COMING OUT CATALOGUE

Curated by Art Directors Carlo Greco and Alessandra Magni Critical texts by Art Curators

Alessia Logatto Alessia Perone Alessia Ventola Beatrice Rosa Camilla Gilardi Carola Antonioli Chiara Rizzatti Elisabetta Eliotropio Erika Gravante Federica D’Avanzo Flavia Montecchi Francesca Brunello Francesca Campanelli Francesca Catarinicchia Ginevra Fisco Giorgia Massari Karla Peralta Malaga Ilaria Falchetti

Irene Vettori Letizia Perrieri Letizia Vuotto Lisa Galletti Maddalena Corbini Manuela Fratar Mara Cipriano Marta Graziano Martina Grassi Martina Stagi Martina Viesti Matilde Della Pina Sara Giannini Silvia Grassi Sofia Ronzi Trithida Trising Vanessa Viti Ylenia De Giosa

“I didn’t know myself at all, I didn’t have any reality of my own for myself, I was in a state of continuous, almost fluid, malleable illusion; the others knew me, each in hir own way, according to the reality they had given me; that is, they saw in me each a Moscarda, which was not me, since I was really no one for me: so many Moscarda as they were.”

(Luigi Pirandello) Coming out, literally in Italian “venire fuori”, is the English expression used to indicate the process through which homosexual people come to openly declare their sexual orientation. In a society that considers heterosexuality as the norm and homosexuality as a condition of diversity, this process is often long and painful, a journey within oneself in search of one’s own identity. This expression derives from the English coming out of the closet, that is “uscire dal nascondiglio”, better translated into Italian as “dichiararsi”. The abbreviated expression, more commonly known, is also used to indicate the debut of young adolescents in society: the debutante ball. Over time, each word acquires different meanings that form a sort of historically recognizable stratification. Before 1970, in fact, this expression had not yet been used in this sense, but it is thanks to a series of social and cultural changes that today it takes on a new meaning. Every day, at every moment, we have the opportunity to enrich ourselves by thickening our tree bark by nourishing ourselves with novelties, trying to discover who we are. This is the process of life, but it is also the “hiding place” of every artist. An inner place where the deepest questions accumulate in the continuous search for one’s own identity. Art is none other than the artist’s coming out, a liberating explosion, where matter takes shape following the feeling, giving life to a new space for the conception of reality. “They come out of the closet”, where until before they were held back by a thousand thoughts, thus discovering hirself through artistic language and making art the mirror of the soul. Each painting, support or performance, becomes the means through which the artist makes hirself recognizable to the world. There are many masters who have marked the history of art. The same artistic currents or avant-gardes could be considered as coming out: well-defined points along the artistic timeline, concentrations and condensations of new ways of conceiving reality in a given historical moment. The Fauves and Die Brücke overturned the classical canons of art, transforming the interpretation of the subject and introducing colors with violent shades. Picasso and Braque broke the mold by dissolving the traditional Renaissance perspective, through a painting technique later referred to as Cubism. The surrealists appropriated the teachings regarding the new studies on the unconscious, translating them visually for the first time. Marcel Duchamp went much further, redefining the very figure of the artist as a unique, masculine and indissoluble individual and also recognizing in himself his feminine side, Rrose Sélavy. These are just a few examples. Coming out thus takes on a new interpretation, further expanding its meaning. It becomes a universal expression indicating the personal process of each artist in hir research, letting each brushstroke be the vehicle to define hir own identity. The intent of the COMING OUT exhibition is to give space to Art understood as Liberation. Liberation from self-imposed constraints or imposed by the normality of today’s society. Art as a renewal and as a compass indicating the way to come out, fearlessly showing the truth that belongs to us. Art as a mirror of the artist’s identity and as a meeting place in which to dialogue with the world.

“Everyone had only one true vocation: to find himself.” (Hermann Hesse) Concept edited by Francesca Brunello, Art Curator, graduated in Economics and Management of the Arts and Visual Arts

Abigail Lyons “I am not one and simple, but complex and many”.

(Virginia Woolf, The Waves) Abigail Lyons is an artist from Glasgow. Although she has studied contemporary art practice since 2019, she expresses through art since her whole life. For her, art has always been a way to escape the heaviness of reality and dive into freedom and calm. An approach to try to understand identity and express the fight within herself about it. Abigail’s work is highly influenced by her daily life, that shares with her mother, step-dad and younger brother, but not with her birth father, with whom she does not have a good relationship. This difficult relationship has given ground to her hard research on identity. For her, inside us, lives more than just one identity and personality. One of them is related to our family and friends, one to the professional background and lastly, the most intimate, the one we keep for our self. No matter how much we try to tell them apart and separate them, they will forever stay together as glued as they can.

“Not Myself’’ is the work that Abigail exhibits for Coming out, trough it, she aims to express the complexity of recognizing ourself, our identity and our personality.

Art Curator Sofia Ronzi

Abigail Lyons

Not Myself

Adina Tigoan "La pittura e il silenzio della mente, la musica degli occhi" (Orhan Pamuk)

This is the quote the artist Adina Tigoan draws inspiration from when approaching art. Adina Tigoan joins M.A.D.S. Art Gallery during the current “Coming Out” exhibition with three portraits deep in their features and touching in their atmosphere. At a first sight, what suddenly stands out is the feeling of fear and embarrassment imparted to the viewers by the main character of the paintings, each of them appearing resolute in their behaviours. “A Story” pushes to not look away from the young girl who, with her index fingers, invites the viewers, indicating her big and blue eyes. Cold is the sensation given by the scene, as for the girl’s temper and for the colours used by the artist that highlight the girl’s eyes, the centre of the painting. On an undefined background, almost magical and that lets imagine about something in movement, this little child stays motionless in front of the viewers, as to represent their awareness telling them to keep attention and remembering them to watch at their inner self without forget who they really are. Softer and less seductive is “Prayer”, where a younger girl is depicted almost in immersed in the background creating a unique surface. As the title itself lets imagine and focusing the attention on the subject’s features, we can compare the baby to an angel with curly and blond hair; big and clear eyes, lost in prayer. The light that transpires from the painting is the symbol of the purity and the innocence of youth, represented by the white dress and the pale skin of the baby-angel.

On the contrary in “Light in Darkness”, in a darkest scene appears a nun that, thanks to her veil, stands immediately out, capturing the viewers’ attention. The light to which the title refers, is the light and the hope given by the prayers, and it is exactly the veil, a religious symbol, to spread this sensation. The nun, with her eyes closed, her hands joined and her half-closed mouth, is captured while praying, absorbed in her own moment. Concerning the concept of the “Coming Out” exhibition, Adina realizes three paintings with a universal meaning that is the course of life, characterized by innocence and purity at the beginning and obstructed by thoughts and responsibilities when grown up.

Art Curator Martina Stagi

Adina Tigoan

A Story

Adina Tigoan

Prayer

Adina Tigoan

Light In Darkness

Agata Becela “It is extraordinary to see the sea; what a spectacle! She is so unfettered that one wonders whether it is possible that she again become calm."

(Claude Monet)

Agata Becela is a Polish artist. She holds a master’s degree in Painting from the University of Artsin Poznań. She participated in collective exhibitions at the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. She paints abstract landscapes as Agata and sews colorful clothes as Bronzinska. Her work focuses on organic shapes and structures, expressing her love for colour and nature.

Agata Becela

Her inspiration comes from the colorful mistery of the oceans. A tension towards an abstract landscape of the sea depths, which are not dark but extremely alive. Bright corals and smooth movements of waves and shoals like splashes of colors. Layers of organic shapes are colliding with each other, appearing and disappearing. It is energy and life of an unexplored space.

Art Curator Letizia Vuotto

Agata Becela

Drifting green

Agata Becela

Vortex

Agur Elharizi

Agur Elharizi joins M.AD.S. Art Gallery for her first time presenting three original paintings. Not only for the support used but also for the features that she gives to her subjects. Concerning the concept of the ‘Coming Out’ exhibition in fact, we can consider the artist’s way of creating, her personal essence, and her way to express herself. Relating to nature, Agur presents two paintings realized on blocks of wood that she first processes, showing two young faces adorned with some other natural elements. “One Love” is the title given to the first artwork, the girl portrayed with acrylic colours is characterized by her deep gaze, staring in front of her, almost seducing the viewers.

Important is the split face, half black half silver, realized to emphasize the fact that we are all one love regardless of race, religion, and gender. Yellow is the colour used to emphasise her big eyes that recall the sunflower depicted near her cheek. Symbol of life, of energy; of respect and of gratitude, the sunflower reflects the feelings of the young lady towards her love, the ‘one love’ that gives the title to the painting. Real but at the same time abstract, the scene gives a sensation of dynamicity and of sound, thanks to the notes drawn on the low right side of the block, giving a sense of peace and of natural life coming precisely from the wood block. Realized with the same artistic technique but representing its opposite, Agur presents “Moon”. This time a great part of the block of wood is occupied by the guy’s feathers crown - usually representing the Indian’s tribe – that gives him a sort of manhood despite his young features. The yellow eyes that first characterized the figure, now are less bright and what transpires is the black pupil growing up just as it happens in the darkest moments.

Almost as a sort of goddess appearing in the middle of a modern city is the main character of “Untitled”. A grey and suspicious woman covered, on her back, only by a cloak of the same colour of her skin, is the subject that attracts the attention of the scene. Nude and just with a thin twig of ivy and a significant tattoo on her left hand, the woman is presenting herself. Despite her conditions, she seems to be resolute in her appearance; her orange and big eyes – recalling the background – attract the viewers without instilling fear. The way in which the artist presents her characters, reflects her spontaneity and her way of living in connection with nature, without any society’s restriction.

Art Curator Martina Stagi

Agur Elharizi

One Love

Agur Elharizi

Moon

Agur Elharizi

Untitled

Agustina Ronconi "Why do two colors, placed side by side, sing? Can this really be explained? No" (Pablo Picasso)

Agustina's work is a real concert, sounds and instruments meet on the artist's canvas and freely express themselves. In fact, Agustina's work is pure freedom, she frees herself from any scheme, from any form or real figure to arrive at pure abstraction. The protagonists of the work are the colors with all their evocative power and the dense and full-bodied brushstrokes. The predominant presence of primary colors, red, blue and yellow, evoke a feeling of simplicity and at the same time stand out in the mind of the observer. The blue and red brushstrokes seem to almost divide the entire composition in three, from dark tones we proceed towards lighter colors to arrive at the luminous yellow. Agustina's artistic work is clearly of an abstract matrix, in fact it refers to the great masters of abstract art, in particular to some of Richter's works. The colors that come close to each other, the colors that sometimes mix and sometimes overlap create a unique and unequivocal harmony. A balance that arises from contrasting colors, immobilized on the canvas, making the work of great aesthetic value and capable of evoking great emotions. Meeting Agustina's artistic work means coming into contact with the matter of which feelings are made, in some way her work appears as a door to the unconscious. The colors appear alive and real, they find space and move in it, and it is thanks to this ability to manage color that Agustina manages to shake the observer's soul. Similarly, the spectator's emotions also take shape and move in his heart. If Agustina's work is pure abstraction, at the same time the emotions it arouses are true, real and tangible. The work becomes the bridge that unites the soul of the artist to that of the viewer.

Art Curator Vanessa Viti

Agustina Ronconi

Territorios de fuego para una poética

Alexander Weyrauch

<<I did not think. Just felt. I painted all night. That was the beginning of a new journey. With every picture that I was able to bring onto a canvas of my soul, I found a little more peace. More joie de vivre>>. This consideration made by the artist Alexander Weyrauch could be very interesting to understand the way the artist uses and consider the art. The moment of the creation is for Alexander, a need to feel free, to discover a new place outside the thoughts. In fact, starting from the artworks he presented at the international art exhibition Coming Out we can see the colours that fall over the canvas in a fluid way, and the composition seems to reflect the feeling and the emotion of the artist. Watching the painting titled ‘Soul of mind’, although the protagonist of the painting is the colour blue the composition presents different shapes and shadows. As if the brush wants to write on the canvas all the emotional nuances of the artist in a free and spontaneous way. Soul of mind wants to figure on the canvas the feeling of the mind when it stops the thoughts and abandons itself to peace. In the second painting titled ‘Soul heat’ the process is the same. The artist uses a very interesting technique that comes out from the using of the brush but with the help of other elements try to communicate what his mind tells him. The last painting goes towards a representation of some image that the artist seems to watch around him. The observer seems to be involved in this image and walking around the city figured by the artwork. In fact the lines and the shapes become more defined. The tile of the artwork communicates with this intention. City passion is the story of this walk around the city and the sensation and the emotion that comes out from the moment in which we have the opportunity to stay with ourselves and in this loneliness to stay good.

Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio

Alexander Weyrauch

Soul of mind

Alexander Weyrauch

Soul Heat

Alexander Weyrauch

City Passion

Alexandra Bellefeuille “Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Alexandra Bellefeuille is a Canadian artist who has cultivated the passion for painting since she was a child.

During the creative process that gives life to her abstract works, she takes inspiration from the world around her, from personal experiences and from the New York art scene. "Fifth Element" was created in 2021 with mixed media on canvas: Alexandra used acrylic paint, modeling paste and gold leaf to give more dynamism and movement to the work and represent the subject she has chosen in all its facets. Nature is grand, powerful, and immense. It belongs to us, and we belong to it, we are one. Precisely to give importance to it, the artist decided to paint the fifth natural element as the protagonist, namely the aether. According to the testimony of ancient Greek cosmologists, the aether is identified with the purest and clearest part of celestial space. The background is white, a light and bright color that creates a strong but at the same time pleasant contrast with the other colors used, blue and gold. Broad brush strokes alternate with thinner ones, the modeling paste recreates a particular effect on the canvas capable of stimulating the viewer's imagination. The mind of the beholder leaves for an imaginary journey that leads him to a new world of which the heart will keep a unique and indelible memory.

Reflections and emotions come together and merge in front of Alexandra's magical works. The artist, through shapes and colors, fully expresses her deep inner world of which the strongest secrets, thoughts and sensations come to life thanks to the movement of her most faithful friend, the brush.

Art Curator Camilla Gilardi

Alexandra Bellefeuille

Fifth Element

Alexandre Schuck "As beautiful as the chance meeting of an umbrella and a sewing machine on an operating table" (Comte de Lautréamont) Alexandre Schuck was born 1987 in France and he grew up in a franco-german family. Very soon, he discovered the passion for drawing and was dedicated to his art. Fascinated by animals, but also by humans, he drew them with pencil, expressive and precise, during his entire childhood. After the school leaving examination, he studied languages and travelled a lot. During this period he was still drawing portraits and caricatures, to offer them to people who were close to him. By now he lives in Berlin, and discovered a new way to express himself with the pencil, that is to say in a surrealistic way, and added colours to that. The content is about forms of nature – humans and animals – repeating themselves. Lively, not ordinary, striking and a bit provocative, with subjects like erotic, aggressivity, passion, and pain, that are beeing foregrounded. In the human conception, the eagle has always been a majestic animal with a very sharp sight. The technique used by the artist in using totally different elements to obtain a sensible figure encompasses what has always been an extremely evident and fundamental factor in the artistic current of surrealism. Comte de Lautréamont said: "As beautiful as the chance meeting of an umbrella and a sewing machine on an operating table" and this is exactly the definition we can give to the work of the artist Alexandre Schuck who puts elements in a precise context totally contrasting with each other and in contrast with the subject itself in order to create a new reality with a strong visual impact. Provocative elements of the human body meet the figure of a butterfly that represents the concept of metamorphosis and the soul itself according to the translation from ancient Greek. The deep meaning behind such a broad concept finds its explanation in the title of the work itself, which means "acute sight". The artist thus expresses his will to want to see beyond what is conventional and apparent by showing us his reality through his inner gaze. In Schuck's art we find a lot of inflexibility of contemporary surrealism that characterizes the particularity of his works. The beauty of strange things that fascinates people so much when they try to escape from their everyday life is an ever-present factor in the artist's works that leaves the hope of a possible fantastic world where everything can take the shape he wants. This is the realization of Schuck's ego, transmitting reality with one's own eyes and giving it to us in the most genuine way that exists.

Art Curator Letizia Perrieri

Alexandre Schuck

La vue perçante

Alfred Lee Jedidia “Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.” (Lewis Carroll)

The main intention of an artist is to catch inside his imagination some images to be transformed into something accessible to everyone. The artist Alfred Lee Jedidia devotes his whole life and – therefore -his artistic career to achieve this aim. His way of painting changes drastically as well as his entire life: what happens leads the artist to learn once again not only how to live but also how to bring forward his greatest passion. He clings to art and in it he discovers his own power, which leads him to rediscover himself. Alfred Lee Jedidia has to adjust his art according to the change of his body.

Alfred Lee Jedidia

Hence follows a changeable and dynamic form of art that is able to listen and modify itself depending on its creator. In this path of rebirth – understood both as personal and as artisticthe painter finds in music a good travel partner. Thanks to music therapy, Alfred Lee Jedidia is able to find a new method to represent what he lives and experiments. The result of these combinations – which are created by the connections between music and painting – is a flow of feelings and emotions. The artist portrays the stream of thoughts and imaginary shapes that animate his mind, taking advantage of the representative force of the colours.

"Everything you can imagine is real." (Pablo Picasso)

Art Curator Manuela Fratar

Alfred Lee Jedidia

Untitled #1

Alfred Lee Jedidia

Untitled #2

Alicia Benetatos “True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.”

(Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

Alicia Benetatos is an Australian artist who has always been fond of the art world. Although her life path has distanced her from painting, she has always known that her heart, sooner or later, would bring her back to it. Instinctiveness, energy, and passion characterize the creative process that gives life to her precious canvases. “Hidden Secrets” was made in 2021 with mixed media, in fact, Alicia used both oil and acrylic. Broad brush strokes and thin brush strokes overlap, creating a harmonious and balanced work. Warm colours, such as pink and brown, and cold colours, such as blue and light blue, merge to create a pleasant chromatic contrast. The title of the work is very evocative: hidden secrets like the special secrets that Alicia and that each of us always carries with them. In this case, the artist decided to paint them in colour, inviting us into her magical inner world. Her best friend, the brush, moves on the canvas through free and random movements, the result of which are works with uniqueness and strong evocative power. Alicia's abstract works are made without any pre-established scheme and are precious because they allow the viewer to immerse themselves completely in them, starting on an imaginary journey that will give them an incredible memory. This is exactly what the artist desires: she would like those who observe her creations to give their own personal interpretation, that they allow themselves to be totally carried away by irrationality and their emotions. Alicia is a dynamic artist who uses the colours of which she explores combinations and contrasts to communicate love, energy, and strength. Art belongs to her, and she has always belonged to it.

Art Curator Camilla Gilardi

Alicia Benetatos

Hidden Secrets

Amber Rose Wagner “I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than loving people.” (Vincent van Gogh)

Always surrounded by the Arts, Amber Rose Wagner can be considered a daughter of Art; her parents pass on their passion for design, illustration and photography to the little girl.

During her artistic career, the painter Amber Rose Wagner tries to find a new and personal way to put on paper what she feels, to achieve her own interpretation of what is around her world. The artist doesn’t focus her art in seeking the perfect line, the perfect colours or the perfect combination but rather in witnessing her true self – through the art. This desire for novelty leads Amber R. Wagner to a constant research for the maximum expression of her style. All of us come from nature and it’s here where we can find our roots; thanks to this strong connection with the organic nature the artist feels free to explore something new about herself and the human being - to convey a sense of strength and freedom at the same time. In doing so, the painter employs the power of the colours. Everyone is characterized by a colour – that makes you unique; you must be able to mix yourself with the other “colours” to create infinite shades, combinations and nuances. Only then will it be possible to admire the wonderful - and always different - masterpiece: mankind.

Art Curator Manuela Fratar

Amber Rose Wagner

Erica

Amber Rose Wagner

Healani

Amber Rose Wagner

Samantha

Amela Delalic

Amela Delalic is a Bosnian artist, based in Norway. Her passion for art has always accompanied her, Amela in fact studied Interior Design and has been dedicated to painting for two years. She begins her creative journey in search of herself and her style. Amela mainly uses oil painting that allows her to create vibrant shades. Her inspiration comes mainly from nature, which is surrounded in beautiful Norway, and especially from the water. The artist states that: “Nature has no boundaries and for this reason it constantly inspires me”. The work that the artist decides to present at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in Milan is entitled "Island" and clearly shows this her "natural" influence. The landscape artwork immediately brings out sensations in the eyes of those who look at it: the sun falls on the sea, the day is over and the orange invades the sky. The technical ability is evident, especially in the details: the blue of the sea becomes more and more intense towards the sea and, in the foreground, the foam of the waves stands out in a crystalline white. Precisely in correspondence with the bubbling waves, the artist places the reflection of the sun that yellows part of the sea. The fine spatula and foam effect create a strong dynamism, typical of the romantic painter William Turner, famous for his marine paintings. Unlike the Romantic painters, who exalted nature in a sense of strength and placed man on a plane of impotence, Amela Delalic creates works in which man feels in harmony with nature, putting him before the evidence that the human being is part of it.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Amela Delalic

Island

Amisha Mehta

The symbol of the circle with a central point depicts a complete cycle. The year, the alternation of day and night, the vital clock. The sundial, for example also improperly called sundial or solar dial, is an instrument for measuring time based on the detection of the position of the Sun. The circle also represents the succession of seasons, therefore the seasonality of products or clothes. The symbol of the circle is the perfect representation of totality and its shape expresses fullness and harmony. In its center coexist rays, the circumference reminds a wheel which gives the idea of movement and perfection.

The circle can also be a round window overlooking the world, the ideal passage between two dimensions, that of life and art, for example. The circle is the absolute and, at the same time, the created. The black hole is a circle of darkness in the midst of light: death and life, beginning and end. The figure of the circle is the most natural form that can exist: artificial works are made through the modulation of rectangles, squares; forms characterized by angles and straight lines. The vision of a spherical shape induces us to think of the natural universe, of its millenary times and of the slow and placid flow of time. The archetype of the circle is therefore an element that infuses us with tranquility, reminding us to be present in the flow of events, in the Hic et Nunc of existence. Amisha takes possession of the circular figure and raises it to the leitmotif of her works. A flower gently falls on a placid marshy area. There is no wind, disordered wave motions do not ripple the surface. Small concentric centers unravel from a point of origin.

