Tuskan Times Art Edition

TUSKAN TIMES EXHIBITION CATALOG

MAKE YOUR MARK

MAKE YOUR MARK ISF DP Visual Arts Final Exhibition

FEATURED ARTISTS

SUPERVISOR

ALESSIA CHU

ANDI NUFER

ALI FONATI AMELIE FERRAGAMO ANGELICA ELANGE

LAYOUT GRETA FISCHER MATTEO MASTRANGELO

ANGELICA WU ARRIA SACKS

EDITOR

BENEDETTA ACQUARI

BERNARDO PETOCHI

CAMILLA RUINI CLARA SODERSTROM KIM BONAN MATTEO MASTRANGELO MARGHERITA PRATESI RENEE DEANDREA TIZIANA XIE VALENTINO SHAO VIRGINIA LUCCIOLI

Dear Readers, What is making your mark?

Because the process is as important as the products in the DP Visual Arts program at ISF, we focus not only on the artist in the studio, but also on becoming artists in life.

This year's group of artists deserve special recognition for their work in learning to approach art as a practice: one which requires experimentation and risk, and necessarily builds tolerance for failure and helps us adopt a growth mindset, where effort and struggle as well as breakthroughs and joy are understood as necessary for reaching ones potential.

This is especially relevant for these young artists, whose two year intensive DP Visual Arts experience presented unique challenges because of the need for periods of partial or total virtual learning interspersed with isolation at home during complete lockdowns over the course of the COVID pandemic. This made difficult demands on them to develop self-management and ownership skills as IB learners, most especially given the hands-on nature of the program, which requires high degrees of in-person instruction, experimentation with new and challenging techniques and art media, and extensive real-time feedback and collaboration with the instructor and their art peers in the studio.

We hope you'll agree that the unique artistic voices, strong concepts and careful explorations they have made have resulted in them making their mark— both on the page and on the viewer— as maturing studio artists. Outside of the studio, they are making their mark as artists of life, learning to bring this creative and proactive spirit from the studio into their experiences by focusing on how they respond, transform, and can choose to make meaning and beauty within circumstances and conditions that they cannot control.

Cheers to these artists!

Andi Nufer

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

MATTEO MASTRANGELO THE GAC BOOK My exhibition focuses on revisiting a childhood project my friends and I created as fifth grade boys: “the ‘Gac’ Book” - a Great Awesome Creatures encyclopedia. The Gac book is unfinished, yet it has never left me - both physically and emotionally. Instead of focusing on the Gac Book as a literal depiction of an alien world, my exhibition focuses on what the Gac Book represents: childhood, and it shows how my nearly adult self interacts with and is inspired by my childhood. That is the balancing act of the exhibition: life, creativity and childhood or science, anatomy and adulthood.

BUFALOO HUNT | CHARCOAL AND GOUACHE ON PAPER | 50 X 70 CM

STAMPEDE!

CHARCOAL AND COLORED PENCIL ON PAPER 50 X 70 CM For this piece, I again re-created one of the animals from the book: the orange buffalo bird. I was inspired by Enrique Chagoya and how he combined bulls with balloon animals in his piece Disparates de Toritos, with the child-like drawing of the orange buffalo bird instead of the balloon animal. The child-like drawing could perhaps be another calf, or perhaps an adult of the herd who is flying among the other bulls, showing a more direct interaction between adulthood and childhood.

THE GAC WAR IS LONG OVER CHARCOAL AND GOUACHE ON PAPER 70 X 130

“Anti Gacs have the opposite personality of gacs, they hang in gangs and cause mischief”. The anti-Gacs were modeled after a classmate called Hunter, who I portrayed as a Razorwing: a footless dragon inspired by Drogon from Game of Thrones. Hunter, an important member of Gac, had started a fight between my friends and I which became known as the great gac war, thus he is portrayed with an upside down crown with drawings above him from the book page illustrating the Gac War

ZEBRAFFE (AFTER MASTRANGELO) CHARCOAL AND GOUACHE ON PAPER 50 X 70 CM

These two panels show the same creature, the Zebraffe in two ways: as it was in the Gac Book, and as an adult would display it. The left panel is simplistic yet complete, and the right is complex, inspired by anatomy books, from which the title derives, complete with skulls, and the animals making up the Zebraffe. While the two are done differently, they are displayed side by side looking at each other as equals, equally valid, and equally complete.

