the yellow and brown land is dotted with small ponds that represent many births. In these artworks the colors recall the elements of nature. She shows a goddess simple and strong, powerful and peaceful.
Art Curator Sara Giannini
Luz Sanchez
Conmocion
Luz Sanchez
Gaia: Simple y generosa
Luz Sanchez
Renacer
Magdalena Maestri “People protect what they love.”(Jacques-Yves Cousteau)
In the works presented here, the artist Magdalena Maestri talks to us about nature, showing us the most intimate space and the vital energy of the elements through which it manifests itself. In the history of art, nature has been one of the most studied and experimented themes by artists. There has always been a sort of veneration towards this, relative to its beauty, its morphology, its dynamic perfection. It could be said that nature has always been the mirror of water in which to reflect. Wherever we are, whatever culture we belong to, we feel a particular attraction for all those elements that give off an unconscious call in us. Who has never stopped to observe the sea, or a stream of water in the woods? Who has never worshiped the majesty of the mountains? Who hasn’t felt the energy of a fire? The strength of the waves crashing on the rocks? The transport of the wind and its perfumes, the eruption of a volcano? It is clear that these are extraordinary events. But the reason for this attraction lies exactly between our limbs. What are we, if not a fruit of the earth. We are made of water, air, blood, organs that breathe at the same rhythm as nature. Our blood flows like water in rivers. Our hair breathes in the air and grows like the foliage of a tree. Our feet seek contact with the earth like the roots of plants. Our eyes mirror our soul as the sky changes its colors. We are the extraordinary manifestations of strength, calm and energy that we find in nature. We are attracted to everything that is natural because we feel a call to the Original Mother, to the ancient union with everything, to absolute love. Over time this feeling was lost. The reasons are various, but if we had to summarize them we could say that, with the establishment of borders, of ever closer human circles, limited interests have grown. These circumstances have given rise to feelings of supremacy which have seen every people have an interest in the pursuit of the personal good. All this has been reflected in the intensive production of raw materials, in global warming, in the imminent disappearance of terrestrial biodiversity. Magdalena Maestri with her works of extraordinary natural beauty, presents this increasingly imminent global crisis, and she does so by showing us the most vulnerable, most fluid part of nature. In ‘’ Oceanic ‘’ the artist paints the beauty of ocean currents, their meeting, from which the variety of marine flora and fauna is released. The diagonal compositional choice and the use of bright colors indicate the vital energy produced by the sea which, running over time, becomes more and more suffocated by two black masses, which intersect the stream in the opposite diagonal direction. This choice reflects the imminent global warming that strongly affects the nature of the currents, such as the rising water level, which represents a strong discomfort for the whole of humanity.
Magdalena Maestri
This also affects our ecosystem, and the effects are visible, for example, in the rapid disappearance of the coral reef. In ‘’ Coral Reef ‘’ the artist presents us with the chromatic rainbow belonging to this, but she always does so following a diagonal composition. The reasons for this choice lie in wanting to underline the vital precariousness of these unique and rare species which, without an efficient political and social action plan, will be nothing more than evanescent memories. The consequences also affect the biodiversity belonging to the lungs of our world: the Amazon forest. In ‘’ Amazonia ‘’ the artist shows us the current conditions of one of the richest biodiversity in the world. The painting looks like a multiform, iridescent spot of color, whose greens recall the thousands of tree species and flowering plants. The artist decides not to represent them in detail, but to consider them as small chromatic universes that participate in the global fusion, losing their identity and originality. The concept of fluidity that we find in all Magdalena Maestri’s works resurfaces her personality, her life experience, her knowledge, steeped in different cultures, of different landscapes in which she lived. In her works this is visible above all in the choice of an experimental pictorial language, which varies in the use of different techniques and materials. The artist’s life, her soul in eruption, becomes one with the work, both becoming participants in the vital flow of the creative wind. Her works go beyond the very concept of aesthetics, becoming small reflections, small moments of meditation on which each of us can reflect and find himself. Magdalena Maestri is a socially committed artist, and she does so by taking sides with nature and fighting for a common cause. The exploratory simplicity with which she renders her works allows everyone to participate in them, contributing both to the subjective pleasure of the observer and to a greater cause. Her art is the mouthpiece of nature that asks us for help, that wants to recall our sensitivity in support of life, the same life in which we participate every day. In ‘’ Roots ‘’ the artist leverages precisely on this concept. Like tree roots, she says, we are invisible, but an integral part of something bigger, which belongs to each of us. Our role is indispensable, and focuses on the search for interconnection with others and with nature, by virtue of environmental and vital protection. We are small cells of a large organism that we call Earth. We are small stars that illuminate the Universe, whose light becomes increasingly dim. We are the artists of our life, and for the sake of this we must commit ourselves in daily gestures to defend it. Thanks to the artist Magdalena Maestri for sharing her wonderful vision with us.
Art Curator Alessia di Martino
Magdalena Maestri
Amazonia
Magdalena Maestri
Coral reef
Magdalena Maestri
Oceanic
Magdalena Maestri
Roots
Marcelle Herman
In occasion of international art exhibition Gaia the artist Marcelle Herman presents her painting Emotion 3 that takes place in a series of other six pieces as she refers. What emerges at the first look? Firstly, to discover the intimate message conveyed by the artwork is important to focus the attention on the background: a layer of green expands on the canvas to create an anchorage where try to fix something, just the real message of the painting. Immediately, putting the glad on the lower part of the artwork emerges the abstract figure. It seems like a wound on the canvas that wants to stand out and tell about the real truth of the artist Marcelle Herman. Her instantaneous feeling at the moment of the creation of the painting. Watching her painting is like listening to her words and her speeches about her personal way to intend and using art. Emotion 3 talks about feeling and the possibility to use art for expressing yourself and talking to other people about us. As if the painting is a photography of the moment, in which the artist was painting. If we want to correlate the painting with the concept of the exhibition Gaia, there are a lot of deeper meanings that could emerge from the using colours and the shapes used. Despite the instantaneous gesture that creates the painting, the colours used remind the earth, specifically the green used for the background, white of the clouds and finally the red of humans. This painting is a way to celebrate the beauty of the earth, and the emotions that comes from watching that. As if the art is the right eyes to watch and enjoy the beauty around us.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Marcelle Herman
Emotion 3
Maria De Zorzi “It is said that when a person looks at the stars it is as if he wanted to find his own dimension scattered in the universe.” (Salvador Dalì)
Maria De Zorzi is an artist passionate about art since her youth. Her style ranges from impressionism to modern abstract. Various media have been used in her artwork, but what she prefers the most are acrylics as they are best suited to her style. Her abstract paintings do not take inspiration from a specific reference or a specific scenario but from what happens around her. If in her daily life evokes an emotion or an idea, she transfers it directly to the canvas. As she herself said: “I dream in color and paint my dreams”. In the “Gaia” exhibition she exhibits the artwork entitled “Volcano”. The colors that are used in this work are strong and vibrant, with broad strokes and anchor vortices. Through the movement and the use of such bold tones, it is possible to capture the pernicious beauty of the work. Instead the dripping color coverage manages to produce a free and at the same time structured movement. In the painting, the colored strings seem to come to life; the overtaking between the various shades animate every centimeter of the composition that seems to expand visually. Since the beginning of time, Mother Earth has been in a state of constant flux. A continuous dance of destruction through the forces of the universe, the changing of the seasons and her own natural disasters. Through this painting, it is as if the earth exploded its inner anger in a visual display of force and power. An apparently volatile act but which in turn resulting in the production of ash to nourish its soil, release its life-giving water from its mantle and create geothermal energy. Everything is destruction and renewal. In the painting “Volcano” you can also see clear references to the artworks of Jackson Pollock and to “dripping”, a technique he invented which consisted of dripping color from the brush or directly from the jar. “Nature is all we see: the hill, the afternoon, the squirrel, the eclipse, the hornet. Or rather, nature is paradise. Nature is all we hear: the sparrow, the sea, the thunder, the cricket. Or rather, nature is harmony. Nature is all we know without having the ability to say it, so powerless is our wisdom compared to its simplicity.” (Emily Dickinson)
Art Curator Francesca Campanelli
Maria De Zorzi
Volcano
Maria Imperatore
The art of Maria Imperatore is more identified in the collage technique, in the use of acrylic and extends to the style of graffiti. Maria’s artistic production is a vehicle of profound messages, which pass from the artist to the viewer, thanks to her masterful way of communicating. At the international art exhibition “GAIA - The Origin”, organized by M.A.D.S. art gallery, she exhibits 3 works of great symbolism and evocation. The artist’s interpretation in relation to the theme of the exhibition is clear, the origin is recognized in the birth. “Mother Love” is a work full of elements, the representation of flowers recalls the works of Frida Kahlo, the soft and pastel colors allow you to enter a dreamlike world. The subject of the work is accompanied by the presence of a heart, a symbol of love and life. “Eggshell babies” is emblematic from the point of view of birth. Babies are born from eggs, supported in the sky by white wings, which seem to belong to angels. The work is extremely bright, the shades are extremely light, but at the same time bright. The last work on display is “Love with pregnancy” a figurative work that tells the love for life, the mother seems to be suspended in the sky or in space, the mother’s face is inserted in an aquarium that could also symbolize helmet of an astronaut. The feeling of peace and tranquility is perceptible, the moment when you go with your head under the water is full of silence and serenity, and this is precisely the emotion you feel when looking at this work. Just imagine being immersed in deep space to feel welcomed by a sense of deep peace, this is how Maria tells her image of origin, of life.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Maria Imperatore
Eggshell babies
Maria Imperatore
Mother Love
Maria Imperatore
The Pregnant love
Maria José Aloy
Maria José Aloy is a Spanish artist, and in 2020 she decided to dedicate her entire life to painting. She participates in many painting courses, where she learns to use different media. Among all, acrylic is the medium that most fascinates her, in fact Maria realizes most of her paintings in acrylic. Nature is undoubtedly her great inspiration: the artist takes from it the shapes and colors. Sometimes the artist creates more abstract works and at other times closer to reality, but in each of them there is always the use of bright color, which transmits joy and positivity to the observer. The exhibition “Gaia: the origin”, organized by M.A.D.S. art gallery in Milan, offers the artist the opportunity to exhibit a series of three works strongly connected with the universe and nature that surrounds us. The three works are small squares and in all three dominates the pink color. The rose in various cultures is associated with the woman and the mother, in others it is associated with spring and rebirth. The two larger works are titled “Cosmos” and “Cosmos II”: the titles refer to the galaxy, they are in fact composed of small brushstrokes of white which recreate the stars and planets. The third work, entitled “Flores en la niebla”, is more figurative. The title itself means “Flowers in the fog”, in fact, three daisies are represented on the right, placed on a gray background. The chromatic contrast is strong: pink becomes the focal point of the work. No doubt these works convey positivity and hope. In particular, the last one indicates that there is always hope, even in the most difficult situations you can always find something positive.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Maria José Aloy
Cosmos
Maria José Aloy
Cosmos II
Maria José Aloy
Flores en la niebla
Marie Es-Borrat The artist lives and works in Switzerland, studied fashion and worked in the luxury industry for many years. In parallel, she has always painted and exhibited in Switzerland, Italy and Paris. Since 2011, her creation resembles her experience: painting, photographic art direction, illustration reminiscent of textile printing, etc. “Water Flowers” is part of “Nature is part of us” series, which started in 2012 and talks about the link with our interiority and the relationship with our environment. Water occupies the lower half of the composition, but it is a flat, uniform, unreal water. However, the whole composition is a fantasy scene: the flowers are the result of the artist’s imagination, they do not exist in nature and they float on the water standing straight, as if by magic. Looking at the work, we feel like Alice in Wonderland: small, confused but amazed. This is what Marie EsBorrat’s work conveys: awe and wonder for nature, both the real one and for an interior. A peculiarity of “Water Flowers” is that although the flowers appear similar to each other, in reality, looking at them better, you can see that they are all different; there are no two identical flowers in this composition. This detail, by no means banal, reminds us of Botticelli’s “Primavera”. Even in the flowery lawn created by the Florentine artist who lived during the Renaissance, it is impossible to find repetitions. The tones chosen by the Swiss artist are rather dark: we can find an overseas blue, a burgundy, a little white and pink that give light to the composition, and a lot of black, used mainly to outline the stems of flowers. We understand that the work “Water Flowers” has a deeper meaning, a reference to the interior, listening to the words of the artist who says: “The situation related to Covid, imposes the internalization and discovery of one’s own nature, but also the desire to reconnect with the environment, and to ask the right questions.”. It is precisely from all these elements that this work is born. In this period of global difficulty, it is essential to pause for a moment and feel the vital lymph of Gaia flow within itself, reconnecting in this way both with the environment and with oneself.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Marie Es-Borrat
Water Flowers
Marina Epova
Marina Epova was born and live in Novosibirsk, Russia, and she graduated from Novosibirsk State University where specialized in Linguistics. She has always had a desire to paint, but only in 2009 she finally approached to the muchloved painting and, above all, to the much-admired Impressionists, from which she takes her artistic style. “I wanted the same freedom: the same light, the same non-attachment to details and the same spontaneity.”, the artist said about her artworks. In fact, in “Strict music of mountains” we can see all these characteristics. A pure, but strong light, almost blinding, illuminates the entire scene: from the staggered rocks in the foreground, among whose coves grow flowers, to the forest of thin fir trees in the central part of the work, up to the blue peaks of the mountains visible in the background. Just as Impressionism is the triumph of colours, so is the work of Marina Epova. They, rather than being mixed in the palette, are wisely juxtaposed directly on the canvas, fragmenting them into touches of varying size. The use of the palette knife to work, furthermore, gives to the Russian artist that dreamed-of freedom, allowing her to let her creativity flow freely and spontaneously, without being constrained by strictly realistic details. Nature is that which gives her many inspirations; any landscape, in real life, or on photographs, evokes a lot of deep feelings in her heart and for this reason they are her favourite subjects. “Strict music of mountains” portrays a splendid glimpse of the mountains in Krasnaya Polyana, Sochi, Russia, which particularly impressed Marina Epova for its purity and its pristine nature while she is travelling by a chairlift. The oblique pattern that cuts the composition into four bands is not something new in history of art, but it is definitely a rare and bold choice. “Living in megapolises, working hard to earn their living and being struck by lots of negative emotions, people often forget about the beauty they are surrounded with. I really wish my artworks could help them see this beauty again.” This is the artist wish and in fact, despite everything, Gaia, Mother Earth, is still alive and more beautiful than ever; we just have to know how to look at it, as Marina Epova does.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Marina Epova
Strict music of mountains
Marina Lörwald “Going to the mountains is like going home.” (John Muir)
Stone, rock and mountains have always been symbols of great importance, representative elements of the entire cosmos, especially in different religious cultures, in myths and in sacred places. In many cultures, the stone was the aniconic - not figurative - representation of the divinities, if not the divinity itself or in any case a direct connection with the divine. Some examples are megalithic constructions dating back to prehistoric times, such as the Dolmen, the Cromlech and the Menhirs. Marina Lörwald, a German artist from Duisburg, in the series “The Burren”, makes the stone her main point of analysis. The characteristic cracks that run along the rock become here, vertical lines that cross the paintings, cutting them in two. The choice of analyzing the plants that emerge is particularly interesting, which give the painting a sudden and pleasant touch of color and a new interpretation. The choice of a figurative language, with a realistic technique and use of colors, in this case, allows a more indepth reading of the work. Blades of grass, mosses and concretions immediately offer a new meaning to our eyes: in “The Burren 1”, the stone undergoes a metamorphosis and what we see now is a female body, whose two legs surround the pubis. Strong, is the reference to the well-known work of the master Gustave Courbet, “L’Origine du monde”. Lörwald, manages to show us Nature, from whose bowels its creative power is released. Mother of the world, Mother of the Earth and stone, a symbol of strength and connection with the divine world.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Marina Lörwald
The Burren
Marina Lörwald
The Burren 1
Marina Lörwald
The Burren 4
MarioVaccaj <<mr WAVE>>
Italian artistMarioVaccaj <<mr WAVE>> presents awonderful tryptic for the exhibition “GAIA -The Origin”. “Genetica Futurista”, literally “Futuristicgenetics” refers to the visceral attachment and devotion of Mario to thefuturistic wave and perspective, which stand for his constant quality markthroughout his work. Moreover it also represents the fusion of two neutronparticles that generated the earth matter and the origin of life. It presentsan artistic storytelling of the human being’s genealogy, from a scientificpoint of view. The digital painting is extremely dynamic thanks to its use ofcolours, shades of blue and violets cross the virtual canvas and a colourfulsparkle, an intangible rainbow, embracing these dominant shades, perhapsreferring to the beauty and the multiplicity of life. “Occhi Dilatati XYZ”,literally “Dilated Eye XYZ”, artistically represents, through the use ofsaturated colours in a warm palette, the genesis of the energetic mass. Thegiant eye as the nerve centre of the painting symbolizes the point of view of WilliamRowan Hamilton, who did relevant studies on the quantum physics XYZ. A zoom-ininto an important scientific mind contemplating the magnificence of life andmatter. Mario dedicated this piece to his inspiration Luigi Russolo, ItalianFuturist painter and composer. The third artwork “Tramonti”, that means“Sunsets”, refers to the beginning of our planet, initially made of rocks andimmense seas. This piece represents a suggestive painting with a big emotionalreach, thanks to the use of complementary colours such as blue, light blue,red, pink, yellow. A warm embrace that aims at celebrating the beauty ofnatural sceneries and primordial emotions. The mixture of themes such as natureand introspection remains the major poetics of Mario, always succeeding inmaking emotionally accessible to his audience his passion for physics.
Art Curator Cecilia Terenzoni
MarioVaccaj <<mr WAVE>>
GENETICA FUTURISTA
MarioVaccaj <<mr WAVE>>
OCCHI DILATATI XYZ
MarioVaccaj <<mr WAVE>>
TRAMONTI
Martha Silver Breninger Martha Silver Breninger is an artist from Melbourne, Australia, but she has sold hundreds of works all around the world. She works with mediums such as oils, acrylics, watercolour, soft pastels, alcohol inks and felting sculpture, and her art is deeply connected to the themes of rebirth, healing, transformation and female empowerment. Recently, in her published multi author book “Visionary”, she shared publicly her life story of transformation from addiction and trauma, and how she has emerged into her successful art career. In fact, she started to create only 4 years ago and already opened a gallery in Melbourne called “Raven Orb Gallery. “My vision is to inspire others that healing is possible”, she said, and indeed “The Beginning” is a work that fully expresses all the themes that are close to her. This artwork was created for her “A Journey From Shadow to Light” exhibition in 2018, and already at first glance it captures the viewer with all its energetic charge. From the outer corners of the canvas, where the darker oil color is stretched more densely and compactly, you gradually move to the center of the canvas, where a yellow circle captures all the attention. Around it, the oil color with lighter tones, is stretched with more lightness, allowing a glimpse of the texture of the canvas below. It’s easy to imagine “The Big Bang”, the origin of all that exists, watching this work. Yellow, a color that expresses tension and dynamism, explodes from the center, ripping the darkness. Broken and undulating rays make their way through it, tearing it not without pain. It is the beginning of everything. “It is connected to the beginning of Gaia’s life” the Australian artist saids, “and the beginning of mine at 30 years old when I began my journey of transformation from addiction and domestic violence trauma.” Martha Silver Breninger puts on canvas, making it graphically visible, a fundamental and defining moment of her life. But beyond that, as if this wasn’t difficult enough, she manages to make this moment no longer as an individual, private moment, just her own, but collective. Gaia, the whole Earth, is reborn and begins again with her.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Martha Silver Breninger
The Beginning
mARTina Hannon
Martina Hannon presents at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, during “Gaia: the origin” exhibition, three artworks called “Odessa” “Nyx” and “Rhea”. She did intense research about the theme before starting to create them, about the goddess that can represent the origins of earth and interpreting it not from a religious point of view, but from an interior one: a charge that shows us the right way and reveals our strength to us. We see images resulting from research that led her to develop a more private and philosophical dimension of the concept, trying to embody this essence, in her person and personality, representing moods and thoughts that she could match, both with an “ethical” form of thought, and with the “personal” form of her private life. At the centre of her artworks, there are themes such as femininity, sensuality and spirituality, the passage of time, respect for nature. All developed in her personal dreamlike way with epic language which always comes to terms with the real dimension. We can see a disappointment about how the things are going in our present, represented by the colour black that like the Caravaggesque style, is the metaphor of darkness and despair. But, when this dominant and base underpainting black is used in opposition with white, it becomes the symbol of an eternal struggle between day and night, good and evil, right, and wrong. Particularly relevant are the focus on the elements of fire, water, and air, which with their bright colours, visually contrast the works and the faces they carry with them. The use of colours, light, poses and sensual gazes of the protagonists, are reminiscent of a photographic, rather than pictorial, style. The spherical and circular crowns and shapes used in all three works, often in contrast with the background, are reminiscent of David La Chapelle’s haloes, so a masterful use of the forms and poses that make up the space that the canvas makes available.
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
mARTina Hannon
Nyx
mARTina Hannon
Odessa
mARTina Hannon
Rhea
Mary Yamine
Mary Yamine is a Lebanon-based artist. Living between Paris, California, United Arab Emirates and finally Lebanon, she has always been in contact with different cultures, traditions and religions. For this reason her art is influenced by many elements and this has allowed her to have a broad approach and a very open mind. She herself describes her art with these words: “My paintings bring forth deep seated emotion in each specific stroke or shade. Embodies layers upon layers of colors, each of them alive, breathing and morphing into a story. Painting for is an out of body experience. It is my conversations with the universe, and connecting with the Creator”. Mary Yamine exhibits at M.A.D.S. art gallery her work entitled “Apodictic obscurity”. From the technical point of view, the work is made of acrylic and oil pastels, the composition is vertical and dark colors dominate the composition, in strong contrast with the white that outlines the protagonist’s figure. The work was selected for the exhibition “Gaia: The origin” and shows the artist’s personal vision on this theme. The artist reflects on how we, as humans, are frightened of what we do not know, but if we let ourselves go and if we find a connection with the nature that surrounds us, the universe will reveal itself to us. The work shows a woman who closes her eyes, she concentrates, she is in a meditation’s position. The woman seeks a connection with the universe around her, represented by the pink and blue lines that surround her. Iconographically the woman can be associated with Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism... But each of us can associate it with any religion, can associate it with our Creator. The meaning is precisely this: to seek the faith within ourselves and thus to find the connection that serves our soul to find peace.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Mary Yamine
Apodictic obscurity
Mauro Bursi
Finding yourself in front of a work by the artist Mauro Bursi means having an intimate experience with yourself. Depth, energy, matter accompany the gesture of the artist who creates and envelops us all with his extraordinary sensitivity and depth of soul. “Origine” is a delicate work that invites us to reflect, to rediscover that inner peace that perhaps many of us have lost. An invitation to cultivate hope to transform it into strength and courage to go forward day by day. Thus, through the use of color and gestures, the artist creates an inner movement that leads us to think and learn to look beyond. Energy in motion, created thanks to the full mastery of the use of color and gestures, thus giving us a work of great human delicacy. “Origine” is a work of art that gives us a moment of deep reflection on our reality, not only the one that surrounds us, but also our own, personal and intimate to induce us to stop and understand what we want. A refined, careful style expressed through full mastery in the use of colors, undisputed protagonists in the works of the artist Mauro Bursi. And so it is precisely through colors that we can grasp the soul of the artist who, with extreme care and attention, gives us profound reflections on life and the importance of being in the world. “Origine” we are placed in front of a mirror to fully understand our deepest essence. This is the extraordinary strength of a contemporary artist like Mauro Bursi.