Amisha Mehta

The area at the center of the composition, characterized by considerable energy, slowly tries to dissipate it into the surrounding environment. It is a constant and gradual process and the concentric circles are nothing but the testimony of this energetic release into space. Fast and wide at first, slow and docile later, these waves spread over the greenish surface bringing with them the iridescent reflections of the fallen flower. The ripples are thus flooded with a delicate pinkish color that changes and changes its hues according to the ripple of the wave and the atmospheric light. The release of the energy overload is over, now let's free our mind and let us be transported by the stillness of nature. If Coming to a full circle recalls - through the figure of the circle - a slow, placid and natural universe, Stellar is the emblem of the power of color, the representation of a great amount of energy that is about to escape from the most intimate part of the work. And so it is that clouds of reddish color unravel in the composition: they take all the space they need to be represented, their intensity does not allow for second thoughts. Little by little the reddish color leaves room for darker shades, almost violet, for orange tones with golden glows. The archetype of the circle is always there, it is always present within the composition. Yet it makes us understand how much color is infused with expressive power, with a communicative and representative capacity for sensations or feelings that are often not easy to reveal. Let's let ourselves go among these concentric circles and let ourselves be transported by the pure chromatic matter.

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

Amisha Mehta

Coming to a full circle

Amisha Mehta

Stellar

AMORE ISTEPAN OBSIDIAN

Swiss artist AMORE ISTEPAN OBSIDIAN's passion for art has led him to use figurative art as an expressive medium to tell his personal story through the depiction of subjects that were points of reference during his childhood. The creative process leads the artist to catalyze his feelings and emotions linked to childhood, thus perceiving a feeling of profound freedom. His works vary in color and painting technique according to the seasons: the artist seeks a chromatic and stylistic balance in order to tell a story. For the "Coming Out" exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. art gallery, Istepan has decided to exhibit two artworks that are part of the all-male series "BOYZ N THE HOOD". The series draws inspiration from the rapper scene of the 1990s and has a strong symbolic value for the artist: on the one hand, it takes him back to his childhood days marked by the preponderant influence of old school hip hop in the late 1980s; on the other hand, the work has a cathartic value, fulfilling the function of bringing the artist back to the present by sublimating his childhood through the reproduction of iconic characters from the hip hop scene of the time.

“When I paint, I am water. Water is impatient.”

(AMORE ISTEPAN OBSIDIAN)

AMORE ISTEPAN OBSIDIAN

The first artwork “CHECK YO SELF" depicts the American rapper and record producer Travis Scott, while the second one “BACK IN DAYZ” depicts the American rapper, actor and record producer Snoop Dogg. Travis Scott is defined by the artist as the iconic symbol of the modern hip hop scene, thus placing himself, in terms of time, at the antipodes with respect to Snoop Dogg, representing a modern and new hip hop. Snoop Dogg represents for the artist an icon of the old-style rapper, and therefore of a genre of hip hop linked to the past, contrary to the musician Travis Scott. The choice of color is based on the use of cerulean and shades of it to give plasticity to the faces and black to mark the hollows of the cheekbones and the prominent jaw, as well as a few hints of white for the highlights. Gold, on the other hand, is used to embellish the subjects, emphasizing characteristic details. The choice of backgrounds is free, with two colors that tend to be cold and almost opposite. What links the two figures and led the artist to depict them is the air that envelops them: an air of unreachability, as if of mystery, which precisely makes the subjects distant from the artist and difficult to capture in their essence; an air of freshness, lightness, of novelty in constant movement and evolution.

Art Curator Martina Grassi

AMORE ISTEPAN OBSIDIAN

CHECK YO SELF - BOYZ N THE HOOD SERIES

AMORE ISTEPAN OBSIDIAN

BACK IN DAYZ - BOYZ N THE HOOD SERIES

Ana Herraiz "True communication takes place only between people of the same feeling, of the same thought."(Novalis)

Ana Herraiz is a young Spanish artist. After completing her university studies in law, Ana began to devote herself full time to one of her early interests, painting. Ana's art expresses the evocative force of a cry of protest against the rigidity and social conventions to which she feels she does not belong. The artist's inspiration manifests itself in the desire to shake the attention of the beholder, to awaken the conscience. The purpose of Ana's works is to arouse intense emotions, thoughts or strong sensations, even at the cost of using unusual or even transgressive representations. Whoever prepares to look at Ana's painting must abandon all restraints and banish any attitude of indifference to take a double path, which focuses on vivid visions of the external world and on the universe - much more articulated - of the human soul. Always inspired by the vagaries of Surrealist paintings and the vibrant use of saturated colors of French Impressionism, Ana creates compositions of profound introspective significance, such as the work presented for Coming Out, “Miss Empathy”. On a dark green background stands the figure of a young woman holding a colorful rose in her hand. Around her a series of hands of anonymous characters crowd around her and offer her glasses, to which the young woman pays no attention. Her gaze is directed to an indefinite point, far beyond the confines of the canvas. The eye of the observer is attracted by her dreaming eyes and by the absorbed expression painted on her diaphanous face, which contrasts with the colors of the striped dress, the same colors that make up the delicate rose petals. The flower, therefore, with its slightly bent corolla, like the girl's head, seems to be an ejection of the interior of the young woman, overwhelmed by the emotions that come from external stimuli, intrigue us, excite and sometimes upset the sensitivity of a receptive person, capable of living with intensity the small movements of the soul.

Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti

Ana Herraiz

Miss Empathy

Anastasia Krivolapova Anastasia Krivolapova was born in a small town in Siberia, Russia. Grown up in different countries, she was able to get to know in depth many cultural scenarios, starting from Russia, passing through Chile and later in Slovenia, which aroused in her a deep interest in human psychology, differences and crossed cultural similarities. After graduating from high school in Ljubljana (Slovenia), she decided to combine her passions for art and psychology in the study of applied arts at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design where she earned a Bachelor's degree with specialization in Glass, which she is currently mainly worling with, as well as with ceramics. "Hold Your Ground”, the artwork that Krivolapova presented at M.A.D.S.'s “Coming out” exhibition, is a reflection born from the period of lockdown to which we were forced: infact, although extremely negative, it gave us the opportunity to have all the time necessary to know ourselves better, being freed from the distractions. Thus representing an embodiment of the feeling of security and confidence achieved, "Hold Your Ground" is a fine sculpture to be placed at home to remind you of the awareness acquired in this difficult period. The piece is an interpretation of a garden gnome. Gnomes are known as symbols of good luck: originally, they were thought to provide protection, especially of buried treasure and minerals in the ground. Making connection to a person, the buried treasures could be seen as the valuable characteristics that define him or her.

Composed of three identical figures, each sculpture, with its head bowed, looks at its hands wrapped around each other, closed in on itself and not communicating with the others. What unites them is their fragility and weakness. “Hold Your Ground” therefore wants to remind us that, before we can reach our individuality and freedom, we must be extremely aware of the most delicate part of us, only recheable through a profound reading within ourselves.

The aim of my art is to establish a dialogue, awake questions and suggest possible ways of thinking, sharing interpretations rather than force the Viewer to thoughtlessly accept personal truth.

(Anastasia Krivolapova)

Art Curator Matilde Della Pina

Anastasia Krivolapova

Hold Your Ground

Angie Antonakis “If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.”

(Marc Chagall)

Angie Antonakis is an artist of Greek origin who grew up in Montreal, Canada. Extremely creative and original, she creates impactful artworks that go straight to the heart and mind of the viewer. Her style is unique, using bright and energetic colours to create dynamic compositions. Angie has the ability to establish a dialogue between her artworks and the viewer. She takes her cue from her surroundings and describes her emotional universes through colourful canvases, creating a meeting point between artist and viewer. Starting from her emotions, she lets herself be guided and with a wonderful gestural expressiveness, she covers the surface of the canvas. She lets the colours move freely, creating unexpected combinations. For the exhibition 'Coming out', which focuses on bringing out the true creative soul of artists, Angie presents her artwork 'Delicate Movement'. Already the title suggests a contrast between the words but expresses exactly the concept of the work. Through the use of acrylics and palette knife, Angie lets herself be guided by her emotions, recording her movement in space on the canvas. Different colour tones are used but yellow and purple stand out, complementary colours that when combined are able to bring out the merits of both. Traces of blue, green and white add character to the canvas. A tangle of traces representing the inner tangle typical of the human soul. Angie collects what the universe sends her way, letting herself be inspired by everything around her. When she paints, she enters a parallel universe where she can be herself and where she can best express her emotions. This artwork has many faces and countless interpretations. On the one hand, the dynamism of the lines and the continuous, repetitive movement triumph, while on the other, the yellow colour infuses warmth, familiarity and calmness. Angie is able to play with different contrasting elements to create a work that is very harmonious and extremely beautiful in the eyes of the viewer. The reading of the artwork is left to the subjectivity of the people who find different meanings depending on the phase of life they are living. Inside, one can see an invitation to change, to take a new path. The tangle of colours involves the viewer and makes him participate in the artwork, projecting him directly into that continuous movement, surrounded by colours. Contemporary art greatly influences the artist's artistic style, with currents such as action painting linking art to instinctiveness and the psychological aspect of line and colour. Angie proves to be an extremely intuitive, spontaneous and gestural artist.

Her artistic process involves internalising the signals that the universe sends her, which she translates into beautiful abstract artworks that are energetic and full of life. The viewer cannot help but feel involved and enraptured by this emotional whirlwind.

Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti

Angie Antonakis

Delicate Movement

Aniki Wesnæs Jørgensen “Art arises when the secret vision of the artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes”. (Khalil Gibran)

Aniki Wesnæs Jørgensen is an artist who was born in Elsinore, Denmark, where she grew up. She travelled a lot when she was a child, making new experiences, observing and drawing inspiration to create and paint: nowadays she continues to seek inspiration from her journeys and travels. Having always painted, since a very young age, the artist has now been working with oil painting technique for the last thirty years, always experimenting and developing a unique style. This is well visible in the first artwork, “Untitled I”, where we are able to see a great variety of cold nuances in vivid colors, emerging from many layers of paint which the artist applies in order to make the artwork look full of energy and dynamic. As we may also see in “Untitled II”, the artist developed her own process of work, by painting in a fast and rhytmic line while maintaining the balance of the image: each layer of color represents a search for identity and what will emerge is completely uncertain and unpredictable. In “Untitled III” it seems that a figure has risen from the colors and motifs of the painting, but the interpretation is intentionally left to the viewer’s mind, as if the artist wanted the process of looking at her art to be a unique experience, always different and changing from each point of view. The artist shows us her identity in this “Coming out”, by searching intensely into her imagination and offering the viewer the result: a secret that is deep hidden into her art.

Art Curator Maddalena Corbini

Aniki Wesnæs Jørgensen

Untitled I

Aniki Wesnæs Jørgensen

Untitled II

Aniki Wesnæs Jørgensen

Untitled III

Ann Brit Christoffersen

The art made by Ann Brit is a strong language that involves different styles and techniques. She uses the abstracts to tell about herself and her thoughts. At the same time the image that emerges from the vision of the artwork seems to come towards the surrealism language. In fact in the composition we can find a variety of shapes that want to communicate a specific meaning. Starting from the artwork titled attached, as she says with this painting is focused on << how we all are connected and attached to a common consciousness>>. In fact the colours seem to be dripping from one point of the painting as if it was attached to something. The colours are attached to this polarity to communicate this attachment to the common consciousness, common way to thinking.

The composition wants to remind the concept of the exhibition ‘coming out’ is a way to come out from this common consciousness like the colours used by the artist Ann Brit. In the second artwork presented titled The Light, the colors used become more bright and luminous. The observer is immersed in a dreaming atmosphere in this light that comes out from the painting. The shapes used in this occasion are more definite and clear. We can see a kind of shape that engages this light that makes up the picture. The last painting presented is titled Suppressed memories and as she says, talk about << how a trauma can lie and create troubles in your life if you don`t deal with it>>. The place of the composition is circumscribed by a vortex where we can see shapes like circles and balls. This choice communicates the intention to represent something that comes from the past, from the memories and influences the present. In this way the artist wants to use the art to say something about her and her way of thinking. As if the observer was involved in a conversation, to have the opportunity to discover something about the others but maybe also about himself.

Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio

Ann Brit Christoffersen

Attached

Ann Brit Christoffersen

The Light

Ann Brit Christoffersen

Subpressed memories

Anna Emilia Järvinen

The works of Anna Emilia Järvinen are a bit out of the artistic canons to which we are accustomed, but precisely for this reason they stand out to the eye and capture the attention of the viewer. In her works we often find figures, but not always they can be traced back to human figures; the background is almost always flat, without even a hint of perspective construction and at the center, alone, is the subject of the work, deformed and disfigured in the body and face. For these aspects her works recall those of Francis Bacon, also and especially in the work "Favourite angel became herself" in which a rereading of biblical themes takes place. Here Anna Emilia Järvinen wanted to depict the moment when the angel favourite by God has just fallen and he is going to be transformed into his new "form", that of Satan. Particular is the choice of the subject and particular is the fact that the artist refers to Lucifer using the female pronoun. The colors are strong, rather aggressive, and the bright pink of the wings stands out for contrast with the dark red of the background. The brushstrokes are dense and material in the face and hands, and create lumps of white color. “I am endlessly fascinated by the contradictions and great eternal questions and primitive feelings of human life.” says the artist, and again “My work is an animality dance, and my trajectory cannot be stopped.”. This immediacy of which Anna Emilia Järvinen speaks can be seen in " One fish and one bottle of wine ". This work, made with different media on paper, seems to have been created in one go. What could be seen as a quiet domestic scene, turns into an almost menacing scene. From the edge of the table emerges only the head of a person and her eyes, nose and mouth are made with an intricate system of lines. Of the fish in the work’s title, only the bone remains and the bottle of wine seems now empty: the meal has already been consumed. There is no substantial difference between background and foreground and colors blend and drool across the surface. "The fire does not burn her friend" is an even more enigmatic work because of its simplicity. A single female figure appears on the sheet of paper, there is no trace of the friend, and the colors are reduced to three: brown, black and a cross between the two. A few lines, a few colors, a lot of empty space: this work is the opposite of horror vacui, but it has the same expressive power. "Less is more," said, not surprisingly, Ludwig Mies van de Rohe and the Finnish artist seems to have fully understood it.

Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia

Anna Emilia Järvinen

Favourite angel became herself

Anna Emilia Järvinen

One fish and one bottle of wine

Anna Emilia Järvinen

The fire does not burn her friend

Anna Schweitzer "I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expand later, and thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only about the past."

(Virginia Woolf)

“As visual artist, I prefer suggestion than figuration. Try to evoke a memory, a dream, a construction or a deconstruction rather than showing”. With these words Anna Schweitzer presents her work. Not definite, figurative, but abstract images are therefore the protagonists of the artist’s works. This choice allows to recall different mental images in the viewer.

The memory from which the creative process is born will certainly be different from the memory that will evoke in the viewer, but it will also create a connection thanks to the ability of emotional transmission. If the idea comes from a precise image, Anna deconstructs and reconstructs it giving it a new form, which suggests the original, but does not repeat it. It will be the mind of the observer that will generate a new image in his mind, correlating it with suggestions of his own life path. “Preluder” fits the description just made. A white cloud, the sea foam, cotton candy, we do not know what the original vision is, but there are endless readings that we can give, even in the light of the background excuses from which the almost ethereal substance emerges. The contrast of the colour and the foggy effect of the foreground image awaken a wide range of emotions. On the other hand, suggestion is nothing more than a form of communication that affects the individual consciousness from the outside. Anna Schweitzer also works with photography, which becomes an important tool for the conception of her pictorial works, mostly made with acrylic on paper or canvas.

Photographing allows her to easily match reality with her imagination, out of the box.

Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo

Anna Schweitzer

Preluder

Anna Zubets-Anderson

Anna Zubets-Anderson is a USA based artist. During 2021 she exhibited several times at M.A.D.S. art gallery in Milan, showing her great growth and her pictorial ability. The artist shows the public her propensity towards works with a female subject in which elegance and mystery are the protagonists. This time, on the occasion of the "Coming Out” exhibition, the artist takes up the challenge and decides to come out with a work never shown to the public entitled "Black Moon Lilith" and with a second work, instead more conceptual, entitled "Hiding place”. The first work in question, "Black Moon Lilith”, is a work with a strong sexual charge: it represents a woman halfway between an angel and a demon, her arms are held by the grip of a snake and she is intent on eating an apple. The reference to Eve’s early sin during her stay in the Garden of Eden is clear. But, what the title suggests is that we are in the presence of Lilith, the first woman, created together with Adam but then driven out of the Garden of Eden because she refused to submit to him. In a sense, therefore, Lilith is the first woman to "have eaten the apple", the first woman to have "sinned", according to mythology. This conception that for centuries conditioned the woman to be sinful, is instead exalted by Anna.

Anna Zubets-Anderson

For the artist it is important that today the woman must lose the association of "sensual - sinful" and therefore abolish the prejudices that are often attributed to her. All this becomes possible only when the woman decides to free the Lilith that is within each of us. This crowning achievement of female power and emancipation is expressed by the beautiful flower that the artist places in front of the woman’s vulva, as if to symbolize her beauty. The moon, placed at the top of the composition, illuminates the body of the woman who is tinged with a delicate silver. In the same vein, and almost as an encouragement to herself, the artist presents "Hiding place", a work that depicts a marine nymph woman who makes the gesture of silence with her index finger. The position can be interpreted as the most insecure part of the artist, who hides a part of herself. From a technical point of view, the work uses the technique of pointillism, with which the artist completely covers the face and body of the nymph, as well as the algae on the right. Anna Zubets-Anderson is finally ready to reveal herself, putting herself on the side of women and encouraging them to show herself at 360 degrees, both in femininity and sensuality, which should not be condemned.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Anna Zubets-Anderson

Black Moon Lilith

Anna Zubets-Anderson

Hiding place

Anne Elodie Galant

Art is such a powerful means of expression! Perhaps the most powerful of all ... Because it is driven simply by emotions. No rules, no constraints, no impositions: let your hand be guided only by what you feel, which makes you feel sad or happy, angry or joyful. Express yourself in all its expressive power!

Just be you! What is more powerful and wonderful? I believe nothing! And this is precisely what guides the artist Anne Elodie Galant in the creation of her works: art has allowed her to find her inner peace and express her passion. And it is precisely the passion that speaks through her paintings. Anne Elodie simply lets her hands travel across the canvas. She enters her world, her bubble, as she defines it, and lets herself be guided by what she feels. What she manages to create is truly something unique, pure emotion, right from the first glance. As in the work presented here, entitled "The other world", the viewer is attracted to every single material and color detail of the work, he cannot help but be captivated by it and let himself be carried away by the sea of emotions it provokes in him. The expressiveness of the work is also given by the artist's use of material painting. Material painting had its maximum expressive moment in the artistic movement of Informal Art: a conception of art that refused form to intervene directly in the material with an expressive sign and a spontaneous gesture. The gesture was the creative moment in its pure state. Art becomes the act of painting itself, it goes beyond the painted painting. And so, Anne Elodie's hands shape the material through a gesture guided by what she feels at that moment. And what is the result? A work whose expressive power literally explodes on the canvas.

Art Curator Silvia Grassi

Anne Elodie Galant

The other world

Anne Olga Vea “Let your soul stand composed before a million of Universes.” (Walt Whitman)

The close relationship among the sky, time and art has fascinated different civilizations since ancient times. The suggestions that refer to ancestral symbols, far from what is close to the needs of human life, present themselves in our imagination under the form of a fundamental characteristic: they are endless. These aspects fascinated Norwegian artist Anne Olga Vea, who exposes her work “Blue rising” at the international exhibition “Coming Out” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, exploring the unknown and mysterious world of astronomy. Through painting, her intention is to invite the viewer to take a step towards into a complex universe formed by planets and unexplored places, in which a dreamlike and fantastic dimension come together. In fact, the need to reproduce the beauty of space in artistic form emerges, not only to enhance its charm, but also to research and express deeper meanings. Between science and mysticism, the artist investigates the link between man and the universe.

As an isolated and timeless place devoid of any human presence, it is possible to ascribe a symbolic and spiritual image to the cosmos. In addition to this, Anne Olga also focuses on stylistic, aesthetic and chromatic analysis, blending herself into the space represented on the paint surface. Through an explosion of skillfully juxtaposed colors, the central character of the work is the brilliant blue that slowly emerges from the darkness, guiding the viewer's eye towards the light of the star, a source of energy and vitality. This scenery with constellations and boundless galaxies accompanies the viewer on a journey into his/her own introspection: in this way, he/she is able to reveal his/her personal interpretation of the painting.

“Nature is not only everything that is visible.... It also includes the inner images of the soul.”

(Edvard Munch)

Art Curator Alessia Perone

Anne Olga Vea

Blue rising

Aranka Székely

For her second participation in the International Art Exhibitions of the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery of Milan, this time entitled "Coming out" and dedicated to the liberation of our inner burdens, deepest secrets and guilt that afflict our existence, Aranka Székely selects two figurative artworks entitled "Mirror-quarantine" and "Waiting for him", acrylics on canvas that tell a little of her personal story. The common thread and common denominator of the two artworks is that of the figure of the woman and the desires and impulses of the painter, as such. The first painting was made during the lockdown due to the pandemic, during which Aranka, being a doctor but above all an ordinary woman, had to struggle with many problems at the same time, created by this combination of fragility and strength, anxiety and security mixed together. She must be a serious doctor with many responsibilities, and she is happy and proud of it, but at the same time she just wants to be a desirable and loved woman, delicate at the right point, to feel pampered and protected by the right arms.

Aranka Székely

All this reasoning and this "liberation" on her idea of femininity and her primordial essence intricate in her, does not end there. It continues, branches out and becomes complicated in the iconography and symbolism of the second canvas, in which waiting represents the main desire of the female subject and of the painter herself who personifies herself, is to be a woman loved and eager to love, making himself indispensable for the partner. The open question on the figure of the woman and her most traditionalistic vision of it, is tackled in a crude and sincere way by Aranka, who strips herself in front of her audience and confesses the thoughts and concerns that her nature provokes in her, perfectly in keeping with the theme of our exhibition and the will of the concept itself.