MASTRANGELO CHILDHOOD

NOT A DINOSAUR!

CHARCOAL AND COLORED PENCIL ON PAPER 50 X 70 CM The titular character of the Gac Book: the Gac itself. While its design is inspired by dinosaurs, a Gac is no dinosaur, it is a bipedal, turtle-shelled, long-necked, dinosaurlike animal that my friends and I invented, and it was what sprung the whole project forth. What I often found when trying to draw Gacs realistically is that they would be labeled as dinosaurs which made me feel like the whole theme was invalid, but luckily this work quells those thoughts: is it a dinosaur? NO! It’s a Gac.

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

AMELIE FERAGAMO EMPOWERMENT AND FEMINISM This exhibition explores the concept of “Empowerment and Feminism” tied with my point of view and experience, which is expressed through my skills which I have developed throughout my artistic studies. I was inspired by different artists who want to show the viewer these two aspects of empowering women, speaking about, and advocating for their experiences. They use the power of artistic expression in an artistic form to artistic image to show global problems, to spread a message which is important or personal close to for them.

I tried to achieve this by portraying different aspects of women’s struggles and oppressions alongside their immense strength, beauty, and power. To me, these are different subjects and ideas that adhere to the theme of what links empowerment and feminism in each single artwork.

THE NAKED TRUTH | OIL PAINT ON CANVAS

I made this sculpture of a bust of a woman to emphasize its shapes and forms and to glorify the beauty of a woman’s body, an artwork itself. I sculpted my bust from the neck down to under the glutes as that’s the center of the body where everything lies and contains. I wanted to show how women are treated especially during lockdown by their male partners and how they receive abuses regularly, which is represented by the cracks in the clay to show how they are slowly breaking, all connected to the red thread which is their death. Clay was the best material to use especially to get the cracked effect.

THE HIDDEN PAIN

CHARCOAL AND COLORED PENCIL ON PAPER 50 X 70 CM This is my interpretation of how Muslim women are treated by their men and how no one knows about it because of how they dressed. I was really inspired and influenced

by Ugur Gallenkus, and how he draws parallels between the realities of two completely different cultures. I was triggered by this idea, so I wanted to show the reality not between cultures but what’s underneath what we can’t see. And emphasize it by using purple in the background to show power and that it is the color which represents feminism.

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GAP

WOOD, ACRYLIC SPRAY PAINT, PERMANENT MARKER 200 X 50 X 10 CM

This is my interpretation of showing how women and men have advantages and disadvantages in the workplace, where it is harder for women to get to the same level as men. It is represented with a ladder and the gaps between a rung and another. I added different statements and facts that strike the viewer because they are quite shocking, and may be appear untrue but in fact are not.

EYEBEHOLDER

PHOTOGRAPHY/DIGITAL PHOTO EDITING PRINT ON CANVAS, OIL PAINT, THREAD 60 X 40 CM This piece explores the gender less point of view of the eyes, which are the pure truth of a person, where you can see one's knowledge, past , experiences, and life. In this artwork I tried to make the eyes as genderless as possible in order not show a difference between female and male eyes, because at the end of the day everyone cries, including men. Which I embroidered on the canvas, and also perched by the other symbols I’ve sown on to.

GIORNATA DELLA MADRE E DEL FANCIULLO CHARCOAL AND COLORED PENCIL ON PAPER 50 X 70 CM

What really drew me to this theme of motherhood was my grandmother, who really inspired me throughout this process, telling me stories of her father in WW2, where all the injured soldiers would not call their wives but theirs mothers, to show the close relationship between mothers and male sons. I struggled a bit with the process and discovered that oil paints are much better than acrylics especially for their color quality.

WW

CHARCOAL AND COLORED PENCIL ON PAPER 50 X 70 CM This artwork is probably my favorite because it explores the positive aspect of my theme. Many times feminism can be seen as something depressing and sad, with stories of gender inequality, abuse and rape, but I wanted to emphasise the positive aspect of it, and see how women are instead strong and powerful, so I decided to get together 25 women from different ethnicities, religions, nationalities, cultural backgrounds and ages, to actually set them free and capture them in their best state to let them feel at ease.