Art Curator Giulia Zanesi
Mauro Bursi
Origine
Maya Wiebler
A poetic transposition of the world that surrounds us, a recording through colors and images of the sensations and emotions of our own soul. Sober colors modulated on earthy and natural tones dictate the chromatic rhythm of the composition in Maja Wiebler’s works. Layers of colors follow one another at an unceasing rhythm: intuition upon intuition, inspiration upon inspiration translate through their chromatic tones the vision of the world recorded by the artist. Journey Has Began and Full Steam Ahead tell us about a personal journey of introspection and growth in search of the most authentic part of oneself. Emotions and sensations perceived during the arc of an existence are translated into extremely balanced compositions in chromatic tones and shapes. You can see energetic strokes of color that dirty the canvas in a fortuitous way, strips of pigment that overlap each other heedless of the representative space and portions of canvas already invaded by color. Yet there is order, there is a quiet harmony inherent in these works. We sense that these spots of color often have linear and geometric contours, as if the artist wanted to give a form, a rule to the expressive power of color. We can therefore see right angles, outlined and precise perimeters, full and solid color fields that contrast with extremely veiled, almost transparent pigment spots. The representation of the world and of the sensations takes place through a process of decantation that dismembers the real and recomposes it - according to its rules through an amalgam of expressive elements, at first free and intuitive, then rigorous and geometric.
Maya Wiebler
Anchored to the origins and to the purest version of the artist’s soul, Journey Has Began is the beginning of the inner journey. Diagonal splotches of color intersect each other: above a blanket of instinctive and energetic brushstrokes, an olive green, opaque and rigorous stain catches the eye on the right side of the painting. Its seriousness and restraint is counterbalanced by the presence of a whitish, defined layering that grafts itself to the center of the painting. Heedless of the layers of color below she acquires full expressive autonomy taking over the entire work. It’s the beginning of the journey, it’s the obligatory return to the origins to develop the process of rebirth that will have its climax in Full Steam Ahead. A swirling energy takes possession of the composition, all played out in tones of grey, black and guttural ochre. The geometric stains are large, rectangular and almost contribute to the creation of a uniform background on which are set vital and vigorous spots of stretched color. In the geometric backdrop, in the most jaunty stains and in the scratches that here and there contaminate the pictorial surface, there is all the consciousness of Maja’s true Ego. The experiences of life, the memories, the daily sensations provoked by glances at nature, the awareness of having succeeded in making the long journey in search of the most authentic part of herself are all here, in this painting, moments of life decanted and refined through the modulation of color and the interpenetration between chaos and tranquility, between regularity and instinctiveness.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Maya Wiebler
Full Steam ahead
Maya Wiebler
The journey has began
Megan Bell “Our minds and memories are crowded with the common experience of nature.” (Sadie Jones)
Megan Bell is a self-taught artist from the South East of England, who has always been interested in creating and has always felt the need to express herself and her imagination through art. She draws inspiration from the journeys and travels she had the opportunity to experience while growing up, evoking childhood memories in her art. She also finds a great source of inspirations in nature, especially the ocean, which has always played a fundamental part in her life. The artwork “Happy Days” is an adaptation of a picture the artist took when she was younger. In this painting, we can see the great predominance of the ocean, while the bright yellow flowers stand out to announce Spring and to welcome the new season. By analysing her work, we notice how the artist recalls her joyful memories of the past while looking at the future, in a synthesis of happiness and melancholy for the days gone by and thought for the days to come.
Art Curator Maddalena Corbini
Megan Bell
Happy Days
Meredith Lloyd Smith - Anna Finlayson
That colour is one of the fundamental expressions of visual art and that its use, its physical and psycho-physical properties and the impact on the viewer, are a matter of questioning by artists, philosophers and psychologists from the earliest origins of these forms of expression is a fact. Paul Klee and Lucio Fontana have made the use of color and its power on the sensitivity of the viewer their stylistic signature. The musical aspect of colors will be above all the fundamental concept of abstract art and in particular that of Kandinskij, for which an abstract painting is a composition made only of colors, and is able to produce sensations similar to those caused by listening to a symphony. And both, painting and music, can arouse emotions without resorting to figuration, just for the evocative capacity of the expressive medium. Such an explosive encounter is found in the work “Fur Balls” by Anna Finlayson and Meredith Lloyd-Smith, two artists capable of making visionary and unthinkable color choices. A four-handed work that represents a creative exploration that combines, together, experience and discovery. A research divided into several phases and layers, and that combines sumptuous colors with metallic and glittered pigments. The addition of glitter and texture to the surface of the canvas, as the artists say, “creates a work that changes with light, capturing highlights, shining and moving while the viewer moves around the work”. A three-dimensional work whose perspective appears, therefore, in continuous evolution. For Anna E Meredith the colors are pulsating vibrations that announce happiness, passion and love, soul, life.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo
Meredith Lloyd Smith - Anna Finlayson
Fur Balls
Michael Angle Oh!
Michael Angle Oh! is a Sweden free artist, specialized independent musician, art photographer, painter, sculpture builder. He is inspired by the animals and the trees, which surround the place where he lives. The artist presents at M.A.D.S. art gallery, on the occasion of the art exhibition “Gaia: the origin”, his work entitled “Big Horse Insania”. The work is the result of photographic work and a digital process of overimpression. From an ideological point of view, it can be considered a surrealist work in which a horse is placed on a house’s roof in the moonlight. The work is considered surrealist because the horse holds a brush in his mouth and on his head is placed a bucket of color. The black and white of the subject and the bright blue of the background create a strong chromatic contrast. The laying of the horse could be a tribute to the painting “Bonaparte crosses the Great San Bernardo” by the nineteenth-century painter Jacques-Louis David, as Michael proposes the same dynamic and bizarre pose of the horse. From a stylistic point of view, the work recalls the Pop-Art works, in particular Andy Warhol’s work “The last supper”, in which the artist uses a photograph of the work of Leonardo Da Vinci and modifies it by adding bright colors. Michael Angle Oh! reproduces the same creative process, adding to the photograph an intense blue background, placing a brilliant moon in the sky and inserting pink splashes around the horse. Michael Angle Oh! uses and conveys photography to express deep emotions, through a sometimes dramatic style, when talking about his black and white photographs, and on the other hand exuberant, talking about the choice of subjects.
‘What ever it takes! You climb roofs, mountains, in day and nights. Your nature! Your view, with all the horsepower you have. It was not only a dream. You did it! Life! With passion and love. Swing your magic wand, in moonlight couleurs’’ (Michael Angle Oh!)
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Michael Angle Oh!
Big Horse Insania
Miki Kawai “I want you to listen to your heart and mind at all times, just as it is. By doing so, your true emotions will overflow, and by listening to them, you will find a place and a goal that is right for you. It may take time, though” (Miki Kawai) A deflagration of matter, a burst of emotions that disperses in the blink of an eye all its content, whether material or immaterial. An emotional outburst is the transposition of the most intimate part of Miki Kawai. Tired and impatient to be closed in the shell of human rationality, the soul of the artist overflowing with emotions, feelings and memories is represented on the support and is endowed with an unparalleled energy. Flecks of turquoise, teal and splashes of yellow pigment dominate the composition and the matter enclosed in Miki’s soul. Ethereal rivulets of golden straws shine in all their preciousness outlining the center of the composition and at the same time expanding outwards the thin golden filaments. The composition is purely centrifugal. Imagining An emotional outburst as a small sphere extremely dense, characterized by a heaviness that clashes with its size. Remained small and opaque for a long time, the sphere has longed more and more to burst releasing all its vital energy. The spherical body, infinitely small and sadly opaque explodes pouring into the atmosphere all its contents. The explosion is violent, it is destabilizing and yet it is liberating, saving an oppression that had lasted for too long, a very long time. The insignificant opaque pellet has been transformed, it has changed its state and is now an immense universe that finds its essence in the imperceptible shades of cerulean colors, in the golden rivulets that expand from the center towards the edges, in the dusty and whitish veils that - like water vapor - rise from the place of detonation to thin out in the atmosphere. A centrifugal composition to help the heart to release its fears and resentments, an explosion of color to remind us of the wonder and hope that is inherent in each of us, a quality so often obscured by duties and daily life. An emotional outburst is a hymn to the boundless and multifaceted reality of the human soul. It is an invitation to let go, to examine what is inside ourselves and free the overload of emotions and feelings that obscure our way. It is a warning to always listen to our most hidden self, the self that no one knows, the invisible and inscrutable part of ourselves. A long and difficult path, full of obstacles and blind spots, but which reserves, once we reach the goal, an unrepeatable lightness of being, a rediscovery of ourselves in order not to fall into oblivion.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Miki Kawai
An emotional outburst
Minja Pantić
Minja Pantić is a Serbian artist, whose artistic production belongs to the current defined informal art. The work “Multiverse-The Conception” presented at the international art exhibition “GAIA - The Origin” held by M.A.D.S. art gallery, it is an emblematic example of art disconnected from any dogma or rule. The emotional power of the work can be traced in the brushstrokes, straight, clear, fast and in the use of colors whose chromatic variations allow a tangible perception of energy. The work seems to be illuminated from the upper left corner, in fact the light colors, such as white and light gray, gradually darken until they reach black, in the opposite corner. The central element of the work is movement, observing it one feels catapulted into a vortex, a chasm, a galaxy. As for the colors, there is the light blue, a color with an important evocative power, in this work it is used to represent eternity, the perpetual beginning and end, without any conclusion. Then there is the black, the absence of color, or the combination of all colors, which gives the work a sense of mystery. The white, on the other hand, the opposite of black, reflects all the visible wavelengths of light, provides light and starts the movement of the work.The dynamism is then enhanced by the golden appearance, more present in the dark area, but a source of stillness due to the presence of two straight, parallel, immobile lines. The interpretations of the work can be many, one could imagine two strong, sure elements, which, despite the changes, remain immobile. From a figurative point of view, however, one feels immersed in a vortex of water, gold represents the sun’s rays reflecting on it.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Minja Pantić
Multiverse - The Conception
Mona Ruehle
Mona Ruehel is a German artist and although she has worked in various sectors, she never forgot her passion for art. She always continued to paint part-time, participating in numerous exhibitions, and in 2011 she opened an art studio with her own gallery. Her closeness to nature in her painting is undeniable, also since she uses little ready colors, but rather prefer to mix her paint with organic materials that have a life of their own: pigments, marble powder, sand, coal or ash from the last barbecue, salt, coffee, tea, even bitumen. This provides different densities and different gloss, some grainy, others smooth and shiny. Many of her paintings begin with a wet-on-wet technique, achieved with speed and spontaneity. “Tree of Life” reflects this way of working too. It was made, in fact, with different materials and in the artwork, we can also see different styles, techniques and gestures, such as the presence of dots, spots and dripping: a perfect mix, expertly implemented by the artist. “This colourful tree is a symbol for the awakening.” Mona Ruehle said “Enjoy the wonderful play of light that the sun creates in his branches with his leaves and fruits in bright red, pink and green tones on gold background. A brightly coloured tree that reflects the music of my heart. Gold is the colour of success, achievement and triumph and is associated with luxury, quality, value and elegance. It implies prosperity, material wealth and the power of the sun. Gold is an optimistic colour by nature. His hue is both: passionate and attention-grabbing at the same time. As an uplifting and encouraging shade, the colour gold wants the best for people. It celebrates success and motivates people to reach their potential.”. The work is in effect a hymn to life, to rebirth, to joy. The tree of life is a recurring element in various religions, mythologies and philosophies and here, Mona Ruehle gave her version. A version in which “you can lose yourself, even for just one moment.”. We are far from the geometric trees of Mondrian, from the one rich in volutes of Klimt, and from the stylized one of Keith Haring. Mona Ruehle’s version is more fairy-tale perhaps, but of very high artistic value. Gaia is joy in this work, she is hope.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Mona Ruehle
Tree of Life
Monika Gloviczki Monika Gloviczki is an artist with an incredible dynamic talent, at the international art exhibition “GAIA - The Origin” of the M.A.D.S. art gallery, she exhibited five works with an enchanting ethereal atmosphere. Monika Gloviczki’s works are reminiscent of those of the artist Helen Frankenthaler, belonging to the Color Field movement, and both attributable to abstract expressionism. “When the time comes” is a perfect representation of color field painting, it is a work characterized by bright and gaudy colors whose dominant colors are the blue and the purple, both cold colors that tend to move away from the viewer, the purple is the color of fantasy and exaltation, while blue conveys calm, tranquility, instills peace and promotes both physical and mental relaxation. The forms represented are all different, there is no coherence or figurative representation, hence the close link with abstract expressionism. “Rock and stones” is always placed within the color field painting, but in this work the shades are lighter, the colors more tenuous, the dominant colors are white and ivory white which originally is a cold color, but the hint of yellow used to create this color makes it warm. The colors used, such as gray, blue, and red are compact, rigid, just like rocks. “Genesis” was created with a totally different pictorial style, the colors used are pastel shades, the chromatic variations follow the tonal variations, the dynamism of the work is provided by the color strips in the center of the work, positioned to form an arc that starts from the upper right corner and ends just before the end of the canvas. The black spot indicates the absence of light, the beginning of a new process, the point of origin. “Infinity” stands as a work halfway between the Color Field and informal art in general, the dominant color is the blue, followed by the orange. Despite the abstraction of the work one feels projected into an unknown universe, the sense of infinity is extremely perceptible, almost tangible, engaging to the point of stimulating the need for escape, space, freedom. Finally, “Extasy” almost seems to be a mosaic, created with precious and luminous stones, despite the use of different shapes a mountain landscape is visible, in the foreground a lake. The light illuminates only a part of the painting and a small part is reflected on the water. The work promotes a sense of tranquility, thanks also to the use of blue, one feels immersed in a situation of peace and serenity.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Monika Gloviczki
Extasy
Monika Gloviczki
Genesis
Monika Gloviczki
Infinity
Monika Gloviczki
Rocks and stones
Monika Gloviczki
When the time comes
Naoyuki Watanabe
Works that tell an emotion, sometimes a feeling, sometimes a memory. Light and ethereal colors applied on white paper are at the service of creativity and intuition of Naoyuki Watanabe. The brushstroke is free, released from any restriction of form and content. Moved by the artist’s instinct, they formulate compositions that recall organic and natural elements in their structure and peculiarities. In Emotion the eye wanders through the representation, lingering on a pink-purple spot with ephemeral contours and then moving quickly to the other nearby which, in a game of osmosis receives pigment molecules from the sister first described. What is represented is an abstract and fluid world where each element is constantly changing, each stain merges into the other generating shades and contamination of color new and interesting. The comparison with the world of the infinitely small is particularly apt. We find ourselves catapulted into a spatial scale invisible to the human eye, too small to be seen except through the aid of a microscope or a magnifying glass. Emotion reminds us of the inside of a cell full of organelles intent on doing their duty. An evident reddish line - perhaps a cell membrane - is particularly evident in the upper part of the composition. Above, nothingness, emptiness and the non-visible; below, a riot of colors, shapes and sensations.
Naoyuki Watanabe
The composition, all played out in warm, natural tones, evokes something corporeal and sanguine, which goes well with the cellular similarity considered above. A cross-section of an invisible world that preserves within itself something equally imperceptible: the sensations and emotions of the human soul. That which escapes our human perception is here represented in the form of ethereal stains, ephemeral and with heterogeneous borders; it is the inner world of the artist that is instinctively exposed on the support, eluding any constraint of form. Line is an even more microscopic slice of the world. Almost as if the elements of Emotion were magnified under a microscope, in Line we find the figurative representation of tiny organic elements in all their colorful complexity. Three stripes of extremely watery pinkish color stand out against the white background of the support. They seem to be in continuous mutation, in continuous movement. Inside them, more defined stains outline the unstable shape of the three lines, giving them a structure to hold on to. Greenish clouds emerge from these small organelles represented. Perhaps clouds of cytoplasm that, by osmosis, disperse their contents outside the element. Naoyuki Watababe’s is a protected and private world, a micro-universe set in motion by its own rules, a glimpse into the invisibility of things which, through brush and aqueous pigments, return to the light.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Naoyuki Watanabe
Emotion
Naoyuki Watanabe
Line
Natalia Gleason Alcántara
Natalia Gleason Alcantara is a Mexican artist, her artistic production falls within the world of conceptual art. At the contemporary art exhibition “GAIA - The Origin” of the M.A.D.S. art gallery, she exhibits “Sentido” a work that recalls the creation of ancient amulets. The protagonist of the work is the scarab, emblem of the eternal rebirth in becoming and transformation. The scarab was widely represented in antiquity, especially in ancient Egypt where it was first associated with becoming, then it became an amulet connected to the cult of the dead. The very processing of the materials and the application of the color allows you to enter an ancient, almost ancestral world. It is a return to art as an object, a design element that transmits evocative symbols and extensions. The Italian architect and designer Gio Ponti in collaboration with the designer Nanda Vigo has created a project called “The Scarabeo Under The Leaf”, demonstrating the appeal of ancient artistic and religious iconography also in the world of architecture and design. The work is presented as an assembly of unique discs that form a hybrid between a cube and a sphere, the dynamism of the work is also expressed by the different sizes and positions of the scarabs represented. The main feature is the diversity of each face of the cube, each disc expresses and shows a different representation that can be observed individually. On every surface the scarab is highlighted, thanks to the colors and thanks to the processing.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Natalia Gleason Alcántara
Sentido
Nicholas P. Kozis
Nicholas P. Kozis presents three works at the exhibition “Gaia - The Origin” (“Harvest 1”, “Muse in the spring 2”, “Untitled artwork 23 copy 12”) from which women’s supreme beauty and grace clearly stand out. The way how women are portrayed and the symbolic role they play have changed over the centuries, thanks to the evolution of techniques, artistic styles and different aesthetic tastes. Here, the artist arrives at a concept of idealization of women, creating a perfect union with mythology. In fact, in “Harvest 1” he depicts the young woman as if she was a nature nymph or one of the Maenads or Bacchae of Dionysus/Bacchus, the god of ecstasy, dance and wine. The very nature of Dionysus is profoundly feminine, a symbol of diversity, madness and boundless pleasure: for these reasons he is one of the most fascinating and contradictory divinities in the Greek tradition. By being inspired by all this, Nicholas represents the bursting energy of nature, that vital and instinctive force that accompanies the ripe fruit until the harvest time. With her gaze, looking at infinity and a crown of vine leaves, flowers and ivy on her head, her long hair seems to be moved by a light summer breeze which caresses her back. The artist emphasizes the divine and sensual aspects of the young woman, and the viewer can admire all her genuineness and carefree attitude. Instead, in “Muse in the Spring 2”, the concept of divinity refers to the ideal of Art, understood as the truth of the “All”, or rather as the “eternal magnificence of the divine”. Initially, the muses were worshipped as nymphs of the springs and personifications of the waters flowing from underground or from mountain slopes. In this work, the artist depicts the woman immersed and surrounded by nature, emphasizing her sensuality through the curvy lines of her body. As a source of inspiration, an angelic and mysterious presence, this muse bewitches the viewer and invites him/her to participate and welcome the spring. The flower she holds in her hand, lightly caressing her back, underlines her task of awakening nature and bringing harmony and peace. Here, green is undoubtedly reminiscent of the environment and of hope, yellow reminds the warm light of the sun, while red best represents the strong passion and the indomitable desire to emerge again from her winter torpor. Finally, in “Untitled artwork 23 copy 12”, recalling “The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli, Nicholas highlights the great naturalness and peacefulness of the goddess, in her common pose, as if she was a Greek sculpture, enhancing the movement of her body. The modesty and purity of the young woman come together, and they are in stark contrast with the two-tone and mysterious background. Her movements follow those of the green brushstrokes, which give dynamism to the whole work.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Nicholas P. Kozis
Harvest 1
Nicholas P. Kozis
Muse in the spring 2
Nicholas P. Kozis
Untitled artwork 23 copy 12
Nicola Hallman “The Goddess does not rule the world; She is the world.” (Starhawk)
The female body, due to its generating force, has always been associated with a symbol of life. Personification of Nature, mother of all living creatures and mother of the universe is, and always has been, a source of inspiration for artists of every historical era. Theme constantly reinterpreted over the centuries. Nicola Hallman, an English artist, makes the female body the fulcrum of her artistic research, transforming it into a vibrant and luminous essence. Color, studied in all its forms, becomes the expressive means par excellence, transforming each subject she portrays into pure celestial matter. The woman becomes, in her simple beauty, an otherworldly and divine being. In “Lucy”, brushstrokes with a dynamic flavor unfold along the canvas, describing the characteristic soft shapes of a female body, in a figurative language with a strong visual impact. A naked-bodied woman, sitting on her heels, touches her face as she drops her head back, savoring her body in a moment of complete ecstasy. The colors used occupy the entire chromatic range, transcending the reality of the subject to take it to another dimension, where the pleasure of intimacy and self-discovery become the perfect place to live. A journey into the inner universe of the female body, so beautiful and so varied in its shapes and details. In Nicola Hallman’s work, the woman becomes a goddess, beautiful in her forms and in her authenticity.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Nicola Hallman
Lucy
Nicolas Durocher-Yvon “This is a world where things mix and intermingle, where nothing stays in its place. It is a world where animal, plant, machine, and human unite and commingle. We have to ask ourselves, if it is so hard to figure out where one thing starts and another ends, can we really continue to believe in the barriers that separate us.” (Patricia Piccinini)
The artist Nicolas Durocher-Yvon did for the art exhibition “Gaia. The origin”, organized by M.A.D.S. art gallery, an impressive work named “Gaia: the mother of the sea”, made with such a skill that does not represent his young age. This artwork is a metaphorical depiction of Gaia and ‘her’ role as the goddess of Earth, that is a powerful, yet wise being. The content of the work is particularly focused on the element of water and on the immensity on the seas and oceans, that are personified by the light blue eternal baby, which is unpredictable yet calm, old yet forever permanent in its form, cradled in the arms of the mighty animal. The baby drinks from the teat of the figure alluding to the sense of a mother nourishing her own oceans, which it will forever hold. The realistic accumulation of detailed folds and realistic details of the skin make the work of art particularly alive. It takes a three-dimensional form that only a sculpture can have, recalling the works of Patricia Piccinini, who in turn represents the border between human and animal, between nature and artifice, between mortal and immortal, through the figure of the monkey. This figure appears alien to us, but familiar at the same time. The irony of this work is that the ocean is depicted in human form, the very entity that poisons it daily. With this allegorical figure, the artist wants to sensitize the observer on an environmental issue of fundamental importance and sensitivity, identifying a natural element such as water, in a small, docile, mortal, and finite human.