Art Curator Carola Antonioli

Aranka Székely

Quarantine-mirror

Aranka Székely

Waiting for him

Arisa.TN

Stephen Hawking defined curiosity as the willingness to never give up. Turning our gaze to the stars and not to the ground, because true awareness does not reside in the things that keep us anchored to the ground, that shape the ordinary and that we take for granted. Tomas Hobbes, for his part, described this competence as the "lust of the mind," while Victor Hugo spoke of it as a form of courage. We could give so many definitions of the concept of curiosity. Yet, there is one that contains the true essence of this trait, the one that reminds us that being curious is the basis of human growth. Curiosity represents a primary impulse that drives us, from childhood, towards psychological development and a daily enthusiasm for knowledge. Based on the psychological mechanism of reward, curiosity is nourished by the feeling of discovering something unexpected, it is fed by doubts and questions posed towards the unknown, it does not stop in front of real and superficial data. We dig deeper, we probe the roots of a given thing, we ask ourselves questions by keeping active that part of us that overflows with awe and wonder. Human beings and inanimate objects, even the air and the entire universe are composed of elements that cannot be discerned on the surface. There is always something that lies beneath the patina in contact with the outside world; there is always something that, while not visible, is nevertheless intuitable, perceptible. It is this characteristic of the soul that Arisa tries to consolidate in her works. The instinct to look, to touch, to feel beyond the opaque blanket of things; the pure vital impulse towards the unknown and its questions is the essence of the artist's art. A thick grey covering covers something that is underneath. It is an opaque patina with material brushstrokes and muted tones: a sort of almost monochromatic cover under which we can see hints of a multicolored universe. Numerous holes open on the surface, it seems as if the opaque cover has withdrawn in some points and has folded in on itself. A force attracts us, urges us to remove the grayish surface as soon as possible to find out what is underneath; questions tickle the throat, only answers can quench our thirst. And here, once the monochromatic fog has been unravelled, a multicoloured and fertile universe appears before us. A majestic tree with sinuous branches rises to the right of the work, its bluish trunk sinks its roots into a soft soil with marine features. To balance, a sun with archaic features peeps out on the opposite side of the composition. Its warm rays have unraveled the opaque and whitish blanket, have revealed the wonder that lies beyond the surface, have illuminated our minds, quenching our innate desire to know. At least for now, we can consider our curiosity satisfied. Or maybe not?

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

Arisa.TN

Grace of the sun

Arisa.TN

I want to shine

Arisa.TN

It's cute

Art_Cise

A painting that springs directly from the instinct of creation within the artist's soul. The color is shaped, literally takes shape and acquires identity within the representative space: a chromatic dance sensitive to the sensation, the perception.

The hand abandons itself and performs the gesture: the impulse to create, to give origin to something is too strong to be suppressed. Creative intuition takes over in Asato's soul and thoughts are transformed into matter overflowing with vitality and meaning. Color, rather than liquid pigment, is treated as solid material. The incrustations of matter thus take the upper hand in the composition, grabbing all the possible space to be able to tell all their visual expressiveness. And so it is that the stain, the smear, the incisive scratch of color is transformed into pulsating matter, into substance that does not disdain the element of chance and fortuitousness. Indentations and reliefs, depressions and roughness dictate the rhythm of a composition played on the game between motion and stillness, between exuberance and relaxation. The creative intuition takes shape in Asato's mind and, overcoming the pictorial archetypes, guides the hand in a rhythmic and excited gesture. The lump of material becomes the bearer of meaning in the exact instant in which it rests on the support. It is the artist's intuition that shapes the work, no one else.

Art_Cise

The result is a highly expressive composition within which a multitude of elements leave us at first bewildered with astonishment. And here our mind tries to focus on clots of opaque color and then get interested in a more quiet and placid area with turquoise shades. Not satisfied and thirsty to discover the truth behind the work, our gaze then rests on a jagged area, a canyon of color that unfolds in the representation. And then again the interest for an area with applications of heterogeneous matter and then again our gaze seeks a moment of tranquility in a coveted white area in the middle of the work. In the milky pigment our emotions can rest for a second. Asato's painting is the pure manifestation of the expressiveness vomited on the canvas: a regurgitation of color with a full sense that pushes us to look and to find the smallest details; to penetrate inside that sonorous matter to understand its qualities, to guess what is hidden underneath it.

It's a painting that grabs from the color all its intrinsic materiality in a game of contrasts and reliefs that hypnotizes the eye of the observer. Mare magnum of intuitions that invites us to the most meticulous observation, pulsating matter that urges us to be looked at and even touched. Let's close our eyes and imagine its reliefs, its lumps and cracks, let's imagine passing a finger on the surface to fully understand the expressive power of Asato's works

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

Art_Cise

Apollo Orange

Art_Cise

Aria Sorgente

Art_Cise

Genten | Origine

Art_Cise

Tempo

Ashton Blyth “When I was born I became the visible corner of a folded map.

The map has more than one route. More than one destination. The map that is the unfolding self is not exactly leading anywhere. The arrow that says YOU ARE HERE is your first coordinate. There is a lot that you can't change when you are a kid. But you can pack for the journey . . .”

(Jeanette Winterson) Nowadays our society often constrains people to follow its rules in order to be considered right in its terms, despite an increasing worldwide advocacy on gender identity. In this context is inserted Ashton Blyth’s work. By the use of the animation, Blyth encourages a more inclusive way of thinking gender identity and fluidity, in order to question the limits and the control that the society impose on people’s freedom to be who they really are inside, despite their birth gender. In this way, the artist aims to formulate new approaches to express the evolution of gender in society. A gender imposed by the society itself, which traps people and suffocates their possibilities to express their true self. “Felt Right Then, Feels Right Now” is an animation consisting in 728 cells, shot at a rate of 24 frames per second. The hand – drawn work is the first of the series “Defining Moments of a Trans Experience”, which aims to show different moments of the artist’s transition from female to male. The animation exhibited for Coming out event, carries an autobiographical meaning. It tells the viewer one of Blyth’s childhood memories. One of those that helped him out interrogating himself and understanding his true gender identity. The animation, drawn with fine liner and colored with pencil, illustrates the moment when Blyth, at age eight, was trying on his father’s boxers, before leaving for Brownies and still wearing them under his uniform now. An intimate and full of acceptance atmosphere is evocated by the artist’s parent voices and by his little sister impersonating the artist at age eight.

Art Curator Sofia Ronzi

Ashton Blyth

Felt Right Then, Feels Right Now

Assaya “I got into the world of art from the field of financial analytics, it was a very unexpected transition even for myself. However, an analytical way of thinking, received through practice over the years, is certainly one of the tools that I use in the creative process.”

With her artworks and her creativity, Assaya attempts to overcome prejudices and to free herself from the usual attitudes and imposed conditions. Therefore, she decides to join the current ‘Coming Out’ exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery. Her colorful artworks reflect her inner experiences and a desire to break out of the shell of established stereotypes. Starting from some moments of her life and from her thoughts and feelings, the artist accompanies her paintings with some poems that define her works in toto, overall. The title of the three paintings here exhibited, let imagine something painful that is battled by the artist’s choice to use brilliant colours that liven up the scenes. Each painting is a way for the artist herself to follow her emotions, and to accept the reality and what things are going around her, without interfering with the destiny and trying to change it. “Desperation” shows in its abstract and undefined but expressive way, a timid girl at the mercy of a difficult moment in which her feelings are consuming her. However, the way in which Assaya depicts the scene lets transpire a sort of positivity, the same positivity that she uses to fight against what has upset her life: <<I’ll accept all hardships, trials: Dark pit, evil, gloom, abyss. I’ll endure all pain and troubles, - I will fight until I breathe! Here’s my price! And I declare: Assaya – it is my name!>>. As a following scene, “Renunciation”, in its excellence given by the brilliant colours used to compose the wild land, is a ‘renaissance’ painting. The lady, walking straight on, covered by a black cape is following her life, without looking back at anger and disappointment. The rendering of the prospective shows a dynamic scene, where the viewer seems to be carried over the horizon. The dark lady’s destination, away from the society’s restrictions and rules; a place where to find freedom of expression. Softer seem to be the colours used for “Trough Oblivion” where, from the lady’s head different nuances of colours spread all around composing the background. An invitation to dialogue and not forgetfulness is what Assaya tries to share.

Art Curator Martina Stagi

Assaya

Desperation

Assaya

Renunciation

Assaya

Trough Oblivion

Astrid Ludwig-Molitor

<<The true journey of exploration does not involve discovering new territories, but seeing through new eyes>>. This consideration made by Marcel Proust, became really meaningful in connection with the painting presented by the artist Astrid Ludwig-Molitor on occasion of the international art exhibition Coming Out, titled ‘the big journay’. As the artist says :<<“The big journey“ is like a walk through place and time, maybe even through someone’s stage of life. You can see a lot of things: concrete objects like a ship, fishing nets, ropes, landscapes, but also abstract matter like lines and surfaces, pieces of musical notes, handwriting, book pages as well as ornaments>>. The technique used by the artist reflects this volition, in fact the decoupage reminds the idea of collecting things that could be meaningful in the life of a fellow. We can see a lot of different pieces, like texts and stripes of colours that are connected to the idea of something that wants to be preserved in this journey that is life. In this way, to come back to the consideration of Marcel Proust the real journey is the passing through these defining moments, to come back home at the end and find that you have changed.

Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio

Astrid Ludwig-Molitor

The big journey

Ayse Doler

Turkish artist Ayse Doler, participates in the "Fable" exhibition in December 2020 at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery. Already from this exhibition, the artist shows her miniaturist skills. Ayse follows in the footsteps of what was once the Ottoman miniature, devoting a lot of attention to her work and a particular attention to detail. On the occasion of the "Coming Out” exhibition, Ayse exhibits two of her works belonging to the series entitled "The red collection". The works, with a miniature imprint, have a coral red background that dominates the composition. Both works explore the natural world, in particular the first, "The red collection 1", also sees animal subjects. The focus of the work is in fact the small frog, depicted in the lower part of the canvas. The subject stands out from the rest as it is strongly marked by a black stroke.

Another animal then appears at a second glance: it is a dragonfly, represented masterfully, as if it were embalmed in a showcase of a museum.

Ayse Doler

The second work is more naturalistic. The interesting element is the symmetry that the artist seems to look for. The horizontal composition is cut vertically in two by an emerald green line that also serves as the central line of a beautiful colored leaf, the protagonist of the painting itself. The apparent symmetry that the work transmits is then broken by obvious differences, visible only by careful observation. As people look at it, they dilate toward the extremes, they begin to notice inconsistencies. The eyes continue to travel from left to right and vice versa. This feature makes it a unique and interactive work, to be discovered and zoomed in details. From a stylistic point of view, Ayse Doler certainly approaches what was the task of Art Nouveau that is embellish and decorate through lines inspired by natural forms. In addition, the red background and well-defined lines refer to the famous work "The Red Room" made by the Fauves artist Henri Matisse in 1908.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Ayse Doler

The red collection 1

Ayse Doler

The red collection 2

Ayshe-Mira Yashin

The creative journey of Ayshe-Mira Yashin, Turkish artist and poetess, is deeply connected to themes of sapphic intimacy, healing and spirituality, with a particular fascination for the occult. At the "Coming Out" exhibition the artist shows an illustration from her “Sapphic Intimacy Series” and a tarot card from her “Sapphic Enchantress Tarot Deck”. Her artworks “Sapphic Lovers in Rose Garden” and “The Lovers” represent two couples of women, caught in a different moment of intimacy, which AysheMira defines as “an emotional closeness and soulful sharing of life (as opposed to the mainstream definition of intimacy as only meaning sex)”. Free from any external judgement and even from the erotic male gaze, the female figures are one and whole with Nature and themselves. The artist overturned the homophobic reduction of queer love and intimacy to an “unnatural act” by consciously putting the sapphic couples in a natural environment. The illustrated women embody a meaningful statement: they are in harmony with the natural surroundings as well as with their own skin, they do not shy away from loving the other or themselves, but rather they fully embrace their nature, literally and spiritually. Ayshe-Mira's women are fierce because they are self-aware. Their realistic bodies are hairy, marked by scars and natural imperfections. The artist celebrates their freedom and strength through their shameless nakedness: “My representation of women aims to give them the power and self confidence with which to feel at home in their bodies, in the many shapes and sizes in which they exist, without the demonisation of natural and common (more so than not) features [...]”.

Ayshe-Mira Yashin

Both illustrations are characterised by the exhaustive design of the Tarot cards: their symmetric composition is carefully balanced with a focus on the centre, furtherly enhanced by the symbolic elements that frame the lovers' bonds. Ayshe-Mira's refined inked lines share the suggestive quality of etched illustrations and the occult appeal of Edward Gorey's artworks, capturing the viewer's gaze with their peculiar aesthetic. By challenging the depiction of sapphic love in the popular culture, in the Arts and in the media with her own, personal interpretation, Ayshe-Mira instills the positivity and freedom of her female subjects in the viewers. “It is important for there to be representation of marginalised communities in every art form, and this is something that is currently being revolutionised, in which I want to participate by continuing to depict sapphic love in my artwork.”

Art Curator Flavia Montecchi

Ayshe-Mira Yashin

Sapphic Lovers in Rose Garden

Ayshe-Mira Yashin

The Lovers

Bárbara Correia da Silva "There is not one big cosmic meaning for all; there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person."

(Anais Nin) Man is, by his nature, determined to find answers to the great existential enigmas: questions that concern the whole of humanity, but also his own being, his own deepest essence. It is enough to think of the “Why” posed by children from childhood: trivial, simple questions, but which the adult sometimes does not have a ready answer. Always superstition, religion, science, psychoanalysis, art, on different planes, are nothing more than the attempt, more or less rational, to give meaning to being, to earthly existence and to acting in a space-time context determined by physical limits. The goal of man is to study these boundaries, understand them and overcome them, if not physically, at least mentally. The breaking down of mental barriers will be different for each of us, each one will find his own personal way to live and explain life.

The important thing is not the answer, but the path with yourself. The research of Barbara, a young Portuguese artist, graduated from the Fine Arts Faculty of Oporto, goes in this direction. Her work is focused on a variety of mediums, from painting and textile to artists books and has as its objective to make sense and rationalize its thoughts, its actions, life in a wider sense. Observing the work in the exhibition, entitled “(c)idades II”, one immediately grasps the desire for order. The image that the artist gives us is that of mental drawers, where everything finds its place neatly. The large dimensions help the spectator to identify himself, to enter the artist’s mind, creating a connection with his own. Nothing is random, all has one sense, as the title itself of the work reminds us, that is nothing more than a play on words. Cidades, meaning cities, and idades meaning age, in portuguese, are the words used to catalogue the artist’s thoughts, with in turn, are inevitably correlated to and a reflex of her age.

Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo

Bárbara Correia da Silva

(c)idades II

Barbara Goertz “In my photographic art I deal with the theme of perception through the question of ‘reality or illusion’, freely according to the motto: nothing as it seems.”

(Barbara Goertz)

Barbara Goertz is a German artist and photographer who works in the dimension between reality and illusion and who combines photography and painting giving life to artworks defined by her as "photography art". During her career, she displayed in various galleries, both in collective exhibitions and solo ones. The leitmotif that ties all her artworks is linked to reality: she draws inspiration from everyday life exploiting an aesthetic language that has the purpose of creating a cause of reflection in the viewer.

Barbara Goertz

The artist creates multilayered works, blending different forms of art and flowing into the sphere of the unreal and the abstract. The synergistic effect gives to her art a particular liveliness and depth and brings out new worlds of images. The two chosen photographic artworks belong to Fusion Art, a series that is based on overlaying macro-photographs paint and metal inserts. The artist draws her initial inspiration from a shot, from where the entire composition comes to life.

Art Curator Alessia Logatto

Barbara Goertz

Behind the curtain

Barbara Goertz

Floating

Barbara McCarroll For the international exhibition “Coming Out” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Barbara McCarroll exposes three works (“Destiny’s Kiss”, “High Places”, “The Journey Victorious”) with a strong aesthetic and symbolic value. Using various techniques, including collage, gold foil, spray and a finish of traditional oils, Barbara wants the viewer to immerse himself/herself in her paintings, in those immense expanses of colors and details studied in every part. One of the key aspects of her artistic practice is undoubtedly the desire to convey positive feelings, managing to capture the viewer's attention through the accuracy of the characters represented and the story they wish to describe. Each of Barbara's paintings holds a story and it is up to the viewer to discover step by step the unfolding of the incredible narrative that lies within each canvas. As in “Destiny's Kiss”: the work conveys a sense of beauty and elegance thanks to the presence of a woman immersed in the depths of an ocean full of animal species, such as whales. One of them gives the young woman a kiss, while the other holds her up and accompanies her to discover the wonders of the abyss. Moreover, a mermaid may have been depicted: a great mythological figure considered to be a goddess of the seas, who always emphasizes her femininity and charm, enchanting every person who deep into the infinite aquatic expanses. As a true force of nature, she radiates a vital and magical energy, and between illusion and mystery her ambivalent personality stands out: a symbol of great imagination and the embodiment of humanity's desires. Another important element is the presence of roses: emblem par excellence of love, devotion and admiration, which is attributable to the goddess Aphrodite/Venus. Pink emphasizes the refinement of the whole painting, involving the viewer in a whirlwind of emotions. While, In “High Places” this historical-narrative concept is further emphasized. In fact, the presence of four horses recalls the famous quadriga of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, Italy: the statues of these regal animals were made of bronze and were originally located in the hippodrome of Constantinople. With its sunny, energetic and fiery spirit, the horse unleashes and stirs the senses, and in view of its strength and determination it 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. Finally, with “The Journey Victorious” Barbara emphasizes her creative and perceptive process with the representation of Nike. Celebrated on the occasion of victories in athletic or artistic competitions, according to tradition it was the sculptor Archermos who first depicted her as “winged”. Full of jewelries and wrapped by what could be a peplos, a typical white feminine suit of the ancient Greece, the goddess seems to be carried by the wind in her floating dress. She raises her arm towards the sky holding a laurel wreath, a sacred plant which represents a sign of wisdom and glory. She gets out from the sea in all its majesty, while a boat is visible on the horizon: soon even that adventurer will gain his victory while a golden sunset will end another satisfying day of wind and waves, culminating in a sweet happy ending.

Art Curator Alessia Perone

Barbara McCarroll

Destiny’s Kiss

Barbara McCarroll

High Places

Barbara McCarroll

The Journey Victorious

Beate Steinmetz Beate Steinmetz is a german painter based on the Canary Island in Tenerife.Graduated in interior arquitecture she started her career in designing interiors.Painting came into her life a few years ago. The enthusiasm and desire to express herselfkeeps her going on in a continious evolution. She has exhibited locally in numerous group shows and is starting to participate in international shows. Strong self confident women are the central subject of her paintings. They explore themes of desire, power and independence and celebrate the natural beauty of the human body. She paints semi abstract nudes and portraits in a multilayer technique, making use of various materials such as enamel, acrylic paint and watercolour. She is fascinated about the idea the viewer is captured by the expression especially of the eyes, moving in a place of speculation revealing imagery and emotions and how the painting tells a different and private story to every beholder, depending on their own experiences. But her artworks are also a reflection of herself, she likes knowing and learning more about herself, and bringing that authenticity in her paintings.

Art Curator Letizia Vuotto

Beate Steinmetz

Here I am

Bettina Schopphoff “Color is my daylong obsession, joy, and torment.” (Claude Monet)

Colour is expression, vibration for our hearts, stimulus for our mind. A single colour can have multiple meanings and multiple colours placed side by side can mean one and one thing only. Bettina Schopphoff is an artist based in France that makes colour her strong point. Research, experimentation, and creativity represent the fundamental ingredients of her magical art. Squares, circles and other shapes meet and fit together like a puzzle, giving life to original creations that emanate great charges of energy. The titles that Bettina chooses give the viewer the opportunity to travel with the imagination by completely immersing themselves in the works. "Claire’s journey": a journey that has Claire as its protagonist, but in which everyone can identify with. An adventure full of strong emotions and that will leave a memory in our hearts. “Just another sunny day”: a day with blue sky and hot sun, a day that puts us in a good mood and cheers our spirits. “Vitamins”: energy recharges, a moment of pause to accumulate all the strength we need to face our challenges and to do our best in everything. Her works reflect exactly the mirror of her strong personality: an energetic and unpredictable woman, an artist with a unique and recognizable style among many others. Bettina invites the viewers into her magical and colourful world, letting them know a part of her and, at the same time, giving them the opportunity to give a free interpretation to her works.

Art Curator Camilla Gilardi

Bettina Schopphoff

Claire's journey

Bettina Schopphoff

Just another sunny day

Bettina Schopphoff

Vitamins

Brigitte Uhrmacher

On occasion of the international art exhibition Coming Out, the artist Brigitte Uhrmacher presented the artwork titled Flying wonder. The artist in this painting used the abstract language to communicate the idea of flight. In Fact the composition made by the game of shapes and colours that mix with each other is put in the centre of the artwork. With this choice the artist wants to tell us about things that characterize our life. The protagonist of the painting becomes the red lines that supersedes the composition that communicates the energy of the gesture and communicates the idea of flight, as the artist says: << Like a magic carpet in a fairy tale. It miraculously takes the viewer into a dreamland where freedom knows no boundaries>>. In this way the observer could enter into this vision and lose all brakes by going beyond its limits, to discover that you can go above things, and finally learn to fly.

Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio

Brigitte Uhrmacher

Flying wonder

Brittany E. Lampe Brittany E. Lampe is a North Carolina-based American painter. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, a city recognized for its art scene, and comes from a family of an architect; Lampe has spent her life surrounded by art. Brittany graduated with a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati and began to experiment with her artistic style which combines visual experience, intuition, and Asian elements during her stay in Okinawa, Japan. She previously created paintings that were snapshots of her travels in order to tell stories about them. On the other hand, Brittany has recently been pursuing an abstract style while retaining Japanese influence, texture, and bold colors. Her recent abstract piece “Two Moons”, in which blue is the dominant color on the canvas, is on display at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in “Coming Out” Exhibition. The cool tone generates a nighttime ambiance for viewers while also conveying a sense of serenity. Multiple leaves and circle-shaped red fruits are depicted in the center area of the artwork, with water tides in the foreground. The two moons, as the title suggests, are layered on top of the frame, as the circle with lighter opacity imitates the gleaming light of the moon in a quiet, dark night. The idea for two moons came to her mind during a moment of relaxation in her garden, when she discovered there may be more than one light: the first was shining from the moon, while the second was its reflection. Brittany used warm tone colors as a highlight to depict a glowing, harmonious movement perceived by her that night. A sense of simplicity is clear, as influenced by Japanese principles such as wabi-sabi and shibui. The harmonious movement of the moonlight on the surfaces respects the shibui concept, which holds that beauty can be discovered in simplicity and subtlety. Natural elements, which are imperfect and perishable, embody the wabi-sabi concept, which believes that true beauty is formed at any state in the passage of time, either the formation or decay.

Similarly, Lampe often creates stencils of shapes and fragmentary imagery from her previous work. As a result, her paintings tell their own story, introducing viewers to new perspectives. In fact, Brittany came out with “Two Moons” that reflects her style, conveys messages, and brings viewers back to a quiet moment in the middle of the night when we are calm, relaxed, and able to appreciate the delicacy of nature.