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

TIZIANA XIE VALUES OF BLUE My exhibition explores the diversity of feelings perceived within the color blue with the emphasis on visual forms, emotions, and imagination. From my perspective, blue is often associated with negative emotions, and blue is often played and used to create mystery and unknown. Thus, I want my work to portray the disconnection between ourselves and the world leading to the unknown. This is one of the reasons for portraying blurry and abstract human figures; the viewers may be able to use their imagination and think beyond the image in the approach of a different atmosphere. What I’m trying to achieve for the viewers is not the sense of drawing in, but an image that makes you reflect, think, and guess. These heavy atmospheres represent my view of the world, the pressure of freedom, and the ray of light from the dark sides, expressing the ambiguous feelings of our perception that have never been clearly considered and observed.

ASCENSEUR DE MÉDITATION | OIL PAINT ON CANVAS

The idea of the two lifts comes from the interior design of the Ancient Art Museum of Shenzhen, also known as Time Capsules. I was very inspired by its concept: “This is a place that connects you with ancient memories.”

In fact, I decided to refer to the image of the capsule but using a different concept.

Unlike the Shenzhen museum, the capsules do not symbolize a change in space but an object that provides meditation by taking away all negative energies.

BOTTOM LIGHT OIL PAINT ON CANVAS 50 X 70 CM

The initial idea was gained from a photograph I took of a person walking in the middle of a road under the sunshine. I was very attracted to the shadow behind him that matches with the darkness on both sides, it highlights the contrast resulting in a diverse tone. The surrounded darkness represents the external challenge while the central light represents sunshine within each individual, and the bird figure symbolizes peace and freedom.

ANGEL FALLS OIL PAINT ON CANVAS 30 X 40

The initial idea was gained from a photograph I took of a person walking in the middle of a road under the sunshine.

PARADISE LOST FOUND OIL PAINT ON CANVAS 50 X 70 CM

This painting explored concepts of reflection, shadow, and space. The background model was inspired by the exterior design of Changsha Art Museum. Playing with white and space allowed me to understand the power of light, and begin to develop ideas in a more complex manner. The image shows a transformation of identity relating to the idea of ‘pure’ which can be seen through the choice of white.

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

RENEE DEANDREA SUPERSTITION My exhibition explores different superstitions from around the world.

Growing up in a multicultural family, I found interesting how whilst my southern Italian grandmother told me that if a black cat passed me I would be cursed with bad luck, my Scottish grandfather told me that if a black cat appeared on my doorstep, I would be coming into money. This pushed me to explore how in different cultures, countries and religions, there are very diverse superstitions and beliefs. The intent of my art is to take the viewer on a journey around the world to explore the fascinating relationships between belief, culture, and reality, and how each impact the other.

PALESTINE | ACRLYICS ON CANVAS | 30 X 40

This painting represents the Christian belief that there is dignity in suffering. In order to convey this message I portrayed a crown of thorns, which represents Christ’s suffering and pain.

However, I enriched it by adding sprouts, in order to symbolize that pain comes with growth, as well as flowers, more specifically the magnolia, which is the flower of dignity.

PHILIPPINES

EMBROIDERY ON PHOTOGRAPHY 40 X 30 CM These embroidered canvases represent the Filipno superstition that the color red attracts natural disasters. In order to depict this belief I decided to print three very famous pictures of natural calamities that occured in the Philippines, such as tsunamis and earthquakes, and embroider on them some elements of the color red, in order to imply that the presence of that color is what caused the disaster, just like the superstition suggests.

WORLD

ACRYLIC ON WOOD 100 X 60 CM This painting is the introductory piece to my exhibition. The superstition that this artwork sees as a main theme is the one of the ladybug. Cultures around the world see ladybugs as a very positive influence. In order to convey to the audience that the intent of my exhibition is that of taking them on a journey around the world where they can learn about different culture’s superstitions, I displayed the 7 black dots of the ladybug like the 7 continents.

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

ALESSIA CHU HUMANITY AND NATURE

GIRL WITH SPIDER LILLY | WATER COLOR | 17.5 X 19

In this piece, I painted a girl and a red spider Lilly that is covering up her mouth. Red Spider Lilly in Asian culture is associated with final goodbyes, I hope to communicate the message that if we keep harming nature, there will be immense consequences for humans.

BUTTERFLY OIL ON CANVAS 50 X 70 CM

In this painting, I depicted a butterfly and a dark background with a beam of light. I first mixed primary colors to draw the black layer and reserved a space for the light to make it stronger. Human life is like this butterfly, fragile and short. When we get help from nature, it's like a beam of light in the dark. We fly to the light, no matter how difficult it will be, no matter how dark it is.