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Nicolas Durocher-Yvon
Gaia: The Mother and the Sea
Nicoleta Eiden
In occasion of international art exhibition Gaia, the origin, the artist Nicoleta Eiden presented the artwork called Last Victory. Starting from the technique used for the colours: they seem to not want to be definite, they don’t want to fill the figures, they stay on the canvas to evocate an imaginary moment. This technique used emind the carvings on the caves, as the artwork is an image of the art seen in an ancestral way. Also this technique fit well with the team of the battles, and the victor which referred to the painting. In fact the protagonist of the story told by the artist is the figures put on an horned animal triumphantly. He seems to be wound but proud and alive. This moving image impresses the observer because the face of the warlord wasn’t defined, this characteristic means that everyone could personify the protagonist of the painting. As the artist says: <<I like this painting a lot, even its size, it`s very special to me. This is my life on a canvas. It has a message that no matter the battles, I still stand my ground, and I have won over whatever lifes throw my way>>. The artwork created by the artist Nicoleta Eiden is a gift for the viewers because it is a message of strength and hope for the moment in which you can feel to be wounded. Last victory does not mean that to be strong you need to hide traces of wounds. But the real victory it’s to show them proudly. Referring to the concept of the exhibition, this painting fits really well, because the image of Gaia the mother earth reflects a lot the image of the warlord on the animal. This one in fact could also represent << the mother earth, still stands strong and glorious, no matter what.>>, as the artist affirmed. In the end the painting is the representation of the battles and the victory. What better synthesis to talk about the history of the world?
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Nicoleta Eiden
Last Victory
Nike Nordevik
The laws of true artistic creation are the laws of spiritual creation and by realizing their works, artists undertake a work of inner regeneration in their efforts toward perfection. In the past, many artists sought a way to rise to the higher reasons of forms, colors, sounds. When they were able to express in their works what they had received in the course of their meditations, of their contemplations, they acted on human beings inspiring in them the desire to take the same path to the heights. The spirituality of peoples has always been expressed with pictorial and sculptural images that formalized the abstract concepts of a cult or mystical feeling, concretizing them in images mainly allegorical but also symbolic. Nike Nordevik, through her works, intends to establish her home in the realm of spirituality.
Nike Nordevik
The artist leads the viewer to reflect on the “inner sound” of shapes and colors, immersing it in the depths of a magical world, performing a real synesthesia exercise. The artist in her works proposes a precise classification of colors and distinguishes first between warm and cold colors. The warm colors seem to approach the viewer, the cold ones move away. Yellow is the color of the earth and the surface, the blue of the sky and depth. If yellow has the sound of a high note, blue is like a flute and blue has the voice of a cello. The white is the silent stillness, rich of potentials, the nothingness that is before every origin. This is how “Embrace” and “Transition”, through infinite combinations of colors, constitute the inexhaustibility of figurative art and make possible new pictorial symphonies.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo
Nike Nordevik
Embrace
Nike Nordevik
Transition
Niliam Say
The use of painting corresponds to an idea of simplicity, an essential passage that finds its measure in the sign and the sign corresponds to the time of a discharge of energy, which is repeated, never equal. The act of painting carries the work at the mercy of nature and, at the mercy of this rhythm, it is as if the work is generated by entering, in turn, in conflict with gestures of the artist. The process, the act, translates into a language that takes precedence over its individuality, so the shapeless figures, most evident in a work emerge. The signs can never be identical because they are the result of different contingencies, of various combinations and of energies that manifest themselves between the becoming of the gesture at the same time as the encounter of the sign with the design of nature.
Niliam Say
This semiotic philosophy inspires Niliam Say who, through the use of painting, listens to her emotions, the surrounding environment, colors, flows and contrasting lines. A creative act, that of the artist, that appears visually abstract and that gives lightness and bidimensionity to her works “Fource of Nature” and “Colorful Coral”. Indistinct shapes that come to life in a trend that approaches and removes curved lines and produces plastic sensations.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo
Niliam Say
Colorful Coral
Niliam Say
Force of Nature
Nina Enger “The more sensitive the soul of the contemplator is, the more he/she gets himself/herself lulled by the ecstasy aroused in him/her by this harmony of nature. A sweet and profound fantasy that takes possession of his/her senses. All individual objects escape from him/her and he/she sees and hears nothing but the whole.” (J. J. Rousseau) The artist Nina Enger draws her inspiration from the unspoilt natural environment, extracting what strikes her most, both perceptually and sensorially. Every gift that nature offers carries positive energy, lifeblood that emanates light and radiates the surrounding atmosphere. The artist has the interest and the will to renew landscape painting by getting closer and closer to a realistic representation, evoking all kinds of suggestions in an exceptional way. She immerses herself in the freshness and liveliness of her palette, highlighting the rendering of the luminous and expressive effects represented. The realistic depiction of the light, the solid plastic construction and the authenticity of the composition reflect the intention to translate into reality as it presents itself to the eye of the observer. In these naturalistic works, which veer more towards a Realism typical of Corot and Courbet, the theme of the forest is a reference to a dimension that is both fantastic and as truthful as possible, where everything is realized in a weave of colors and shapes. Places of enchantment, magic and mystery, turn out to be the typical setting of many fairy tales and legends: through an idyllic and marvelous landscape, forests host characters such as elves, fairies, giants and other mythical creatures. Just as in “Fairytale”, the enchantment expresses by this nature evokes the memory and reworks the imagination of the artist: in this context, the eye of reason as well as the eye of the heart, the depiction of each element and its interpretation come together. Moreover, it is an invitation to give free rein to the imagination, so as to allow oneself to be transported into an extraordinary, unexpected universe, by reaching the point of a magical, unique experience. In “Waterfall”, on the other hand, the rocky aspect is linked to the wooded one, consisting of a rich variety of greens and browns that outline the profiles of the centuries-old trees and shrubs. The presence of the waterfall emphasizes the intimate, emotional and profound transport of the viewer’s soul, as if one could actually hear the sound of flowing water. While in “Sunset” every brushstroke is connected in a close contact between art, plant environment and feelings: in fact, the warm and orange tones of this canvas arouse harmony and serenity and provide a cure to the viewer from a world full of difficulties. By expressing what she feels, the artist gives voice to her feelings through a personal aesthetic to be shared with those watching her works. In the other two works, “Inspiration” and “On the brink of transformation”, Nina Enger’s huge passion for the beauty of her surroundings continues to attract her, making her to represent naturalistic themes, but with an approach that closely aligns with the abstraction traits. An intense source of light and vital energy emerges from both the painting surfaces. Her artistic conception focuses more on the scanning of the space, where the many different nuances highlight the mystical dimension of the places shown on the canvases. The abstract and almost surreal style is emphasized by the use of such bright colors that give depth to the two paintings. By creating a link between the earthly and the celestial spheres, between the physical and the spiritual, between darkness and light, Nina Enger reaches the point to explore the infinite.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Nina Enger
Fairytale
Nina Enger
Inspiration
Nina Enger
On the brink of transformation
Nina Enger
Sunset
Nina Enger
Waterfall
Nora Kalinda “There is a book that is always open for all eyes: nature” (Jean-Jacques Rousseau) Nora’s work “Primavera” is a perfect composition, created from all the elements of nature. In her work, the artist outlines the main aspects of the season to which the work is dedicated, the flowering is visible, the blue sky, there is no lack of elements of great value such as water, the center of all existence of living beings . Nora is capable to creating a perfectly balanced work, in which all the elements of nature live in total harmony, guarded by an all-knowing and all-seeing eye. Undoubtedly, meeting the work of the artist Nora means experiencing a moment of joy, she tells us about nature in the period of maximum splendor, she shows us a moment of rebirth and positivity. In a historical period like the one we are experiencing, Nora’s work acquires great emotional value for the viewer. The bright and bright colors, the feeling of joy and freedom that the work arouses is a gift for the observer. Color is the great protagonist together with the gesture, the movement of the artist’s hands is perceived, a gesture driven by instinct, the brushstrokes are decisive and stand out with decision. Some figures remain well impressed in the mind, such as large flowers or drops of water, bringing back memories and lost sensations. Nora’s work recalls Rousseau’s “primitivism”, in which the viewer was often bewitched by the dreamlike beauty of nature, the same sensation is felt in front of Nora’s “Primavera”, one is fascinated by a nature that is not too real , but surreal. In fact, Nora gives us a ticket for a journey to discover the unconscious, sleeping memories and the primitive beauty of wild nature. The spectator just has to free himself from very specific mental schemes, to let himself be transported on a path that ends with the extreme knowledge of Gaia, Mother Earth.
Art Curator Vanessa Viti
Nora Kalinda
Primavera
Ohood Abdulaziz
“Redemption 2020” is the painting presented at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery during ‘Gaia: the origin’ exhibition by Ohood Abdulaziz. Dynamic in its forms and in giving the brushstrokes, this painting can be read as the process of Earth’s creation. Not a human being, but a process that includes a concept is Ohood’s interpretation of Gaia. Few soft colours compose the scene: white and pink, each of them with their nuances. The effect caused by the trickled acrylic, in the low part of the piece, can be read as the consequence of the efforts by the semi-circle. The main character of the scene is, in fact, the geometrical figure at the centre of the canvas, that can allude, to the centre of the Earth and so, symbolize the eye from which everything is observed and generated. The clear and almost undefined background calls to mind the universe, with its atmospherically and magnificent effects. The will to use the pink colour, above all, can explain the artist’s will to give more emphasis to the women’s importance and their role, not only in the real world but in the whole universe, just as Mother Earth deserves. It is precisely from Her, Mother Earth, that light comes out, illuminating the whole scene. However, it seems as if the artist herself would like to emphasise the importance of long for the best and, in the painting this is given by the beans that seems to pour out of the canvas. An artwork of positiviy and hope, is what Ohood creates.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
Ohood Abdulaziz
Redemption 2020
Outi Hägg
Outi Hägg is a Finnish painter. After her career in business and in the academy, she started to pursue her art making full-time. “For me art and life are one and the same.”, the artist said, “Art making gives me joy, which evolves from my heart. I start my painting process boldly and I´m not afraid of a blank canvas. I activate the canvas by making marks, in that way I´m able to catch up my own rhythm. At the beginning I paint intuitively. I let myself enter into the liminal phase, to the edge of The Unknown where I have the feeling that I´m lost, confused and insecure. I focus on the process. The key out of the liminality is to continue painting, not thinking. This is the turning point and the way to an inner assurance. Later I stop and I hang the paintings on the wall and start to look at them, sometimes hours, sometimes weeks or months. Literally, I take distance. Then I start to analyze what to do next, what moves I shall take. I start to create order out of chaos. Therefore, my paintings are constantly in an ongoing change. Each painting process is an exploratory study. This means that scarcely anything is known about the emerging piece and that´s why it is pointless to make any detailed plans beforehand. The interaction between intuition, emotions and mind is an integral part of my painting process. - If my art is able to evoke your mind, it has fulfilled the purpose.” For these reasons the three artworks presented by Outi Hägg for “Gaia – The Origin” have different colors and styles. The artist shows in this way her creative ability, and she also shows that she doesn’t tend to always repeat shapes, strokes and colors she knows, but she spaces and experiments. It is a feature that not all artists have. Behind the artwork “Look at Red Trees!” there is a story about Outi Hägg as a child, or rather, a story that begins with Outi Hägg as a child and ends with full self-awareness. It is also a story of redemption in reality. “In my childhood I had a dream to become a painter. My first day at school was an epoch-making event in my life history. During the school day I made a painting in flow. I didn´t think anything, I let my brush to dance and my mind to wander. It was in September and all the trees were yellow, orange and red. Then my teacher, 67 years old lady, came to me and said:” Oh dear child, don´t you know that there are no red trees on earth!” – I was shocked and at that moment I lost myself for years. I asked myself time and time again “Who am I?” and “Where am I going?” Finally, I found a gate within myself although it was almost invisible. Finally, I am following my path, my dharma. No one can stop me anymore. Look at Red Trees!” The branches of the 2 trees are both made with quick, intuitive and inspired hand gestures, but, while the tree on the right reminds us more the “Action Painting” of Pollock, the left one, in its chaos appears, paradoxically, more orderly, less free. In “Wanderers”, the Finnish artist expressed herself in a style closer to geometric abstraction, and yet, clearly different. We can find symmetry and order in this work of Outi Hägg, both in the forms, in the dimensions, and in the colors. In the three filiform elements on the left, I see three dandelions; more precisely, three dandelion clocks, since they, blown away from the plant, fly, wanderers, among the fields. As for “Beloved by Nature” the artist said: “I feel that my life stems from the soil and the sand, from the lakes, rocks and vast marshes of my country. In my heart I carry the horror of the polar night´s complete darkness and the breathtaking lightness of the summer. From these contrasts I derive my endless strength and my untamed nature. Beloved by Nature describes my feeling: I am loved by Mother Nature. This is the foundational element in my art.”. “Beloved by nature” is, to all intents and purposes, the hymn of Outi Hägg towards Gaia, the Mother earth, the whole nature. In all three works the artist has shown, without veils, a little of herself and of her facets, but mostly her relationship with Gaia.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Outi Hägg
Beloved by Nature
Outi Hägg
Look at Red Trees!
Outi Hägg
Wanderers
OX’Art. Margaux Laneyrie “The vertigo is confined there. The form flies and yet seems heavy. On the one hand, it tends to extricate itself, to fly away, and on the other to come and get us. Like and feel like a faint, where personally, the artist wants as much to remain in total fullness of body and mind as to escape from them, so heavy is the psycho-physical discomfort” (OX’Art. Margaux Laneirye)
“First Space Flight” is the painting with which the artist Margaux Laneirye, in art OX’Art, takes part in ‘Gaia: the origin’ exhibition in M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, giving her interpretation of such an iconographic theme. Following her dancing movement, the artist is driven, in the making process, by her emotions and her feelings. Performed live during a plastico-choreographic performance for the Festiv’Arts (Street Art Festival), in Grenoble, this work was conceived on the “Arrival of the birds” sound of the Cinematic Orchestra, in the open air, a month of April under a strong crossing wind, pushing and making the body of OX’Art twirl on the canvas stage, initially immaculate. Dizziness is OX’Art’ driving force and her paintings are the artistic result. Concerning the concept of the exhibition, “First Space Flight” reflects the final process of creation, in which Earth has already been created and it is represented in all its splendour. Luminous and brilliant colours are here used to better define the silhouette of the black and stylised figure that resembles a flower with long petals. The coat of paint used by the artist, while performing, gives to the scene a sensation of movement. A dynamic scene that seems to include and attract the viewers’ attention. A hypnotic scene is what puts in contact OX’Art’s way of creating with the theme of its painting. Fluidity and softness are the two adjectives that better describe “First Space Flight”, a piece wellfinished and that gives the idea of a peaceful and luminous start.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
OX’Art. Margaux Laneyrie
First Space Flight
Painter Kuro
The advent of the idea is an instinctive moment, a gesture that follows an ancestral energy that leads the artist to apply the color on the canvas layer upon layer, form upon form. Painter Kuro listens to the sound of the epiphany of the creative process, analyzes it and translates it into visible elements that will flood the canvas with meaning. There are many reasons why a person is driven to paint but the origin of the activity must be placed essentially in the need to communicate. The human being needs to develop a form of communication whether it is through speech, writing or art. Each of these activities, although they are very different mediums, responds to the need of man to tell feelings, to relive emotions or even to indelibly stop a memory that one day, perhaps not too far away, could disappear. The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake with epicenter in the sea in Japan is here interpreted in Painter Kuro’s works. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake (in the Miyagi prefecture) and the subsequent tsunami struck the country with unprecedented force: the damage was devastating and too many lives were broken and missing on that black day in the history of Japan. Painter Kuro brings to mind that devastating day, those agitated moments in which after the earthquake alert followed the tsunami alert, and the danger of damage to the reactors of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. It’s all here, in the artist’s paintings, all decoded through the use of brush and color. In Tsunami 3.11 2011, color and form are at the service of recording the tragic event which, in Painter Kuro’s mind, has been transformed into abstract elements, a work of distillation that has led the artist to act energetically on the support.
Painter Kuro
On a black background stands out a golden geometric line. A brushstroke that almost seems to create a bright and shiny square at the center of the composition. Yet, the rigor of the geometry is abandoned, it is dirtied and cancelled by the advent of blue spots and streaks that literally flood the composition cancelling what was first drawn. Blue takes the place of gold, the heterogeneous and instinctive stains take the place of the composed quadrangular line below. Looking at the painting we can see, even for a moment, the destructive power of nature that on that day struck the coast of Japan, we can glimpse the despair and suffering, the disbelief and the desire to express their pain after exactly ten years. Blue requiescat is a profound work, a prayer of eternal rest for the people who are no longer with us. The whole composition is played on the tones of blue: sometimes it turns into white, sometimes into olive green and yet the pigment used is so intense, the spots of color are so prominent that they impress themselves in the mind of the viewer, to be participants in the prayer of our dead. The pain cannot be erased, the broken lives and devastation cannot be erased either. There is nothing left to do but remember, to carry that black day inside ourselves forever. Painter Kuro knows this: art has become a tool in the service of his memory and the act of painting is basically a wonderful way to express the painful images imprinted in his mind, to narrate those agitated moments and to remove - at least a little bit - that weight in the soul that such a great devastation can create inside a human being.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Painter Kuro
Blue Requiescat
Painter Kuro
I Remember
Painter Kuro
Noface Woman
Painter Kuro
Tsunami 3.11.2011
Päivi Hakanen
Päivi Hakanen is a visual artist based in Helsinki, Finland. She graduated as a Bacherol of Culture and Arts, specializing in Graphic Design. For the last few years, she has worked as an illustrator and she is also a hobby photographer. Over the years Päivi Hakanen has experimented with different mediums, techniques and styles, but lately she has become more and more attracted to abstract expression. ”I enjoy the intuitive process,” the artist says, “the movement, brushstrokes, overlapping layers, the built-up paint. It´s all about capturing the moment, feelings and the atmosphere. I like simplicity, harmony and the sense of balance. Unlike many other artists my colour palette is often very limited and subtle. I love the natural light and the way it dances across the canvas.”. The particular color rendering creates a truly remarkable optical effect. The brushstrokes of colors seem to expand or, better, emerge, from the canvas to the viewer; they seem to want to escape and create a new spatiality. The black and white of the canvas, opposite colors par excellence, in Päivi Hakanen’s work do not fight each other, but harmoniously come together to create grey. Clearly showing her desire to overcome the object representation, she allows the brushstrokes to be intrinsic to each other on the canvas, freely and complementally expressing the outer and inner world. As for inspiration, the Finnish artist says: ”For me, nature is an endless source of inspiration; finding beauty, peace, and hidden messages. I pay attention in the tiny details: textures, shapes, patterns, colours and light. Everything is always moving, growing and changing.” In “Emerging” we can see this movement, this dynamism, but at the same time we can also see the calm, the harmony. “Emerging” is a complete work, it contains the two essences of Gaia: the vital force, generating, changing, and the one full of peace, balanced, harmonious. Gaia is this, she is equilibrium.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Päivi Hakanen
Emerging
Pamela Ekström “The truth lies not in one dream but in many dreams” (Pier Paolo Pasolini) <<The truth lies not in one dream but in many dreams>> This phrase made by Pier Paolo Pasolini is the better way to introduce the artworks created by the artist Pamela Ekström. In occasion of international art exhibition Gaia the artist Pamela Ekström presented three artworks called Evolution, Transformation and House of Aya. To understand her personal way to intend and produce art could be very interesting to investigate into the aesthetic movement of surrealism. Breton, Dalì, Magritte, Miró, all artists who used the technique surrealist, that consist in a transposition on the canvas of a dreamlike word in which every symbol used remained metaphorically to other meanings. Surrealism wants to break with the traditional art that wants to represent the word like to reality. They want to express new meaning with new language. As the artist Pamela Ekström says: <<I started by studying realism and moved into surrealism and magic art, incorporating life’s lessons as philosophical sign posts to elevate consciousness. I believe in impossible dreams and having a visual window helps materialize them>>. The painting evolution and other ones presented at the exhibition wants to tell us about this visual window. A dreamlike word, in which some elements and symbols reveal a personal truth about life. The message and the truth that wants to deliver us the painting Evolution for example is about the predominant characteristic of nature: evolution. Dividing the painting in three parts: from the left the two images of the woman and the dragon could be a citation to the apocalypse in which the dragon symbolizes the Evil, a threat and the woman the maternity image. In the middle of the canvas, the colours and shapes used could remind the beauty of nature and in the last part could be seen as a shadow of a human person that maybe could represent humanity. An element that comes back often in the painting of Pamela is the symbol of the planets. As she says those ones remained object desired. In fact they could be seen in the other two paintings House of Aya and also in Transformation. This means that the imaginary created in the paintings could present many similarities. As happens in a dream, which, while not repeating itself the same, retains truths that are revealed in analogous symbols. In fact also in Transformation the planets all those things that we want to do, as tell us this last part described, and the way humans used and transformed nature to create what they have desire. To come back to the consideration of Pier Paolo Pasolini to understand the message of the artist we have to consider the whole work, and the whole world outside the window of the canvas.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Pamela Ekström
Evolution
Pamela Ekström
House of Aya
Pamela Ekström
Transformation
Paméla Pinard
Paméla Pinard is a Canadian artist who always shows great versatility in her works. The piece presented “Pétillante médulle” was created using various techniques and it’s inspired by nature. The work made on wood is composed of a background made entirely of plaster and in the center, we find a bright and abstract material as the deepest part of an element. It’s surrounded by cavities and reliefs that incorporate the plaster, incorporating dried objects and petals. What the artist wants to represent is a mysterious substance, like an essential and profound core of a life. The use of natural elements such as petals, emphasizes even more the reference to the earth; a creative process within the microscopic universe that generates nature and the vegetal world. The viewers will find theirselves immersed in a luminous fulcrum, made of light and delicate details. The artist’s intimate relationship with nature is what characterizes her art, always seeking the deepest heart of every wonderful material that generate our earth. The figurative art combined with the abstract part, recall that vital energy that connects everything, making the work particular and intimate at the same time.
“Nature is not a place to visit. it is our home.” (Gary Snyder)
Art Curator Elita Borgogelli
Paméla Pinard
Pétillante médulle
Paola Hüller “The Image is more than an idea. It is a vortex or cluster of fused ideas and is endowed with energy.” (Ezra Pound)
“It’s the colour that caught me” affirm Paola Hüller, an Italian artist who works with abstract art. With a strong fascination for the canvas, through colours Paola Hüller leaves a piece of herself on the white and immaculate start. In lights of this, guided by the colours, Paola Hüller found a way to deepen the encaustic painting – the used method has his roots in the ancient times; this technique consists out of diluting the colours with melted wax; the painting, then, is heated to let the wax enter into the diluted colours, resulting in more brightness and power visible in the image. In her artwork, the artist is in search for a strong connection with nature around her; subsequently this led her to choose natural materials in order to underline a primordial relation. Paola Hüller finds inspiration in pure materials, as natural pigments. She combines pigments with wax, precious stones, resins and fire. Because of this combination the artist creates a 3D view in her paintings. The result of this work are whirlpools of colours and spirals that mirror the movement of the nature. In addition, the use of bronze, gold and silver makes her canvas chameleonic: the lights, that deposit itself on the colours, unique in theirs shades, gives to the painting a dynamic and changeable character. When natural light hits the colours of the painting, they will illuminate and show chameleonic features. Therefore, the painting portrays a unique and dynamic character. Also visible on the artwork of Paola Hüller, are short phrases and small drawings. They represent a message that is blown up into the air by the whirlpool, where they are hidden, hence the title “message in a bottle”.