Art Curator Trithida Trising

Brittany E. Lampe

Two Moons

Carlie Williams "If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing."

(Marc Chagall) Carlie Williams is an artist who started painting right during the height of the pandemic. She had never done that before. Instantly, it was as if she threw open a gate and a wild natural ability arose. Her painting seemed to magically slice through her anxieties, her chronic pain, her loneliness and brought the truest joy into her life. The pandemic was a significant and difficult event for everyone, but for Carlie, it represented an important opportunity, it was the "coming out" and for this reason she sees her participation in the International Art Exhibition "Coming Out", whose goal is to give space to Art understood as Liberation. Liberation from the selfimposed constraints or imposed by the normality of today's society. And art in the artist's case was the compass that points the way out, showing fear the truth that belongs to her. Carlie is a self-taught artist, and she works with watercolors and acrylics with subjects that include nature scenes, portraits, abstracts and more. The artwork she exhibits is titled “In the Details” and a wonderful peony in bloom is depicted. More precisely, as the title itself states, a peony is shown in detail. In fact, the painting perfectly shows all the details that make up the flower, and it is precisely the details of nature that have the ability to create our creativity and fill in a space in us that perhaps we did not know was missing. Carlie stated that she started adding this piece with intricate pencil drawing and then the watercolor was after layer to create depth and entice the viewer to investigate further. And in fact, the sensation that one has in observing the painting is the desire to continue the search for details and particulars, without ever getting tired. Art is nothing other than the artist's coming outside, a liberating explosion, where matter takes shape following the feeling.

Art Curator Francesca Campanelli

Carlie Williams

In the Details

Carlota Ordeñana

Carlota Ordeñana is a Spanish artist from Santander. An art lover since she was born, she likes to experiment with different techniques depending on the inspiration. On the occasion of this exhibition she presents three digital works from her series "Inestabilidad que fluye" (Flowing instability). Here she experiments with the continuous line technique, that in her opinion is able to convey the beauty of simplicity. Elegant and thoughtful, Carlota's women express the difficult relationship between our bodies and our minds. In fact, as the title of the series suggests, the figures represented are caught in a very intimate and personal moment of confrontation with themselves. With just a few strokes, the artist not only outlines the faces and silhouettes of her protagonists, who appear minimal in design but highly expressive, but above all defines their personalities. The interiority of her women is complex: at times delicate, as in Chica de frente, at other times more reflective, as in Chica perfil. The artist uses color to define their emotions, as in Chica sentada. Here the green outline around the female figure, which seems to emphasize her fragility, is softened by the presence of patches of color evoking the shape of flowers.

They give the spectator reassuring vibrations that contrast with the girl's shy pose. Through her bodies and faces, Carlota gives voice to a problem that is too often underestimated in our society, the delicacy of the connection between our body and our mind, thus demonstrating that she has interpreted the exhibition's aim of using art 'as a compass indicating the way to come out, fearlessly showing the truth that belongs to us'.

Art Curator Marta Graziano

Carlota Ordeñana

Chica de frente

Carlota Ordeñana

Chica perfil

Carlota Ordeñana

Chica sentada

Carmen Ruiz

The French artist Carmen Ruiz joins M.A.D.S. Art Gallery this time, with two paintings interesting in their meanings and very similar between them in technique and in the subjects represented, so to emphasise their concept, that coincides with the concept of the current ‘Coming Out’ exhibition. According to it, “Sortir de soi pour exister…” is a painting that shows a lady, sitting down on a big chair, softly, taking herself by the arm slowly becoming a whole with the furniture. What immediately stands out by watching the scene, are the lady’s eyes focused on empty space but full of thoughts, the same thoughts that push her to come out from her subconscious. The artist with this painting - on a dark and almost undefined background with some colourful spots here and there – puts the attention on the subject, giving light to the lady’s bright skin. The same technique is visible also in “Le future de mon passé decompose…” where this time, the lady is depicted in the foreground; has assumed a colourful aspect and a more vivid gaze, alive and that seems to stare back at the viewers.

Carmen Ruiz

The artist’s abilities in creating the atmosphere and in focusing the attention on the particulars and details of each object, permit to read the paintings as if they were a story. The first artwork, as the title itself lets imagine - “Sortir pour exister…” – depicts the melancholy that overcomes the young lady. She feels inappropriate with the society - just as she is - that she needs to change herself being someone else. The ‘second head’ that comes out from her mind, is the proof of her acceptance to answer to the society’s restrictions, becoming a homologated figure without her own personality. Smaller and less sad is, instead, the little head that lays on the lady’s mind of “Le future de mon passé decompose…”. The artist here, has made a jump in time, showing the female subject, maybe matured, or maybe so immersed in the society to have accepted to become just one among many others. The concept and the artist’s aim, presenting these scenes, is that we can get used to living as the others want, but we will never be really satisfied.

Art Curator Martina Stagi

Carmen Ruiz

Sortir de Soi PourExister...

Carmen Ruiz

Le Futur de Mon Passé Décomposé...

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 international contemporary art exhibition "COMING OUT" Catarina Diaz exhibits "Lightness of Being" a work whose power is visceral given by the chromatic contrast created between the yellow butterflies and the heart of the calla in the background. The brightness and the delicacy are represented both by the butterflies in flight and by the position of the model's hands, but the same grip of the center of the flower by the hand that is in the background turns out to be a delicate grip. The work develops itself from left to right, the sinuous neck of the model consistent with the position of the hands leads to the center of the work, whose apex is the center of the flower and then finds relaxation on the right, with the position of the animal, and the butterfly placed on the tip of the flower.

Catarina Diaz

Catarina Diaz also exhibits "Pieces of a Dream ", a work that, like the previous one, creates an emotional depth due, in this case, to the use of colors that are tone-on-tone. The elements of the work are positioned in the center, but the model's gaze is turned outside the work itself. The dynamism is provided by the movement of the animals and the flowing of the hair that lead, of course, to observe the dreamy eyes of the model, framed by the bouquet of flowers. Catarina Diaz is an artist with an incredible communicative and artistic talent, her works focus on women, embodying their own personalities, desires, dreams and goals, different from each other.

Art Curator Martina Viesti

Catarina Diaz

Lightness of Being

Catarina Diaz

Pieces of a Dream

Catrin Westh “There are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely - or dressing out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands”.

(Oscar Wilde) Catrin Westh artworks reflect the essence of Oscar Wilde’s words. Her works flourish from a life journey around the world, from Southern France, to Paris, Morocco, Cyprus and Tennessee. Travelling permitted her work to fully enter the societies, philosophies, religions and people, giving a special attention to women. She often takes part in her works as she is also a performer, in addition to working with digital modified Mixed Media Collages, photography and installations. For Coming out she decided to exhibit three Mixed Media collages, digitally modified on iPhone. They are Archival Giclee prints on Gallery wrapped, acid free canvases. Catrin refers at herself as a storyteller who prefers imperfection over perfection and sees art as a language without barriers. She speaks the language of art, creating non-verbal poems with the purpose to start a dialogue about loneliness, doubt, love of life, society, existence and identity. It is on those topics that are focused two of the three works exhibited for Coming out. The first one, “The Golden Child”, is part of the series “Coded Visions”. The work explores the complexity of the mind and spirit as we search for our true self.While the second one, “Imagine you Can”, it is part of the series “the Coming Out of the Gladiator” and reflects on how consciousness and awareness permit us to choose our identity, rather than have it imposed by external influence. Catrin also analyzes the society we have created and that we live in, keeping an eye on our transformations. From what we are to what we can be. As it can be understood in the last of the three works for Coming out exhibition “Get Past Yesterday” is part of the series “Under the same sun” and it explores the fear that grips us from letting the past go and give way to the path to the future.

Art Curator Sofia Ronzi

Catrin Westh

The Golden Child

Catrin Westh

Imagine you Can

Catrin Westh

Get Past Yesterday

Cédric Palobart “Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.”

(Jackson Pollock)

Cédric Palobart is a French painter but actually he is a doctor. He did not embark on any academic career in the art sector and that is why his works are characterized by no restrictions: he has a naive curiosity and he wanders in a lighthearted way. He qualifies his approach as "pre-cognitive", as a gesture dictated by an urgent need that has always existed inside him guiding and governing his actions. For this reason, he does not paint with intent but out of necessity: he considers painting of vital importance for his personal expression. The artist reflects in his works all of himself, the way he sees the world and the way he feels, whether it is an acrylic on canvas or a piece made with inserts of fabric. His production consists of different kind of artworks that are halfway between sculpture and painting, thanks to the employment of a homemade secret texture paste that contains pieces of fabric: this approach is evident in "Expansion phase" and "Tempus fugit".

Cédric Palobart

His entire production is characterized by an abstract style, in which it is difficult to recognize something tangible and familiar to the human eye: the prominent role is the movement of the soul that finds its outburst in brushstrokes and colours. The palette is bright and vivid contrasting at the same time by the opposite ones, they flow and collapse in a continuous succession of emotions and feelings. Since Cédric Palobart’s art is dictated by instinct and the most intimate and deep emotions, the viewer is left with the task, or the desire, to read and decipher the works of the artist, as well as his feelings.

Art Curator Alessia Logatto

Cédric Palobart

Expansion phase

Cédric Palobart

Tempus fugit

Cédric Palobart

Total sample

Cédric Palobart

Un matin tu te réveilles... et tu sais que tu es guéri

Chatarina Salomonsson “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” (Oscar Wilde)

Inconstant surfaces that almost seem to crumble, form the backdrop for the subjects represented by Chatarina Salomonsson, a contemporary Swedish artist whose focus of investigation is the relationship between the body and the space. The female body is the one that is analysed with particular interest, with the desire to show its strength and energy. Sensual faces and seductive curves mingle with universes where space-time fades away, getting lost in hazy backgrounds. The viewer encounters hypnotic looks that communicate passion, delicacy and love at the same time. In "We are all coloured" an interesting vision opens up before our eyes. A face, very similar to a mask, is suspended in the void, surrounded by a background of bright stars rising in the darkness of the space. Blue, orange and green bands flow upwards from one side of the canvas to the other, allowing this swirling head to emerge proudly. We can hardly identify this face with a genre, precisely because of its cryptic features, leaving everyone the chance to identify with it. While we are surrounded by a landscape with a strong surrealist flavour, two penetrating eyes communicate calmness and confidence. A disturbing setting, where these vertical lines are reminiscent of prison bars, which the subject does not seem to mind. Chatarina Salomonsson makes a profound reading of the concept of identity, a place in which man often finds himself disorientated and from which he also feels suffocated. The serene face, on the other hand, reminds us of the freedom of expression, the freedom of being of each of us, thus leaving the choice of prison only to those who decide to build one. The colours of the vertical blue, orange and green lines symbolically refer to wisdom, spirituality and superior knowledge, inviting us to think freely and to come out of our apparent imprisonment, thus expressing ourselves in the immensity of the cosmos.

Art Curator Francesca Brunello

Chatarina Salomonsson

We are all colored

Chiara Piantanida

Chiara Piantanida is an Italian artist whose artistic production develops, initially, drawing inspiration from the works of Frida Kahlo. The works of Piantanida are rich in surrealistic elements and oxymorons that lead the viewer into worlds and visions of it detached from what it is imposed. At the "COMING OUT" international art exhibition hosted by the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery she exhibits three works of art "La Consolle" with a clear oxymoronic and surrealist approach, starting from the lower part with a remarkable three-dimensionality to a refined two-dimensional at the top of the work.

Different in the pictorial style, but with a very similar message, "La consolle" approaches "La toilette" by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, an element shared between the two works is the sense of emptiness that the main subject transmits, in the case of the work by Piantanida, however, an evident sense of unease is highlighted, painting the woman's face like a skull. In the work "Mare Dentro" the two-dimensional oxymoron and search for perspective is even more evident. The lower right corner is worthy of Flemish masters thanks to the meticulous attention to detail. The upper part of the work, on the other hand, has much in common with the works of the surrealist master Salvador Dalì. "Tempo" is the most surrealist work on display, the space is divided into four parts, the contrast is evident in a sharp contrast between reality and meta-reality. On the one hand the classic model and the armor, on the other the natural subjects. The work is framed by a crescent moon in the lower left side of the work and a waning moon in the upper right, an element even more highlighted by the use of warm and bright colors on one side, cold and extremely more delicate on the other. The passage of time is perceptible and tangible, referring to the theme so dear to Dalì.

Art Curator Martina Viesti

Chiara Piantanida

La consolle

Chiara Piantanida

Mare dentro

Chiara Piantanida

Tempo

Chris Collier "Normality is not something to aspire to; It’s something to run away from” (Jodie Foster)

To understand Chris' work, let’s imagine an office, noise, confusion, telephones ringing incessantly, lack of silence, lack of time, running against time, life that flows and passes without that we can stop it, without that we can live it. For Chris Collier, coming out means coming out of these patterns, out of a society that requires us to do more than be. Art becomes salvation, escape and security. Free from the vindictive judgments given by others, but also by itself, free from the chains of unique thought, art becomes for our artist a place of real life, of communication with the viewer, but also of personal research. Son of artists, trained at Holgate School and Honeywell College in Barnsley, the blank sheet becomes his only form of expression, understanding of his emotions. It is not important the support, that often is a sheets taken in the office between calls, but the content, powerful, direct, strong social criticism, that goes straight to the eyes and the head of those who watch it. Chris paints dreams, his dreams, but the themes treated are so current and real that they become the dreams of an entire community. This creates a connection, a communication between the individual and the whole of which we are part. Stationed Observer is the name that he gives to our existence. It means: all living creatures within the observable universe and beyond, the one mind, us.

Chris Collier

We are alone in this world, individuals each with his own thought, his own life, fractured, perhaps even within us, but we are also a whole, part of as a whole. Lamone, one of the two works on exhibition, prowls the Quiver’s Motel, an otherworldly motel universe owned by manager Motel Quivers, where many of Chris characters and images of liminal spaces reside. The question we are asking is if is Lamone Truly lost or is just looking for Himself. There is no answer, everyone can give is own answer. It is a dialogue with itself, but which leaves open paths to communication with those who observe. It is a continuous search for answers not only inner, but that involve emotionally, in a game of beauty and terror, the viewer. The name Lamone came from a time where the artist misheards a dear friend saying the word “lemon”. It is interesting to note that lamone can also be read as "I AM ONE", a randomness that leaves the way open to many questions and interpretations. Unbeleafable reflects on a problem that afflicts the whole of humanity and of which man is sadly responsible: deforestation. A powerful image strikes the beholder and invites him to act now to change direction and save the planet from a sad and inexorable decadence.

Art Curator Erika Gravante

Chris Collier

Lamone

Chris Collier

Unbeleafable

Christina Davidsson

Christina Davidsson is a very accomplished artist now living in Brisbane, Australia. She has recently embarked on a self-taught artistic journey, turning a difficult period such as the Covid 19 pandemic into a productive one that has led to wonderful results. Art has allowed her to explore new horizons, break down walls and give voice to her wishes that had long been silent. She threw herself into the world of art and discovered an authentic, original and innovative talent. When she paints, she withdraws from the world to explore new universes, finding balance and harmony between colours and brushes. She draws inspiration from her surroundings, the sea, nature and her emotions. Her artworks are a mix of feelings and thoughts that tickle the viewer's imagination, involving them in the creative process and leading them on a wonderful and unique journey. Her original style is clearly visible in her work “My Inner Light”. A riot of energy that comes to life from the centre of the artwork. The use of a mixed technique and acrylics allows the artist to search for different textures within the work. In the lower part, a series of cracks outlines a jagged and creative geometric pattern that fades upwards with a few schematic lines and culminates in the central band. The upper part is softer and more nuanced. Christina plays with the contrast of light and shade combined with different textures, leading to different results. The colours that triumph are cold, such as grey, light blue and green, dirtied with black and white. The interplay of light and shade gives the work three-dimensionality and dynamism, also giving it vitality. It is as if something had broken and released light and beauty. The artwork therefore seems to be a metaphor for the artist and her life. She conveys onto the canvas the whirlwind of emotions and upheavals that her life has undergone. A sort of rebirth even more radiant and shining. The light that is released is powerful and captures the attention of the viewer, who is invited to gather the positive vibrations of the artwork and channel them into subjective thoughts.

Colour dialogues with form to create an ethereal combination. Varied but at the same time harmonious. The light that is released brings beauty and a new beginning. An invitation to never give up, to crumble that wall that each of us builds, to let our true essence come out. Only our true "I" is capable of bringing us satisfaction and personal fulfilment. The artist teaches us that it is never too late to rediscover ourselves.

Every change leads to consequences and new awareness. We need courage to overcome the obstacles that life places before us every day and to unleash our beauty, our pure, living strength. The space of the canvas is constructed in overlapping planes, a sort of celestial diagram for achieving inner peace and balance in the universe. The colours are reminiscent of an imaginative, new and undiscovered world, a kind of galaxy. It is impossible not to be fascinated by this artwork, which leads the viewer to ask himself what his true light is and how to release it.

Every day life presents us with challenges to overcome, which in the work could be outlined by the roughest and most jagged textures. The light we have inside each of us will lead us to accomplish great things. Christina proves to be very skilled in the use of technique, painting with extreme instinctive gestures, relying on her feelings at that particular moment which she is able to translate using beautiful colours and combinations.

Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti

Christina Davidsson

My Inner Light

Christina Walsh American artist Christina Walsh continues her artistic career in collaboration with the M.A.D.S. Art gallery in Milan, warmly welcoming the proposal launched by the gallery with the "Coming Out” exhibition. The exhibition, in fact, asks artists to reflect on the term "coming out" in a broad sense; the intention is in fact to bring artists to freedom of expression, without fear of the others’ judgment. Christina comments with these words the theme: “Coming Out as an artist has special meaning to me as an artist finding my style and direction, I learn once again that it is an evolutionary process where the topics of mind lead the painting. It seems that no matter the palette, the painting finds its own way.”

The artist mainly creates Cubist works but, in this case, she decides to exhibit more conceptual works. These three works trace and, at the same time, reveal in some way her strong artistic personality. "Weight of History" once again refers to social problems and politics, themes dear to the artist.The work in fact refers to the “great obstacle” that still affects America: politics is not "yet ready" to recognize Native Americans as part of their past. The artist chooses to create this abstract work as a tribute to them, filling the painting with love, honor and history. Christina is completely driven by feelings and transmits them through vibrant colors. Many are the lines created by the color left on the canvas, first vertically and then horizontally, thus creating a tangle of lines, as if to symbolize the importance and the union between peoples. Christina Walsh then continues with as many important messages, presenting the work "Vita Est Conuncta" which celebrates the importance of sustainability. A big sunflower is the protagonist, but placed on the left, thus diminishing its importance as "bigger", below, smaller, there are delicious poppies, small but united in their fight to save the Earth. In the same vein, Christina presents the work "Mother Nature Coming Out" which she herself comments with these words: “It is about the many separate lives we lead and the fact that the habitat of community is shared by humans and nature and we have to find a way to co-exist without one destroying the other.” The aspirating shell has always been associated with the "golden section" also used by Leonardo da Vinci and discovered by Ippaso da Metaponto, which establishes the natural proportions. The reference is clear. Christina Walsh once again demonstrates her intellectual and pictorial ability, combining strong messages with unique and extraordinary paintings.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Christina Walsh

Mother Nature Coming Out

Christina Walsh

Vita Est Conuncta

Christina Walsh

Weight of History

Christine Drummond “The ultimate goal of art is JOY”. (Gotthold E. Lessing)

Christine Drummond is an artist who was born and raised in Brazil and now lives in the USA. She started painting in 2000, at first using brushes and then palette knives, which makes the texture of her artworks feel more concrete and tangible, as if they were alive. Nowadays she has exhibited all over the world, in cities such as London, Paris, Monte Carlo, Sao Paulo and New York. By looking at “Alegria Carnavalesca” we are able to perceive the importance of the artist’s native country and, in particular, the city of Rio de Janeiro, with its famous carnival. In fact, the artist describes herself a real “carioca”, an expression which means a person that was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro. The bright and vibrant nuances recall the atmosphere of the joyful carnival and, by looking at the artwork, we are immediately brought in the magical world of Rio with its costumes, dances and colors. In fact, the painting’s texture makes the artwork feel dynamic and lively, as if colors and shapes were painted while listening to music and dancing. The artist shows us her identity in this “Coming out” by revealing a world of joy and positive sensations: the expression of her art has to be intended as a way to brighten the feelings of the viewer and make him or her discover a happy and colorful world.

Art Curator Maddalena Corbini

Christine Drummond

Alegria Carnavalesca

Christine Ruksenas-Burton

Christine Ruksenas-Burton's artwork is composed of linear abstractions of hard-edge colour fields, a style rooted in a movement that started in New York City in the 1940s pioneered by Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still.

Growing up in Australia, she has enjoyed a playground of raw beauty and rich colours in every season. Her paintings are conversations of colours inspired by her homeland as well as modern art, minimalism, modernist architecture, and design. On occasion of the International Exhibition of contemporary Art of the M.A.D.S. in Milan, however, the artist decides to present piece #01 of the "Renaissance Sister" series, a passionate project of classical art with a touch of Pop Art, a brief departure from his linear paintings of colour fields, through mixed, consisting of photograph, painted canvas and personalized handmade necklace. Christine's main work has been compared to that of Gene Davis, an American Colour Field painter best known for his brightly coloured vertical stripe paintings. However, her philosophy is rooted in numerology and chromotherapy, through which the artist offers chromatic contrasts and a visual delicacy of the composition, masterfully curated. The photographic image of the female sculptural figure is surrounded by a gold thread that prepares the view for the encounter with the aqua blue surface, which at the foot of the painting becomes more material and irregular. This natural and realistic feeling is added to the golden and shiny nuance, which creates a setting around the subject: the woman comes out of the sea and the waves that meet the rigid brushstrokes of the sky. The handmade necklace that she wears on her nakedness, they dress her in gold and light colours, which lean on her creating a game of movement, emphasized by the slight twist of the body that comes out of the water.

Art Curator Carola Antonioli

Christine Ruksenas-Burton

Renaissance Sister #01

Claudia D.