CAGE

OIL ON CANVAS 42 X 29.5 The painting explores the current situation that we are facing with nature. With pollution getting worse and worse, it is like we are putting a flower in a cage and cannot touch the beauty of it. We try to get it back and save it, but we are tied down by other factors that surround us such as money, desire. We are sacrificing nature to improve our lives, we have finally realized it but we cannot get out of the current circumstance.

THE WOMAN ON THE BRIDGE ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 50 X 70 CM

断章

My inspiration is drawn from a Chinese poem called “ ”, which depicts views of nature. Thus, I wanted to paint what I felt when I was reading the poem. In this artwork, I imagined myself standing on the bridge, enjoying the view, and wearing traditional Chinese clothes, Hanfu. The lotus represent the purity of nature.

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

KIM BÖNAN ARCHITECTURE AND FASHION It was my family who catapulted me into these two worlds: architecture and fashion, and it is with my works that I wish to demonstrate their synergy. In my artistic production, 3 milestones have guided me: simplicity of lines, the use of few bright colors, and respect for geometry. My intention is to transport the public into two seemingly separate worlds by giving them the tools to understand this link and communicate and transmit the emotional experience of how a human body can interpret the shapes and geometries and return intensity and energy.

IN TOUCH | BODY PAINT |

This work touches my soul deeply. A body painting made of geometric lines and solid colors.

Mondrian has been my source of artistic inspiration and Emilio Pucci the fashion designer who with his patterns made from a clever mix of a few colors can create wonderful prints. With In Touch I want to convey the intimate and deep relationship between man, fashion and architecture: it is the human being who lives the buildings and wears the clothes, to give them an existence and a personality.

FASHONISTA'S HOUSE COLORED PENCIL ON PAPER 50 X 70 CM

I'm a child again, and my dollhouse is full of furniture and clothes that are cleverly mixed in a riot of colors and shapes. And so the curtains become evening dresses and the chandeliers dance skirts. At the end of the day, dreaming doesn't cost anything and when we rediscover the connection with our childish selves, that's when our highest sensitivity comes out and we are ready to learn new things.

Christian Dior gave me inspirational elements for this work with the packaging of his perfumes.

REFLECTED ACRYLIC ON GLASS 50 X 70 CM

Enter my world, look into the mirror: you will discover a double perspective. You will see reflected the geometries of the architectural space around you and when you get closer you will see yourself with your clothes and your style. Once again fashion and architecture meet and merge in an atmosphere of vital energy, lines and colors.

Pistoletto and Rotchko are my sources of inspiration to give life to the installation where I want you to lose and find yourself.

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

CAMILLA RUINI UNFISHED ART I began creating pieces with the theme of having unfinished work that is not unresolved, but has the quality of a beautiful and resolved study which can stand by itself. It is influenced by my love for Renaissance figurative and still life painting and sketches. I am a perfectionist, the concept of unfinished work drives me to let go and allow myself to be finished with the painting when the painting says it is resolved, rather than when I have a plan for it to be fully depicted or filled in. For this reason, I wanted to give an effect to the audience of ‘needing to complete’ or ‘to add the Finishing touches’ so the audience can reach out for the painting and want to fix it the way I would always have done in the past.

This is to commemorate my grandmother.

Unfortunately, she passed away in 2020 due to an accident and this piece was for her as a gift but I couldn’t give it to her. So I stopped working on it to reference that her timer had stopped.

MY GRANDMA'S UNFINISHED TIMER | EMBROIDERY | 30 X 40 CM

SELF PORTRAITS

CHARCOAL AND COLORED PENCIL ON PAPER 50 X 70 CM Coming from the title, this wasn’t planned to be an art piece as it was only a practice.

My theme is to be unfinished, which means my artworks do not have final transformations. So as an experiment I left two pieces of paper on my desk for a week, when I had the urge to draw or make a doodle making these art pieces.

THE SLEEPER OIL PAINT ON CANVAS 50 X 70 CM

My favorite activity is sleeping, to add that to the collection also represents that we can relax and unwind from a hard working day and taking a nap is the perfect solution.

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

BENEDETTA ACQUARI BEAUTY My exhibition explores the beauty that can be found all around us, in the simple moments that make us feel elaborate feelings that most times we can’t even explain. I started creating my artworks pre-pandemic, where life looked completely different and life was much more relaxed; with the advent of the pandemic my theme stayed the same but adjusted itself to the change in lifestyle. All of these paintings summarize what everyday life looked like for me during the past year, to be able to be inspired by the world around us, and see the beauty in it, too. With my exhibition I want to make the audience reflect on what the past year was for them, with the good and the bad, the struggles that they had to overcome and how they did it or are planning to do so, their hopes for the future and make them realize how this challenging year also had its positive aspects.