Art Curator Manuela Fratar
Paola Hüller
Messaggio nella bottiglia n.159
Paola Hüller
Messaggio nella bottiglia n.161
Paola Hüller
Messaggio nella bottiglia n.165
Pascie “Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” (Buddha)
Pascie is a highly original and creative painter. A complete artist, painter, performer and experimenter. He does not limit himself to a single artistic vision but experiments with different relationships, creative opportunities, impulses that are still unknown. He explores all possible artistic combinations, explores the unknown and the unexpected. Creating often means taking risks, being bold and courageous, going beyond what you already know and exploring new worlds. Pascie’s art is certainly very bold. He has countless sources of inspiration that touch on various areas of art, music, film and photography. All these references are clearly evident in his works, which are never banal but always original. In his work “Prehistoric” Pascie recreates a balanced composition that refers to the historical moment of prehistory. Acrylic paints the canvas with bright and strong colours. Primary colours such as yellow, red and blue refer again to that primordial era ended by the introduction of novelties such as writing, agriculture, and the exploitation of nature by man to satisfy his needs. The colour yellow explodes in the centre like a glimmer of hope, novelty and transformation. The composition, although instinctive, is well thought out in terms of colour combination. The colours grab the attention of the viewer who cannot take his eyes off the powerful and energetic colour gradations. In his work “Active Ajna” there is a reference to the seven chakras, the energy centres in our bodies that are responsible for collecting, channelling and releasing the vital energy that surrounds us. The Ajna is the sixth chakra, the third eye chakra, and is identified with the colour indigo, which predominates in this composition. Man is absorbed by this vortex of colours, just as the task of the chakras is to absorb universal energy. Ajna is linked to intuition, imagination, light. It balances itself by nourishing the human soul spiritually. Pascie with this brightly coloured abstract composition invites the viewer to reflect on his spiritual health, allowing him to create a deep connection with the artwork. In the quatreptych “Harmonusiastic” the dominant colour is blue, in all its shades. Colour has a profound impact on the human psyche and soul. Blue is left free to express itself on the canvas, to slip, layer, drip, create new compositions. The structure of the work appears harmonious and balanced. Pascie conveys this sense of peace by using colour as if it were water. The abstract and eclectic forms that come into being are familiar to the viewer but are not figurative. Free of all constraints, blue paints the white canvas. The artist is constantly collecting experiences in an inner world, also associating them with the impulses he receives from the outside world and from nature. Pascie’s very free abstract painting reveals his constant and insatiable need to explore, to know, to go further. And he invites the viewer to do the same, to ask questions, to look inside himself. It is necessary to experiment, to know, to research. Human experience must not be limited and art, in all its forms, helps us to free our souls and find ourselves again.
“The most personal is the most creative.” (Martin Scorsese)
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Pascie
Active Ajna
Pascie
Harmonusiastic
Pascie
Prehistoric
Pato Reichler ‘I believe that having the land and not ruining it is the most beautiful form of art you could wish for.’’ (Andy Warhol) ‘’Alma De la Tierra’’, artwork of the artist Pato Reichler, shows us the secret essence of the primordial spirit of Gaia. The work presented is a round picture, in which a mythical figure from the female appearance is shown, who with a gentle pose blooms her branches that branch out in the space harmoniously. According to an iconographical analysis we catch in the features of the subject some vegetal semblances. Specifically the figure shown is a tree that comes from the earth, it gets nourishment from it, it raises towards the sky and spreads its fruits in the wind. The hystory of art teaches us as that to the figure of tree are linked many allegories, whose interpretations were influenced by the cultural and religious context in which these were developed. In this case the subject painted, that reminds a mythical figure, represents the soul of the Earth, the universal soul from which all originated. Since the Paleolithic, Mother Earth was venerated as a flourishing goddess, symbol of fertility and life. This is visible in some finds of venereal statuettes, in which the female organs were conspicuous. Following the course of history, we have an evolution of this thouth also in the Greek culture and then in the Roman culture. This refears to the studies of cosmogony, concerning the creation and the evolution of the Earth, occurred at the hands of Gea, Mother Earth that, bearing Uranus, god of Sky, comes together with him and generates the sea, the mountains, the rivers and other pagan gods. On a graphic level this is attested by Athenian decorations, retracting a matron woman who emerges from the earth showing just half body. Also in the next mosaics, in which the goddess is depicted lying on the floor, and she is surrounded by carpi (childlike divinities), and by symbols that refear to fertility. This pose is certanly a start point, a model for all the next venereal potrayals that stream in the course of history of art. In the artwork ‘’Alma de la Tierra’’ we read an evolution of this concept given by the attitude of subject, erect, but at the same time kneeling, to disclose the act of kindness that the goddess offers to us. The body movement goes on to the extension of the superior limbs ahead, and ends in the overlapping hands, in a convex form, in token of offer, that infinite present that the Earth gives us from even and ever: the Life. Looking beyond the central figure, it is clear to understand how the interpretation of the work develops in a round way. The flourishing goddess represents the central heart from which the creative energy diffuses and invests the surrounding reality. The wonders of the universe that belong us are bored from this energy. These are the pieces of life that the artist decides to insert directly in the composition in the form of rocky residues that, as leaf of a tree, dance freely following the vital moving. The central perspective is broken, disjointed, it is set free, and becomes a round, infinitive aerial perspective. This reading is symbol of an attention of the artist towards to the Oriental culture. It can be inferred from the chromatic choice for use of pure and natural colours, that belong to both the earth and the evanescence of the sky. The attention for the details of the flower-patterned dress is a clear homage to the Japan culture, on which we read the morphology of the peach-blossom, symbols of protection and prosperity. The soft, flexuous, clear and essential sign, reminds the efficient semplicity of the Oriental figuration, in which every element of the composition joins in a choral way to the round building of the artwork. This reading is highlight by the choice of a round base, and this form in the Japan calligraphy is symbol of illumination, of force, of universe. In the Buddhism the cicle, called ‘’Endo’’, is a moment in which the mind is free to let go the free creative body-soul. The artwork is holder of a double meaning. The first is the manifestation of Alma in its maximum brightness, that turns to us in an humble way, depriving itself of its fruits and giving us all its gratitude. The second is a recall looked directly to the man, to the human figure hidden by the vegetal look, but that reminds a feeling that everyone should have towards the mother nature: gratitude. The artist puts us in front of a mirror in which each of us must reflect, paying homage to the Life in which we participate every day, and without which we could not exist.
Art Curator Alessia di Martino
Pato Reichler
Alma de la Tierra
Patricia Denis Titeica
The artist Patricia Denis Titeica joins “Gaia: the origin” exhibition, presenting at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery the series of her interpretation of the four seasons. As the artist herself affirms, the pieces are the realization of her dreams and her desire to run and walk in the middle of a seasonal landscape. The choice of exhibiting these artworks can be considered close to the exhibition’s concept. The connection between Nature, its different atmosphere - that changes from a season to another - and its colours are guided by the young, and almost Divine lady who can be read as the personification of Gaia. Watching at the single paintings, what suddenly stands out are the colours that clearly emphasise the atmosphere. Cold colours are used for “Running Towards Autumn” and “Dreaming of Summer” in which the red and the different hues of brown and green are the main ones.
Patricia Denis Titeica
Recalling each other, a passionate heath is what can be felt by watching them. Hotter and softer are, instead the colours used for the representation of winter and spring, relatively in “Within a Winter Night Warmth” and “Spring Blooming”. Every single piece well defined, shows Patrcia’s attention to particulars and details, both for the elements that compose the environment and the perfect features of the ladies and also main character of the painting. What is also important in the artist’s way of painting is her ability to create a dynamic scene, in which the young woman, at the center of it, moves with elegance. It seems as everything has already been lived and then, through the artistic act, set-up.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
Patricia Denis Titeica
Dreaming of Summer
Patricia Denis Titeica
Running Towards Autumn
Patricia Denis Titeica
Spring Blooming
Patricia Denis Titeica
Within a Winter Night Warmth
Patricia Langrand
“Drawing is not what one sees, but what one can make others see” starting from the quote of the French painter Edgar Degas, one of the most famous and successful painters of the first half of the twentieth century, I would like to analyze the artworks of Patricia Langrand. The production of the Paris-based French artist is characterized by a use of colors and shapes declined with extreme expertise and attention. These have become her distinctive feature, her signature, the work is in fact never just an external representation of the world but often includes an inner look, it is a restitution of the artist’s being. On the occasion of the exhibition “Gaia the Origin” five works of the artist are presented; they are linked by the use of a palette of colors ranging from yellow, red, green up to more decisive notes of blue and gray and by a pastiness given to the shades that makes them somehow alive. The use of repeated patterns such as spirals or geometric shapes help to generate a pleasant aesthetic restitution, each work is then deeply different depending on the colors that are used and how they are spread on the canvas. “At the beginning, the beating heart of the earth”, “At the beginning, 4 elements” and “And the flowers were born” are characterized by a materiality and a specific dimension for each canvas; although the motif is taken up almost unchanged in all three works, these differ in the contrast generated by the different backgrounds and colors of the spirals, providing each a different mood. The remaining canvas of the artist, namely “From darkness the colors sprang up” and “The origin of colors”, are characterized by a set of geometric shapes that stand out from the background as if they were different visual planes that intersect each other. Each artwork of Patricia Langrand is therefore an unexpected discovery, a continuous and never static dialogue with both the colors and the canvas.
Art Curator Anna Panizza
Patricia Langrand
And the flowers were born
Patricia Langrand
At the beginning, 4 elements
Patricia Langrand
At the beginning, the beating heart of the earth
Patricia Langrand
From darkness the colors sprang up
Patricia Langrand
The origin of colors
Patricia Sartori “Choose only one master - nature.” (Rembrandt)
Horizontal lines, splashes of color that slide downwards, intertwining and pushing themselves into space, in a dance between depth and two-dimensionality. This is Patricia Sartori’s work, an artist from Belgium, whose artistic research develops around the gestures of abstract expressionism, also influenced by the precision of the world of graphic design. In “Tribute to Gaia”, greens and yellows with acid shades collide, blend and merge into each other, creating plays of visual balance. Horizontal lines cross the painting from one side to the other, giving fast rhythms and vibrations. Inspired by her native country, Brazil, Sartori creates a work that shows evident links with nature and its vital energy. An explosive vegetation, where the sun and water are the fundamental elements for survival and, thanks to which, we can enjoy the scents and wonders of the Earth. Flowering trees, swollen in their foliage, crystal clear rivers and streams in the humid air of the forests. Organized dynamic forms are arranged in space, creating a sense of pleasant euphoria and freshness in the observer. The constant presence of the line opens the painting to further reading. Line is an element often associated with the concept of time. In geometry, in fact, it is formed by the successive positions of a moving point. In this painting, Sartori also analyzes time, understood as the growth and development of life in the world and the following changes. A profound investigation into the beauty of life as it evolves and mutates. An ancestral journey into the PrincipleNature.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Patricia Sartori
Tribute to Gaia
Paulo Cavalca “It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is resurrection.” (Voltaire)
In the symbolism of the body, the feet can take on different meanings. They are associated with the concreteness of living in that, in analogy with the roots of the tree, they make verticality possible for man. Unlike the tree, however, man is not completely anchored to the ground and with his thoughts he can rise and detach himself from it. In the art of Paulo Cavalca, an artist from Rio de Janeiro, one often encounters this element analyzed in detail, in a figurative language with strong symbolic connotations, whose technical skills are impeccable. In this oil on canvas painting, entitled “Untitled (She-Nature)”, the first thing we see are the curled feet of a woman lying on a floor, giving birth to a child. Two side panels give the somewhat decadent setting a certain intimacy. Large red arrows indicate the horizon, where there is the sea with the rising sun. Meanwhile, a flock of seagulls is stirred over this nativity scene with a harshly contemporary and unconventional flavor.
Paulo Cavalca
The woman, leaning on a pillow, does not seem to suffer particularly, as she turns her gaze towards the child, whose head is already out. Her fingernails are blue like the color of the sea in the background and like the veins on the baby’s head who is about to be born. A fundamental interpretation is hidden in the drawings traced by these veins which, with a closer look, it can be noticed, symbolize the planet Earth. In this painting by Paulo, the feet are visible from below, detached from the ground. Symbol of the soul, the foot gives man the ability to maintain an upright position allowing him immanence, but also transcendence. With this work, Paulo Cavalca wants to transcend reality, telling the Birth of the World through a rebellious gaze, where everything represented carries with it a precise meaning. A powerful nativity, surrounded by symbols that tell of a new rebirth and a new freedom.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Paulo Cavalca
Untitled (Angel)
Paulo Cavalca
Untitled (She-Nature)
Peter Anderson
Starting from the reflection on the earth, in its broadest meanings and symbologies, Peter Anderson develops a series of themes and strands of research that recur throughout his production. The universe is represented by him in an ideal and almost mythical way, with an unmistakable style that combines surrender for detail and freedom of expression. For the artist the simple concept of the planet Earth is a living organism that breathes - not just stone, water, air. The cult of origins transfigures itself into a lived experience, restored through the evocative power of memory and abstract dimension, which gives form to a personal myth of genesis. “Through a Glass Darkly”, “Unintended Consequences”, “Remembrance” represent, in fact, a careful reflection on the state of the Planet we inhabit. The terrestrial element has a real concreteness given by the accurate rendering of colors, relaxing and soft. The abstract surface of the landscape is definitely the characterizing element that plays with the raw material of the world and becomes the voice of nature, echo of an absorbed landscape that suddenly wakes up with a tear in silence. The artist, in his works, transforms precariousness into creative action and existential project, analyzing the result of a performance that acts in the territory in an invisible way: behind the hand of man. Silent manifestation of a mysterious agreement between nature and subtle contrasts, constantly poised between the danger of the fall and the never definitive agreement with gravity.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo
Peter Anderson
Remembrance
Peter Anderson
Through a Glass Darkly
Peter Anderson
Unintended Consequences
Petra Forman
Petra Forman is an Austrian abstract artist based in Croatia. Embarked on her artistic journey in the 1990s, family and work responsibilities had pushed her away from painting. However, with the beginning of the health crisis in March 2020, she moved with her family to the isle of Korcula where she has resumed painting. The artist translates her emotions into shapes and colors, drawing her inspiration from nature and playing with different elements, such as iron filings, carbon pencil or linseed oil paste. Her artistic technique seeks depth and intensity rendered on canvas through the use of multiple layers of paint and grainy or rough textures, that mix elements taken from the sea with rust, iron and marble powder, of which she appreciates the decadent beauty and the unpredictability. In particular, Petra brings on her canvases the nature of Adriatic coast, that has returned her inspiration and has helped her to recover after a health problem forced her to undergo a difficult surgery in 2014. Prizba Corals draws inspiration from the finding of a coral, given to the artist by a fisherman friend. The choice of turquoise as the dominant color on the canvas is intended to recall the shimmering shades of the sea while the use of Korcula corals within the composition celebrates the beauty and richness of the Adriatic landscape. Through her paintings Petra immerges the viewer in an atmosphere of carefree peace. Just like in Prizba Riva, in which the artist restores the feeling of harmony that comes from the combination of the beautiful autumn sun, the scent of the sea and the simplicity of being. In Fireball, the inspiration comes once again from the observation of a natural phenomenon: the reflection of the sun on stone. The natural play of light reflecting off the rock is rendered on the canvas by means of luminous trails of color. The sun, the wild agaves, and the other natural elements that inspired the composition, are evoked through a rich palette of colors, among which green and red predominate. Finding her inspiration in nature surrounded her, Petra perfectly interprets the concept of this exhibition. Indeed, as the artist’s own words clearly explain, her art shows a deep and intense connection with the Earth and its natural elements: “when I start a new project, I like to create a clear basic composition for my paintings, often almost geometric, but a lot of the details are unplanned and happen almost accidentally, covering up and taking away the initial rigidity of the composition. That is what I like about it – it is just like nature itself, there’s always a balance: rigidity versus flexibility, strength versus fragility, decay versus new beginnings – if you are willing to let it happens”.
Art Curator Marta Graziano
Petra Forman
Fireball
Petra Forman
Prizba Corals
Petra Forman
Prizba Riva
Piyaz Yotpiya Promthong “For me, painting is a way to forget life. It is a cry in the night, a strangled laugh.” (Georges Rouault) Piyaz Yotpiya Promthong is an artist of Thai origin who has lived in Switzerland since his childhood. The change between the warm and joyful atmosphere of his native country and the more serious and colder one of the European country has helped to characterize his personality and his pictorial style. His abstract canvas are a set of shapes, lines and colors that meet creating surprising and original effects. Quick and instinctive brushstrokes give life to works that tell stories full of meaning and emotions. “La Charmeuse Passionnelle” was created in 2021 with the technique of acrylic on canvas. Great contrasts distinguish this work: splashes of color meet with more subtle brushstrokes, cold colors such as blue and black mix with warmer shades such as yellow and red. These oppositions give life to an impacting, but at the same time pleasant result. The title has a great evocative power: it is a canvas that, as a charming enchantress would do, hypnotizes the eyes of the beholder, conquers the viewer totally leaving him speechless. The quote from the famous French painter Georges Rouault exactly reflects Piyaz’s thought towards art: painting transports him to an imaginary world where everything is possible, a world where everyday life is forgotten to make room for dreams and desires. For him, art is a way to vent one’s pain, share happiness. Art is a friend to have fun with, a confidant to reveal one’s secrets to without fear of being betrayed, a place in which to take refuge when no one understands us. Piyaz is an artist with a recognizable and unique style who, through his works, in addition to giving beauty, involves the audience by making them feel great emotions.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Piyaz Yotpiya Promthong
La Charmeuse Passionnelle
Rafa Tom “As swift as wind, as gentle as forest, as fierce as fire, as unshakable as mountain.” (Sun Tzu) Rafa Tom is a creative and original artist who lives and works in Dubai. With her creativity she is able to paint works that belong to different influences. She is influenced by different artistic streams creating a mix of emotions and feelings. She is inspired by various artistic movements, in particular by Impressionism, but takes her cue from them, modernising the artistic current and adding an unmistakable personal touch. In her work “Everest”, Rafa pays homage to the earth. The artwork appears so balanced that it recalls the equilibrium that existed before the arrival of mankind. The colours are cold, intense and bright.The different shades of blue and azure mingle with the ice white to create a soft and pleasant composition. A contrast between the cold of the snow and a pleasant feeling of softness. The technique used is the abstract technique of fluid art. Rafa thus proves herself to be a skilled artist who does not restrict herself to one style of painting but is able to range across different artistic currents. She is very good at using acrylics, oil paint and other media. She renders the idea of ice and snow in a very original way, allowing the viewer to immerse himself in this icy atmosphere and at the same time reflect on his life. “Everest” wants to emphasise the uncontaminated beauty of nature, which has remained so until the arrival of man, who has done nothing but exploit it to his advantage, destroying it. Some men, however, strive every day to try to restore that pure beauty inherent in nature. These are courageous people with a clear objective in mind. Mother Nature protects them. “Everest’ conceals another profound meaning, namely perseverance. In life, if you want something, you have to set yourself a goal and work hard to achieve it. This applies to all areas, from work to love to friendship. If you want something, you have to put your whole self into it. Like climbing Everest; it is not impossible, if it is really your goal, work hard for it. You will succeed. The secret is not to give up. Rafa invites the viewer to perseverance, a very important value and one that is fundamental in life for success, achievement and gratification. Always get back up, never give up and put all our strength and love into what we do. It is not important how many times we fail in life, the important thing is how we get back up to the top. “Everest” is a metaphor for life, combining human reality with the unspoilt beauty of nature, which should always be paid homage to. Rafa sends the viewer to maintain balance, to get up and not give up, to reach a goal. And she does this by painting multiple shades of blue in which her extraordinary communicative and creative power is concealed.
“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.” (Frank Lloyd Wright)
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Rafa Tom
Everest
Raiza Sawit
If it is true that as Jean Baudrillard (De la séduction, 1979), seduction and femininity are confused and the charm and mystery that revolves around the female constellation, leave room for the most diverse interpretations on the literary and visual arts. From the languid and sinuous poses of bodies with rounded shapes that condense in the looks, from the head a little turned with respect to the body and from the head bent down of erotic-genial forms of seduction, we pass to the restless language of the avant-garde, in the sign of transgression and provocation. It is clear, therefore, that nudity has never lost its power and “Silver lining” by Raiza Sawit is tangible proof of this. A work of deep intensity that expresses femininity and power. The woman for the artist is nature, it is a vital principle and is represented here in a kind of geologization of the body, in a total interchangeability between human and natural dimensions. In her work the search for tension between nudity, strength and fragility stands out. This creative power is reinforced by the brushstroke and the chromatic play. The characteristic element of the work are in fact the variety of colors that highlight body details such as breasts, muscles, lips, hair that blend in a single view with the lawn. And so she becomes the protagonist, in her fragility, strength and symbolic power.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo
Raiza Sawit
Silver lining
Randi Meekins “The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.” (Alberto Giacometti) Randi Meekins is an American self-taught artist whose works perfectly are the mirror of her emotions, her thoughts, her personal life experiences. Bold lines and strong colors release strength and vitality, the same that distinguishes Randi’s original personality. “Alter ego” was created in 2020 with the technique of acrylic on canvas and digital editing. The work has a deep history behind it: born as a self-portrait, following the mother’s illness, the artist wanted to transform it into a tribute to the woman to pay homage to her willpower and her ability to get up despite obstacles and pains. The woman’s body is visible from the shoulders up and the features of her face are marked: full lips, straight nose and almond-shaped eyes turn their gaze to the right. The essential element that contributes to giving great character to the work is undoubtedly the color: warm and cold tones meet to create a surprising chromatic contrast. Blue, yellow, and red used in different shades are enhanced thanks to the totally black background. This allows the viewer to give free rein to his imagination giving a personal interpretation to the work and placing the woman in different situations. The quote of the famous Swiss sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti perfectly describes the goal that Randi wants to achieve through her art: the aim is not to reproduce reality as she sees it, but to give life to a world she has conceived, studied, and explored in an intense way. The artist does not create works so that they are simply looked at and appreciated from a technical point of view; Randi wants to establish a relationship with the viewer by inviting him into her magical universe where fantasy has no limits and where reality has a different, more special flavor.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Randi Meekins
Alter Ego
Rea Gru
In ancient Greece it was said that at the beginning of time there was only darkness, a sort of black hole, the Chaos. Indeed, black has always been a sacred color for pagan peoples because the Whole is generated from the absence of light, from absolute emptiness. The primordial darkness that represented Chaos or the absence of everything, were shaped to obtain Gaia, everything that surrounds us, what we wanted and thus arrive at the emergence of light. The protagonist of the work “Abstract black”, presented here by the young artist Rea Gru, is this color, the black, as can be seen from the title itself. The work is created by focusing on every detail, to be able to bring out all the emotional strength of the idea expressed by the artist. Strong, rich and dense signs, with dark and incisive tones stand out on a white and candid surface, until it is completely covered. The contrast, but at the same time the dialogue that is created, is very intense. Black is often used to represent the void and the absence of everything, but in reality, it contains the potential of creation itself, of the creation of every desire, form, substance, as in this work. Crossing the color black means losing everything and opening up to the possibility that the new can arrive. With our gaze we cross this black in Rea’s work, which attracts us to itself and we thus enter the depth of its forms and reach that new world, that the artist has created and shaped.