The French-Colombian artist Claudia D. defines herself as <<a disciple of order in disorder, of the more in the less, of the loaded in the simple, of the lightness in the superposition of the layers of paint and ink, crushed by rollers of various sizes and textures to make almost lithographs>>. These characteristics of her paintings can be seen also in the three artworks presented at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery during the current “Coming Out” exhibition, where just one colour, the majestic and mystical blue, is the main character and the starting point of all her works. “Once Upon a Time” shows this important role of the blue colour, from which all the other elements born, as its complements. Soft and solid appears the scene, with an almost monochrome background made up of geometrical elements contoured with a thin gold ink that perfectly defines the figures. This piece has a fairy-tale’s title, that pushes the viewers to deeply look at the painting to find its meaning. A pink parrot at the left coin of the piece, symbol of freedom and talent gives to the piece a deep meaning inherent with the concept of the exhibition: to believe in ourselves, in our personality and skills. For this reason, the artist has drawn it in the lowest part of the canvas, as to symbolize the arduous path that each of us must undertake in life. “Scandinavian Landscape”, different in subjects but with the same artistic technique, shows another kind of itinerary, this time a physical one, along the cold Scandinavian lands, as the title itself suggests. The presence of the blue colour from which everything is generated and created here is less visible, hidden by the other colours that overcome it to symbolize the different characteristics of the village. This use of colours permits to visibly read the intent of the artist to represent the multiple shades and perceptions that these lands transmit. Even less ‘blue’ seems to be the last painting, whose title, however, focuses the attention on the main subject of the scene, and the only ‘blue’ one: “A Vase”. On an undefined background, made up of soft and hot colours, the big jug in the foreground is exalted by the thin contour that perfectly defines its features, separating it from the rest of the object here represented, emphasising its emptiness. With the use of the blue ink, Claudia, the artist, looks for the salvation of the glance, the light, the shade, and the harmony between all the elements. As Hopper and Reynolds became masters each in their time.

Art Curator Martina Stagi

Claudia D.

Once Upon A Time

Claudia D.

Scandinavian Landscape

Claudia D.

A Vase

Conny Golla

On occasion of international art exhibition Coming Out the artist Conny Golla presented three artworks titled Floating away, Outbreak and Yogagirl. Starting from Floating away at first the lines in which it is composed, 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 is meaningful. In a second moment: the geometry made by the colours that seems to be part of a game of irregular shapes. Could be more fascinating putting the attention on this last expression. Irregular shapes. Is this expression a way to express the real meaning of the art in general? What does irregular shape mean? This expression wants to express 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: <<.

My joy is when people look at my art and dive into the structure and colour. I want them to really feel the positive energy and vibes that I put into each piece while creating it!>>. 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. Watching the other paintings presented by the artist Conny Golla, we can see in Outbreak the same style, in which this game of shapes and colour communicates the emotion and the feeling of the artist at the moment of the creation. This melting pot reminds the gesture and the energy of creativity. The last painting titled Yogagirl, the abstratism goes towards the representation of one girl during her yoga session. So the intention of the artist wants to represent one vision or something that belongs to reality. However, the language used by the artist Conny Golla is the abstracts, a fascinating technique that with the composition gives to the observer the idea of the energy and the power made by the creativity of the artist. 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

Conny Golla

Floating away

Conny Golla

Outbreak

Conny Golla

Yogagirl

D Rachael

D Rachael is a very talented contemporary photographic art maker of Jamaican descent. She studies the interconnections between nature, which has fascinated her since she was a child, and humanity through the art of photography. Metaphorically, her cameras and her eyes are tools and the nature that surrounds her is the canvas, the starting point for the creation of her beautiful works of art. What she creates is a kind of psychological synthesis linked to art, an absolutely personal and original perception. She tells her story and her close bond with nature through a psychological and photographic ecology. She lets herself be inspired by nature, by what surrounds her and moves in extreme freedom and harmony with the universe. Her eye captures images even before her camera can, fixing that precise moment in her mind.

For the exhibition "Coming-Out" she decided to show some of her artworks included in "Wild at Heart Collection", a series of 12 photographs that show an experimental photographic journey to understand the interconnections between nature and her emotions and moods. Among these works is "Flowers in the Attic", a artwork that refers to the psychological thriller film of the same name.

D Rachael

The meeting point between the film and the work is the flowers, a rich and lush bouquet, a gift given to the artist's aunt. Time has consumed the flowers and Rachael has been able to seize the right moment to immortalise the intrinsic fragility of nature which mirrors that of man. Their physical appearance of broken stems and withered flowers is altered by time and so they are discarded. It is at this moment that they reveal their fragility, a hidden beauty so different from the vital and energetic beauty they had when they were picked. The artwork has very saturated colours and the composition and arrangement of the elements have been well thought out by the artist, who reveals herself to be delicate, attentive and introspective. In "Vacuun I" the artist analyses wood ash. The artwork stems from a deep feeling that Rachael has experienced throughout her life. Staring into the chasm in the middle, one has the impression of being sucked into the artwork. This sensation has been deliberately reproduced by the artist to make the viewer think about the illusions that often make us lose our sense of ourselves. Our illusions sometimes give us a distorted perception of reality and of the people around us, leading us to re-evaluate ourselves as human beings. The artist expresses this concept starting from her own state of mind and producing an extremely reflective artwork.

D Rachael

There is a strong contrast between the chasm and the bright colour of the rest of the photograph. The artwork "Two Lovers Under the Orange Moonlight" reproduces the true and simple essence of nature and immortalises buds and flowers. Two figures converse silently and intimately, created with a glowing orange light. The artwork is energetic, vital, free of all boundaries. The subjectivity of the individual leads to different interpretations. The photograph tells of a journey, still in progress, of detachment from material things and physical pleasures to achieve spiritual and sexual liberation. Human imagination leads us to read in this photograph, the true essence of things, a primordial beauty enclosed in shadows, lights and shapes. Rachael proves to be an artist-photographer with a delicate and powerful artistic taste. Her photographs are true works of art, they tell stories, they are intrinsically linked to nature and human emotions. She describes shapes, details, plays of light and shadow, colour contrasts that become a true mirror for the human spirit and soul.

Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti

D Rachael

Flowers in the Attic

D Rachael

Vacuum I

D Rachael

Two Lovers Under the Orange Moonlight

d.C.

The social world presents codes, rules but above all its own space-time structure. The life of the human being is inserted within a social system since childhood. The confinement in the house, with all the restrictions imposed, has made time and space always identical to themselves. When the hours, however, are not marked by rituals, appointments with one's own personal history and that of others, but are flattened by a repetitiveness of actions, thoughts and behaviors, the most direct consequence is malaise, the suffering of the person, especially the younger, more fragile, more alone.

Socialization, play, contact and embrace are not optional extras. They are basic needs. Man is a social animal and as such is nourished and quenched by interpersonal relationships on a daily basis. Human life is therefore based on interconnection and touch is the sense of proximity par excellence. It involves the whole body, rips open the void and allows the human being to experience the limit, the frontier. It is an essential ally of memory as well as knowledge.

Through touch we perceive the existence of the Other, of things, of life itself. What we cannot touch is unreal, illusory.

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the whole world to know the loneliness of an immobile space-time, it has created a caesura in history as well as in relationships that is far from healing. From self-limitation, from isolation, from hours of the day, each one identical to the other, comes the project of d.C. whose focal point is the connection with people through something new, something different from the immediate tactile sensation, from the fast spoken word.

d.C.

Art is here elevated to a means of sharing experiences, sensations and emotions in a world where sociality has disintegrated and individuals are closed within the few square meters of the home. The social issue of the Coronavirus epidemic is well illustrated by Whole and Details. A large dark figure with circular strokes occupies almost all the space of the composition. A mighty, greenish shadow silhouetted against a pea-green backdrop. Observing the work with meticulousness we can glimpse a multitude of concentric lines that cluster together approaching one another. They attract each other, share information and at times they join, intertwine; they get to know each other. It is the game of sociability and closeness to one another; the enrichment of oneself by relating to other individuals; the creation of bonds and the elaboration of ideas and opinions arising from the power of verbal form. World - Inner & Outer is a hymn to get out of the box, to emerge from the sea of monotony and security to jump into the unknown, into the space never visited before.

Outside there is a wonderful world surrounded by blue and green flowers: one step and the world unfolds before you. An image that fits well with what any human being has experienced in this difficult period, an image that overflows with hope for a free future without restrictions and boundaries, to be lived by abandoning the fear of the unknown.

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

d.C.

World - Inner & Outer

d.C.

String CUBE Space

d.C.

String RING Space

d.C.

Whole and Details

D “Art no longer cares to serve the state and religion, it no longer wishes to illustrate the history of manners, it wants to have nothing further to do with the object, as such, and believes that it can exist, in and for itself, without “things”.

Part II of The Non-Objective World. (Kazimir Malevich)

The supremacy of pure feeling, the object is not as important as the feeling. Suprematist Malevich is being drawn into the abstract space and to find comfort when seeking the vast possibilities of creation. M.A.D.S. Art gallery presents three NFT artworks for the “Coming out” Art exhibition in Milan Italy. The “Coming out” Art exhibition is to liberate the artists from their thoughts and exchange them. From a technological space, the three artworks present an artist living in Sydney who comes from the south of New Zealand and exports a vision of a world with a unique perception. The first artwork is called “The bat that brought me Home,” followed by “Disintegration of God” and finally “Neocortex - All is nothing without this”. In the first one we observe how the artist tries to portray a distinct suprematist sensitivity through the skillfully composition of geometric elements recreating an emotion within the awareness of its surroundings. The second one named “Disintegration of God," represents the glory of light during a pivotal time for the artist and the relevance given to spirituality. It is imperative to grasp the importance of the message with a centered radial composition to emphasize the spiritual guidance. Radial symmetry creates a sense of order, a sense of what is supposed to be thought to organize various perceptions in a suprematist manner. The last artwork “Neocortex - All is nothing without this," refers to a part of our body which is in constant learning, a set of layers to generate commands with different links and different paths to render an idea, showed as a geometric abstraction echoing Mondrian’s trees by accepting balance and harmony within the different interactions between the branches, the links and ideas. The supremacy of expression through abstract digital art represents an artist who comes from a place different from the one born into. In this particular position is taking into consideration the aspect of mutation and evolving to reprogram ideas by arranging them into new ways of creation, where the importance of the object, the non suprematist idea, is left out to render importance to non fungible emotions.

Art Curator Karla Peralta Málaga

D

The Bat that brought me Home

D

Disintegration of God

D

Neocortex - All is nothing without this

David Jandron “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” (Plutarco)

When a personal, artistic and creative process is capable of evolving and transforming itself in a painting, the final result can only be an image of strength and deep energies. The artist David Jandron puts his finger on daily situations and ordinariness; he decides to focus his artistic research on what surrounds him and on what he lives on his skin. The painter starts his investigation from the chaos, the chances, the perceptions and the intentions. When he can find the main subject of his exploration, David Jandron embraces a particular way to portray it: he relies on the lens of mental illness – substance abuse, trauma, emotional baggage, panic – as a filter between his mind and the world around him. The artist choses simple and ordinary situations – that everyone may have lived – with easy and immediate themes – that everyone could know. In doing so, the painter wishes to be a comfortable example, a point of reference for his audience, as a symbol of transformation and resilience. David Jandron would put his personal experiences forth as a service to all; in this way the distance between the artist and his viewers breaks down, creating a total and universal connection.

Art Curator Manuela Fratar

David Jandron

Between Us

David Jandron

Not Present

David Jandron

Which and Where?

Debbie O. Lucas

Debbie O. Lucas is an American photographer whose artistic production today focuses on nature and open spaces. What makes her photographic works incredible is the ability to reveal the beauty of a moment suspended in time, a moment on the verge of disappearing, which thanks to the artist's talent is captured forever. At the contemporary art exhibition "COMING OUT" hosted by the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Debbie exhibits three works that are extremely different from each other, but united by the importance of color, which creates a very strong visual impact. "Peony 64" is the photograph of a flower about to open, the delicacy of the opening of the petals and the pink color give the photograph a sense of intimacy and depth. The flower reveals itself, it reveals its most vulnerable part, its heart. "Peony Portrait 64" seems to be a work contaminated by Japanese influences. “Roatan Water Abstract 544” is an abstract representation, linked to the style of fluid art. Debbie photographs the unknown making it knowable, as the artist said "I find great joy and serenity capturing abstract images that exist for a brief moment in time when the ordinary becomes the extraordinary". Finally, “Sunset Beach Sand 22” represents a sunset photographed in Sunset Beach, NC. The visual impact given by the chromatic variation of the colors creates an emotional power in the soul of the observer who feels involved at an ever deeper level. The artist's passion for this beach is perceptible, this admiration is tangible even for those who observe the shot.

Art Curator Martina Viesti

Debbie O. Lucas

Peony Portrait 64

Debbie O. Lucas

Roatan Water Abstract 544

Debbie O. Lucas

Sunset Beach Sand 22

Diane Kuster “Without music, life would be a mistake.” (Friedrich Nietzsche)

An expressiveness deriving from deep emotions, the desire to describe the human soul in its innermost spaces. A journey through pleasures and pains that take on unpredictable forms. This is the art of Diane Kuster, a German artist whose roots lie in a past rich in diverse experiences, in constant contact with art and photography. The resulting dynamism emerges from her canvases, whose subjects are nothing but abstractions made of pure visual energy. With a gesture linked to Art Informel, she describes brushstrokes of colour in space, appropriating a style that is in some ways close to that of the master Emilio Vedova, but altering the effect. Diane Kuster's paintings are in fact characterized by a lighter choice of colour, towards greens, pinks and acid yellows. She thus evolves her own style to new interpretations, merging past and present in a single moment. In "Das Glockenspiel", the profound connection with sound, music and the emotions arising from it is evident. This canvas represents the expressiveness of the moment in which the artist let herself be carried away by the sensations provoked by listening to a melody. A visual translation of rhythms and sounds unknown to the observer, who feels guided by the colours and the diversity of the brushstrokes, at times material and dense, at others dragged. A tale of a contemplative moment becomes here, the celebration of an aesthetic pleasure. Diane Kuster accompanies us on a personal journey, where art once again becomes an intense diary of emotions.

Art Curator Francesca Brunello

Diane Kuster

Das Glockenspiel

DoL “Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love.

But always meeting ourselves.”

(James Joyce) DoL is an English artist who exploited at an early age drawing and illustrations as an escape from reality and who in adulthood rediscovered this passion by reinterpreting it as a means of communication and self-expression. Art is an instrument in which he channels emotions, transforming his artworks and considering them as pages of a diary where he keeps track of his thoughts but above all gives them an order. Paint and acrylic spray, as well as ink, are the artist's favorite tools. He combines these by exploiting the technique of printing and collage, thus he gives life to the neoexpressionist style that distinguishes all his production. A key element of DoL's art is given by the inclusion of phrases or words in his artworks, they reflect and express the thoughts that the artist experiences and elaborates in the moment of creation and realization of each piece. DoL’s artwork entitled "Too Many Thoughts" is emblematic of his art because it contains all the key features of his production. At first glance, the use of the collage technique is evident, in fact several newspaper sheets and some magazine pages have been inserted into the artwork and they act as a canvas for the stencils, the drawings and the writings created by the artist. Therefore, art is the tool that offers DoL a space in which to explain, reorganize and read the countless thoughts that populate his mind. The central theme of this piece is linked to mourning, feeling that the artist needed to give vent. Particularly this year, it has affected not only his but the collective sensitivity and it has led to reconsideration and questioning of everyone’s individual consciousness.

Art Curator Alessia Logatto

DoL

Too Many Thoughts

Dylan Leddington

Dylan Leddington is a UK based artist who works in the medium of color pencil. The two works that the artist exhibits at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in Milan, best represents his art. Dylan is attracted to abandoned and forgotten places because, as he says himself, “I am using present-day dilapidated architecture as a mirror to reflect my thoughts of possible futures, where the seemingly immovable surrounding of everyday life could end up in similar circumstances”. The peculiarity of Dylan’s art lies in representing sinister places in a charming and light way. The places that should be a cause for concern, on the other hand, convey a certain calm. The two works on display are entitled "Kenopsia 1" and "Kenopsia 2". The meaning of this term is precisely what the work conveys: the term refers to places that are generally crowded and full of people but, now, they are abandoned and calm - a school hallway in the evening, an unlit office on a weekend, vacant fairgrounds - an emotional afterimage that makes it seem not just empty but hyper-empty, with a total population in the negative, who are so conspicuously absent they glow like neon signs.

Dylan Leddington

The two artworks depict abandoned and deserted rooms, they probably are in the same house. One common subject that appearing in both works is a single chair on the left side of the panel - symbolizing solitude, loneliness, a lack of companionship, loss of human occupation (not only in the house but the whole town) - chair facing towards the room, not the window: it probably means one's preference to a solitary life. “Kenopsia 1" portrays a living room, assumed by the sofa and a fireplace. In “Kenopsia 2” there is a dining table without chairs. Both works have a mysterious connotation, the viewer is curious and attracted to know the history behind this abandoned house. On the other hand, it conceals a feeling of hope, a desire to renew oneself and to return to life.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Dylan Leddington

Kenopsia 1

Dylan Leddington

Kenopsia 2

Ebtisam Al Mattar "The hidden harmony is worth more than what it appears." (Heraclitus)

Ebtisam Al Mattar is a young artist living in Kuwait. Her predisposition for art emerged at an early age and it developed over the years through an important artistic path. Under the guidance of prestigious teachers, Ebtisam enriched her technical skills, allowing to express her idea of painting as a refuge to give shape and color feelings and emotions. The white canvas becomes a privileged tool to show her inner universe without filters, in absolute freedom. Art thus becomes an opportunity for a cathartic self-realization, based on a profound contemplation of the harmony of nature and of its multifaceted beauty. Ebtisam’s works are a refined dialogue between figurative and symbolic representation, as demonstrated by the works presented for Coming Out. In “Emerge” the viewer can admire a fascinating representation of a female face partially hidden by swirling sea waves. The artist plays on a chromatic choice based on the contrast between the blue of the waves and the pink of the full lips, to allude metaphorically to the peace achieved through happiness and hope. The face seems to emerge a little from the whirlwind of the lonely sea to finally reopen the eyes on a harmonious world, in which the natural and human elements complement each other. This logic also appears in “A Bird’s Courage”, an apparently idyllic representation of a little girl from behind, while a small bird unties the ribbon that holds a long braid. In this case the artist uses the palette knife technique to play on a wider range of colors, rich in skilful shades. The focus of attention falls on the colorful bird, which hovers in the air as a metaphorical bearer of freedom, ready to dissolve any kind of imposition in the wind. The vocation of Ebtisam’s works is, in fact, precisely freedom, which interests not only the artist but also the observer. The purpose is to create images dense with meaning, but which pose open questions, to which there is no single answer. “Naked” shows this choice to the fullest. The composition is inspired by Cubism, and represents a crouching woman. The gaze is captured by the powerful chromatic contrasts between blue and orange, yellow green, which alternate between the geometric lines traced with broken lines in the tenderness. The face, without somatic features, seems to evoke the universality of the representation, in which everyone can identify to add to a new self-awareness, breaking down the divisions of the psyche to satisfy the most intense and arcane desires of the soul, to know and accept oneself.

Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti

Ebtisam Al Mattar

A Bird's Courage

Ebtisam Al Mattar

Emerge

Ebtisam Al Mattar

Naked

Eduardo Alarcón Orozco “I'm not afraid to make changes, nor am I afraid to destroy the image, because I know the painting has a life of its own, so I just try to extract it from the image itself.”

(Jackson Pollock)

For the international exhibition “Coming Out” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Eduardo Alarcón Orozco exposes his work “SCORPIO” which reveals a universal vision in constant movement. A rhythmic dynamism is exalted that reveals the artist's soul, where every vital tension is transferred from the canvas to the observer, as a symbol of energy and extension of the action itself. He turns objective nature and the surrounding reality into his personal and acute artistic poetic sensitivity. The thematic evolution of this painting is manifested through the use of vivid and vibrant tones: a pure vivacity is underlined, highlighting every single stroke and making those little scorpions emerge from the painting surface. Through the different nuances and his compositional research, the artist captures the viewer's attention by conveying numerous optical-perceptual sensations. There is a full freedom of movement, used to emphasize the way art and nature are represented as an unstoppable force. A strong gestural symbolism is evident, thanks to the use of such an important animal: an emblem of new life after passing away. In the ancient Egypt, the scorpion was an attribute of the goddess Selket, the guardian of the transmigration of souls, thus embodying the power of death and freedom. In the background one can see this yellow/golden expanse, very reminiscent of the desert, but its brilliance alludes to the appearance of the only fossil that could contain an animal inside, namely amber. And so it is that the whole takes on considerable importance, making the painting extremely valuable just like that mineral stone.

“Rebirth, in its various forms of reincarnation, resurrection and transformation, is a fact that must be counted among man's first affirmations.” (Carl Gustav Jung)

Art Curator Alessia Perone

Eduardo Alarcón Orozco

SCORPIO

Egle-Evergreen Radziute Everyone has a personal, inner place where the deepest questions accumulate in the continuous search for one’s own identity. Egle-Evergreen Radziute, Lithuanian artist, expresses her thoughts and her feelings through her art. Her artworks are colorful and full of mistery. They are fascinating and full of meanings.

“At the museum” is an artwork depicting a statue with a crown of fresh flowers reminiscent of the snakes of Medusa. Next to it we can see another face, petrified: perhaps a second statue or a spectator victim of the charm of the flowery Medusa. But that’s not all. In fact, at the bottom, near Medusa we see the profile of an human silhouette that looks in the same direction as the second statue. Maybe it’s the soul of the petrified spectator, surrounded by the trees that suggest he’s in a forest. Suddenly it seems to be no longer in a museum, but in a garden. A magical place where reality and fantasy come together. “Among birds” represents a semi-hidden face of someone: we can clearly see only lips and nose. Some vertical and horizontal brushstrokes suggest the hint of somatic traits and eyes that are not clearly represented, are only hinted at. Around the figure there are small and big eyes here and there, not belonging to the face but wandering eyes. These trace of mysterious presences are perhaps the representation of the looks of the mysterious face. Eyes that look up close to the colored birds, as the face is doing from the hidden traits.

Eyes that are lost in the forest that is represented in the background with plant elements, flowers and mushrooms. “Faces of a Cemetery” is the third artwork of Egle-Evergreen and represents overlapped faces with intense looks that hide a sea of thoughts. In the background and right on the eye of one of the faces we see crosses that indicate the graves of the cemetery. Faces are there, in the cemetery and they seem thinking. Egle-Evergreen Radziute uses colorful brushstrokes and an enigmatic, mysterious art to express her daydreams, her visions, and her daily interpretations.

Art Curator Sara Giannini

Egle-Evergreen Radziute

At the Museum

Egle-Evergreen Radziute

Among birds

Egle-Evergreen Radziute

Faces of a Cemetery

Elaine Conneely

Since her childhood, Elaine Conneely has lived close to water and it has therefore defined her whole life.

