Paola Angelini
Regio
26 September–7 November 2014
Inauguration: Thursday 25 September, 7pm
Galleria Massimodeluca
Via Torino 105/q
30170 Venezia Mestre
Venice
Italy
M +338 7370628 / +366 6875619
info [at] massimodeluca.it
Curated by Arild H. Eriksen
The solo exhibition of Paola Angelini at Galleria Massimodeluca is the result of the artist’s intense daily work between April and June 2014 while staying at the Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale (NKD) in Sunnfjord, on the Norwegian fjords. During this period Angelini developed her pictorial art surrounded by the solitude of the northern forest and the results are now the main feature of the exhibition Regio (Latin word used to indicate in a general way a vast area on the surface of a planet).
Both large and small canvases are being presented, in which all the subjects refer back to an old memory, to a time, which in painting puts the present and the past on the same plane. The exhibition is considering the landscape from two points of view: from nature, depicting real locations—”real in terms of a natural contemplation which excludes a commentary”—and from background of human representation, “of an archaeological nature which stems from olden times, populated by saints and heroes, and which entrusts its representability to landscape elements which intersect classic architecture with the views of contemporary towns and countryside,” according to the definition of Marco Goldin in Storia del Paesaggio (History of the Landscape).
The artist enjoyed a constant dialogue with Arild H. Eriksen, director of the residence and also the exhibition curator, which enabled her to make comparisons and to perceive the positive and negative sides of the relationship with her country of origin.
The period of residency ended with the painting Landskapet, which represents a central point in Angelini’s art and was accomplished entirely in the forest where the artist spent a week painting from nature; the painting embodies the stratifications and difficulties connected with the physical place of the wood itself.
Angelini has also made a large papier mâché sculpture for this exhibition, which was inspired by a period spent working closely with craftsmen in a long-established workshop in Nola, where the artist learned the relative technique traditionally used for the Festival of Lilies.
A text by Arild H. Eriksen is to be found in the catalogue as well as contributions by Antonio Grulli, Andrea Bruciati, Alice Ginaldi and Eva Comuzzi, with whom the artist corresponded constantly during the preparation of the project.