“Black contains everything. Even white. They are a absolute beauty. It’s the perfect match.” (Coco Chanel)
Art Curator Silvia Grassi
Rea Gru
Abstract Black
Rebecca Light “If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is Nature’s way” (Aristotele)
Rebecca is a visionary artist, with a sacred and divine approach to art. Her skills are multidisciplinary, which is why many of her works take on a mixed character. Rebecca’s artistic identity is curious, insatiable and devoted and so her works show themselves to be: aimed at decoding the world, in search of a sacredness that reveals the essence of life. As a good jeweler and knowing oil painting, the artist manages to find the right balance between attention to detail and the creativity of the painting. “Ask the Sun” wants to be a tribute to the celestial universe, to the magic of creation, to the love of life. The lines expand in a gentle way over the entire pictorial dimension using the canvas in an intelligent way while in the center a black ball seems to creating the mystery of the creation of the world. The painting is an enigma, it is a code that asks to be decoded, understood, introjected into one’s bowels. The details, which seem to be embroidered, suggest a beginning, the genesis of something great, perhaps the world, perhaps life, perhaps it is the sun. Whatever the answer, Rebecca leaves the viewer to interpret the painting independently. In the embrace of a star that wants to expand and create itself, we have the certainty of finding ourselves in front of life, nature, the sacredness of the most incredible moment of all: the existence.
Art Curator Cecilia Brambilla
Rebecca Light
Ask the Sun
Reda Rackley
The history of art and culture have often placed at its center the figure of the mother, symbol of creativity and metaphor of the very definition of art. Archetype and primordial image, the Mother Goddess is considered a deity par excellence. It is the synthesis of the cycle of existence that combines the opposite principles that coexist in her: birth-death-rebirth. She is the one who originates and transforms, gives life and welcomes death, renews existence, forever. A fundamental figure for the human being. Artist Reda Rackley dedicates “The Tiny Priests Bowed to the Great Mother!” through which she intends to underline how in religious culture the cult of the Mother Goddess appeared at the same time as the exclusive cult of God. The maternal figure is represented by the artist at the center of the composition in her immense grandeur, with protuberant breasts and raised arms. The strengthening elements of the meaning of the work are given by the scale of size of each individual figure, which gradually decreases until it becomes a constellation of very small priests ready to venerate it. The bodily definition of the subjects and, of the surrounding details, is abstract, with the exception of some very small elements such as the physiognomic ones, mouth, nose, eyes. Stylistic choice that probably arises from the need of the artist to reconnect to the body strength and maternal part of each of us.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo
Reda Rackley
The Tiny Priests Bowed to the Great Mother!
Renata Łempicka
Renata Łempicka is exhibiting “In the Garden of Gaia” at the exhibition “Gaia - The Origin” at the M.A.D.S Art Gallery in Milan: a work that conveys deep feelings and serenity within a dreamlike, fairy-tale atmosphere. The artist is inspired by a tropical natural environment, where a small bird, probably a hummingbird, radiates energy through its slight dynamism: each element emphasizes the love of life and the joy of living. One of Renata’s qualities is her ability to skillfully blend different tones to give rise to numerous nuances, expressing at best what she perceives in that moment of pure creation. The work expresses vitality thanks to the primary, bright, and almost fluorescent colors that capture the attention of the viewer, who is completely submerged of positive vibrations. By depicting the evolution of the forest during the early stages of spring, the artist opens the door to a new vision of the world. In the triumph of the brushstrokes one can see a full freedom of movement, underlining her way of framing art and nature as an unstoppable force. The atmosphere is filled with light and joy: it is so powerful that it strikes directly at our soul. The viewer can benefit from the lifeblood emanating from the place, broadening his/her perceptive cognition to the point of becoming an integral part of that plant world. The path taken by the observer is a journey into his/her own introspection, and the surrounding environment helps him/ her to detach himself/herself from reality, looking for harmony and well-being. Renata Łempicka succeeds in conveying a key message to the viewer: to appreciate every single moment of life, admiring the precious gifts that nature has to offer.
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” (Albert Einstein)
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Renata Łempicka
In the Garden of Gaia
Rezwana Sarkar
Rezwana Sarkar joined M.A.D.S. Art Gallery during “Gaia: the origin” exhibition with abstract and semiabstract artworks that are very expressive in nature. Concerning the concept of the exhibition, the artist presents “Through the Woods” and “Roots”, which bring back to light the meaning of the origins. “Roots” – as the title itself lets imagine – refers to the base, to the first and necessary element, as well as the foundation of a tree. Detailed in colours and in giving the veins, with a black thin ink, Rezwana Sarkar is able to lend to the subject a natural yield. Each root embraces the other conferring to the piece a sort of natural movement that creates a dynamic atmosphere. With “Thought the woods” we can see the ability of the artist to experiment and explore with different mediums such as oils, acrylics and encaustics in paintings.
Rezwana Sarkar
This second painting lets you enter in contact with the elements that compose the scene, thanks to the deep brush strokes, full of colours that create some clumps. The use of colour is a prime element in her work, an emotive trigger within her paintings. The sensation given by the entire scene is of peace and freedom, just as the artist Rezwana Sarkar does while painting. She brings the feeling of the place along with photographs and sketches into her studio and works intuitively with it. She then explores the notion of autotelic practises and brings the elements that she picks up into the studio as if bringing a part of nature with her in a tangible form.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
Rezwana Sarkar
Roots
Rezwana Sarkar
Through the Woods
Rody Sakr
Having grown up both next to the sea and the mountains of Lebanon, throughout his life, Rody has always been fascinated and inspired by nature and how the world is represented through his eyes and the eyes of others. He now lives in Massachusetts, a place where he continues to cultivate his passion for art and develops a great talent for sculpture. His wooden sculptures depict sinuous and soft figures, the wood is left raw, in its natural beauty. His pictorial works are more rare in his artistic production. Rody Sakr presents just one of them at M.A.D.S. art gallery, on the occasion of the “Gaia: the origin” exhibition. A sad event pushes Rody to realize the work “Negligence”: in the last August, the artist lost a dear friend in an accident and only three days later happened the largest non-nuclear explosion in the port of Beirut, the capital of his country. These tragic events are expressed by Rody on canvas. A great angel with golden wings is placed at the center of the composition, becoming the focal point: is Elie, the artist’s best friend. All around, there is a post-apocalyptic landscape: the sky is black, the moon shines on the city now devastated and behind the angel there is a red cloud, which symbolizes the explosion and blood that caused it. A foreign element to the composition are the soap bubbles that illuminate the work. They are an element that gives the work a surrealist look and symbolize for the artist the fleeting nature of life, its vulnerability. The work is certainly a clear tribute to his dear friend and his city, but at the same time it is an invitation to life, to grasp what is given to us and live it in full. From a technical point of view, the work has a clear expressionist imprint, mainly taking up the drama and dark colors.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Rody Sakr
Negligence
Romana Meissner “Life is art and art is life” (Romana Meissner)
German-based artist Romana Meissner presents again at M.A.D.S. art gallery two abstract works for the “Gaia: the origin” exhibition. The works are part of a series entitled “GOLDEN SLUMBERS” and are made with acrylic, modelling paste and gold painting on canvas. The technique used by Romana Meissner is unique in its kind: the bright and vivid colors evoke the works of the Fauves French artists and the material technique recalls the Informal Italian artists of the Post World War II, including Alberto Burri. The dominant colors in both works are blue, red and yellow. The colors create a strong contrast and appear almost fluo, creating a strong flash in the eyes of those who look at them.
Romana Meissner
In this sense, the works approach the effect of the psychedelic artists of the ‘60s and at the same time the Futuristic works, just for the sense of dynamism that derives from it. The eye, in fact, is constantly moved to the canvas, getting lost between the brushstrokes and the sponge effect. Red and blue are definitely the main colors, alluding to a duality between fire and water, two of the four elements at the base of the world. A clash between heat and cold, light and darkness. The works of Romana Meissner are therefore a unique combination, constantly seeking a balance.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Romana Meissner
GOLDEN SLUMBERS I
Romana Meissner
GOLDEN SLUMBERS II
RosaKa Rosa Cacace alias RosaKa is an Italian artist, based in Taranto. Despite her artistic activity has not been constant, the passion for art has always accompanied Rosa for many years: she teaches painting to children and adults to pass her passion to them. From a plastic and formal point of view, we can define her style figurative and illustrative, always mediated by her personal vision and interpretation: not a mere copy of reality but an intimate reworking of it. Rosaka through her paintings tells stories of love and mystery, so much so that one of her series is entitled “The art tells”. Most of her paintings depict naked human bodies, always caught in motion, during the execution of an action. This characteristic only accentuates the narration of the work: the viewer is led to imagine situations and dialogues. The settings themselves have an ancient classic character, bringing back to ancient Greece and the legendary dimension. The work that the artist exhibits at M.A.D.S. art gallery in Milan is undoubtedly connected with the spiritual and mystical sphere: “QUANDO TUTTO EBBE INIZIO’’ is the title of the work that literally means “When it all began”, referring to the origin of things. The latter is the theme of the current exhibition: “Gaia: the origin”. The work itself in fact represents Mother Earth, from the ancient Greeks called Gaea or Gaia, the origin of everything. The figure of the woman is placed in the centre of the canvas, that has a horizontal composition. She is depicted sitting in meditation position, the upper body is depicted naked, with uncovered breasts and showing proud her pregnancy. The predominant colours are green and blue that inevitably refer to nature: sky and earth, sea, and mountains. The focal point is undoubtedly above her head, where the hair originates, forming a kind of spiral. Gaia’s hair propagates throughout the setting, as if nature itself were part of Gaia. This is indeed what the artist shows: Gaia is born from nothing and creates nature.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
RosaKa
QUANDO TUTTO EBBE INIZIO
Rosona “If you want to know the divine, feel the wind on your face and the warm sun on your hand” (Buddha) Buddha’s words invite us to discover the divine through natural elements such as the wind and the sun. Rosona’s works offer us the gift of experiencing those sensations directly connected to the wind and the sun. The artistic work of the young artist becomes a real experience for the observer, he receives visual stimuli, but not only, also auditory, tactile and olfactory. In front of Rosona’s works it seems to perceive the wind that creeps between the paper, which is the protagonist of the work, we hear its rustle and see its action, the material used by the artist appears as if it had been modeled precisely by force of the wind. In the same way, the observer’s attention is captured by the smells that the wind usually brings with it: wood or grass or freshly blossomed flowers. Rosona’s work puts us in contact with the most primordial Nature, the forms she creates recall pure matter, the most ancient, the one from which everything comes to life. In the work “The Sun” the circular movement, which in nature repeats itself continuously, radiates and seems to come out of the work itself to become part of the whole. The sinuous movements that distinguish the work “The Rainbow Forest” are a strong reference to Nature and the strength it possesses, capable of creating and destroying at the same time. Colors play a fundamental role in Rosona’s artistic work, they mix with each other, sometimes overlap, sometimes one overrides the other, creating a unique balance. Rosona’s art is total abstraction, but an abstraction that is closely linked to something tangible like the paper she uses to model her works. Three-dimensional works in which the viewer would like to immerse himself completely, attracted by the colors and movements, one feels like navigators attracted by the song of the mermaid, with difficulty it is possible to remove the gaze from the works. In some way the artist makes us rediscover the most intimate bond that exists between us human beings and nature, through her works our unconscious is called to recall intimate and primordial memories, and in some way to find a balance.
Art Curator Vanessa Viti
Rosona
The Nature
Rosona
The Rainbow Forest
Rosona
The Sun
Sabine Ortner
The artwork “Amigos Viejos” by Austrian-born artist Sabine Ortner is a clear sample of the artist’s expressive power and pictorial skills. The composition of the painting is based on the intersection of levels and chromatic declinations, which contribute to give back a balanced and at the same time dynamic vision of the whole. The work is in fact as a steady motion of shapes and colors. The canvas recalls the artistic production of the Cubist period, in particular that of the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso and his ability to portray reality through spatial and visual fragmentation. Similarly, the figures of Sabine Ortner, while depicted in an unreality given by the use of unrealistic colors and shapes, can still give us what may be a true cross-section of reality, the proximity of two friends, as can be deduced from the choice of the title itself. The use of bright colors such as yellow and pink for the figure on the right help to give an idea of positivity and happiness that contrasts with the dark colors used for the figure on the left. Not only the colors but also the gazes themselves contribute to defining the figures, opposing a fixed gaze towards the observer to a distant and absent look. The figures created by the artist recall the vitreous but at the same time expressive gazes typical of the portraits of the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani.
“Everything you can imagine is real.” (Pablo Picasso)
Art Curator Anna Panizza
Sabine Ortner
Amigos Viejos
Sandra Lages “I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.” (Vincent van Gogh)
Human figures in a magical world, paradisiacal landscapes that transport the viewer to another reality. These are the two elements fuse together in the works of Sandra Lages, a Brazilian artist whose works tell stories and speak to the eyes of those who look at them. In the three works created with the oil on canvas technique I will talk about, the protagonists are man and nature or rather, the special relationship that exists between them. Nature as a refuge from a noisy world, nature as a faithful confidant of one’s secrets, nature as a place where you can feel free and always yourself without fear. In “Homem Pensando” a man sitting on the beach on a sunny day turns his gaze away as he listens to the sound of the gently breaking waves. The light blue of the sky and the blue of the sea contrast with the colors of the beach and the protagonist. In this case, nature is seen as a nest in which to reflect, in which to think, in which to give vent to one’s imagination. In “Nature” a woman with long brown hair and a red dress walks towards us leaving behind her an exotic landscape: palm trees, thick vegetation, and the sea in the background. In this case, nature represents a wild place in which to roam free and in solitude in absolute peace of mind. In “Rojo en la Playa” a woman turns her gaze to us while holding her hips and crossing her legs. Here, as never before, nature and man literally merge: the thick hair of the protagonist is represented as a cascade of leaves meeting large red roses. She is part of nature as nature is part of her. Sandra represents the intense bond that unites man with nature since his birth, the same that binds her with art: a story of passion, dreams, reflections, and pure emotions.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Sandra Lages
Homem Pensando
Sandra Lages
Nature
Sandra Lages
Rojo en la Playa
Sara Melin Sara Melin is a very promising young artist. Art has always had an important impact on her existence, even though everyday life has distanced her a little from this wonderful world. She rediscovers her great talent and passion in the most difficult phases of her life. For Sara, art is an instrument through which she can release all her tensions, feel free, light and fulfilled. By painting, she gets rid of her worries and her great talent for combining shapes and colours emerges. The ability to communicate strong and intense emotions is one of the most characteristic features of her works. Her artwork “Soul in gold” is an example of how the mystery of life and pure emotions are closely linked to her art and how they inspire her. Against a grey background, a figure emerges that resembles a human face. A few simple and essential colours paint the face, allowing the painting to create an atmosphere suspended in time, trapped in an instant. Touches of gold and red are spread across the canvas. The brushstrokes are instinctive and spontaneous, as if the artist, in creating it, had at the same time led a path in search of inner harmony, of that value which can bring light and splendour. The colour is left free to take up its space, free to flow onto the canvas, to create more defined or softer lines. The volumes and three-dimensionality are given by the white colour, which is never heavy or too present as it is applied in layers. In this way the shapes are perceived but without taking over, making the artwork homogeneous and balanced. For Sara, this is what art is all about, the search for balance, the only way to achieve inner calm by indulging in colours and lines. “Soul in gold’ invites the viewer to look in a mirror, but not in a material sense, in a spiritual sense. It is an invitation to look inside oneself in search of harmony and balance. Art brings light. Practising it, observing it, creating it is one of the ways to find one’s own soul and to give it shine. The work is abstract but still has some elements that bring us back to reality and thus create a link with the material, real world. The use of few colours and the underlying concept of the search for symbolic elements and the expressive power of one’s own painting is reminiscent of Mondrian’s artworks. The whole painting is charged with emblematic and evocative elements. It is a non-figurative artwork that still maintains contact with reality: the shapes gradually merge with the background through the colours that softly overlap and intersect. The artist concentrates on collecting the experiences of her inner world, trying to give an effect of universality so that every viewer can find himself in her work and have a deep and personal interpretation of it. Art is therefore an instrument of liberation, a mirror that can free us from the usual everyday clothes to immerse us in the aspects of life that really matter and lead to harmony. Sara has the ability to convey deep feelings with her creations, and she does this by combining a few simple colours that are, however, perfect for creating an immersive atmosphere.
“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.” (Francesco Bacone)
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Sara Melin
Soul in gold
Sara Novelli “In the act of love, as in photography, there is a form of life and a kind of slow death.” (Nobuyoshi Araki) Sara Novelli was born and raised in Genoa where she still works today. Graduated in Archeology, with a great passion for textiles and photography. The archaeological “excavation” has been converted into an interior excavation, where the different layers have been replaced by the different levels of feeling and creating. Her creative process is all born from a nocturnal dream in which a little man is revealed to her, spinning in a vortex that she exorcises by making it happen. The unconscious that speaks and directs her life like a conductor, the unconscious self that dialogues with the truest part of her up to the awareness of her “headless thought”, the concretisation of a dream experience translated into beings asexual, anthropomorphic, without head, hands, feet but capable of expressing a thought, an idea, in a clean, linear, material way. The mind has less and less value, the head is of little use. The body has an ancient memory and keeps the past and the present in our womb. Sara, through a photographic journey, probes the mysteries of the complexity of the female universe trying to get to the essence of it. Her “vaginas” depict a vision of our planet, using the symbolic formula: woman = body = vase = world, from this concept grows the respect that one had in the matriarchal age for the Great Mother. Her works represent a universal love, not self-centered, because it is rooted and aware of the life / death / life cycle. It is presented in us when we feel attracted to a universal bond, much more powerful than any human bond, when we feel the urge to take root in the body and through it to take root in the earth. No longer feel alone, and be part of the whole. In “Promise Land” the artist imagines the vulva as the promised land, where everything is possible and there is protection of the environment and nature. While “Blood is life” stages blood, interpreted as lymph, as the origin of the world and of the menstrual cycle, on the other hand, the Earth is a fertile female. From organic dishwashing detergent comes “Foam2”, a new land, a new clean world, a new primordial foam.
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Sara Novelli
Blood is life
Sara Novelli
Foam 2
Sara Novelli
The promise land
Saskia Bera “The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke.” (Jerzy Kosinski) The quote from the famous Polish writer Jerzy Kosinski perfectly describes the spirit with which the artist creates her precious works of art. Shapes, lines, and colors merge not only to give life to faces, but above all to evoke sensations, emotions, to tell stories. Saskia Bera is a German visual artist who creates works characterized by surprising contrasts and a strong communicative power. Studies, research, and experimentation in the field of drawing and color meet with unexpectedness and spontaneity during the creative act. “Luisa” was made in 2020 with mixed media on canvas technique. In the foreground we see the face of the protagonist who, despite her young age, seems to have an important past, a deep story behind her. Large and expressive eyes, a small nose and a thin mouth characterize Luisa’s face. The hair falls on the sweater from which the collar of a light-colored shirt emerges. Black and white are combined with the intense blue that colors the hair, mouth, and eyebrows. The pictorial effect is very particular: defined color spots mix with light shades. Obviously, this result was not wanted simply for pure aesthetic taste, but it also has a semantic value: Luisa has a serious and hard aspect, but at the same time her gaze reveals melancholy and loneliness. The artist leaves free interpretation to the viewer, she wants him to be able to have a direct rapport with the girl. She wants the viewer to talk to her, to be attuned to her and to understand what she wants to scream at the world but cannot do it because she is forced to be silent. Saskia, in addition to giving life to works of art that are excellent from a technical point of view, is able to do what only great artists can do: become one with the work and let its protagonists speak, whether they are faces or simply forms. In this way, her paintings do not simply remain canvases hanging on a wall, but they come to life!
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Saskia Bera
Luisa
Serap Riedel “I don’t say everything, but I paint everything.” (Pablo Picasso) Serap Riedel is an artist of Turkish origin who has lived in Germany since her adolescence. For her, art has always remained a hobby but, without a doubt, it is an integral and essential part of her life. Painting represents a way to express herself in every facet and, at the same time, a means of sharing with those who observe her creations. The three works I will talk about have no title precisely because Serap wants viewers to be free to interpret them without any constraints, setting their imagination in motion and letting themselves be completely carried away by his sensations. Two works are of an abstract genre, while one is figurative. Regarding the first two, both were made in 2019 with the acrylic technique on stretched canvas. In both, the brushstrokes are combined in order to create a harmonious movement, capable of restoring lightness and delicacy. Cold colors and warm colors mix with accuracy, creating a pleasant chromatic contrast. Viewers looking at Serap’s works are completely captured by their beauty, which also hides intensity of thought and depth of soul. They set out on a journey that does not end in front of the work, but that continues in their minds and hearts. The figurative work, on the other hand, has as its protagonist a person surrounded by nature. Since his birth, man has been linked to the natural world by a special relationship that he should cultivate over time, becoming more and more in symbiosis with it. Nature can be a refuge,a place where peace reigns, a nest of serenity. The element that helps to giving a strong character to the work is the color: yellow and red meet with cold colors such as green and blue, creating an interesting effect. Serap is an artist with anamazing personality capable of creating works of great aesthetic and communicative value thanks to her extraordinary skills.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Serap Riedel
No title
Serap Riedel
No title
Serap Riedel
No title
Sharon Perris
Sharon Perris is an English artist who studied illustration at Cheltenham and Kingston, London. She was a professional freelance artist for many years and now she works from her beautiful studio in Hampshire. The artist takes inspiration from the beautiful landscapes of her land, watching nature daily and making photographic/ sketching diaries. Making connections with her environment she endeavours to get her audience to focus on the beauty and fragility of nature through her work. She says: “There is always something new and beautiful to see if one takes time to look”. The strong connection with nature drives her to take part in the exhibition entitled “Gaia: the origin” organized by M.A.D.S. art gallery in Milan. Sharon Perris participates with the work entitled “GOLD”, made mainly with pastels and mixed media on paper. The work is a perfect example of Sharon’s artistic production. Elegance and lightness are the adjectives that best describe her art. In this sense, it can be combined with Japanese art that has always had a strong interest in representing nature, think for example at the Rinpa school and its founder Korin. On the other hand, the immediacy of the stroke and the absence of contour lines suggest an impressionist influence. Claude Monet was certainly a nature enthusiast, painted countless times the water lilies of his garden in Giverny and as many times painted landscapes. In Sharon Perris’ works the same love and dedication is perceptible. In the work “GOLD” small white flowers are the protagonists. The abstract background is composed by the combination of orange, blue and green, which recall the colours of the sunset. The use of pastels gives the work an immediate look, as if the emotions are captured at that precise moment in which they are felt.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Sharon Perris
GOLD
Sherri Springer “The Earth provides enough resources to satisfy the needs of every man, but not the greed of every man.” (Gandhi) The artist Sherri Springer in her paintings tends above all to experiment and what she mainly paints are very colorful abstract paintings. Her source of inspiration are the coastal landscapes and natural sceneries. However, there is a huge variety of subjects that are represented in her artworks, as well as the wide variety of colors that are used. These subjects perfectly reflect Sherri, her personality, her emotions, her feelings. The artist is passionate, whimsical, funny, free-spirited, but also detailed, serious and very focused. All these characteristics can be found in the three artworks that Sherri exhibits at the “Gaia - The Origin” International Art Exhibition. These are three lovely green-eyed Ladies. In “Green Eyed Goddess” half the face of a Goddess is depicted, with green eyes, almost tending to gold and red lips. The brush strokes are short and give the painting a particular dynamism and a certain liveliness. The subject of the artwork embodies Mother Earth, the primordial mother, self-created, mother of herself and of all the gods. In the creation myths of nearly all world mythologies, there is a primal deity, emerging from chaos to initiate the creation process. For the ancient Greeks this divinity was just Gaia. In the painting “I See Summer”, the protagonist is another beautiful Lady, obviously also with big green eyes. As the title states, the lady is observing the summer, also reflected in her glasses, where you can see the sea, the sand, and a palm tree. A light sea breeze ruffles her hair, without dropping the flower she wears behind her ear. The big green eyes capture the attention in a particular way, as if in them resided a supernatural power, capable of great things. This artwork also brings to mind Gaia. All life forms on the planet are a part of her, part of the spirit of the Goddess that sustains life on Earth. In the latest artwork “Through Her Eyes”, the Lady depicted conveys a certain authority and solemnity. The light and luminous colors that are used make an Angel become a supreme, untouchable, unreachable being. The sidelong gaze communicates distrust and disorientation in what she is observing. The subject of her gaze could be the earthly world and the respect on the part of human beings who sometimes forget. The artist’s goal and hope are to bring intuition, light, warmth and joy to people through her art.