The one represented in "Wave Cave 2" is not, however, the water of a stream that flows placidly, or the calm and motionless sea water of a summer morning. The artist, currently resident in Ireland, represents it instead tumultuous and agitated. We can hear the gurgling and we can feel the droplets of water on our skin. “I suppose that being in lockdown from Covid-19 let me “come out” of myself for the first time in my life. I began painting with bright color and a new vigour I have never felt before I am not sure why or where it came from but, I wholeheartedly embrace the changes and new freedom I feel.” says the artist, and indeed we can perceive this feeling of freedom watching her artwork. Elaine Conneely manages to make us perceive the energy of nature, its liberty. All the power and sublime greatness of nature is expressed in this wave cave, in front of which the viewer could also perceive a sense of bewilderment: the smallness of man in relation to the infinity of nature.The work seems to continue beyond the edges and the choice to use a square canvas gives order and harmony to the “storm” that develops within it. The brushstrokes are flat and uniform at the background, while then they become quick and flickering to better make the action of the sea foam. All the love and enthusiasm for life that Elaine Conneely feel is manifested in her work and transmitted to us.

Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia

Elaine Conneely

Wave Cave 2

Elena Molchanova For 12 years Elena Molchanova was chief specialist of the Department of Youth Politics and Sports of the Kemerovo Region in the implementation of design projects in the field of youth politics, tourism and sports, regional, all‐Russian and international festive events, ceremonies (governor receptions, festivals, exhibitions, championships, forums).

Concept development, creative direction for events, corporate and brand identity, graphic complex, stage design, visual installations, exhibitions, costume design, advertising, souvenir and premium products. Molchanova's painting is characterized by very vivid colors and surreal subjects. Her beauty is undoubtedly an important personale factor and her personal style highlights it. In her painting it's evident the strong romantic component that creates a warm and informal atmosphere, everything about her in her paintings tells us a story. The use of cold colors is mitigated by this atmosphere that warms the observer's soul and inevitably feels involved. The great experience of the artist leads her to have a very complete and refined vision of the world that she too manages to convey in her works. In the \ "Traveller's Heart \" there are all the distinctive traits of Molchanova starting from the detailed and refined use of color, up to the deep and important theme that the work transmits in which we can perceive the greatness and purity within the heart of a traveler who dreams of distant lands and incredible places to reach. The research and realization of the artist's inner self is expressed by the desire to escape in the blue heart that dominates the scene and her full awareness of expressing herself fully is summed up in the genuineness of her technique and in the completeness of her art that it shows us the desire to reach a new and different world in a different way

Art Curator Letizia Perrieri

Elena Molchanova

Traveller's Heart

ELER The name ELER is inspired by the initials of this emerging contemporary artist [L.R.]. Born in Italy in 1973, ELER grew up with a strong passion for sciences applied to complex systems, and after earning his PhD between Italy and Canada and then moving to England, China, the United States and Japan, he became a world-renowned scientist and University Professor. ELER's art offers a striking interpretation of the digital image concept as an instrument of mediation and knowledge of the physical space that surrounds us based on a multiplicity of forms and chromatic dissonances: with his research and experimental artwork, he transports us into the dynamic context of contemporary cities, such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Chicago, Detroit, and Milan introducing an alternative vision of the urban system in its architectural and green elements. Seemingly chaotic and unstructured, his artwork contains sequences of pixels that are organized in patterns according to rigorous and multi-scalar fractal dimensions. The result of this process is what ELER defines as "digital landscapes" capable of imparting a unique combination between scientific knowledge, image modelling and the integration of exogenous elements, always unpredictable. His creative impulse is also a tribute to the punk, dark-gothic and new wave culture of the 80s, and, more recently, post-punk, post-rock, darkwave, and shoegaze genres.

ELER

In “Heart & Soul – One will burn”, lines and colors are spatially arranged evidencing a blue heartshaped element with a bold red border.In ELER's works, titles are always important to capture the underlying meaning. In this work the heart and soul represent two essential components of human existence and behavior: the heart rules our passions, emotions, and feelings, and represents a tangible part of our body, while the soul embraces wisdom, eternity, consciousness, and the deepest essence of our existence, illuminating our life’s journey beyond time and space. In this existential struggle, we are sometimes challenged to relinquish one of these two components and metaphorically "burn" either our emotions and feelings or wisdom and consciousness. "What will be left – When you're gone?”, the second piece of art by ELER at the “Coming Out” exhibition, portrays a man gliding in a motorized parachute and immersed in a mysterious sky of purple wavy clouds. In line with the theme of the exhibition that emphasizes the importance of affirming one's identity in an ephemeral and vain world, the man with the parachute represents the moment in which we seek to distance ourselves from daily life and actions in an act of compelling loneliness, stillness, and acceptance.

The digital image is understood as a fragment of a dystopian and constantly evolving urban landscape, in which degradation and regeneration co-exist and co-evolve according to new underground cultural and artistic expressions.

(ELER)

Art Curator Matilde Della Pina

ELER

Heart & Soul - One will burn

ELER

What will be left - When you're gone?

Elif Altuntaş

Elif Altuntaş is a young Turkish artist, at the international contemporary art exhibition "COMING OUT" hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery exhibits four works clearly influenced by abstract expressionism. “DEEP” has dark shades as its main colors, the title of the work is consistent with the sensations she evokes in the viewer. The sense of depth, of intimacy is closely linked to the sense of mystery, to something unknown, whose representative color is black which is found in an evocative way throughout the work. “FRESHA” has a lot in common with the previous work from a stylistic point of view. The colors, in this work, however, are brighter and clearer. Yellow and orange give freshness to the work, the observer feels captured by them and at the same time removed by the coldness of the blue. These two works recall those of the artist Gerhard Richter, in particular the drafting of the color, as in "Abstraktes Bild". “REVEL” is built with a different technique, an emblematic reference is the work "Straw" by Joan Mitchell, even if in the work exhibited by Elif Altuntaş the application of color is more orderly.

Elif Altuntaş

The last work on display is "SHALLOW UP" whose dominant color is gold, accompanied by black. The color is applied in a raw way and this makes us feel the lack of intentionality in the construction of the work. Impulsiveness in artistic realization is a cornerstone of the artist's own production. The works exhibited by Altuntaş lead the viewer to experience dizzying emotions, the enchantment with which they look at them is mixed with a sense of agitation due to the strong personality of the works that express dynamism, movement, tension, but also vivacity, exuberance and excitement.

Art Curator Martina Viesti

Elif Altuntaş

DEEP

Elif Altuntaş

FRESHA

Elif Altuntaş

REVEL

Elif Altuntaş

SHALLOW UP

Elina Lammervo “With a work of art you must have the behavior you have with a great gentleman: stand in front of it and wait for it to tell us something” (Arthur Schopenhauer)

She breathes, she is alive, she is a woman in the flesh, yet so fragile, almost ethereal, she seems to be able to escape the touch, her body seems to be able to be pierced by our invisible body, in a corner of the canvas. Yet, she breathes, the breath is as obvious as when our hot body breathes on a cold winter day. These are the opposing feelings observing the work of Elina, emotions that awaken in us real painful feelings, a small canvas that explodes inside the viewer. We are alive, we are part of a universe that sees us, we walk, we act, but sometimes our work is so invisible, we feel alone in the midst of a universe of human beings. The title of the work is emblematic: To Be, which reminds us of the great Shackspearian dilemma, Being or not Being, this is the dilemma. Touches of color and nuanced lines build the figure, almost a bas-relief that comes out of the material to show itself. The closed eyes project on the soul of the protagonist and invite us to dig into our ego, the facial features only mentioned allow us to identify with the work. The woman represented could be each one of us, and here a strong empathy is created between the viewer and the canvas, which immediately makes itself alive.

Art Curator Erika Gravante

Elina Lammervo

To Be

Elina Melgin “Art is eternal for it reveals the inner landscape which is the soul of man.” (Martha Graham)

The art by Elina Melgin, a contemporary Finnish artist, is characterized by the delicate nuances that spread out, taking over the space of her canvases. Soft colours blend into one another, creating landscapes with a strong emotional charge and allowing the eye to lose itself in impalpable atmospheres and wander freely in search of a horizon. In these oil paintings, the brushstrokes seem to be absent and the colours blend delicately and elegantly, describing mists in which the light refracts, dissolving all the forms. Elina Melgin's paintings echo the art of William Turner, particularly that of his mature period, where the almost total abstraction of the subject becomes a pure luminous experience. Interior landscapes appear before our eyes, in which emotion is released majestically through the evaporation of colour. In 'Past World', a silhouette in nineteenth-century clothing emerges from the sea of fog. Slight details allow us to glimpse a female figure with her back to us, while her raised left arm conveys the search for a distant place and a sense of loss and disorientation. The uncertainty of a past that sees no future is shown in all its strength, wrapped in an orange mist with light blue veils. The choice of this warm colour, however, places confidence in the future, even if unknown and unpredictable, because it is a symbol of wisdom, balance and harmony. Elina Melgin's work lies at the heart of an investigation into the inner landscape. That infinite expanse of complex sensations and emotions come to life in the nuances of her paintings, in those perturbing mists that are nothing more than clear sensations.

Art Curator Francesca Brunello

Elina Melgin

Gorge

Elina Melgin

Past world

Elina Melgin

Chinese story

Elisa Chana Cecchetti “All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.” (Susan Sontag)

A continuous alternation of emotions, a throbbing flow of memories, in a whirlwind of vibrant colours.

Subtle brushstrokes, seem to be petals dancing in the summer air. The art by Elisa Chana Cecchetti, an artist from Rome, who currently lives and works in Tokyo, immediately shows itself as a collection of emotions, with an open bridge to the past. In fact, she gladly accepts the teachings of the great masters of Impressionism, in particular, the gestural sign of the brushstrokes, transforming her works into abstract compositions, where colour becomes pure narration, the expressive medium par excellence. It becomes her own skin, in the desire to enclose the emotions and sensations that are so fleeting and changeable, in the instant of the work of art, which will remain forever.

Elisa Chana Cecchetti

In "Infinite Possibilities", patches of colour move around resting on each other, creating new magnetic colours. The vibrancy of the colours is predominant and the serenity they convey, even if shaken by strong vibrations, leaves the work giving mainly a feeling of harmony. The arrangement of the colours is not casual. The shape brings to mind a tropical cyclone seen from above, whose blue eye here takes on a meaning of spiritual balance. Elisa Chana Cecchetti's art is a memory of moments and emotions. Her works are like photographs of moments that one does not want to forget. Elisa works like a photojournalist, documenting the history of feelings and immortalizing them on canvas, offering the viewer an immersive and stimulating vision.

Art Curator Francesca Brunello

Elisa Chana Cecchetti

Infinite Possibilities

Elisa Chana Cecchetti

Manifesto

Elisa Rossi “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” (Carl Jung)

A long journey into the oneiric dimension, through faces and shapes, which intersect with each other, generating further visions. Otherworldly landscapes, where unpredictable lines unfold before our eyes, surrounding pastel-coloured backgrounds that fade into one another. This is the art by Elisa Rossi, a contemporary artist of Italian origin, currently based in Los Angeles. Her works lead the viewer to a new world, opening the gaze to an inner universe, in which everything takes on unexpected forms. Elisa Rossi, appropriates a figurative language, which sees strong connections with the surrealist movement. The artist's main source of investigation is in fact the subconscious, whose effect she wants to capture on the reality but, above all, on artistic expression.

Elisa Rossi

In "L'Aviatrice", the canvas becomes a space free from constraints, released from the rules of reason and logic and on which apparently unrecognizable figures come to life. It is a work that forces the observer to deepen his vision, analysing every detail and dragging him into a distant world, where the senses abandon reality. Painted in the moonlight, "The Aviator" shows itself in azure-bluish colours, bringing with it the characteristic light emitted by this magnificent and mysterious satellite. Elusive faces seem like masks suspended in the void of chaos. This work by Elisa Rossi becomes the place where the unknown of space merges with that of the unconscious, blending into a magnificent interior landscape of sublime vibrations.

A superlative analysis of ancestral echoes, which connect life in its becoming, composing and deconstructing imaginaries of inconstant forms.

Art Curator Francesca Brunello

Elisa Rossi

L'Aviatrice

Elisa Rossi

Persephone Leaves The Underworld

Elisabeth López

Elisabeth Lopez obtained a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona as well as a Master’s Degree at Metafora School. She was drawn to the healing properties of art therapy, elevating the visual experiences of her artworks through personal circumstances. Her works are mysterious and continuously transforming, much like the fantastical world of the subconscious is ever-evolving: Lopez’s sensory paintings evoke movement and energy which accentuate the process, rather than the end result, of each artwork. In “Fly high”, the Lopez's artwork presented at “Coming out” exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, a naked woman, represented from behind, sits on the ground: her bent back and the curled position of her feet suggest her weakness and fragility. She can almost barely support herself on her arms, overloaded by her weight. But as if by magic, seven beautiful white doves, a symbol of peace and purity, emerge from her back flying up to reach the blue sky. “Fly high”, therefore, wants us to remind that despire the adversities and the difficulty we sometimes have in finding our person and identity, there is always a possibility of redemption and hope to transform ourselves into something better: we only need to believe in ourselves and in our abilities.

Evasion and freedom are the cornerstones of my technique, dynamically drawing in spectators.

(Elisabeth López)

Art Curator Matilde Della Pina

Elisabeth López

Fly high

Elise Craig “Art is the expression of those beauties and emotions that stir the human soul.”

(Howard Pyle)

Elise Craig is a self-taught fluid artist from Texas, who discovered the passion for art only in 2019. She works on both large and small canvas, preferring the use of alcohol ink and often employing small golden metal inserts, which she adds to the details of the subjects represented in her pieces. Her production is mainly characterized by the employment of a diverse palette of bright and vibrant colours. In fact, with her art, she tries to convey an aura of happiness and joy to evoke these feelings in the viewers and to put them in a good mood. In her artworks, Elise creates an explosion of colours, from the darkest to the lightest, which comes to life thanks to the most varied shapes: she largely prefers the reproduction of organic patterns, layers, rings, earth strata, geodes, the cosmos, and all things luminous with a touch of magic. The following pieces were inspired by the concept of the “Coming out” exhibition, each artwork fully reflects the artist, her creativity and her vision of the world.

Art Curator Alessia Logatto

Elise Craig

Efflux

Elise Craig

Panoply

Elise Craig

Zenith

Elizabeth Bordner

Elizabeth Bordner in her artworks mixes the study of the figure and anatomy with the intrigue of her personal abstract language. The artist paints using oils on canvas but also wood and paper, combining light and primary colors with black in such a way as to order rather than separate, giving a translucent quality to the composition.

Elizabeth at the "Coming Out" International Art Exhibition exhibits three beautiful paintings from the 2005-2015 "Growth of Self" series. All three artworks depict naked women, in their most intimate and private moment. Her creations involve a meticulous positioning of lines and shapes that create an exploratory and alternative space, allowing the viewer to float within the canvas in search of and continually searching for details, but also in search of themselves. With an innate sense of Cubism that has evolved into a borderline illusion, color and line are the energy that drives the artist's abstract expressionism. “Woman # 3” depicts a relaxed woman enjoying the tranquility of that moment. The bright colors have been applied decisively on the canvas while the black color emphasizes the silhouette of the figure. "Woman # 7" is instead depicted from behind. Here in the black contours of the woman's silhouette they are even more marked, giving greater rigidity to the position of the figure. The last "Woman # 11" is also depicted from behind, lying down but with her bust raised supported by her arms.

Here the black outlines become more delicate, transmitting a certain order and serenity to the viewer. With provocative depth, Elizabeth creates figures; the human body, a pear, an onion, and an unknown shape, each takes a unique movement. The figures hide, dance, and never elude the theme of tactility, pleasant and interesting for the senses. It is in fact this very tactile emotion that stimulates Elizabeth Bordner to create.

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."

(Edgar Degas)

Art Curator Francesca Campanelli

Elizabeth Bordner

Woman # 3

Elizabeth Bordner

Woman # 7

Elizabeth Bordner

Woman # 11

Elke Jungbluth

German artist Elke Jungbluth, following her mathematical and architectural studies, decided to follow the path of art and express her creative vein through it. Her interest in geometric shapes is evident in her artistic production that pushes her to create her own "movement" style. Spontaneity is the protagonist in the works of Elke, the artist in fact follows completely her instinct, creating continuous circular lines of different colors thus composing unique and dynamic paintings. On the occasion of the "Coming Out” exhibition, organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in Milan, Elke Jungbluth presents "Movement 20201130" and "Zen Movement”. The two paintings, both square in shape, have the same pattern typical of Elke’s unique style. The second, titled "Zen Movement", conveys a more relaxed feeling than the previous ones exhibited by the artist at the gallery. The feeling is mainly dictated by the large amount of white lines that lighten the composition and create an optical effect that favors the look to travel between the colors.

Elke Jungbluth

"Movement 20201130" is more dynamic and here blue dominates the other colors. Elke’s works leave a lot of room for imagination and converge a strong energy charge. The viewers are in fact overwhelmed by bright colors and random lines, and are so led to reflection. Randomness is certainly an important theme in this art series by Elke. Randomness understood as chaos. Understood as the non premeditation and therefore leads to question what life is: a set of fatalities and choices dictated by chance. Humanity is therefore led to accept her fragility and impotence in the face of destiny. On the other hand, some may recognize in Elke’s paintings many small eyes, similar to the Greek eye or Nazar for its composition. The Greek eye is used in various cultures as a protector from evil and it is perhaps for this reason that these works confer a sense of protection and peace.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Elke Jungbluth

Movement 20201130

Elke Jungbluth

Zen Movement

Emelie Dahl “The future of art is in front of a woman.” (Amedeo Modigliani)

The Swedish artist Emelie Dahl has a passion for the link that can be created between art and nature. In her works, she brings out both this peculiarity and emotions through the skillful use of color to represent the image on the painting surface. Exactly as in the artworks presented at the “Coming Out” exhibition at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, in “Flowers and Fire” Emelie emphasizes the representation of the portrait, enhancing both the beauty and the eternal youth of the girl depicted. By being placed almost in profile, she seems to turn her gaze towards the viewer, inviting him/her to take part into her thoughts and feelings. Every element is depicted in the smallest detail: her bright eyes are full of joy and passion; her red mouth lingers slightly in a sweet smile that enchants the viewer; her entire face is illuminated, as if it was struck by a beam of light, a kind of burning flame that comes from her soul. She is a mysterious girl, a lover of life and nature, as suggested by the flowers in her hair and those placed beside her. The choice of certain shades such as pink, blue and gold make the woman's magnetic gaze even more obvious, just like in the famous painting “La Gioconda” of Leonardo da Vinci. In contrast, the white in the background and the black of the thick hair, both provide depth to the many elements and an additional luminosity, which radiates the entire canvas. Charm and carefree youthfulness are a visual poem full of emotion, capable of capturing the viewer's inner self. The artwork conveys a sense of perfection thanks to the careful composition of every part of the painting, from the face to the background. Emelie Dahl expresses her whole artistic and aesthetic conception, in which the understanding of the work itself becomes immediate and empathy is thus facilitated. By harmonizing the combination of lines and the bold symphony of colors, the artist makes the intimate humanity of the girl exciting, as well as extremely charming and elegant.

“Woman is poetry. Woman is love. Woman is life.” (Charles Bukowski)

Art Curator Alessia Perone

Emelie Dahl

Flowers and Fire

Emelly Velasco Gold, liquid light that radiates its light, its energy. Gold has always been the symbol of aesthetics and beauty, its brilliant light has adorned and decorated every form of beauty in the history of human creativity. This color is associated with sunlight, a light capable of transmitting heat, movement, strength: gold beats with energy that opens outwards, in a continuous expansion. Gold in the history of humanity and the history of art has always symbolized the sacred, it is itself the substance of the gods, of the supernatural virtues. And gold is the undisputed protagonist of the works presented by the artist Emelly Velasco. The artist, through her art, always tries to convey the vital energy that also distinguishes her as a person. Emelly transports herself to the canvas. Her works are the perfect expression of the concept of the exhibition, because Emelly is free from the constraints imposed by the normality of today's society and explodes her desire to always express herself and her deepest self, without filters, on the her canvases. Her works are the mirror of her identity, they are the place, the means through which Emelly dialogues with the rest of the world. Looking at the works presented here "Liquid Gold Arpa" and "Liquid Gold Chelo", the energy emanating from gold is overwhelming: these works fill everything around them with light and vitality. Observing them it seems to us that we can enter a celestial reality.

Emelly's dynamic and incisive brushstrokes also overwhelm us and capture us in the vortex of energy. Finally, in front of the work entitled "Tense", which is part of the "Encuentro de dos almas" collection of works, we really witness a meeting between two souls: the delicacy of color and the incisiveness of the textures. Here the colors and lines seem to intone a polyphonic melody, an alternation of different voices, but so in harmony that we cannot take our eyes off her, she captures us and drags us into her song, like the sirens for Odysseus. Every little detail manages to create, as the title itself suggests, a sort of tension that tempts us to discover and observe it more and more.

Art Curator Silvia Grassi

Emelly Velasco

Liquid Gold Arpa

Emelly Velasco

Liquid Gold Chelo

Emelly Velasco

Tense

Emilie Gosselin "If you possess enought courage to speak out what you are, you will find you are not alone."

(Richard Wright)

Emilie Gosselin is a French Canadian artist, she comes from the beautiful town of Quebec city. Daughter of an artist, she approached art after working as a make-up artist and following a training as a graphic artist. The canvas becomes the physical place where to reproduce and give shape to the inner emotions and sensations, difficult to bring out in everyday life. Thanks to painting, Emilie tackles issues of social importance, as evident in the work created specifically for the exhibition and entitled Coming Out. Often, too often, society requires us to appear and be as the common feeling wants us to be, following rules not codified, but silently accepted by all. We show ourselves not in our real clothes, but as in a black and white photograph. We all know how beautiful they look at first sight, sometimes better than those in color, just because they can hide some defects and touch memories of the past. Yet they always hide some details such as the colors of the clothes we wear or the lipstick we wear, or even the colors of the landscape behind us. In everyday life we often fall into the temptation to hide so as not to be judged, to be perfect in the eyes of those who look at us, to please others more than ourselves.

