the blue house

 

An original piece from the series “Virtual model”, oil and pencil on paper, 40 x 40 cm, 2015 (original sold).

I like to create imaginary worlds. I invent virtual simplified realities, probably the result of travel memories and past experiences. I choose the types of buildings, I place them on a fictitious ground, check the colors of the various parts, the lights, the elements of the landscape. And then I choose a point of view and portray this place of fantasy. The traditional landscape painting has to deal with the atmospheric variables, with the mutability of natural light. Here, on the contrary, not only everything is static, but I can change the various elements at will: add or remove pieces, move something, try the effects of shadows depending on the movement of the lights. But it is a small difference, and also the difference between "real" reality and virtual reality is now small: it has become part of our daily lives, changed our way of perceiving, and somehow has itself become real.

Tetris number 5

 

Oil and pencil on thick paper, 32 x 40 cm, 2010.

In the popular video game Tetris, pieces of various shapes slowly come down from above. The aim of the game is to be able to stick them in as they fall, avoiding the creation of voids. The making of a line devoid of interruptions will allow the disappearance of all the elements that compose it and the continuation of the game. But little by little the pieces accumulate, the thinking time is reduced and the stress increases, until a final piece arrives to occupy the space available above, and the game ends. In these drawings, block after block, row after row, something slowly accumulates and at the end fills the entire space. A horizontal bar at the top of the sheet indicates that the game is over.

This original painting is available for sale at the price of 290 US$, shipping included. Contact me in case you are interested in more information about my work, the sales prices of individual works, or the availability for work on graphics.

Little cups

 

LITTLE CUPS. from the series “Small things”, oil, pencil and charcoal on paper, 30 x 30 cm, 2008.

My house is full of little things. An infinity of unnecessary items accumulated over the years, that stay there, without a reason and without a purpose. Sometimes I do not even remember where they come from, where I bought them, or who has donated them to me. But now they have achieved a small space, a place above a cabinet, inside a drawer, on a library shelf, or hidden at the bottom of a closet, and they defend that place fiercely, stubbornly. They don’t want to leave, claiming their right to survive, pretending that I feel an affection for them, a bond that simply doesn’t exist. I avenge these portraits, which reveal their uselessness, their fragility, and the ability that I could, if I really would, to get rid of them all, forever. I want to show their true face, which is inconsistent. They are an empty and weak shell, so that their own shadow is heavier than themselves.

These original artworks are available for sale at the price of 250 US$ each one, shipping included. Contact me in case you are interested in more information about my work, the sales prices of individual works, or the availability for work on graphics.

Flags

 

Oil pencil and ink on paper; 44 x 55 cm each one, 2007.

During the Winter Olympics in Turin in 2006 a large celebratory structure gathered the flags of all participating countries. These flags were displayed one next to each other, in a large matrix, which revealed that the criteria of composition and the formal rules that generated them were more or less equal for all. Also in this series each drawing is a matrix, and each element of the matrix reproduces always the same basic geometric structure, within which, the color fields, the decorations, the shades and symbols may change, in an almost infinite variation. Each small rectangle is a flag, independent and completed in itself, but linked to the other by the formal rules that generated them. Each flag is a possibility in an infinite number of possible variations, where the final choice of a single element has been delayed or has not been accomplished at all. Each drawing is a series within the series. 

These paintings are available for sale at the price of 450 US$ each one, shipping included. Contact me in case you are interested in more information about my work, the sales prices of individual works, or the availability for work on graphics.

Amarillis

 

From the series “Botany’s notebook”, oil and pencil on paper. 16 x 30 cm (6.3 x 11.7 in), 2005.

These are the plants that I grow on my balcony. I have a small balcony with a few pots of flowers, and these are the things I see more when I'm sitting at my desk, and every time I look up from the drawing I'm doing, out of the window, this is what I see. I get distracted, but the distraction brings me right back to the need to draw, so I take another piece of paper and try to sketch the plants, their colors, the shadows and the light reflections dancing on their leaves. When I go back to the work I was previously doing, a little bit of these sketches is transferred into it, and this tells me that my drawings (my thoughts), though apparently distant and very different from each other, talk, communicate and transmit the information all together.

Eyes

Pencil on paper, 10 x 10 cm, 2001. I've always been attracted by the eyes, and by the sensuality that comes from the attempt to represent their liquidity, transparency, shadows and shades of colors. Drawing the eyes is a simple exercise, but it lends itself to endless variations. On this subject I apply my obsession for decoration, and so I try to investigate what is the limit beyond which the subject of the drawing is no longer the eye, but the decoration itself. The small size allows me to combine a simple subject to a decoration exasperated. The choice of the eyes stems from the idea of the makeup, which is basically a form of decoration.

Xin butchering an animal

Oil on canvas, 2008, 90 x 70 cm. The animal has just been skinned and is about to be cut into pieces. It may be a pig, a dog, or a monstrous being. It could be me, punished and offered in sacrifice to wash a fault that I'm sure I have not committed. This original painting is available for sale at the price of 2300 US$, shipping included. Contact me in case you are interested in more information about my work, the sales prices of individual works, or the availability for work on graphics.