“I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art form you could ever want.” (Andy Warhol)
Art Curator Francesca Campanelli
Sherri Springer
Green Eyed Goddess
Sherri Springer
I See Summer
Sherri Springer
Through Her Eyes
Simon King-Underwood “I proceed very slowly, because nature is extremely complex for me, and the progress to be made is infinite. It is not enough to see one’s model well, one must also feel it exactly, and then express oneself with force and clarity.” (Paul Cézanne) Geometry, a term composed of the prefix “ge”, which means “earth”, and “metria”, which means “measuring”, literally means “measurement of the earth”, and is that branch of mathematical science, which deals with shapes and of their relations with space. Simon King-Underwood’s art is characterized by an artistic research in close connection with this discipline, making his works real new worlds made of meticulously described lines and spaces. Real visual translations of reality, in what he himself defines as ‘Geometric Constructivism’. In “Pine Tree Bark”, a series of vertical lines occupy the space, opening the viewer to a distressing vision, heightened by the fast pace and the use of purely dark colors, ranging from black to brown. Some white points of light stand out violently on the surface, in the form of long and narrow lines that accompany the contours of the shapes. All told through a technique that treasures the teachings of the great master Paul Cezanne, precursor of the artistic current of Cubism. For Cezanne, “the form, the design, the way of constructing the figurative space had to be radically renewed”, it was necessary to build a new figurative space, through the form. King-Underwood, transposes these teachings into a fully contemporary language. His landscapes become forms in space. In some cases he focuses his attention on certain details, such as the bark of a pine tree, creating new visions of Nature. It is interesting how approaching the work in question, new details can be discovered, truly entering deeply into the body of Mother Earth. King-Underwood, makes his art the means to discover Nature. Showing it through new eyes, he allows us to grasp the myriad of wonders that characterize it, leading us on a modern experiential journey.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Simon King-Underwood
Pine Tree Bark
Snjezana Cirkovic
Using a multicolored palette, whose tones have a deep connection with her soul, Snježana Cirkovic’s art offers the viewer an emotional journey to discover its deepest self. With Source of life, the artist offers her interpretation of the myth of origins, exalting Mother Earth as a generating force and guiding us to the discovery of our deepest roots. The reference to the concept chosen for this exhibition is evident in the choice of colors. In fact, preferring the cold tones of blue and green, the artist celebrates two of the four natural elements, water and earth, which, according to Greek mythology, were generated by Gaia. Spread in overlapping layers and applied with large and scratched brushstrokes, the color defines space. Although the artist prefers cold tones, she skillfully combines them with the warmer shades of yellow, thus creating a game of cross-references and tonal correspondences. It is almost a colorful symphony that celebrates the harmony of creation, immersing the viewer in an elegant and delicate visual experience. The multi-layered circles, made with the help of palette knives and rulers, are not only a novelty in the artist’s recent works, but also contribute to enhancing an idea of antiquity that echoes the Greek myth of the creation of the world. In fact, just as Gaia, according to Greek mythology, had risen from the chaos of darkness to embody the primordial idea of cosmic order and balance, so in this painting the colors seem to emerge from the darkness to mix and balance perfectly on the canvas in the form of colored circles.
Art Curator Marta Graziano
Snjezana Cirkovic
Source of Life
Soledad Barberis “The creation of an art collage from the soul is an inner journey that allows your soul to speak to you. Your soul’s voice can be heard through the images, feelings and insights that surface” (Kathleen Carrillo)
Soledad approached art not so long ago when through the collage technique she rediscovered a smaller self and realized how familiar the creative act was to her. By using this artistic expression she “wanted to do something creative that always attracted me, to connect a little with my emotions”. The use of colors, the act of cut and paste -decontextualizing its original images- allows Soledad to express her attraction to flowers, for the texture, for the characters and to create an imaginary world where she can take refuge every time she wants to. During this therapeutic and artistic process Soledad had the opportunity to create parallel scenarios.
Soledad Barberis
If “La prisión de la mente’’ talks about the power of the thoughts to haunting, depriving us and developing our true essence the “Gracias Pachamam’’ is a quote to the Inca world beause the Pachamama represents Mother Earth and nature, the planet where we live, the land in which we grow. Soledad’s work reminds the colleges of the first 1900 but integrated with the delicateness and the look of a woman of the 21st century that sees in this pratique a instrument to elevate herself and to find the simple things in the magic of life.
Art Curator Cecilia Brambilla
Soledad Barberis
Gracias Pachamama
Soledad Barberis
La prisión de la mente
Sophie Donatien “Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye... it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.” (Edvard Munch) The mother earth has given us birth, it is the strongest connection to our primordial origin, to our inside, to our emotions. This is the intent behind Sophie Donatien’s artworks, to rediscover this connection and to transmit these deep emotions through her art, offering to the observer the possibility to lose themselves in the nature and fulfill their soul. The French Caribbean artist, has been always fascinated by the elements of the nature, and by how they could have been part of her artworks. In this way she embraces the upcycling art, the reuse of elements from the nature. In fact she picks plants’ seeds, leaves, detritus and common objects, that might inspire her. Like used coffee capsules, tinged, scrunched, cut and inserted onto the canvas to add a different texture to the surfaces of her works. She combines them with colours giving them a second life, making the matter live once again. The three presented paintings want to be a representation of the nature’s cycle of life. The artwork “Tempus Fugit Velut Umbra” is an homage to the titan of time Kronos, in the greek mythology, the son of Gaia and Ouranos. The painting is a life-like reproduction of a bois canon leaf, depicted with a dark-grey colour, damaged, wilted and consumed by time, in order to recreate the last moments of the leaf’s life. A clear reference to Kronos as a symbol of the passing of time, used to remind that everything arises from the Earth and it will be reconciled with it at the end of its life. From ashes a new life can find nourishment like a vigorous tree as depicted in the artwork “Red flaming tree”. In this second painting the predominance of red colour as a symbol of passion, frames the new born life which emerges steadily in the form of green sprouts springing out of the silhouette of the tree’s branches. The mimetic representation is surrounded by geometrical particles of light and is enriched by the upcycling element of the coffee capsules merged with the tones and shades of the piece. “Lyre fig tree leaf” represents yet another step along the path of nature’s life. The juxtaposition of the dark background with the frayed yellow and intense green shadowed by veins of red of the subject, is once again a mention to the duality of life and death. The use of the acrylic paint confers to the leaf a shiny three-dimensional appeal, an allegory of a last shimmer of energy facing once again its ineluctable destiny.
Art Curator Ginevra Fisco
Sophie Donatien
Lyre fig tree leaf
Sophie Donatien
Red flaming tree
Sophie Donatien
Tempus Fugit Velut Umbra
Stanislav Valevski
Stanislav Valevski is an emerging Bulgarian artist and all his art is based on abstraction. His works are characterized by strong contrasts related to color and shape. The reference to minimalism is clear and in the paintings exhibited for “Gaia. The origin ”, we find essential forms and a notable chromatic importance. The artist combines the expressiveness of the pictorial action with a more rigid and minimal part. According to the artist, the combination of expressivism and minimalism, unleashes in the viewer a sense of contemplation, where calm and more impetuous meet. In the painting “Nuance II”, we find solid black brushstrokes that break the intensity of the red color, giving movement and dynamism to the work. Also in “Protein Dance” and “Transition”, the color is spread in a delicate but decisive way and the artist explains to us that the thin film of transparent oil color is one of his fundamental characteristics to give life to his art. Particularly the latter is essential to give his work that elegance and delicacy that distinguishe them. In both works, we find the marked and dark lines that contrast harmoniously with the background created; these touches of color aren’t random choices but compositional elements sought and desired by the artist precisely to give the painting the necessary balance. Our gaze is also the one on which the artist places the accent in the creation phase, wanting to stimulate the admiration of the viewer and their emotions. The union of artistic logic and emotion makes Stanislav Valevski’s art contemplative, blending together a minimal style with a more expressive one, he is able to finely create abstract and suggestive pieces.
Art Curator Elita Borgogelli
Stanislav Valevski
Nuance II
Stanislav Valevski
Protein Dance
Stanislav Valevski
Transition
Stephan Willems
German artist Stephan Willems presents at M.A.D.S. art gallery two digital works. The exhibition entitled “Gaia: the origin” evokes in the artist a return to Greek classicism. The works are in fact entitled “GAIA” and “FIGHT OF THE TITANS”, showing from the titles a strong connection with Greek mythology. The artist had previously exhibited at the art gallery his work “MARIA”, which can be placed in the abstract expressionist sphere, a style to which he devoted himself in 2020. The new year marks a turning point for Stephan Willems: the artist in fact engages in the production of digital works in which he superimposes several elements including photographs, writings and symbols. The dominant colors in both compositions are red and blue, in addition you can notice the use in minimum quantity of yellow. The artist chooses to use only primary colors, thus emphasizing a parallelism and a further link with the theme of the exhibition “the origin”. Blue, red and yellow, the colors that give life to all the others; Gaia the mother of the gods and the origin of everything; the fight between Titans that symbolizes that nothing has changed since the dawn of time, the artist in fact states: “Mankind is still in war about territories, resources, oil, knowledge...
Stephan Willems
We didn’t evolve very much! We came from the chaos and we stay in the chaos”. The latter work conveys the drama of the artist’s words: two men depicted as statues fighting each other and around them is chaos. Lightning and darkness invade the composition. More static is the work “GAIA” that the artist realizes following precise geometric rules. A rectangle inscribes a circle, placed at the center of the work. The center of the circle becomes the focal point of the work that leads at the same time to the Gaia’s neck, represented in the form of a beautiful statue. She appears sad, her eyes are closed and her head slightly bent back. It is the beauty that comes from pain, the pain of having generated such a cruel world. The setting brings to mind the galaxy, thus bringing Gaia closer to the big bang event, the artist himself says: “The work wants to try to capture the unbelievable beauty of our mother earth, which we unfortunately know too seldom and too little to appreciate. And therefore it goes back to the origin, shortly after the big bang, when the manifestation of Gaia starts. We are all from the same stardust”.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Stephan Willems
FIGHT OF THE TITANS
Stephan Willems
GAIA
Suji Miyazaki “Art will never come except from some small disregarded corner where an isolated and inspired man is studying the mysteries of nature.” (Jean-Francois Millet)
Blue, the cold color par excellence, represents the intellect and truth. It is the color of great depth, of the feminine principle, a symbol of infinity, peace and harmony. In various cultures it recalls the world of divinities, with the meaning of sacred and pure, a symbol of life and rebirth and the infinite cycle of existence. In Suji Miyazaki’s work, blue is a recurring color and meticulously studied in its shades, to describe the seascapes of the Kerama Islands, a place that has always been a great inspiration for the artist. Visions of vibrant colors open up before our eyes, which stand out surrounded by these hypnotic blues and azures, leading us to travel under the surface of the water, in search of a new world and new forms of life.
Suji Miyazaki
Using a figurative language that descends directly from late 19th century impressionism, Miyazaki meticulously describes every detail, recounting a universe far from our everyday life. A visual stasis, where every detail contributes to a perfect symbiosis of the elements, creating an emotional balance, which transmits a profound sensation of psychophysical well-being. In “Through the darkness to the light”, three sharks are entering a dark cave that, in the background, shows a passage through which the crystalline water’s light filters. Everything is wrapped in a deep blue, on which stands out in the foreground, a group of brightly colored corals. Miyazaki’s art is a tribute to uncontaminated Nature, wonderful and at the same time so mysterious. A journey towards the essence, a journey towards the heart of Gaia.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Suji Miyazaki
Great ocean
Suji Miyazaki
Through the darkness to the light
Sundus Alibrahim
Man’s dialogue with nature passes through rituals, such as those in which face and body are painted with the colors of nature itself, to get even more in touch with the goddess to be revered. Before being a beauty ritual, face painting is a symbolism used all over the world by many peoples, in circumstances that can range from propitiatory rites to religious ceremonies, from war rituals to folk dances. The pigments used, going back in time to thousands of years ago, were of the natural type. A beautiful African woman, adorned with shapes and colors, is depicted by the artist Sundus Alibrahim in the work presented here “Saloum”, which wants to represent the beauty, resourcefulness and strength of African women. Her face depicted, through the colors and the expressiveness of the forms, tells the story of a population whose connection with nature is vital and continues in every gesture of life. Nature perceived as a beneficial and mysterious power, with which man establishes an alliance, indeed it distinguishes the cultural and religious traditions of Africa. Feeling a child of nature and living in the world is as natural as knowing that you are a child of your mother and a member of the village. In her works of art and in her representations of female figures, Sundus combines real and surreal, reality and fantasy, to give life to the spontaneous and full of energy story of incredible realities. This is because, for her, art must not simply represent reality, but must rethink it in a subjective way, open a dialogue and express one’s way of seeing it, to find new meanings to what we observe.
“Africa is the nerve center of the world [...]. It will be the women who heal that heart. “ (Eve Ensler)
Art Curator Silvia Grassi
Sundus Alibrahim
Saloum
Susan Bagrationoff
The artist Susan Bagrationoff takes part at the exhibition “Gaia - The Origin” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in Milan with three works (“Green Woman Watches”, “Morning Sylph Settling”, “Release”) that express creativity, fantasy and magic. The artist draws inspiration from mythology and the mysterious creatures that live in those forests typical of fairy tales: in fact, her main series is entitled “Faerie Folk Portrait”. At the same time, Susan is also attracted by the beauty of nature, managing to create a perfect combination of all these themes. Amidst the many difficulties of everyday life, the artist wishes to explore that fairy-tale dimension which is capable of giving serenity and a sense of freedom in our universe. Through art she evokes magical beings, trying to delineate them in our time and space and helping the observer to see them around us. In this way, Susan is able to actively involve the viewer in her artistic and aesthetic conception and transport them into the fantastic and expressive vortex that is typical of her works. In fact, the aim is to encourage the viewer to keep hoping, to dream and to immerse himself/herself in his/her surroundings. For this reason, the artist uses several layers of acrylic paint, both bright and metallic colors, to further captivate every attentive and curious gaze: these shades allow the fairies to emanate their special and pure essence, their energy and their amazing powers. Exactly as in “Green Woman Watches”, this creature seems to be born directly from Mother Nature. Its gaze is magnetic: it admires the observer, but in turn wishes to be looked at. Her fiery red eyes, so intense, accentuate her beauty, taking up the shaded background. From the face and the hair one can notice an excellent gradation of green, from the lightest to the darkest, and this is precisely the focal point of the work: with mainly two shades, Susan has created a painting that interacts totally with the viewer. Moreover, the fairy’s hair seems to be moved by a light breeze, giving to the canvas a gentle dynamism. In “Morning Sylph Settling”, instead, the artist depicts a sylph, namely an air fairy. Inspired by the dawn, when there is that morning mist over a magical and mysterious valley, the creature blends into this mist, becoming an integral part of such a harmonious time of the day. The colors present blend perfectly with each element depicted: the purple turns into pink, through such a soft and balanced nuance; and as the mist slowly appears, it transforms into the fairy’s hair. Her eyes are also fascinating, recalling the nuances of nature. Finally, in “Release” Susan also shows off the playful spirit of a fairy, dressed in typical autumnal clothes. As she enters the scene from the left corner of the painting and upside down, she drops leaves from her warm, soft hair. In addition, the shape of her eyes recalls the one of the foliage, both recalling the clear and deep background, which has such a magical and relaxing intensity.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Susan Bagrationoff
Green Woman Watches
Susan Bagrationoff
Morning Sylph Settling
Susan Bagrationoff
Release
Susan Sieg “We were together, I forgot all the rest of the time” (Walt Whitman)
Susan’s works feature groups of people, just as the titles suggest: “People-Celebrating life” “People-Meet me at sunset” “People-A summer feeling”. Meeting Susan’s artistic work, in this particular historical period, undoubtedly arouses a great impact and therefore strong sensations. Each of us lives a present made by estrangement, loneliness, any contact with other people is denied, the works of the artist Susan break all these schemes and give the observer a moment of freedom. The bright and lively colors, together with the shaded brushstrokes, the sharply defined lines that go to denote the landscape. A city, houses, perhaps a square, a place from which to contemplate the colors of the sunset, daily life and simple actions are the main elements of the works. The human figures are full-bodied, they are composed of living matter, as if they were distinguished from the rest, they occupy a space and move in it. Susan leaves the viewer suspended between dream and reality, undefined images leave room for memories and suggestions, they bring out some forgotten or simply hidden feeling. In the paintings there is certainly a certain movement and dynamism, which brings to mind the futurist works in which the speed of actions and gestures is interpreted in an exemplary way. Susan’s works are movement, liveliness, freshness and harmony, the artist lets us savor a bit of that real life made up of simple gestures. If living a normal life in these times is impossible, if we reserve total confidence in science to eradicate the virus, we must allow ourselves moments of absolute freedom and pure emotion through art, Susan’s work is certainly a cure for our soul.
Art Curator Vanessa Viti
Susan Sieg
People - A Summer Feeling
Susan Sieg
People - Celebrating Life
Susan Sieg
People - Meet me at sunset
Susanna Tillander In occasion of the international art exhibition Gaia the origin, the artist Susanna Tillander presented three artworks called Sheltered, Frost and Solitude. Staring from Sheltered. The painting seems to have an intense red background on which is put a blanket of black colour. The canvas seems to be invaded by the darkness and shadows, as the artist Susanna wants to tell about the arrival of bad moments in life. The title has a potent evocative force: sheltered. In fact, the colours used in the painting seem to be ruined. As she says: << In my paintings I explore the conflicts between extremities. We all experience feelings of pure joy, and moments of deep sadness>>. Also sheltered wants to tell us about this dual way to see reality, the conflicts that emerge from the red of the background and the darkness of the shadows on the canvas. The language used by Susanna is more fascinating to explore this particular concept, because this dual face of dark and light, belongs to all the things of nature and to the flow of life. It’s like a filter to see the world around us. Another element that emerges from the work more important is the horizontal sign put on the top of the painting that wants to demonstrate the instinctive gesture that accompanies the artist’s creativity. As if the moment in which she was painting is not a lucid moment, but the artist was immersed in the colours to talk about the suggestions and the feelings that come from something sheltered. Although the dark colours used for the shapes are more important underline also the white spots that emerge from the background, that stay on the canvas to talk about the hope that black of the shadows one day will shatter. The same technique is used for the painting Frost in which the artwork is divided in two parts from a black line and in the painting Solitude too. Starting from the first on the bottom: it’s black and homogeneous, the second one on the top is red and present black spots. This technique of the artist to create two parts replies at the desire to talk about loneliness in its dual meaning. Solitude in fact could give to the individual a sense of nostalgia and detachment from the world at the same time could give the freedom to stay alone and think about our self and our life. As the artists affirmed: <<But what really fascinates me both in nature and in human life is the inescapable conflict of being, the juxtaposition of hope and despair, manifested through the interface of visual art. Art provides a space for the viewer to experience the beautiful transience of things amidst the chaos of existence>>. So the art is able to return and tell about this confusion that belongs to human life, and also the different ways in which something could be seen, like solitude. This confusion and chaos is told also with the choice not to use homogeneous colours but to dirty the canvas even in the parts in which it is divided, to create invasions of the field. This technique returns to the viewers the freedom that maybe the artist is in that moment in which she is alone, and she decides to paint something to explore in herself and talk about what she really feels.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Susanna Tillander
Frost
Susanna Tillander
Sheltered
Susanna Tillander
Solitude
Susie Sharpe Dr. Susie Sharpe is a physician who has always had the dream of art, her inspirational story can also be found in the works of art she exhibits at the exhibition “GAIA - The Origin” of the international art gallery M.A.D.S. Dr. Sharpe exhibits five works belonging to different artistic currents, “Lilies from Chateau Chenonceau” represent a moment experienced by the artist, a “love at first sight” that led the artist to want to impress that vision on the canvas, the use watercolor provides an ethereal and romantic atmosphere. The colors of the work pamper the observer, so masterfully used that they push one to smell its scent. “For Ocean Lovers” is a collage of various works created with the pouring technique, this demonstrates the desire to experiment that characterizes the artist. The color and movement that this technique allows to express calm those who are lucky enough to observe them, blue is the dominant color, accompanied by colors such as yellow, red and purple that provide energy and dynamism. From the same school is “Serenity”, a work with an incredible relaxing power, the white background provides an overwhelming brightness, the colors blend, but do not mix, the pouring technique used in this work allows a journey through the flows of color, the observer feels transported to a calm, serene and peaceful world. The themes of the last two works are completely different, “Joy of Music” is an exaltation of music, a celebration. The bright and flashy colors emphasize the spirals that provide the movement of the whole work, allowing the sensation of observation of a musical piece. Emblematic, in this work, is the artist’s ability to tell a work of musical art, usable through the sense of sound, through the use of colors and shapes, usable through the sense of sight. “The Cellist” is the representation of a musician, the theme, linked to that of “Joy of Music” is the celebration of music, but in this work the artist represented the moment in which music is played. The closed eyes and the slight smile of the protagonist express pleasant and peaceful sensations, the artist feels, here, in his element.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Susie Sharpe
For Ocean Lovers
Susie Sharpe
Joy of Music
Susie Sharpe
Lilies from Chateau Chenonceu
Susie Sharpe
Serenity
Susie Sharpe
The Cellist
Taghera’s Art “Take life lightly, that lightness is not superficiality, but gliding over things from above, not having boulders on your heart.” (Italo Calvino) In the artworks of the artist Taghera we find new ways of expressing emotions and feelings. As she herself stated, art has provided her with unlimited ways of expressing herself. During the artistic creation process, she is not limited to a specific style or medium in particular, but what she mainly relies on is her emotions and mood. All very spontaneously. In the “Gaia” exhibition, Taghera exhibits five artworks, where color and the vitality of painting are the key points of her work. Here all the artist’s fantasies and creative ideas come to life. Her paintings are imbued with the spirit and energy she feels at the precise moment in which she creates her artworks. In the painting “Sunset in Paradise” the artist plays a lot with colors. Minimalist lines make up the canvas, with the specific use of acrylic and oil. Technique also used in other artworks. The sun is setting behind the hills and the various shades that the twilight generates are projected into the sky. In this instant, Mother Earth gives us the opportunity to enjoy the spectacle that she herself is offering us, savoring the sense of peace and well-being that surrounds us. In the painting “Ghera”, we tiptoe into an intimate moment that the woman represented is experiencing. The woman’s expectation suggests Gaia, Mother Earth, creator of the Universe, mother of all the other divinities symbolizing the natural elements, the original matter from which all things come to life. The clock depicts the inexorable passing of time, fleeting as only it knows how to be. In “See World” color is the absolute protagonist. The world represented by the artist appears, colored yes, but a confused world also appears, where it is difficult to distinguish the figures on the canvas. A bit like what our world appears today, which is in a difficult moment of its existence, and that we human beings should help, in such a way as to help ourselves, respecting and paying homage to it as we have never done before. In the artwork “The choice is yours”, the brushstrokes appear bold and dense with color. Two bodies in contact are represented. One body is light and the other is dark. As if they wanted to recall good and evil by putting the observer in front of a choice. The choice is ours; we are free to choose but every action will involve a reaction. In the latest artwork exhibited in the “Gaia” exhibition, the artist offers us the opportunity to see the world with her own eyes. In fact, the painting is called “The world in my eyes”. Her world looks like a path, full of color that transmits energy and vitality. However, it seems to be an uphill path alluding to the difficulties and obstacles that often materialize in front of us during the journey of our life. Each painting that the artist has exhibited in this exhibition, in a certain sense, tells its own story and becomes a frame for perceptive abilities that approach our associative capacity.