Emilie Gosselin

Emilie, with her abstract work, invites us to bring out our colors, to be more than appear, to make coming out because it is in diversity that real life is hidden and in the acceptance of it that it can appear normal and every color will be beautiful beyond the meaning that it brings with it and can be embraced beyond the dominant thought. Torment introduces us to a woman with unclear contours. The feeling that the observer feels is the same as when the head is filled with thoughts, you can no longer rationalize and seems to burst. The silent desire is to be able to pour your inner torments, your most secret fears, on a shoulder to lean on with the certainty that sustains us. Instead, often the only way out is the scream, a visceral, inner scream, almost a Munch screem, a suffocation of pain that allows us to bear the weight and continue to walk. This piece makes us want to open up, to pull out the emotions that tear us to be able to be more aware of others and themselves.

Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo

Emilie Gosselin

Coming Out

Emilie Gosselin

Torment

Emily McKenzie “One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken.” (Lev Tolstoj)

Emily Mckenzie is an artist based in Melbourne whose interests in the economy and the environment are also reflected in the works she paints. Her creations speak to the viewers: they want to represent a starting point to reflect on the world around us and not remain indifferent to what is happening around us. "Wheel of Progress" was painted with the acrylic technique and was made based on thoughts during the period of Covid19, on the recovery after such a difficult moment, on the economy and its movements, on the environmental tension, about how everything is changing and where we are heading. A smiling girl sitting on a bench is surrounded by nature: next to her a bird has alighted and around her we see green meadows and flowering trees. In contrast to nature, in the background, two cars are traveling on the road. The grey of the smog is in contrast with the bright and vibrant colours of nature, including the yellow, green, and blue of the clear sky. For Emily, art must not only have the purpose of being beautiful, but it must have much more besides that: it must conceal a strong meaning, it must communicate important messages, it must be a means through which the artist manages to establish a relationship with the viewer. Emily is surrounded by nature and nature lives in her art.

Art Curator Camilla Gilardi

Emily McKenzie

Wheel of Progress

Emma Rosqvist “My artworks become a meeting place, where the viewer meets him/herself in vulnerability.”

(Emma Rosqvist)

Emma Rosqvist exposes a work with a deep and intense meaning in the exhibition “Coming Out” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery. Through “Past in Present” the artist draws inspiration not only from her surroundings, such as nature, but also from her own feelings and moods, with the aim of understanding and imprinting the complexity of the humanity’s condition on the canvas. In fact, through this painting is depicted the world’s essence: this is a representation of life itself, as the act of looking out of the window implies the time passing by, as well as immutability which is so only in appearance. All these characteristics highlighted and made sublime

by Emma's artistic touch, expressed through an exceptional pictorial quality, make the artist focus on a symbolic analysis. Her work is the result of an inner meditation, in search of a balance to be reconstructed; in a sublimation of the everyday life that reflects eternity. She also focuses on that sense of depth and solidity through the staging of extremely delicate tonal variations, which allow her to achieve a pictorial balance. By exploring the movements of the universe and the spirit of each human being, Emma structures the canvas on a multidimensionality, helping the viewer to feel their presence within the work and to feel the strength and vitality that comes from it. The representation of this door/window open to a new world creates a connection among perception, meditation and knowledge, inviting the viewer to feel art as an opportunity to investigate the complex relationship between man and the universe.

“Every soul is a living mirror of the universe.” (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz)

Art Curator Alessia Perone

Emma Rosqvist

Past In Present

Erica Bren "The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage." (Thucydides)

Erica Bren is a talented artist living in Idaho. Always passionate about art, she finds her ideal dimension in charcoal drawing techniques, attracted by the almost “primitive” essence of charcoal.

The soft and shades of the gray scale delineate the figures with an algid and refined elegance, inspired by the artist's love for the Rococo style. Erica's art aspires to be instinctive, evocative and powerful to speak directly to the emotionality of whoever looks at it. The muted atmospheres created by the alternation between black, gray and white are inspired by the glitter of the snow illuminated by the sun, and we can also admire them in the work presented by the artist for Coming Out, “Gray”. The painting is made with charcoal, oil, and acrylic, and represents one of Erica's favorite subjects, a horse. The animal, painted while it is walking, is skilfully crossed by all the nuances of gray, starting from the majestic white mane, to the ashen body and to the legs of the color of iron. The refinement of the essential lines outlines the horse of an ideal purity, and at the same time enhances the power of the animal, as a synonym of an indomitable freedom, which knows no compromises, while the head gently reclined seems on the point of welcoming an invisible caress, full of joy. The artist almost seems to use the figure of the horse - at the same time noble and strong - as a metaphor to allude to her inner and spiritual world, free from the constraints, ready to venture courageously towards her own aspirations, inspiring the observer to do the same.

The horse thus becomes Erica's personal “manifesto” of art, a passionate invitation to embrace existence with audacity and indomitable courage.

Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti

Erica Bren

Grey

Erick Mota “To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.” (Oscar Wilde)

An artist, even before he became so, is a human being, with all the resulting experiences. The painter Erick Mota researches in those who preceded him his own identity – human, cultural and artistic. He recognizes in artists as Jean-Michel Basquiat or Paul Cezanne the middlemen between Art and the human world. Identifying himself with these personalities, the painter Erick Mota finds his own artistic path in a type of art that aims to be a mirror not only of the artist himself but also of the society. This exploration is not limited to an investigation of the real and known world; the artist allows himself to navigate in an inner and inhibited atmosphere. To portray different daily situations, in an accurate representation of reality, Erick Mota makes use of his psychological knowledge. The artist feels free to find a representative way to give his personal view of what surrounds him, vinified by using oil and paper, simple colours and powerful combination of elements. So, the ultimate objective of the painter is the creation of canvas that can transform the personal experiences of Erick Mota in portrayals of the community, suggesting a reading key but leaving to the audience the chance to play what the paintings are conveying

Art Curator Manuela Fratar

Erick Mota

Love Yourself

Esaí Alfredo “The portrait I do best is of the person I know best.” (Nadar)

Nocturnal worlds of great visual impact. Intimate investigations, in which solitude takes on an important meaning, in order to tell the story of listening to oneself. Moments of cosmic silence, where voices and sounds echo far away. The art of Esaí Alfredo, a contemporary artist from Puerto Rico, opens up the observer to landscapes of pure sensory experience, projecting the body towards universes made of planets and stars and lifting it off the ground, in a moment of total mysticism. In "Untitled", an oil on canvas painting and self-portrait of the artist, Esaí Alfredo appears captured in an instant of deep contemplation. His gaze is turned towards consciousness, his hands clasped on his chest. A small constellation hovers in the air, telling of the perfect astral alignment between himself and the universe. In the background, a distant city bathes the starry sky in an orange light, fading to black, opening up to the eyes a vision of small shining points of light. Even the choice of colours is not casual. The painting is in fact characterized by the presence of the complementary colours blue and orange. The first, in its nuances, has been used to describe the artist's body, while the second depicts the city in the background. Both are interesting colours from a symbolic point of view: blue is the colour of spirituality and inner balance, often used in the representation of sacred figures; orange refers to creativity, wealth and sensuality. Appropriating a figurative language, at the same time linked to a surrealist aesthetic, Esaí Alfredo, wraps his works in the night, a mysterious but also deeply intimate time. In particular, "Untitled" becomes the story of the self par excellence. A profound self, long hidden, but that now wants to show itself for what it is, in its simple truth, involving the observer in the same spiritual state.

Art Curator Francesca Brunello

Esaí Alfredo

Untitled

Fabio Borg "Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley.”

(Theodore Roethke) The colours blend into each other, letting the textures of the canvas emerge to accompany the vision. Dynamic lines describe abstract landscapes, where the reference to reality seems to vanish as the eye enters the painting. Details, reminiscent of places from distant dreams, in which everything fades away, becoming indefinite and almost unrecognisable. The artworks by the contemporary artist from Malta, Fabio Borg, are journeys into the consciousness, vague scenarios, in which aesthetics become a tool to tell the soul of the world. The undefined sceneries are reminiscent of visions from a window wet with rain, on whose drops the light spreads, creating magnificent visual effects. In the painting “Spring Is Approaching”, a centrally placed path seems to invite us. At the sides, the wild nature rises up almost covering the view of the sky. Dark colours give way to electric reds, resembling burning flames. The reawakening of a slumbering Nature, now luxuriant and powerful. Fabio Borg's work is also characterized by a photographic beauty, the effects of which seem to be those of film burns. The vertical bands themselves are reminiscent of old photographs worn down by the passage of time, where the distorted colours give the viewer a magical, distant atmosphere. The impression that many frames have been placed side by side in order to tell the whole story of what has been experienced. A set of elements combine to draw the author's unconscious profile, in whose works the subject remains almost unchanged.

Nature is powerful and flourishing and is always accompanied by a path running through it, defining man's presence indirectly and making it universal to identify with the painting. A path, a direction that each of us can take or has already taken. The road of life continues mysteriously, with infinite possible horizons to discover, accompanied by Nature, from which we all come and to which we are all destined to return.

Art Curator Francesca Brunello

Fabio Borg

Spring Is Approaching

Felicitas Engel

The artwork that the young Felicitas Engel has decided to present at the International Exhibition of contemporary Art entitled "Coming Out", organized by the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery of Milan, is called "Aureo" and is part of the "Relics of the future" series. Apparently, we see a detailed skeleton, crowned by a bright yellow double horn, on which our gaze focuses on the immediate moment in which we meet this work, which most likely takes its title from the same component. It combines the shape of an unknown futuristic species with the faded look of an old relic, used with strong and extremely distinctive colours such as purple and yellow, on an emerald, green background, struck by lighter and darker brushstrokes that give a magical and mysterious sense to the whole context. All of this symbolizes the intersection where future and past come together to make this being eternal and show that everything, past and future, happens at the same time. There is no difference between the past and the future, which are both realities experienced by someone. As Minkowski's mathematical model of spacetime teaches us, it is something that can be described as a whole and valid forever. Nothing more than today can feed us a similar reflection, with the historical period we are facing and the difficult health conditions, from which we seem to be re-emerging with difficulty. It is a graft of darkness, a dark but profound message which, with its emotionality, leads us to reflect and travel in our minds for free interpretation. In this artwork, art, literature, and fiction are intertwined and merged, giving life to an oil on canvas that springs in us different contrasting emotions.

Art Curator Carola Antonioli

Felicitas Engel

Aureo

Fernanda Cervera

Fernanda Cervera is a Mexican artist who loves creativity in all its forms. Two of her greatest passions are playing the piano and painting, two forms of expression through which the artist expresses herself and her vision of the world. Drawing inspiration from Marc Rothko's aphorism ('I am not an abstractionist. I am not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else.

I am interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on'), Fernanda uses art to express feelings and experiences. The abstract shapes that make up her works favor warm shades of brown and beige, which evoke in the viewer a sense of harmony and inner balance. Through the use of these color ranges and the emphasis on light, the artist tells the story of the journey each of us takes in search of our own inner peace. According to Fernanda, this journey moves from darkness, which far from being denied is recognized and appreciated as an essential key to transformation, and finally arrives at harmony.

The choice of colors in her canvases reflects this conception. That is why in her works warm tones are often juxtaposed with colder color ranges such as gray or sharper ones such as black, as happens in the two canvases of the 'Bemoles' series (Bemol and Bemol Off Black). Here the warm and reassuring shades of beige are in fact juxtaposed with small areas of black that creep into the composition, altering its balance and suggesting the idea of transformation. The third work presented by Fernanda, You, Me And The Sea, is a tribute to the ocean. The artist once again proposes a contrast, managing to make the viewer perceive both the majesty and the therapeutic power of the sea. All of Fernanda's works have the particularity of showing the viewer only one of the possible interpretations without providing a single key to interpretation. The artist likes to leave it up to the viewer to provide a subjective and definitive interpretation of the works in front of him, thus demonstrating that she fully embraces the ideal of freedom from imposed conditioning that lies at the heart of this exhibition.

Art Curator Marta Graziano

Fernanda Cervera

Bemol

Fernanda Cervera

Bemol Off Black

Fernanda Cervera

You, Me And The Sea

Fina Ferrara "It's not important what you do, but is important the mental state you have when you do it" (Marina Abramovic) Fina Ferrara is a mexican performer and video artist her work is a dance between action and poetry. The antibiotic Anisomicine inhibits the synthesis of proteins and DNA, which is necessaryto create long term memories. The injection of anisomycin into the hippocampus has been proposed to eliminate selective memories. We carry our luggage full of stories. Some stories we wish to never recall again. Could anisomicine be the antidote for this ill? In this video performance the artist shows a figure that is completely in contrast with the surrounding environment and the atmosphere it emanates makes everything seem to be part of a fairy tale or a dream. It could all be part of a childish thought or memory. The effort of walking on dangerous terrain carrying all our baggage is connected to the artist's desire to emerge in all its essence. Physicality is everything in Ferrara's work, as everything reaches its maximum expression through the theatricality of the body.

Artistic performance is an extremely strong means of making art using one's body to tell a story. In this case the story is very clear, but also very veiled by incredible contrasts and hidden messages. The metaphor of baggage as a whole of everything that concerns the life of each of us is definitely the central part of everything, which includes those who are dreams, hopes, projects and the most intimate and hidden part.

The desire to escape is very evident in every jerky and messy gesture of a woman completely out of her context, a bit like how we feel when we face the new things that are placed in front of us in everyday life and at work. The feeling of a dream persists constantly in the artistic performances of Fina Ferrara who manages to convey and represent very strong themes thanks to her strength and physicality. Her great experience and her determination envelop the viewer and captivate the public who is pervaded by the pressing and very lively way of the art available to her. Thanks to her performance, the artist leaves his comfort zone and the real "coming out" is the realization of being able to be anyone and anything thanks to art which is an integral part of Ferrara's life. Getting out of one's self is the main task of the artist to become part of the universe and of life itself, remaining coherent with one's soul and one's being, making art the means of one's personal fulfillment.

This is her job and her mission is to show herself to us through beauty.

Art Curator Letizia Perrieri

Fina Ferrara

ANISOMICINA

Flavio Muñoz Domingo “Normality is a paved road: it’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.”

(Vincent van Gogh) Originality, no pre-established scheme, recognizable style among many others: these are the Flavio Muñoz Domingo’s distinguishing marks, an artist based in the Principality of Andorra. His strong and inventive personality is reflected in his magical works: curious characters represented in the smallest details come to life thanks to expressive faces that look at us and want to tell us their story. “Romina, Charlotte and Renata walking down the Serrano street on Tuesday afternoon” was made in 2020 on cotton canvas, with wooden frame. It is a work made with mixed media: acrylic, ink, with pearl and strass applications. The protagonists are, as the title itself says, Romina, Charlotte, and Renata: full lips, big eyes and long lashes characterize their faces whose eyes turn their gaze to the viewer. The three are portrayed with fashionable dresses with a particular style during a pleasant walk on a Tuesday afternoon: patterned shirts, dresses with applied flowers and feathers, large glasses, and designer hats. What will they hide behind this very particular aspect? Flavio wants to invite us to appreciate his works both from an aesthetic and a semantic point of view, giving a free interpretation to the painting. The artist wants us to reflect on important and current issues including: how much does appearance count in the end?

How much a hasty judgment can lead to a wrong analysis? Do not be afraid of the judgment of others, but at the same time do not be the first to point the at others the finger. Everyone has the enormous gift of freedom: Flavio feels free, free to create original and surprising works that can leave a trace in the minds and hearts of those who look at them.

Art Curator Camilla Gilardi

Flavio Muñoz Domingo

Romina, Charlotte and Renata walking down the Serrano street on Tuesday afternoon

Flor de Ceres Rabaçal “I had to experience how someone beside me suddenly falls over and is dead and the bullet has hit him squarely. I had to experience that quite directly. I wanted it (…) I have to experience all the ghastly, bottomless depths of life for myself; it's for that reason that I went to war (WW1), and for that reason I volunteered”. (Otto Dix)

An obscure process to remember ephemerality. M.A.D.S. Art gallery presents Flor de Ceres Rabaçal a Portuguese printmaker and illustrator with her artwork “Life’s blood” created with an experimental etching approach using shoe wax varnish on a zinc plate. The macabre comes as an important presence due to the artist’s appeal to grotesque and passionate events such as death. The artwork stages the moment in which someone acknowledges a presence and wants to be part of it by trying to grab it, to grasp it… to participate with it. It is not intended as a grim occurrence, it is intended as an act of impulse, when you feel the urge to be part of an obscure memento. The vanitas symbol is hijacked by the memento mori between the hands, as if the artist had in mind the engravings from the Ars moriendi. Otto Dix’s works represent the anguish and turmoil of his time associated with the German expressionism translating his experiences in his prints and paintings, being the prints more accurate to what he felt because of the process implied to make it. Flor de Ceres developed a grotesque and temporarily portrayal of what she “witnessed”. Flor becomes unaware of temporality and tries at the same time to constrain it and to portray it between two hands that are being involved in a new dimension of reality created to deal with the grotesque. Käthe Kollwitz, associated with the German expressionist movement, in “The Volunteers from War” and in the etching “Woman with dead child” depicts the moment of realization when you are in front of the ephemeral passion which is death and the moment when at the same time you are feeling so many emotions and not being able to look away. Is a passion for the obscure…for the grotesque. “Life’s blood” is an offer, part of the ritual of catching a presence, hold it, accept it and release it.

“I'm very into representing, you know, kind of grotesque things like death, and what comes with death and what comes before death. (…) It’s just that there's something very aesthetically pleasing about death, (…) You’re witnessing something that's incredibly brutal, and you kind of want to be a part of it. At the time I was thinking… actually touching it and being like…with it, you know what I mean?”. (Flor de Ceres Rabaçal)

Art Curator Karla Peralta Málaga

Flor de Ceres Rabaçal

Life's Blood

Frenckie Chegrani Franckie Chegrani, painter, has been producing a very autobiographical pictorial work for 35 years. His ethics led him to work to support his family but art is his real life. Despite the disease that cruelly affects him since 2014, his creative strength does not dry up. His formats increase, he does everything himself, starting with making his colors, he stretches his canvases.He begins with acrylics in contact with artists from the Beaux-Arts de Paris met while visiting the school. Later, he will exhibit with these artists who appreciate his so inventive art. He learns by dint of reading, watching films and visiting many exhibitions.His first works show his family attachment. His loved ones are portrayed with emotion and he transcribes, embodies by rich graphic inventions, the contexts, lived episodes which are important to him.In 2020, his painting finds a new form. He widens the subject and from a kind of intimacy, he passes to the universal. He explodes what was "inscribed", "posed", the dazzling gesture gets involved. His painting becomes galaxies, his characters evolve in a gigantic space in All-over. Franckie Chegrani attacks head-on. Figuration - abstraction are completely married. The large and the detail combine. It takes time for the viewer to grasp everything, caught up in a whirlwind. There are the colors which palpitate on black backgrounds, they are fluorescent, colors of ember. Everything lights up and becomes autonomous in superimpositions, transparencies (by glazing), it becomes symphonic, jubilant.

“Franckie Chegrani's art shows us everything with an amazing frankness: illness, love, sexuality, inner fights, resistances, reflections and art in incomparable truth of humanity! Art in its absolute transcendence, essential to life.”

Xavier Fatou (artist)

Art Curator Letizia Vuotto

Franckie Chegrani

Pas de trace lumineuse

Franckie Chegrani

Acceptation libre

Franckie Chegrani

La condition de l'autre

Gabriele Dallmann “Finding without seeking – that is the secret of art”. (Pablo Picasso)

Gabriele Dallmann is an artist who lives and works in the South of Germany. After studying at the Hamburger Kunst Akademie (The Hamburg Art Academy) her works were exhibited in several locations such as the Pop Up Gallery in Lörrach; furthermore, she now also enjoys leading a team of artists. She draws inspiration from all the people that she encounters and from current topics of interest, as well as social and political issues of the moment. In the artwork “Hopeful” we are able to see the figure of a woman, who is staring at the viewer with an intense gaze in her eyes. The artist wants the viewer to perceive that “she knows her identity: daughter of the king”: we are standing in front of a brave and powerful woman, who looks at the future with confidence. This is well expressed by the colors of the artwork, which are vivid and vibrant, also because of the use of copperplate. In the painting, the viewer is brought immediately to feel a connection with the mysterious woman and the strength she emanates. The artist shows us her identity in this “Coming out”, by using her art as a mirror: her goal is precisely to make whoever observes the artwork rediscover his/her inner self.

Art Curator Maddalena Corbini

Gabriele Dallmann

Hopeful

Guillermo Barreto “The biggest breakthrough I’ve made a few days after counting 65 is that I can’t waste mytime doing things I don’t want to do anymore” (Jep, La grande bellezza)

Barreto’s career in the art world began as an illustrator of children’s books, newspapers and storyboards, a passion he inherited from his father, a cartoonist. The influences of his training are evident in the works on exhibition, where the illustrative trait, the caricature not only of faces, but also of objects, become protagonists, along with the materiality of painting. The use of contrasting colors, the superimposition of images, the buildings that come to life, the lightness of the representation do not distract from the satirical intent of the work, on the contrary, they emphasize it. Social criticism is evident and if on the one hand the works capture us thanks to their representative enjoyment, a closer look invites us to reflection. The observer is at a comedy show, on a captivating theatrical scenography, but as in the best ancient Greek comedies, the smile that the works induce is a bitter smile, which digs into the depths of our soul and invites us to make coming out, out of the box that a standardized society imposes on us.

Guillermo Barreto

Pleasures in a deconstruction of the figures and with a mixture of man and architecture almost picassian, leads us step by step through the pleasures of life, but the smile that accompanies the sweet life, is flanked by the narrow teeth, to the hollow faces, with hands stretched out almost in request of help, that the man carelessly does not see, but so evident that even the palace can only remain stunned. Man sees, but he is blind to reality; the palace has no soul, no spirit, yet he sees very well and can only open his eyes and clench his teeth. The mind pushes to compare the work on display to the initial scene of The Great Beauty, a film of strong reflection on wealth and pleasure. The richness or better the absence of economic security is the theme of reflection of the second work exhibited in the exhibition, Precario. In a world increasingly divided between large assets and population on the threshold of poverty, the lack of work, the difficulty of creating economic independence, stability not only monetary, but also intellectual, is the order of the day. With manual skill and communicating also through the choice and combination of colors, Guillermo pushes us to deep reflections on ourselves and on future perspectives in an increasingly radicalized world.

