Virtual landscape

 

From the series “Virtual model”, oil and pencil on paper, 40 x 40 cm, 2020. ORIGINAL PAINTINGS SOLD.

I like to create imaginary worlds. Using the modeling software 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 to 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.

The infinite city

 

The infinite city / oil on wood panel, 17 x 45 cm, 2020. ORIGINAL SOLD.

In the contemporary metropolis one can often get the impression that there is no end, edge, limit or border. The city seems to extend in all directions to the horizon, often with monotony and apparent alienating repetitions. However, for those who live in it, the infinite city is not only a source of stress and frustration, but it is often an exciting jungle, a continuous challenge full of possibilities and unpredictable opportunities. In the infinite city we become small and the fear of being crushed can be great, but despite this it irresistibly attracts us, like a siren call.

Cards butterflies

 

From the series “Please do not kill butterflies”, pins and oil on paper mounted on a wood panel. 35 x 28 cm each one, 2020. Original paintings sold.

Nobile's flight to the North Pole

 

From the series “Deformations”, oil on thick paper, 56 x 40 cm, 2020. Original sold.

I often paint imaginary maps. I like to play with the codes of representation and the symbols that are usually used in the cartography and in the representation of the territory. In this series of paintings, on the other hand, the starting point is a "historical" map, representing real events in the past, such as maps of explorations, migratory movements, conquests and wars. But in this case, rather than representing an itinerary, I was curious to represent that event from the point of view of the trace left in the memory. That fact, in addition to having occurred at a given time and in a given place, is a bit like a stone thrown into a pond that generates waves and upheavals. From the moment that event happens, a whole series of concatenated consequences appear, in the physical and real world, as well as in the immaterial nebula of the human experience.

Inside the house

 Inside the house. Oil on thick paper, 44 x 33 cm, 2020. Original sold. 

A simple and perhaps banal scene, but at the same time ambiguous and disturbing: two separate rooms, one person in each room. The viewer spies from the outside what is taking place inside. Actually he cannot know exactly what is happening. Is the boy hiding from the girl or is he catching her doing something forbidden? Or maybe nothing is happening at all, and no one of them knows anything about the other? Only the eye of the beholder generates the "drama" and can find malice in what he sees. The drama of the scene is amplified by the fact that the floor is imperceptibly inclined, from the bottom of the rooms towards the observer, as if the characters were forced to slide outwards, and by the nocturnal setting that allows the creation of shadows projected towards us.

Constellations

From the series “Embroideries”; oil on thick paper; 40 x 40 cm, 2020 (original paintings sold).

The maps of the sky, unlike the traditional maps, have no edges or boundaries. Here there is no demarcation between land and water, there is only the position of dots representing the stars in the vacuum of space, and possibly the lines joining these points, to create similarities with animals, symbols or objects that help us remember and recognize. The plot of these points and these lines creates a fictional embroidery. This is the starting point from which I begin this series of paintings. But here the map quickly becomes tangled and twisted. Symbolic forms and objects appear. At first they seem to be of value in orientation, but soon they reveal to be obstacles, capable of generating a maze, and so you get lost, passing from a geometric order to the chaos of a tangled skein.

Little houses

 

(original sold)

(original sold)

(original sold)

From the series “Virtual model”, oil on thick paper, 29 x 29 cm, 2020.

I like to create imaginary worlds. Using the modeling software 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 to 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.