Art Curator Francesca Campanelli
Taghera’s Art
Ghera
Taghera’s Art
See World
Taghera’s Art
Sunset in Paradise
Taghera’s Art
The choice is yours
Taghera’s Art
The world in my eyes
Taija Mäntylä “It comes deep - it comes from the roots - it comes from Mother Earth “ (Taija Mantyla)
Finnish artist Taija Mantyla presents two of her new works on the exhibition organized by M.A.D.S. art gallery and entitled “Gaia: the origin”. The works are entitled “Strength in lightness” and “From the Earth” and are realized through a unique artistic process. The artist, in fact, realizes these works through a creative process in which fun and positive vibrations are in the first place: Taija literally dances on the support on which previously spreads the acrylic colors. Through the screens in the art gallery, it is possible to see the process. The artist then uses her body, energy and vibrations that derive from music to create abstract and unique works. The rhythm becomes central: it is possible to notice that the canvas is composed of a multitude of footprints that change color and shape depending on the course of the music.
Taija Mäntylä
The artist says: “My body is the boss, and the movement makes my feet paint. Sometimes the touch is light, sometimes heavy. My eyes help in this work so that all colours just do not turn together brown”. In the work entitled “From the Earth” it is possible to notice that Taija uses the typical colors that represent her style, the work refers mainly to “Forest Princess”, a work already exhibited at M.A.D.S. art gallery during the exhibition “Fable” in December. The second work, “Strength in lightness”, has well-separated colors. Blue and purple dominate the composition, in the middle green and yellow add a note of light to the work, as well as the small red footprints on the left. These works mark a passage in Taija Mantyla’s artistic activity: it is now known that the artist is guided by colors but here even more is guided by music. The occasion to present these works could not be righter: Gaia is the origin of everything, and music is part of it, music is part of each of us, it is a gift that Mother Earth made to humanity. These works are a journey within the creative sensibility of the artist and convey the desire to live.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Taija Mäntylä
From the Earth
Taija Mäntylä
Strength in lightness
Takahiro Nago Takahiro Nago’s paintings are extremely tactile works of art that are not limited to the two-dimensional plane of the canvas. His is a peculiar technique: sheets of acrylic paint left to dry and then broken up and glued onto the canvas as a sort of collage. Taking up the technique of collage, Takahiro renews it using color as the material to be applied on the canvas. During the avant-garde period of the early twentieth century, collage spread like wildfire in the ateliers of artists - first and foremost Braque and Picasso with his papiers collés. Photographs, pieces of magazines and stuffed chairs were applied to the support, thus creating a sort of “polymaterism” that led to Futurism and Abstractionism; and to assemblage, a mode of three-dimensional collage that was developed in Neo-Dada circles and in Pop art. More than the experiments of the early twentieth century and the works of assemblage, Nago’s works remind us of the experiments of the Genoese artist Enrico Accattino, active in the 1960s. The use of material flaps is in fact the same, even more so if we consider the fact that the artist from Genoa uses previously prepared sheets of acrylic paint to apply to the canvas. The result is extremely two-dimensional and flat shapes that merge with the plane of the support. Takahiro Nago’s works differ in this: they leave the canvas and the sacred space of the composition, they lose that austere aura to enter our world. The extremely bright colors of the Japanese artist’s works invite us to observe them. Interesting is now a comparison between Abstract 069 and Abstract 057 two works built using the same technique and that have a very different final result. In the first case, the sheets of bright blue acrylic color totally take possession of the space of the composition and the surface is rigorously covered by a series of layers of acrylic material. No space is left to the void or to the white of the canvas: color and matter dominate the composition and the eye of the observer tends to get lost - almost hypnotized - among tiny traces of purple and green pigment that punctuate the composition subject to depressions and depressions that, produced by the sheet of wavy acrylic color, cause the visual effect of a vast area of ocean with rippling waves seen from above. In Abstract 057 the composition is decidedly more sober. It begins with a white backdrop delicately furrowed by stripes left by brushstrokes. Then we find these blue and red stains resting on the support: they are firmly glued to the backdrop and do not present excessive relief. At a first glance, one might say that this work is characterized by a more properly two-dimensional tone, yet here the three-dimensionality is played out entirely on color: the red and blue stains contrast completely with the white background, they detach themselves from it, generating in those who see the painting the doubt whether these pieces of acrylic paint are actually glued or are suspended in the air. In both cases, the sensations and emotions aroused by Takahiro Nago’s works infuse us with a sense of vital force and energy for which it is difficult to look away. We can say that the search for the rhythm of life is completely successful and brought to its peak.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Takahiro Nago
Abstract 057
Takahiro Nago
Abstract 069
Takahiro Nago
Scar and Cure 002
Takashi
Ensō means circle in Japanese. It is one of the most common subjects of Japanese calligraphy and symbolizes illumination, strength and in a broad sense the universe. A sacred symbol in Zen Buddhism, it is often used by masters as a signature in their works and is a metaphor for absolute Zen, the true nature of existence and enlightenment. The Ensō is a symbol that unites the visible and the hidden, the simple and the profound, the empty and the full. It is the image of the elusive change, of the continuous cycle to which everything on our earth and in the universe is subject. A - at first sight - simple brushstroke hides in its fluid and nonchalant gesture both the sense and the value of life and the universe and the expression of the mind of the painter: an intelligence free from all constraints and ties. Takashi takes the symbolism of the circle and revitalizes it by giving it a new visual experience and a new material composition. In En-So a dark backdrop flashes of bronze-gold light capture the gaze. Flashes of light coming from a scratched, rough and wrinkled surface that contrasts with the extreme smoothness of the dark background. The golden flashes, overloaded with light, try to make themselves visible among the folds, depressions and depressions characteristic of the material and, succeeding in their intent, illuminate En-so with a calm and mystical splendor. What the golden pigment has to deal with is with the soil in the most literal sense of the term. Takashi applies soil from the Palestinian city of Rāmallāh to the canvas. Located on the Judean mountains, it is only a few kilometers from Jerusalem, the Holy City of Jews, Christians and Muslims, and for decades one of the key points of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. A land that knows no peace, a land trampled by countless souls having different beliefs and ideologies, a dusty world once a spectator of great civilizations. Men’s lives come and go and so do societies and religions. Yet the earth is always there and feeds -silent- on the changes of the land and the passage of men over it. It is the witness of history, of changes and destructions; it is the generator of life and at the same time the witness of the decay of living beings. Through its stratifications we can discover the secrets of past eras, what existed before our advent on this earth and what the future holds for us. To a purely anthropocentric vision we can define the soil as a silent spectator of the history of men and peoples, yet the layers of the soil more than witnesses of humanity are the products of the history of our planet, its birth and evolution. Under our feet there is the hidden treasure of the past, the cumbersome weight of what happened on our planet, of what lived on our planet. The human being can do nothing against the incessant change of mother earth and his narrow vision - represented in the canvas by the division of the representation into nine squares - clashes with the complex and incessant motion of nature. Takashi with En-So unhinges geopolitical boundaries, tensions between peoples and religions, searching under his feet for the absolute and inevitable truth to which every living being is subject: the earth embraces life and death, we are all born from the soil and we will return there, under our feet in a continuous cycle of decay and rebirth.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Takashi
En-So
Tatsiana Lintouskaya Tatsiana was born in Minsk, Belarus, where she attended a high school with arts specialization. In 2007, she moved to Austria to work at the Salzburg Global Seminar where she leads high-level programs on economics and geopolitics. Her work and travels around the world have been a never-ending source of inspiration for her artwork which mirrors her experiences, thoughts, and emotions. She is interested in the role of art as a mirror of life and society which can advance dialogue and create awareness of societal issues. The recently painted series “A Tale of Cryptocurrencies”, of which “Guts and Glory” is a part, deals with the hype around cryptocurrencies, questions its effects on the individual and on society and ponders the future of money in the era of digitalization. I can only agree with the artist when she says that this work is very representative of the vulnerabilities, fears and fragility of the present times. Against a mountainous background with dark tones that seems to melt, perhaps a reference to global warming and melting glaciers, and a sky on which storm clouds advance, a bitcoin is thrown at the center. This cryptocurrency, as well as a global payment system created in 2009, is currently the most effective method to protect a capital reserve and also allow anonymous exchanges. In the work of the artist of Belorussian origin, the coin, the artwork’s protagonist, is surrounded by viruses. Obviously, it is SARS-CoV-2, the famous Corona-virus that has changed the world, its rhythms and its habits since its appearance at the end of 2019. “Guts and Glory” looks, therefore, like a perfect “photograph” of 2020, the year of realization of the artwork, as it contains the main critical issues of the year that we have just left behind. On the other hand, it is known that art reflects reality and Tatsiana Lintouskaya, fully aware of this fundamental precept, in the wake of many great artists, has brought this difficult historical period back on canvas, making it eternal. In a work in which every element is in the right place, in which the tones of color are wisely balanced and the brushstrokes clear and sure, the artist represented the current Gaia. Gaia, at the moment, is this.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Tatsiana Lintouskaya
Guts and Glory
Tess Muse “Blessed be the moments, and the millimetres, and the shadows of the little things” (Fernando Pessoa) Blessed be the moments, and the millimetres, and the shadows of the little things-. This phrase made by Fernando Possae, became illuminate to understand the artwork created in occasion of international art exhibition Gaia, the origin, by the artist Tess Muss. What does the beauty of small things mean? Watching Serenity beneath it is easy to put the attention not just overall work but to focus the glad on the small things in which it is composed. Starting from crystals that stand out from the canvas. They seem to create light spots that stay on the canvas to reveal a little moment of serenity and beauty. The observer followed the lines created by the crystals and figured in his mind the paint. This method used by the artist Tess Muse to put on the canvas elements revealed her will and desire to tell us the contact she has with nature. As she says: << As a child, I’ve always felt deeply connected to nature. My work takes you on a personal journey where the elements are always present>>. This message created by the artists that refers also to her way to intend art and artistic creation, fit well with the real meaning of this occasion, the concept of Gaia and the origin of the world. Painting is her way to talk fluently about the beauty of the world and the serenity that comes from living in contact with nature. The light blue used for the background reminds the infinity of the sky and the splashes of ochre colours reminds the roughness of the earth. As if the shapes and colours used are her way to express words and meaning. <<Just like the words of a poem can flow out of the poet or a song out of the musician, I let the paint, crystals and gold blend together by focusing on finding the inspiration from within. Each piece is therefore a translation of my most honest truth that can only stem from intuition>>. The painting made by the artist is an intimate connection that she wants to create with the observer, to fix a moment in which try to tell about her, about the path towards acceptance and beauty. And also the observer could in this way try to understand what she thinks, and feeling blessed by the moment of watching, feeling in harmony with the worlds and enjoy this blessing of serenity.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Tess Muse
Serenity Beneath
Therese Åhlund “ I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. ” (Henry David Thoreau)
Therese Åhlund is a self-taught artist who lives and works in Sweden. She has always been interested in creating art and her greatest source of inspiration comes from nature and the northern Swedish woods. Her goal as an artist is to communicate the wildness of nature and the pure energy of the world, in order to bring out the deep connection between humans and the universe, that is sometimes forgotten. Nature can be peaceful and still, but it can also bring back savage and archaic feelings, hidden away in modern society. This concept is extensively expressed in the artwork “Life companion”, in which we observe the natural behaviour of a creature, hunting for survival. The artwork shows a predator and a prey: if humans have forgotten their primitive side, the artist’s duty is to make them rediscover the lost contact with Mother Earth. Therefore, the artwork can be seen as a mirror, reminding us where we come from by revealing our natural feelings and our ancient and hidden memory.
Art Curator Maddalena Corbini
Therese Åhlund
Life Companion
Tiffany Butler “On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it.” (Jules Renard)
What is our Universe made of? What generates life on our earth? The artist Tiffany Butler, with her artworks, explores this wide concept. As an intuitive artist, she finds her inspiration in the energy of the Universe. Her art is not limited to a traditional form: Tiffany Butler’s artistic career varies from pencil mandala drawings to inks by alcohol and also to collage and gouache paintings. This curiosity for different languages of art, lets her discover a new and personal artistic form: moving digital art. By means of this new art world – constantly growing, Tiffany Butler is able to materialize the changeable and never still world around us. Using digital tools, the artist portrays the flow that enlivens the world. Through her artworks, the artist would give us her own interpretation of the life force that guides the Universe and the earth. Sharing her perspective, she encourages the viewers to reflect upon both their own condition – allowing themselves to be surprised by what they can discover – and the great beyond. Tiffany Butler shows us – thanks to her innovative video – how the Universe was formed. The remnants of millions of stars, releasing power, created a new mass of energy vibrating; we can attend to a continuous creation of existence – the witness of the natural stages of life. Tiffany Butler’s video wants to remind the viewers of the endless cycle of creation and rebirth of the Universe.
Art Curator Manuela Fratar
Tiffany Butler
Google Earth
Tine Boehm “However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.” (Stephen Hawking) Tine Böhm is a versatile and creative artist. Her works have been shown in numerous exhibitions during her career. Her taste for colourful and harmonious combinations of shapes and colours is evident. Her artworks are predominantly abstract and place the viewer at the centre of a whirlwind of emotions. Every colour she uses has a specific symbolic meaning. She never uses random colours. In her work “Transformation”, Tine’s style is clearly evident. With broad brush strokes, she paints the canvas extraordinarily well, juxtaposing and superimposing colours on each other. This creates a play of contrasts and light that gives the artwork dynamism and movement. The three-dimensionality is given by the touches of light. Together, the colours cancel each other out, condense, enrich each other’s value. The composition appears studied but at the same time the free and spontaneous brushstrokes take over, releasing vital and pure energy. The reflections of light express hope, positivity, continuous change. The whole painting is an expression of time changing, leaving people at the mercy of change and the process of transformation. To change, to evolve, to grow is something positive even if it is inevitable to find obstacles along the way. Colder, darker colours such as blue and purple could represent the difficulties encountered in the transformation process. Light is the real key to understanding the work and leads the viewer’s gaze to focus on the beauty inherent in the work and not to concentrate on the darker colour, a metaphor for life’s inconveniences. The viewer is captivated by the blue sphere on the right. The circle has always been a symbol of balance and harmony. The process of transformation requires boldness, but also leads to many satisfactions. Tine invites the viewer to identify with the artwork, to reflect on his or her own personal growth. She accompanies him in this reflection through the skilful use of shapes and colours. These include turquoise, which connects the heart with the mind; light green, which represents the new awakening that unites both man and nature; yellow and white, which light the way and give energy; red, which expresses boldness and perseverance; dark blue, symbolising something that needs to be renewed; and pink, the colour of creativity, which creates a bridge between the natural element and man. Tine guides the viewer through his or her spiritual transformation, using special colours that evoke a certain type of feeling. The artist lets the colours be free to express themselves on the canvas. Although there is a studied underlying structure, by intervening with the power of colour Tine makes the artwork spontaneous and instinctive. The gestures are fluid, soft. Tine also invites the viewer not to give up, to trust in change because it is something natural. Nature changes, evolves but always maintains that pure, vital energy that distinguishes it and that balance that binds all things together.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Tine Boehm
Transformation
Tosca Arnout and Jessica Thorborg “In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.” (Carl Jung)
Vibrant colors are arranged following wide circular brushstrokes, recalling the concentric waves that are created on the surface of the water, as after the throwing of a stone on a motionless lake. Blends of shades with a mystical flavour, recall the atmospheres of the planets in space and the immense galaxies. These are the works of Tosca Arnout and Jessica Thorborg, two Dutch artists who paint their four-handed paintings. Being guided by a stream of consciousness, they give life to large vertical canvases, as in the series “This is us together”, enveloping the observer in an enveloping and contemplative visual journey. The influences of the master of Orphic Cubism, Robert Delaunay, in particular of his works whose subjects were colored discs, such as “Circular Forms, Sun and Moon”, are clear. There are many historians who assign Delaunay a role of passage between Cubism and Abstractionism. In fact, the artist never had the courage to define his works as “abstract”, always attributing titles that alluded to a figurative, in particular a cosmic symbology. The cosmos itself seems to be the favourite subject in the works of Arnout and Thorborg, an analysis of the space-time of the inner universe, a path of simultaneous circles, where dynamism is linked to light. Quiet sounds that echo in the universe in the form of waves of color, collide with each other, merging in a process of osmosis silent, but powerful. A call to Mother Nature that, when it surrounds us, takes us back in time to the origins of the world, rekindling those deep connections that, from time to time, fade until they disappear.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo e Francesca Brunello
Tosca Arnout and Jessica Thorborg
This is us together 1
Tosca Arnout and Jessica Thorborg
This is us together 2
Tosca Arnout and Jessica Thorborg
This is us together 3
Tricia Sunray Healy “Death like birth, is a secret of nature” (Marcus Aurelius) Tricia Sunray Healy is a self taught artist born and living in New York. Her works are acts of transformation, it is a trance like state once beginning and at times journeying through a dark abyss into the light, creating an emotional and visceral experience through a vibrant color palette. She often feels fragmented with her soul wandering searching for a place of peace and this is where she finds it. Tricia reaches her artistic maturity by creating a completely unique style that belongs to her and that represents her personality. Certainly inspired by abstractionism and in some way by futurism, Tricia Sunray Healy creates works in which she leaves the background white, raw and pure. This helps to focus attention on the wavy, winding and light lines that the artist makes with watercolor and acrylic. The use of the watercolor gives the work a light look, a veiled and elegant effect. Tricia presents at M.A.D.S. art gallery three works that completely follow her style and which are strongly connected with the theme launched by the exhibition. The work “Cycle of Life aka Nurturing Devouring Mother” completely reflects the research on the origin that M.A.D.S. asks artists. The focal point of the composition is a newborn child, placed at the center of the work and connected with two entities: on the right the skeleton of a human head, represented in blue, and on the left a less clear entity, a heart perhaps or maybe Mother Earth. The artist shows how we human beings are generated both by ourselves and by a higher entity, Mother Earth. The work “Our Mother is dying” contains a stronger message: our mother, that is Mother earth, is dying. We, her children, are condemning her to die. Tricia here creates a mixed media work, using collage to include objects such as a feather, recycled newspapers, a plastic mask and also using molding paste. The human face embodies the Earth and her lips are covered by a blue sheet on which appears the words “suffocation”. The last work here exposed and entitled “Four Seasons” is aimed at celebrating the four seasons, the moments in which nature transforms and offers us its beautiful changes. Many artists in the past set out to represent the four seasons in their own way, from Giuseppe Arcimboldo to Alfons Mucha. Tricia Sunray Healy offers us her personal vision: in the lower right corner winter is represented in a very dark way, a skeleton and an owl represent the cold and death of nature; on the same side, at the top, autumn is represented by a face covered by yellow and orange leaves. On the left side there are the summer, up, and the spring, down. Here the artist fills the two faces with flowers, fruits and birds, thus symbolizing the two most colorful and warm periods of the year. Tricia Sunray Healy is an artist who evidently draws inspiration from nature, with which she is strongly connected.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Tricia Sunray Healy
Cycle of Life aka Nurturing Devouring Mother
Tricia Sunray Healy
Four Seasons
Tricia Sunray Healy
Our Mother is Dying
Trude L. Birkelund
Trude L. Birkelund is an artist born and raised in Norway. Trude is a self-taught artist, but in 2018, she decided to start painting full time. She is constantly looking for new ways of expression through different techniques. The artist finds inspiration from everything in life, from nature to human beings, fantasy, and reality. Trude was a theatrical actress for many years so light became fundamental in her art, she says: “Light has fascinated many artists through history in many ways, also me. It’s a challenge to catch the light in paintings, but since I love challenges, I will always strive to try to catch the light”. Trude L. Birkelund presents at M.A.D.S. art gallery two paintings for the “Gaia: the origin” exhibition. Both have light as their subject. For the artist light is a fundamental element in her paintings, she herself states: “Life depends on light, and light, in a spiritual sense, can also be interpreted in many ways. I believe most people think of light as a symbol of good things, and in times like these, with the pandemic, light becomes a symbol of hope”. In the work “Embracing light” the light is certainly more central than in the second work on display entitled “The light beyond inside”. Blue occupies most of the composition, but the yellow and white light beam is undoubtedly the focal point of the work.