This artwork represents my “rebirth” after the dark period of time that I had back at the end of 2020. It is inspired by the song “Yellow” by ColdPlay, this is a song that I often listen to when I am happy with my life since it always makes me think about all of the beautiful memories that I have. This is why I decided to create this self portrait of me with a gold background, this image of me was captured by someone close to me in a moment of happiness and the golden background represents my “Yellow”, which is my happiness.

YELLOW | OIL AND ACRYLIC PAINT ON CANVAS | 30 X 40 CM

THE GLIMPSE ACRYLIC PAINT 60 X 80

This moment was captured during a sunny day before the pandemic. The subjects are two friends talking while observing the outside world through an open window, they are leaning out of the window with their faces to smell the fresh air and feel the sunrise on their faces.

Back then there were no masks in sight and no one could have imagined what would have happened just a couple of months later. This was one of the last moments of freedom before the pandemic happened and I will forever cherish those carefree times with my friends. This is what everyday life moments looked like before it all.”

LIFE SPAN

COFFE, INK PEN, GOUACHE 40 X 60 CM During the three months of summer in Italy it felt like Covid never existed and our lives were almost back to normal, this painting represents the feeling of surrender and hopelessness felt by most people after summer had ended and they realised that Covid was still not over, and that a second wave of the virus was inevitable. This feeling hit me particularly hard during the months between October and December 2020, and it caused me to live a dark period of time.

On one of my worst days I went to my best friend's house to look for some support, and when I arrived I looked over at the fish tank that she has in her room. I noticed that unfortunately her fish was clearly living his last day on this earth.

That image stuck with me and it inspired me to create an artwork representing the various stages in the life of a fish that end with it’s death. Under every image I wrote the definitions of some feelings that us humans too often feel but are not able to explain. I did this because those are emotions that I felt during that difficult period of time.”

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

ANGELICA ELANGE DANCING AS OUR REFLECTION My exhibition explores dancing as our inner reflection, showing a diversity of its styles that have gotten their influence from various nationalities. Furthermore, it delves into fundamental elements of dancing that shape each performer. After visiting the Biennale exhibition in 2019, I was quite upset and lost as contemporary art was not understandable to me and appeared to be weird. However, I decided to research it, having an aim to find its preciousness and meaning by performing a deep exploration of its history, styles, and artists.

At the end of this process, I changed my perspective on the matter. Now I found contemporary art to be the best way to depict something that is impossible to show with realism like senses or certain concepts.

SELF PORTRAIT| ACRYLICS | 200 X 100

The representation of a dancer chosing thier emotions for the dance.

DROP THE BEAT TO BE UNITED INK AND WATERCOLOR 21 X 29

This work indicates the street dance showing the cultural spirit of the United States of America. The combination of realistic city illustration within the abstract representation of house dance, hip-hop, popping, breakdance, locking, and more styles of street dance was presented by the depiction of the dancer in the center of the composition. The dancer is divided into two parts indicating both genders being in balance by imitating the concept of dualism (yin and yang). The street dance was mainly formed as a protest against studio-based dancing styles. Street dancers that have formed the style were mainly African Americans putting certain traditions into the styles. For instance, dancing in the cyphers, later on, transformed into battles, and competitions were influenced by African culture. The free spirit of liberation and self-expression are also identified in this work by showing the broken chain.

DIVERSITY OF MOVEMENT INK AND WATER COLOR 21 X 29 CM

Movement can be expressed in multiple ways as displayed in the piece below. I chose to represent this through clouds.

ESPIRTU DE JALISCO INK AND WATERCOLOR 21 X 29 CM

This art piece represents the national folk dance of Northern Mexican state Jalisco displaying the diversity of dance throughout the world.