Trude L. Birkelund
Visually it creates a vertical line in the centre that divides the picture in two. It is a divine light, full of hope, ready to illuminate the darkness. There is a human element, dictated only by its silhouette, without details that indicate who it is. Ideally it represents humanity. Humans need light. Humans need to believe and have hope. The second work on display, “The light beyond inside”, is realized through the technique of pointillism, which became famous at the end of the 19th century in France, thanks mainly to one of the leading exponents Georges Seurat. Trude L. Birkelund’s work is characterized by a dark and gloomy setting, which suggests the galaxy, unknown and unexplored. The darkness, however, is invaded by small dots of light that radiate around a sphere, a planet maybe or a star. About that painting she says: “It’s not without reason that I chose the title “The Light Beyond Inside”. I could, of course, only used “The Light Beyond”, but by bringing the word “inside” into it, my wish is that the audience may philosophers about their own existences in relation to our overwhelming universe, and that the earth depends on the “light” in all of us as a unit”. Once again, the artist launches a message of positivity to her audience. The spiritual connection is evident and leads the spectators themselves to believe and have hope.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Trude L. Birkelund
Embracing light
Trude L. Birkelund
The light beyond inside
Tyler Bennett “The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.” (Leonardo da Vinci)
Tyler Bennett is a Californian artist, whose art stands out for his profound research on the use of color, for the creation of abstract compositions with a strong visual impact. In “Emergence” the arrangement of the color nuances changes. The vertical brushstrokes typical of his work, here wrap around themselves, forming concentric circles. Behind the concept of “sphere”, there is a hidden and dreamlike meaning, full of charm. It is no coincidence that many artists have always been inspired by it. The sphere is the symbol of perfection and absolute regularity, “the place of points in space equidistant from a fixed point, called the center”. In this work by Bennett, the reference to Nature in its powerful perfection is clear. Brushstrokes in purely blue shades flow dynamically along the canvas, regardless of precision and letting some material stains spin, sucked into this overwhelming vortex. Even the choice of color is not accidental, giving the painting an aura of profound mysticism. In fact, in many cultures, blue is the color of spirituality, a symbol of life and rebirth, indicating the infinite cycle of existence. The circular shape also recalls the womb, the place from which everything begins. The turbulent arrangement of the brush strokes, however, does not affect the center which remains like the eye of the storm, a place of calm in the middle of the tempest. “Emergence” is a tribute to the Earth, to Mother Nature, which envelops us in her womb, protecting us and teaching us the way. To the one who bewitches with her beauty and overwhelms with her impetuous force.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Tyler Bennett
Emergence
U-ku
Two thousand five hundred years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle was able to compose what we could almost define as a psychology ante litteram, obviously in a philosophical key, listing the primary needs of man, focusing on those that distinguish him from the rest of living beings. “Man is by nature a social animal” says Aristotle in the first book of his Politics. With the term πολιτικoν the philosopher explains and summarizes one of the most proper characters of the human being, and that is his “politicity”, his need of comparison and relationship, without which he would be a common solitary animal. We, beings, have to make experiences, of the nature that surrounds us, of the objects that compose it, and above all of the other, of our kindred. The exchange of opinions, the dialogue, the lively relationship with our fellow man can only enrich us, contribute to our training process: it opens us to new knowledge, new ideas, new points of view. Yet, even though our need to socialize and have a dialogue with people is predominant in the psychological aspects of our lives, there are many factors that interfere with the exchange of opinions and feelings. There are cultural obstacles such as the difference of languages and cultures or a brake that lies within our soul: we simply cannot express what we want. Even with the impediments, the need to tell, to communicate and to express one’s feelings does not vanish and is not extinguished in the human being. She needs to deal with the world whatever language, gestures or alphabet is used. Art has the power to make the incommunicable and the ineffable comprehensible. Signs, lines, stains, the variety of colors can be considered as real letters of an alphabet that make up the language of a person. In this sense, U-ku has coined her own lexicon and terminology - in images - which expresses well what is inherent in her deepest being. Spots of ethereal and incorporeal color occupy the white space of the representation. One overlaps the other; they are extremely crystalline and transparent, fragile at first glance. One on top of the other, like this for many times. A superimposition of patches of color that finds its expressive force in the union of the individual layers, in the link between the individual patches of bluish color. A whitish and perfectly delineated stripe unfolds along the compositions: it is the skeleton of the representation, the element that holds together and connects all of U-ku’s figuration and feeling. The strip winds, curves, and rolls up on itself, free from any constriction or limitation of form. A line with a baroque taste that often hosts - at a more careful and responsible look - tiny anthropomorphic beings, little inhabitants of this universe, spatial representation of the artist’s feelings and emotions. Uk-u’s is a color alphabet, essential to tell about herself while exciting those who are watching. A sort of wonderful empathic process formulated in images.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
U-ku
Emotional connection
U-ku
Guilty pleasure
U-ku
Meditation
Ulrike Taucher
Ulrike Taucher is an Austrian self-taught artist and photographer. As an artist Ulrike is constantly looking for new creative ideas, new inspirations and new methods to experience her art. Her artistic production is very colorful, she finds inspiration in colors and nature. She mainly works in acrylic on canvas and watercolor. Emotions are the vehicle for her art: expressing them becomes the most important thing for Ulrike. On the occasion of the “Gaia: the origin” exhibition, organized by M.A.D.S. art gallery, two works by Ulrike Taucher were selected. Both made of acrylic on canvas, are strongly connected with nature, the central theme of the exhibition. The first one examined here is entitled “Cherry Blossoms trees” and represents cherry trees in bloom. This plant is particularly important in Japanese culture, where it is called “sakura”, and symbolizes spring and rebirth. The impressionist style is evident: pink is given to patches, with immediacy and without the use of contour lines.
Ulrike Taucher
The artist comments on this work as follows: “I created this work on a shiny day in Styria, inspired by intense spring feelings and the sprouting flowers and buts all around. How wonderful when spring turns the cherry trees into a pink blossom dream with a delicate touch”. The second work has a different style, more attention to detail, less instinctive. The work is entitled „Amaryllis Flower Bouquet“ and depicts a bouquet of amaryllis, flowers that symbolize grace and pride. The artist offers us her point of view: „It is said that the name goes back to greek mythology to a unhappy love story of the beautiful shepherdess Amaryllis... A given amaryllis flower to a person conveys affection and admiration”. The technique is once again impressionist, but letting glimpse a particular attention to detail. Ulrike’s works are graceful, elegant and convey a pure love for nature. The artist launches a message of positivity and good luck in the observers.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Ulrike Taucher
Amaryllis flower bouquet
Ulrike Taucher
Cherry blossoms trees
Vaida Kacergiene “Every soul is a living mirror of the universe.” (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz) Vaida Kacergiene presents her work entitled “New Beginning” at the exhibition “Gaia - The Origin”: by highlighting feelings and moods, the artist expresses her own introspection through the canvas. By exploring the movements of the universe and the spirit of every human being, Vaida structures this painting on a multidimensionality between the earthly and the otherworldly, helping the viewer to perceive his/her own presence within the work and to feel the strength and vitality that comes from it. Everything blends into a single dynamic interconnection that the artist skillfully emphasizes through the use of a symbol that is, needless to say, perfect: the sphere becomes the “keystone”, the point of reference for the viewer, who feels personally involved in that circular form that relaxes the mind and body. As if an intrinsic bond is created, the heart of the painting and the soul of the observer come together. The figure placed in the central panel emerges from the surrounding atmosphere, becoming part of a game of cross-references between reality and imagination: as if it was a guardian angel, the mystical halo that surrounds it, protects each individual who absorbs positive energy. A median entity that helps to overcome hardships in life, which is capable of giving strength, determination and protection. The artist stimulates one consciousness by putting the observer in direct contact with the desire for infinity and eternity: this leads to a new way of understanding and feeling art as an opportunity to investigate the complex relationship between humanity and the universe. The viewer is invited to join with his/her own soul, through a path of spiritual elevation based on a deep peacefulness of the mind: this painting helps to observe and discover the true nature of human existence.
“Color is a means of exerting a direct influence on the soul. The color is a key, the eye, the hammer that strikes it, the soul is the instrument with a thousand strings.” (Vasilij Kandinskij)
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Vaida Kacergiene
New Beginning
Valerie Harley “What does the artist do? He draws connections. He ties the invisible threads between things. He dives into history, be it the history of mankind, the geological history of the Earth or the beginning and end of the manifest cosmos.” (Anselm Kiefer)
After her formation at The School of Visual Arts in New York City, Valerie Harley has worked in the Arts Management industry and while completing her Master’s Degree in Arts and Cultural Leadership she has become Brand and Marketing Director of a cultural centre based in Singapore. As an artist, she is driven by her intuition and she takes inspiration from music and from the energy of universe and nature. Her artwork “1482” represents the origin of things, the ancestral roots of the universe and the wonders of cosmos; in the artist’s view, it can be seen as the measure of everything that is quantifiable: milliseconds, miles, light-years and all the energy flowing in the universe. In the artwork this is strongly represented by the use of colors, highlighted by the mixture of acrylic and iridescent paint. The energy of the cosmos and his balance and order are based on all things that, perceptible or unperceptible, are calculable without any limit. In this perspective, the artist aims to show the flow of energy in the endless universe, so that humans can feel that energy and picture their deepest wishes in the cosmic order, finally reaching them thanks to Art.
Art Curator Maddalena Corbini
Valerie Harley
1482
Veronica Merlo “Properly speaking, the unconscious is the real psychic; its inner nature is just as unknown to us as the reality of the external world, and it is just as imperfectly reported to us through the data of consciousness as is the external world through the indications of our sensory organs.” (Sigmund Freud) The word “symbol” has its roots in the Greek language. Originally it meant “juxtaposition”; in fact, it was the means of recognition that was obtained by irregularly breaking an object into two parts, so that the owner of one of them could be recognized by matching them. The entire artistic repertoire of Veronica Merlo, an Italian artist, opens up to our eyes like an encyclopedia of symbols to be identified and interpreted. She appropriates a highly surrealistic figurative language that is incessantly influenced by dreams and the unconscious. A great source of inspiration for her artistic research is, in fact, “The Interpretation of Dreams” by Sigmund Freud, a work that marked the history of psychoanalysis and a great theoretical reference for the Surrealist avant-garde movement. Extreme consequence of decadence, Surrealism re-evaluates dreams, irrationality, madness, states of hallucination, capturing the intimate essence of reality, beyond reality itself. The dream becomes a fundamental creative stimulus also for Veronica Merlo, expressing herself through almost fairytale imaginaries and with a strong ancestral and mystical connotation. Her canvases shake the observer’s soul, creating contrasting sensations that alternate between calm, restlessness and wonder. Hypnotic landscapes wrapped in shades of blue and black, from which minute details of flowering plants emerge, also showing a strong attachment to Nature, in its deepest essence. The faces, protagonists of her paintings, similar to African masks, communicate a connection with the afterlife, a world apparently so far away and, at the same time, so close, because they are part of the infinite cycle of existence. The same blue color, very intense on these black backgrounds, brings with it a strong symbolism as the color of spirituality and earthly detachment. In “Gaia”, our gaze meets that of a spherical face which, placed in the center of the painting, is enveloped by a Ouroboros, a snake biting its own tail. This is a very ancient symbol that represents the cyclical nature of things, unity, the totality of the world, the eternal return, infinity, immortality and perfection. All around, shades of pink and points of white illuminate a landscape, in which a myriad of small plants and graceful souls move in space. “Gaia”, by Veronica Merlo, is an ascetic journey hand in hand with Mother Earth. A vibrant spiritual contemplation of the ancestral world, an earthly detachment towards the noble origins.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Veronica Merlo
Calm
Veronica Merlo
Gaia
Veronica Merlo
The Fourth Season
Veronica Merlo
The Guardian I
Veronica Merlo
The Guardian II
Victoria Manzanilla “All nature wears one universal grin.” (Henry Fielding)
Victoria Manzanilla is an artist based in Bangkok. After her studies at the École de Communication Visuelle in Paris and Escola de Cinema in Barcelona she has worked as an illustrator, developing also art projects and publishing a book in 2019. She is interested in all the visual arts, as drawing, photography, digital painting; her ideas and inspiration come from the many places she has lived and travelled and she aims to capture singular moments and feelings in life. By analyzing “Underwater” we are able to perceive the importance of the bright colors and the quest for both contrast and harmony. The artist identifies the ocean as her greatest inspiration and recalls her first experiences of diving in open water in Thailand, observing all forms and species of corals like she was discovering a whole new world. The use of vibrant grain highlights the texture of the corals, giving a sensation of tactility, in order to feel the images as if they were alive.
Art Curator Maddalena Corbini
Victoria Manzanilla
Underwater
Yasmin Alhaddad “You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.” (George Bernard Shaw) The works of art reflect your soul. There could be no better phrase to describe the relationship that binds Yasmin to the creative world. Artist based in Istanbul, Yasmin Alhaddad gives life to works that, taking inspiration from spirituality, want to convey important messages of love and positivity. Her canvases are exactly the mirror of her thoughts and emotions that she has the desire to share with her viewers. “Very little grows on jagged rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wild flowers will come up where you are”is a 2020 work created with the technique of acrylic on canvas. The title is a quote by Rumi, a Sufi mystic and Persian poet from whom she takes inspiration during the creative processes. In the work, a figure is painted in the center of which we cannot see precise features, but only its shape. The background is created by the combination of different geometric figures: spirals, circles, rectangles, and stylized flowers meet and sometimes overlap. The dominant color is black which, at times, is matched with gray in different shades. The title of the work is very evocative and has a profound meaning:the artist invites us to be inclined to change when we do not benefit from what we are or what we are doing. Try to extend, to crumble so that you will not have to go where the vegetation is lush, but it will grow exactly where you are. This metaphor wants to be a way to invite those who read it to become aware of themselves, to know themselves thoroughlyand not to be afraid to adapt when necessary. Yasmin creates works in order not only to give beauty to the eyes of those who look at them, but also to tell stories that make the spectators reflect and at the same time excite.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Yasmin Alhaddad
Very little grows on jagged rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wild flowers will come up where you are
Yoshimi Shigeyama
The idea that the Earth is a static and invariable planet is relatively incorrect and misleading. It is alive and in continuous mutation since its birth located four and a half billion years ago. The formation of the Earth and the simultaneous formation of the Sun and other bodies of the solar system originated from the contraction of a nebula of interstellar dust. The nebula gave rise to a proto-planetary disk with the Sun at its center and the planets forming by accretion of material, orbiting around it. Earth, at that time huge ball of fire in space began to cool gradually promoting a layer of solid surface crust in which took shape the first continents. The continuous bombardment of comets and meteorites ice provided the earth of a huge amount of water that went to form the oceans while the volcanic activity in active ferment produced an initial atmosphere. Then the first life forms came to light and, developing the process of photosynthesis, introduced oxygen into the atmosphere creating an ozone layer. All of these changes took place over millions of years, and the human species occupies a tiny sliver of time in Earth’s history. Yet the power of our planet is before our eyes every day: volcanoes erupt and earthquakes shake cities; lightning storms, hurricanes, and tidal waves are all part of the Earth’s continuous vital motion. Yoshimi Shigeyama knows this well and in Force there is all the immense power that our planet is capable of releasing.
Yoshimi Shigeyama
A red river of lava laps the entire surface of the painting. On the surface the lava flow is beginning to cool producing areas outlined by a darker red-brown color while in the depths it continues to bubble, to walk and to make metals and molten rock boil. It is the synthesis of the earth’s vital energy that rises from its bowels and enters the atmosphere in the form of magma. Volcanic eruptions in the common imagination immensely violent and destructive are the creators of new reliefs, new land and the hope of a renewed fertility of the soil. The destructive power is therefore the origin of new life on earth in a continuous cycle of rebirth and destruction that goes on for billions of years. The sophisticated changes our planet is constantly undergoing have been refined over the millennia, and to the human eye nature struggles and cooperates for balance. In Existence there is all the harmony of the latter. An impetuous vortex turns on itself at the center of the representation. The color black contrasts with the red vermilion and the latter consequently fights against the dark spot to defend its space. It is a clash for survival that could lead to devastating outcomes and the annihilation of both forces. However, flashes of silver can be found here and there between the perimeter of the vortex and the vermilion backdrop, they insinuate themselves between the two colors and between the two elements and are a hint of a principle of harmony between the two. If in Force all the attention is focused on the power of nature and its ability to create new life, in Existence this new vital light fights for its survival, fights to continue to exist. It is a hymn to life, to existence in all its purest meaning.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Yoshimi Shigeyama
Existence
Yoshimi Shigeyama
Force
Yuki Hirata
Clouds of ethereal color rise from the support. Blue, green, sometimes pinkish and yellowish, these elements take all the space they need, acquiring sense and becoming themselves the fulcrum of the representation. Almost like spiritual entities, these spots of color become visible in all their chromatic beauty and then gradually disappear into a pure white background. Sea anemones moved by the sea currents, these compositions seem to move at the slightest touch, at the slightest movement. Yet they are there, still and in stasis almost in syncopation, crystallized and formulated in the instant in which the color touches the surface of the paper. Even though these compositions are characterized by a continuous superimposition of elements, by a continuous superimposition of chromatic spots, they are never redundant; rather, in the superimposition they find their own nature. Layer upon layer, patch upon patch, the colors blend together in a chromatic alchemy that strikes many times for the depth of the pigment and many times for the gracefulness and clarity of the color. The overlapping produces interesting plays of light and shadow, a dance between depth and surface that makes the pictorial support seem like a space that extends towards infinity. Images of glass flowers, iridescent anemones, sea foam breaking on the rocks come to mind when looking at Yuki Hirata’s works. Compositions that seem to have a life of their own, an almost alien life so much so that the iridescence and transparency, the lightness and vaporousness that they emanate. Every color is wisely balanced one on the other competing in a chromatic dance that smells of expressive freedom. Small dots of black ink, tired of their monotony and seriousness turn the fate of their existence. They widen, deconstruct and recompose themselves in a line of blurred borders - free - that sinuously dictates the rhythm of the composition. The epiphany of a new form is accompanied by the advent of even more grandiose elements: a riot of light and ethereal splashes of color unwind from the serpentine black line. Spots that used to dwell silently and passively inside small dark drops are now free to express all their vitality through the use of color. The line suddenly becomes the skeleton of a composition and the composition takes on the appearance of a large, soft cloud that discovers its sense of being in the freedom of expression of color. Pink, blue, green and yellow are now free to take possession of the space of the sheet, they are free to expand almost by osmosis on the sheet that welcomes them. Freed from the dark prison, they express the wonder of color by expanding and legitimizing themselves. Yuki’s painting smells of freshness, it makes us savor the wonder of a light and unconstrained world; a world in continuous movement, free from precise and established rules.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Yuki Hirata
Aquarium
Yuki Hirata
Struggle, and then harmonize
Yuki Hirata
The dots become line someday
Zarga Martini
The English artist Joe Tilson (1928), after a long period dedicated to pop art through prints, devotes himself from the ‘70s to alchemical elements. This change corresponds to the 1972 decision to return to a simpler way of life, thus taking an interest in natural cycles and elements. In “Alchera”, Tilson makes a schematic study of the symbology of the four elements. Inside the circumference there is earth, air, fire, water and the characteristics associated with them: zodiac signs, colors, cardinal points, seasons, geometric figures. The decision to approach the four natural elements in art may seem difficult to develop and at the same time a very delicate and complex enterprise. A challenge undertaken without veils inhibitors by the Italian artist Zarga Martini, whose works convey the serenity and simplicity of nature as a work of monumental beauty. These are entirely digital compositions, through which the artist wants to tell the viewer the fusion and mixture of colors of a warm summer atmosphere as in “Reflections of a Sunset”, or in “Variant on the Composition N, 1” and “Variant on the Composition N, 2”where the abstract takes shape. The artist experiences the tremors that prelude to the dematerialization of reality, without being satisfied with appearances, breaking the nature to verify its secret intimacy. An alternative and less radical thought compared to the precursors of the abstract current, both to Kandinskij’s proposal of a painting that exists regardless of recognizable forms, both geometric and minimalist art by Piet Mondrian. The color also represents, for the artist, a source of happiness and joy, total satisfaction of desires thanks to the chromatic range that nature presents daily, whose microscopic and primordial signs lead the viewer and the artist herself to the amazing order of a new cosmos, which is revealed for the first time.
Art Curator Federica D’Avanzo
Zarga Martini
Reflections of a Sunset
Zarga Martini
Variant on the Composition N°1
Zarga Martini
Variant on the Composition N°2
Zargos “I female-womb. I force- driving. I-woman seed shelter moto-continuous of the world.” (Conceição Evaristo)
All that generates life is enclosed in the feminine essence. From here comes to life the personal interpretation of Zargos, a physical and abstract artist - his style ranges from the iron sculptures to the paintings, from the wood to the tile artworks. His art shows the female part of nature: everything that can create art, bring to light sensations, give birth is the Feminine. Zargos deepens his artistic career in the iron sculptures: transfiguring the nature around him in artworks – created by stainless steel modelling, he is able to recreate shapes and details that remind to the woman’s substance. Exploiting the ductility of the iron, he researches allusions not only to the body but also to the deepest part of the soul. Zargos’ investigation is not just about the artistic expression of his thoughts but, above all, is an inquiry to the world of human behaviour. The artist explores the connection between the individual and the society -the hierarchy of nature. This lead Zargos to a further research: what are the limits of our body? Where our body ends and meets the nature? Through his plastic form, Zargos models shapes without borders, arriving to destroy and hatch the limits that social confinement tries to establish. In this way – with a 360° experience, both the artist and the viewers can rediscover their primordial connection, that involves the natural essence of the human body and nature.
Art Curator Manuela Fratar
Zargos
Body, vulva.
Zlatan Woszerow Zlatan Woszerow is exhibiting seven surprising works at the international exhibition “Gaia - The Origin”, both in terms of the technique used and the representation of nature made in a contemporary and aesthetic way. By pursuing a well-defined artistic vision, the artist creates images that reflect his journey and passion for exploration: each work helps him to capture the world around him, preserving memories and highlighting the complexities of his surroundings. His aim is to visually get attention of the observers and tell him/her a story that evokes feelings and draws him/her into the scene. Exactly as in “Abstrafossil”: it would look like a depiction of a millenary stone, very realistic and so detailed in its shape, highlighting its rocky appearance. In fact, the observer might be able to touch it to notice the roughness of its texture, living a more tactile-sensorial experience. Instead, in “Dinosaurs playing hide and seek” the artist creates a stable and well-structured composition: as if it was a forest in where one can hide, the sharp contrast between the vertical lines of the central trees and the underlying ground immediately emerges. All these trunks reach the sky like columns in a cathedral created by the same environment. Moreover, by dwelling on the mysterious and dark nature of the forest, a shimmering light effect is made, which appears to be far from reality. This style is a fusion of naturalistic elements of extreme decorative elegance that reaches the limit of a completely fantastic dimension, placed beyond time and space. While in “Mariana’s Trench secrets”, Zlatan brings to life to a myriad of marine habitats living in the depths of the abyss. By recalling the famous oceanic depression located in the Western Pacific, the viewer is submerged by the colors’ intensity, who can admire a rich variety of aquatic animals and plants, just as in the utopian Atlantis. The observer is entranced and intrigued by what he/she sees, wondering if there is life in that unexplored territory! With a bit of imagination, you can go into the depths in search of possible, fantastic specimens. In “Pinchbeck Rush” and “Sunked Desert”, you can once again admire the Earth’s crust, but this time from space: these works would appear to depict the Earth’s crust but seen from light years away. While in the first one, rocky layers, green plains and blue watercourses are recognizable, in the second one, a long, endless expanse of amber and reddish sand appears, like the Grand Canyon! Finally, in “Sun’s rays brush the sea” and “When Alessia dives” there is a return to the nuances of the sea: on the one hand, it is possible to touch the surface of the water hit by the sunlight; on the other hand, at the bottom of a cliff, one can dive into the depths of the blue ocean, letting ourselves be swept away by the waves rippling between the rocks and the harmonious, heavenly and relaxing atmosphere. The mixture created by the combination of all these intense and dynamic color tones is remarkable. These works confirm the fact that Zlatan conceives nature as a visual and perceptive event, where each image has a strong communicative value: in this way, nature attracts the observer to admire it, thus triggering an emotional response.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Zlatan Woszerow
Abstrafossil
Zlatan Woszerow
Dinosaurs playing hide and seek
Zlatan Woszerow
Mariana’s Trench secrets
Zlatan Woszerow
Pinchbeck Rush
Zlatan Woszerow
Sun’s rays brush the sea
Zlatan Woszerow
Sunked desert
Zlatan Woszerow
When Alessia dives