DANCING PROGRESS ACRYLICS ON CANVAS 50 X 70 CM

The Elegant Expansion of ballet was mainly inspired by Edgar Degas and Misha Lenn as they intended to illustrate the lightness and beauty of ballet. John Ruskin was one of the main inspirations for the light feather depiction technique. My intentions were to illustrate ballet in a different manner referring more to contemporary and abstract art movements. Being a ballet dancer, I have always felt some kind of pressure dancing those forms. At the same time, I also felt some freedom in them. During the process, I was listening to Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. It allowed me to ‘paint music’ spontaneously and reach my goal to show the lightness, elegance, and movement in a form of a feather. Along with freedom, it is obvious that it takes a lot of effort and there are tons of rules necessary to dance ballet correctly, which is why golden spheres with texture indicate limitations on self-expression. The background shows some connection of a ballet dancer with the outer world, translating this energy and beauty.

DANCING PROGRESSION ACRLYIC ON CANVAS 45 X 55 CM

Dancing progression was mainly influenced by Pop Art, Futurism, Cubism, Suprematism, and Pointillism, and shows the routine process of movement or choreography creation. The emotional thought in the form of a red circle provokes action that is illustrated in a form of an arrow that slightly flows into the dancing step. We can see the smooth transition of the step into the rhythm that is present in the dancer’s mind which is a crucial factor for each dancer. The circle in the center of the composition indicates the globally and routine repetitiveness of the dancing flow.

The key is that this ‘rhythm’ does not close in a circle and does not repeat. Creativity allows the development of new dancing styles and techniques, giving a lot of liberty to the process. The small squares that are scattered around the circle represent basic structure and balance as many dancers are in equilibrium with their body and mind while dancing. My message of the black squares in my work was the isolation of a dancer from reality by the creation of their own interpretations for the choreographies based on their sense perception. Visually, it allowed me to create depth for the primary blue circle in the center of the composition.

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

CLARA SÖDERSTÖM HOME My paintings refer to either a memory, emotion or an object or objects which refer to home for me, whether it is about how I feel when I am home or if it is a memory, or simply a place that reminds me of home. In all of my artworks, I was inspired by my own life because since I was small, I have lived in three different countries where I have always asked myself the question of what home is for me.

I C YOU | PHOTOGRAPHY | 12.5 X 17.5 CM

I decided to make this contemporary piece, inspired by mixed emotions that can be found in a home, which is a place where you can be whoever you want to be. Or the emotions that you feel when you are away from home and you start to miss the place, but you can still imagine the place and can’t wait to get back.

Therefore, in this piece, the color palette was inspired by the artist David Hockney, and the summer sunsets in Sweden and Italy. The outlining of the face was made in yellow and gold to represent happiness.

A WARM ESCAPE ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 30 X 40 CM

While growing up in Sweden, Italy, and England I remember that something that was always present in my home was warmth, affection, or a feeling of excitement. I decided to make this piece also because a fireplace was always present during the cold winter nights. Therefore I used a variation of yellow and orange to demonstrate the warmth, as well as the flames, and I outlined the wood with white, black, and browns, mixing primary colors to get the perfect tone of the colors, so that you can almost feel the warmth when looking at it.

THE B CHAIR ACRYLIC ON GLASS

Growing up with the Italian culture, I decided to make a piece that reminds me of Italy. Therefore, I was inspired by the architect Gio Ponti and the design that exists in Italy. I decided to think about an item of furniture that you could find in a home: a chair. Therefore, I decided to gather wine bottles and beer bottles painting them in black to make a bar chair. I recall from my childhood a lot about interior designing and furniture.

HOUSEHOLD ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 60 X 70 CM

Growing up with different cultures, I wanted to make creative artwork with objects used in the kitchen. I recall that as a child, I used to bake a lot with my family, cousin, and friends. Being creative, coming up with different recipes, and making homemade pasta, is referred to the hand in the painting. This piece highlights the creativity being used in a kitchen. I colored each object in a different color representing a different time period and place ever since I was small until the present.

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

VALENTINO SHAO BEAUTY On a November morning, my friend and I were walking in the suburbs, walking from his house to a hill in front of us. It rained and the fog was heavy that day. I saw some dead wood in a broad area of the hill. They are standing; the branches point to the hazy sky above and merge with it, as if expressing something. I stood and looked at these dead branches, and my body seemed to be in one place with them.

BRANCHES | PHOTOGRAPHY | 12.5 X 17.5 CM

PINASTER | PHOTOGRAPHY | 12.5 X 17.5 CM

WORK THREE | PHOTOGRAPHY | 12.5 X 17.5 CM

FAR HILL SUNSET OIL ON CANVAS 20 X 30 CM

FAR HILL SUNSET | OIL PAINT OMN CANVAS | 20 X 30 CM

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

ARRIA SACKS WOMEN For the theme of my art work I didn’t necessarily look at any specific artist, I looked at a worldwide problem that I am passionate about and that I have faced. I have decided to make works that shown struggles that women have to face on a daily basis: body image, abuse, harassment, being a mother in today’s society, and everything in between. I believe that as a female I should try to spread as much awareness to this situation as possible. To get to the final product, I looked at situations that are going on in the world today.

UNTOLD STORIES | OIL PAINT OMN CANVAS | 20 X 30 CM

The painting shows a collection anonymous stories I’ve been told where

women have felt

attacked or have been attacked by men. Unfortunately, it’s a common occurrence, but I believe that the stories should be told.

ALL BODIES ARE BEAUTIFUL ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 50 X 70 CM

This painting shows how all bodies are beautiful and should be celebrated.

Unfortunately many women don’t feel secure in their body because of toxic standards. However, I believe that they are all beautiful.

THROUGH A MOTHER’S SIGHT PAINT ON CLOTH

My first work is made through a mother's perspective and aims to show how a mother may feel about her child being killed by gun violence.

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

ANGELICA WU FREEDOM My body of work explores the feelings of physical and psychological freedom. Every individual has experienced moments of stress and oppression from either inner or external factors, where people start to feel perplexed and lose the concept of feeling “free”. In fact, as people grow up, many forget what freedom is and forget that freedom is actually very easily achieved. All of my body of work consists of a character expressing their freedom through an experience of physical relaxation and constraintlessness. My artworks invite the viewer to experience a moment of freedom by stepping out of stress and constraints in life and immersing their self in both physical and mental relief in space and nature. I also ask the viewer to withdraw psychological constraints giving the maximum freedom to express our voices and real selves, where everyone can identify themselves in my artwork and feel the freedom.

SHOUT OUT

OIL PAINT ON CANVAS BOARD 50 X 70 CM The word “freedom” is defined as the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants. This painting comes from an image I took of my youngest brother shouting out loud. In fact, the experience I would like to share with the viewer is the freedom to “shout out” our feelings, express and give vent to our emotions, and let our voices be heard when we need to just as we did when we were children, without fear, pressure or constraints. We should all give a shout-out to those deepest feelings that we hide that we urge to express.

LET GO

CHARCOAL ON PAPER 50 X 70 CM This drawing is inspired by the inner peace and freedom I experienced when I was swinging on a swing. For further inspiration, I looked at Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s “The Swing”, specifically at how the artist expressed the loose movement of a young woman on a swing as reference. My whole body is relaxed except for my hands holding the strings, so the only source of tightness is controlled in my hands. Especially when I’m on the highest point, it seems that I can just let go of my mind, emptying all the stress and enjoying the moment of tranquillity.

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

ALI FONATI MOVEMENT In this exhibition, I explore the art of movement across a selection of materials including: charcoal, pencil and pen. Each material reflects a different personality, a world of its own. I initially contemplated what is to be determined as movement? Certainly, movement defines an object in motion, but I’ve come to learn that movement is also the expression of one's interpretation of how he perceives an object’s colour, shape, texture, smell, and idea. I structured my exhibition to illustrate my journey in exploring the concept of motion through a tree. A tree which I felt had a personality: something hard to explain in words. Thus, I decided to explain it in art. Every day or two, I sat next to this tree and came up with a drawing using my selected material. My exhibition shows my progress in exploring this tree's identity and coming up with my final work, a single painting which incorporates all the drawings, all my progress, all my journey. I found it incredible how something which cannot move could create so much movement. How something could not speak, yet it could tell me a story of its life. How something could not frown nor grin, yet it expressed immense emotion.

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

MARGHERITA PRATESI MOVEMENT

CURATORIAL RATIONALE

VIRGINIA LUCCIOLI MOVEMENT In this society, technology and social media have drastically enslaved the opportunities and skills for children to socialize. In this painting we can observe how children are left to themselves and are a result of a distorted reality when left without the addictive modern devices.

DISTORTION OF REALITY | ACRYLIC ON CANVAS

SOCIAL KISS

PAPER, GAUCHE , AND PERMANENT MARKEF This artwork represents how aesthetic difference is perceived in our present day community. The pair of black lips limited by a cage in contrast with the vivid red ones, reflects the basics of the human racist ideology, as difference between the mass is automatically considered to be incorrect or threatening.