Art Curator Erika Gravante

Guillermo Barreto

Pleasures

Guillermo Barreto

Precario

Gyuri Heart "Art is coming face to face with yourself." (Jackson Pollock)

Gyuri Heart is a young French artist, who has always, since her childhood, felt the need to express her own emotions through Art. Only recently, after she had lived for one year in Korea, she has been able to rediscover herself and to understand her true aim in life. She took the courage to turn her life upside down and to rebirth as an artist under the Korean name “Gyuri”. As a self-taught artist she doesn’t follow any specific artistic movement, but she mainly uses her artworks to tell her own story and reveal the inner world hidden inside of her. Her paintings are the reflection of her soul, but also a symbol bringing a message of support for feminity and feminism. The artwork presented at M.A.D.S Art Gallery during “Coming Out” Exhibition belongs to her series of paintings portraying feminine figures and it is titled “Déesse des Fleures”, literally the Goddess of Flowers. The title identifies the subject of the painting: a naked woman covered and wrapped in the foliage of her thick hair intertwined with varied types of colourful flowers. It gives the appearance of the flowers straight spawning from the Goddess herself, becoming integral part of her body and essence.

The posture in which she has been depicted and the peaceable look on her face, heightened by the eyes closure, confer to her the aspect of a celestial creature captured in ecstasy. The brilliant yellow of the background and the reddish deep purple of the Goddess’ hair create a sharp colour contrast that makes the figure to be seen as in the forefront of a threedimensional ethereal space. Although, the choice of using vibrant colours and warm tones enriches and confers to the entire composition a major sense of consistency and harmony. This artwork is the exemplification of Gyuri’s intention to transmit her feelings and offer to the viewers a broader point of view about life events. Taking her words: “Receiving something is one of the most beautiful things you can do for yourself. Learning to be good to you, help you to be good to the world”.

Art Curator Ginevra Fisco

Gyuri Heart

Déesse des Fleures

Hannah Glasheen

For the American artist, art is what allows her to make visible to viewers the unconscious reality, the abstract world that lives in her head and therefore the most intimate parts of her soul. In her creativity she undertakes to reveal her true identity, in hopes that her authenticity “will resonate with others and inspire a similar commitment”, as she herself says. Then Hannah Glasheen digs into her subconscious, but unlike the Surrealists, she does not do this because she tries to escape from rationality, logical thought and social conventions, but she does it to find herself, who she is and who she can be. Regarding the work under examination, she says: “This piece in particular has revealed to me the spaces between. The roles that we acquire or take upon ourselves throughout different phases of our lives.”. The American artist frames the scene between two curtains and a windowsill, so that we seem to look out a window. With this wise expedient Hannah Glasheen puts the viewers inside the artwork, invites them to look inside herself and within themselves: we become an integral part of the artwork. Furthermore, the use of hot glue and candle wick in the candle on the lower left makes the whole painting even more real. The colors are bright, almost violent, and the combination, without intermediaries, of warm and cold tones arouses contrasting feelings in the spectator because respectively attracts and repels him, makes him advance and makes him retreat. "The Spaces Between" is a complex work from many points of view, just as complex is the action of digging inside oneself to "come out" without filters.

Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia

Hannah Glasheen

The Spaces Between

Haruka

Sensual lines intertwine with each other, curving and merging to form a monochrome universe. A dichotomous thought that divides reality into light and shadow, erasing its complexity, ambiguity, mutability and every nuance. We are inclined to schematize by making sharp, rigid and permanent distinctions, reducing the multiform, complex and sometimes indecipherable chaos that is the reality of people and events to just two opposing categories, which exclude each other or are in irreparable conflict with each other. Yet in Haruka's art, more than dichotomous thinking we can speak of catharsis of the element of reality, of simplification of the object in its purest form. Nature as well as everyday events and objects are subjected to a sort of distillation from all that is superfluous, from all that disturbs their true nature. A tree at night therefore loses its contours, its colors, its reliefs and shades to flatten itself on the support forming an extremely organic and sensual composition. On a white background, large almost circular shapes stand out, recalling, in their structure, the knots and concentric rings of trees. They do not have a perfect shape, at times they seem to expand to grab as much space as possible, at other times they seem to retreat on themselves making the lines collapse one on top of the other. And then other rounds formed by concentric circles, other globular silhouettes to make the outline of Tree at Night. The moonlight of the night star illuminates the tree and represents it in its most essential form: there is no need for color, not even nuance; realism is here abandoned in order to arrive at the vision of the essence of things, of the original existence of the tree in question. The attention focused on the concentric circles induces us to think of the secular life of the tree, of the slow formation day after day - of these concentric circles, scars of the past years and witnesses of the times to come. The tree is reduced to a mass of globular and uncertain forms: it is represented at its most primordial. Haruka plays with lines, with sharp contrasts and opposing tones. The graphic sign, so precise, draws its inspiration from the world of Japanese illustration and from the great masters of the past: the artist's interest in manga read in paper format where spots and black lines of ink are printed on the light white paper is palpable. The hair of Katsuya Terada's women seems to resonate in Birth. Black lines meet, collide and merge; following invisible forces they concentrate or expand in unison at certain points in the composition. Here, too, concentric circles join sinuous wavy lines. It is an extremely complex composition in its ability to distill the sense of the work: there is no need to represent the superfluous, no need for the idea to be anchored in reality. In Birth there is all the power and magic of a birth, of the coming into the world of something new. Haruka's art gets to the skeleton of things, to the beating heart of what is represented, it feeds on this expressive freedom enjoying its pure and essential image.

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

Haruka

Birth

Haruka

Transformation

Haruka

Tree at Night

Haruna Yamamoto

Haruna Yamamoto is a young and talented artist from Tokyo. Her art is mainly inspired by and fascinated by Western art. Her style combines the precision, line and balance of Eastern art with the colours, movement and chaos of Western art. She draws on various influences to create her canvases. She has a delicate but at the same time disruptive style, organising the composition in space in a balanced and harmonious way. In her artwork "Untitled", which she is presenting at the "Coming out" exhibition, her extremely creative, original and syncretic artistic concept is clearly evident. On an opaque paper support, she draws lines with a strong but at the same time instinctive black stroke. Some of these lines re-emerge from the background, blending in with the colour, while others remain hidden by the colours. The use of watercolour makes the artwork delicate but extremely expressive and decorative. The colour is superimposed, creating veils of unexpected colour compositions. Sometimes it is thickened by several layers of the same colour and sometimes several colours are mixed together. On the right-hand side the colours are mostly warm: reds, oranges, yellows; on the left-hand side they are cold: blues, greens, purples. The meeting takes place in the centre where the colours mix and blend. The brushstrokes are varied, ranging from strokes made with a sharp brush and slightly watereddown dry colour to more fluid, watery strokes. The directions of the brushstrokes are also different. The whole appears dynamic and extremely alive, an emotional chaos that translates on paper with this tangle of shapes and colours. It is impossible not to notice the reference to the Western artistic avant-gardes of the 20th century, including abstractionism and futurism. Looking at the artwork, one can see several aspects. Whichever way you look at it, you get a new perspective. There are different points of view, which lead the viewer to focus on the small details of the work. Every centimetre is different and rich in detail. It creates a chaos of colours which, despite being so complex, is at the same time harmonious. A disruptive chaos, almost a musical and balanced composition that bursts out and reaches its final triumph through an explosion of emotions. The viewer is thrown into the centre of the composition, into a landscape in turmoil. The colours contrast with the background, which is deliberately left bare, recreating the alternation of empty and full spaces typical of the oriental world. Movement, dynamism and vitality are the key words. The presence of intersecting planes and volumes creates vitality and releases energy. Haruna proves to be a very skilled artist with full gestural control. Her extensive knowledge of the art world allows her to wander and gather impulses from different quarters.

Impulses that she is able to rework into a unique, personal and creative style that sometimes combines elements of different derivation. The particularity of her art lies precisely in this syncretism of artistic cues that she reworks in a wonderful and extremely personal way.

Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti

Haruna Yamamoto

Untitled

Heike LIN Triebel

Heike LIN Triebel was born in Thuringia, she is now based in Berghausen, Germany. The uniqueness of Heike LIN Triebel’s art lies in the fact that the subjects are not perceptible at first glance, we must discover them. Heike presents at M.A.D.S. art gallery two works on the occasion of the “Coming out” exhibition. As previously mentioned, Heike’s works "come out" only after a careful look, we can say that in a certain sense the subjects are hidden and for this reason the concept of the exhibition warmly welcomes the work of Heike. The first presented here is "Wild Horse I, Fire Horse" and is the first in the famous Heike series titled "Wild Horses”. This piece and “Wild Horse VIII” are the only ones in red in the series, the others are in the blue palette, making these two works interesting and unique. The story behind Heike’s first horse is interesting and at the same time sad: the artist learns of the terrible fire that was devastating Australia in 2019 and decides to create a raw and heartbreaking painting. A horse comes out of a burning forest, so it is certain that the happy ending is present in Heike’s work: courage has triumphed.

Heike LIN Triebel

As for the color, red is undoubtedly important for Heike, a color that we will find later in her production with the work entitled “Toro"."Toro" is the artist’s most recent work. Heike’s artistic evolution and maturity is perceptible through this painting. The particular thing is that it is a sequel to the series "Wild Horses" but without giving us the certainty of a series production, so potentially it could remain a unique piece within the artistic production of Heike. The red color is a reference and a tribute to the Italian painter Alberto Burri and his "Rosso plastica" and "Rosso sacco". The bull is not visible immediately, it appears following a careful observation of the work and it is precisely this fact that makes the art of Heike unique and inimitable. The texture of the background is taken inside the bull’s figure, outlined and remarked slightly.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Heike LIN Triebel

Toro

Heike LIN Triebel

Wild Horse I, Fire Horse

Helena Glans "They can be emotions that touch you and speak to you. The only limit is your imagination" (Helena Glans)

With an abstract style, reminiscent of a graft between the vivid brushstrokes of Robert Ryman and the pungent colours of the backgrounds of the minimalist Ad Reinhardt, we introduce a good dose of Abstract Expressionism in our International Exhibition of contemporary Art, entitled "Coming Out" and organized by the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery of Milan. Examining the three works entitled "In My Perspective","Live Your Dream" and "Storm" by Helena Glans, a selftaught painter with an incredible aesthetic taste, we are immediately struck by strong colours and a technique of execution that combined, create artistic products with a pleasant visual impact and incredibly inherent in contemporary taste. As she herself states, a single quick glance should be all it takes when considering intuitive and abstract art, enough to be pulled in and captured by everything the painting wants to tell you or even better, what each viewer will want to read about and interpret us taking inspiration from his personal past, but also from his deepest unconscious. Perfectly in line with the intention of the exhibition, everyone is free to pour into the three canvases all the personal secrets, anxieties and fears caused by life itself. Helena herself describes the creation of her art in an emotional and intuitive process, which is shaped in a natural way, starting to pour the sensations into the linen or cotton cloth and scratching it with acrylics. She works with her fingers, brushes, and other accessories typical of abstract painting, to give each of us a unique and personal moment.

Art Curator Carola Antonioli

Helena Glans

In My Perspective

Helena Glans

Live Your Dream

Helena Glans

Storm

Helga Jüde "Without emotion, it is impossible to transform darkness into light and apathy into movement." (Carl Gustav Jung)

Helga Jüde is a German artist. Oil painting has been part of her passions since she was 14 years old and has remained with a constant in her life. After having put family and career first, art returns to occupy an important role thanks to the inspiration brought by acrylic paint. Later she had health problems that forced her to take a break from the art world, she recently resumed her activity as a self-taught painter with an irrepressible and productive enthusiasm. For 2 years painting has become her primary occupation, supported by an extremely generous inspiration of ideas. Helga's art finds in abstract painting the ideal form to satisfy a receptive inspiration to the emotions and stimuli that music and colors arouse. Emotions are, in fact, the true protagonists of the artist's works that she proves to be particularly skilled at representing them with precise chromatic choices, also experimenting with the use of different materials. “Mystik” fits perfectly into this logic, and projects the viewer into an ashy, blurred and almost dreamlike atmosphere. The observer's eye focuses on the vigorous brushstrokes ranging between shades of black, gray and blue, which seem to evoke evanescent images, ready to change with every blink of an eye. The work contains the artist's personal conception of mysticism: something difficult to fully grasp at first glance, and which indeed becomes more complex and nuanced the longer we dwell on it, an authentic act of faith.

Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti

Helga Jüde

Mystik

HJH “We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.”

(William James) A metaphysical analysis of phenomenal reality, carried out through a language that abstracts the vision, hurling it into the unknown. Shades of black and white combine to create geometric landscapes, where logic abandons itself to an apparent chaos. Many small pieces of infinite dimensions compose the images created by the Korean contemporary photographer HJH. A scenography that narrates the world by synthesizing its connections and where the luminous stimuli that emerge provoke deviant sensations in the observer. Strong influences can be traced back to Op Art, an abstract art movement born around the 1960s, whose aim was precisely to destabilize the vision. However, HJH's work does not stop there, as he wants to investigate life by reading the world in its powerful energy connections. The language chosen to express this vision almost allows us to visualize the natural process according to which the chemical and physical elements move in space, also showing a particular link with science. In "Endless chain of inter-penetration of things in the whole universe No.8", square and rectangular shapes, very similar to pixels, intersect in front of our eyes, creating long chains with a solid and resistant appearance. The choice of black and white is not accidental, but is intended to lead to a more mystical and conceptual observation, eliminating the possible aesthetic distraction generated by colour. This myriad of nuances gives the work a vibrant appearance in continuous movement, whose depth is given by the different dimensions of the geometric figures. "Endless chain of inter-penetration of things in the whole universe No.8" is intended to be a visual translation of all those aspects related to universal energy connections. An apparently chaotic reading that conceals a perfect order, the same order according to which everything moves independently of human reason.

Art Curator Francesca Brunello

HJH

Endless chain of inter-penetration of things in the whole universe No.5

HJH

Endless chain of inter-penetration of things in the whole universe No.8

HJH

Suchness No.4

Ian O'Brien

Art is none other than the artist’s coming out, a liberating explosion, where matter takes shape following the feeling, giving life to a new space for the conception of reality. “Almost tribal” is an artwork by Ian O’Brien, an artist who uses the digital art to explore himself and to create colorful artworks. This picture brings to mind the works of Basquiat, the trait is instinctive and, as the title itself says, almost tribal. The subject is represented asymmetrically, has several particular ornaments such as the three colored pearl necklaces, the dress adorned with different decorative motifs and a headdress that is reminiscent of a king or perhaps a tribal chief. This kind of crown is different on both sides: on one side it falls straight and frames the face of the subject, on the other it protrudes at the height of the ear. The tribal chief has a closed eye and an open one, the left eye, which symbolizes instinct, passion and impetus is open while the right eye , which symbolizes reason and rationality is closed. The mysterious man smiles and from his smile starts a spiral that is the outline of his face. The instinctive component is very strong in the style of Ian who uses bright and cheerful colors that emphasize the cheerfulness of the smile of the subject. He gives vent to his pure expressiveness, his impulsiveness and free creation, without constraints.

Art Curator Sara Giannini

Ian O'Brien

Almost tribal

Irene Chua “Who told you that one paints with colors? One makes use of colors, but one paints with emotions.” (Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin) What do you see when you look at a work? Shapes, lines, colours, or something more? Irene Chua’s works, an artist with Filipino origins based in Stockholm, communicate much more than we can simply see with our eyes. They are the result of a creative process dominated by instinct, casualness, and strong emotions. Starting from a simple stroke, the brush is accompanied throughout the canvas by the skilled hand of the artist who gives life to abstract paintings with an original and recognizable style. In “An Apple a Day” vertical and horizontal stripes meet, overlap at times and merge. These regular shapes are combined with indefinite white and yellow sketches which, as mentioned above, are linked to the instinct that characterizes Irene's art. "Pink Dreams" is a work with a very evocative title: dreams that speak of love, dreams in which the heart is at their centre. The artist offers the viewer the opportunity to interpret the painting in a personal way. The observing eyes are lost in the multiple vertical brush strokes, immersing themselves completely in the work and setting off on a unique imaginary journey. “Summer Fruits” is a riot of colours that remind us of the hot summer season. Indefinite spots and more precise shapes characterize this precious abstract canvas. In the previously analysed works created in 2021, warm colours and cold colours meet creating strong, but at the same time pleasant chromatic contrasts. Irene is an artist with a unique style capable of not only captivating viewers for the beauty of her works, but also of involving them emotionally, leaving fantastic memories imprinted on them.

Art Curator Camilla Gilardi

Irene Chua

An Apple a Day

Irene Chua

Pink Dreams

Irene Chua

Summer Fruits

Irina Blinova “Art is continuous research, assimilation of past experiences, addition of new experiences, in form, content, matter, technique, means” (Bruno Munari)

Irina Blinova was born in Lithuania, but lives and works in Norway. Her training takes place through academic studies, but also through apprenticeship at the studio of other artists. Impressionism and port-impressionism are a source of great inspiration in her work and are evident in the use of brushstrokes, in the clear definition of the contours, which also brings us back to the ancient and fascinating Byzantine art. In the work on exhibition, Madonna the neutral background, but in sharp contrast with the human figure, recalls the drafting of the sheet of gold or blue lapis lazuli typical of the late Middle Ages. A fully human Madonna, a woman in every shape is the undisputed protagonist of the canvas. The sweetness of the face is fully maternal, the nakedness of the breasts brings us back to the icons of the Madonna who breastfeeds, but here we do not have the child and this charges the figure of a sensuality all feminine, carnal, albeit modest, with long hair to hide the nudity. We can also find references to the Venus of Botticelli. Irina presents us a divine beauty, but a human sensuality. The art of Blinova goes through time, speaks an ever-present language, which leads the mind of the attentive spectator to the Madonnas of Klimt. Despite the reference to the most disparate artistic currents, the work on display is permeated by a strong figurative contemporaneity, which does not want to hide the cultural roots, but on the contrary make them reborn and communicate vividly with each other.

Art Curator Erika Gravante

Irina Blinova

Madonna

Isabelle Lortie "Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity."

(Hebert Hoover)

A successful designer, Isabelle Lortie studied Industrial Design at the University of Montreal, her birthplace, and then abandoned her in search of experiences in her field of education. For this purpose he lived in France, England and Italy, where he worked for important companies such as Salomon and Fiat.

Back in Canada, she worked in Aeronautics for Airbus Canada as an engineering project manager. She deeply loves her work, but manages to find the time to devote herself to her great passion: painting, in which she combines logistics and creativity, the two opposing, but interconnected, souls that live in her.

Although he loves figurative art, his constant source of inspiration, for his artistic work she prefers abstract art, ontologically freer.

Isabelle Lortie

The artist uses freedom in the material application of colors on the canvas, through a fluid gesture and the use of the spatula, letting the emotions of the moment flow, without conditioning of any kind. The final result is of great harmony, balance and beauty. The titles of the works on exhibition evoke the feelings and images that they want to convey, an autumn day of sun and Poseidon, god of the sea. Memories close to us, but also ancestral, linked to ancient myths, help the artist to express moments, moments of joy or pain, states of mind. These moments are captured forever. This is how the paintings of Isabelle Lortie are transformed into mental music, poetry and are able to give emotions to the spectator who remains suspended between dream and reality, thanks to the varied palette, the bright and decadent chromaticism and the use of the spatula that makes his work incisive and strong.

Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo

Isabelle Lortie

Autumn Sun

Isabelle Lortie

Poseidon

Jack Wells “Art is imperfect and it is this imperfection that allows for us an escape’’ (Jack Wells) M.A.D.S. Art gallery presents Jack Wells with his painting named “Bouquet” for the Art exhibition “Coming out” taken place in Milan Italy. As a contemporary artist, he depicts figurative characters in an empty environment to give importance to color and its different harmonies carried out by the characters presented in the painting. The warm tones in “Bouquet” are precisely chosen to recreate a group in the public space placed as audience or as characters, as a choir expecting to participate at any time by observing and standing still, which reminds me of Tadeusz Kantor’s play, “Dead Class” and Peter Brook’s “Empty space”, a book which analyses different ways to approach a performance and give relevance to the character. Bright colors are used as focus points to distinguish the composition that could act as cues for them to participate. Jack Wells is in harmony with Jean Michel Basquiat, Jean Dubuffet and also Jose Tola. The imagery of these three artists is a result of overlapping various groups of expressionist characters and overlapping different ideas into one art piece. Wells acquires expressionist ideas within the abstract space by using geometric forms to organize them as a blossoming group to witness or be witnessed. The escape from reality liberates you from your thoughts. It is about the escape and which place and path you choose to pursue. The “Coming out” Art exhibition is about liberation from your thoughts and sharing them as vulnerable as possible. The empty space is filled with characters waiting to be part of the action. In theatre there is a convention called the “Fourth wall," which is an imagined wall that separates the audience from the actors. The “Fourth wall” in “ Bouquet” is between the audience and the characters in the painting.

Both groups, both “bouquets” are watching each other.

"There is only one thing I fear in life, my friend: One day, the black will swallow the red.”

(Mark Rothko)

Art Curator Karla Peralta Málaga

Jack Wells

Bouquet

Jacob Newey “Art is standing with one hand extended into the universe and one hand extended into the word and letting ourselves be a conduit for passing energy.”

(Albert Einstein)

Jacob Newey is a New Zealand artist who largely employs the photographic technique by linking it to the painting one: he tries to give a pictorial effect to his pieces to give them a painting aura. Using these tools, the artist defines himself as an abstract photographer and his art consists in creating and printing pictures that portray peculiar and distressed urban surfaces. The main purpose of his works is to capture and figure the beauty contained in the entropic process, the transformation phase that affects all the surfaces of man-made objects, which slowly mutate to return to their original form and the initial order dictated by nature. At the same time, the artist sets himself the goal of decontextualizing urban elements and surfaces, such as motorway signs or container's walls, to ensure that the viewer can consider, evaluate and admire these subjects out of their contexts, and appreciate their shapes, geometry and colours without thinking about the content they are conveying. In a society like ours, where we are constantly pelted with images and symbols that have a very specific purpose, the artist tries to bring simplicity and pureness.

Art Curator Alessia Logatto

Jacob Newey

Green Buff

Jacquelina Chenoa Alsina-Santos "Some an army of Knights, others of foot soldiers other of ships they’re the most beautifulthing on the black earth, I instead what you love” (Saffo)

Bodies that intertwine, merge, kiss, love are the protagonists of the works of Jacquelina Chenoa. A bursting visual immediacy and a message that comes straight to the soul with a disconcerting naturalness break any mental barrier.

Questions, accusations, discussions lose their meaning in the face of the ability to make love between two bodies with simple lines and colours. The woman, symbol of beauty and fertility since ancient times, becomes the protagonist of her works, in a contemporary reading of the role of women in society and sexuality. Every legacy of the past collapses, the laws of nature and love win. A continuous flow seems to flow from the hands of the artist, to the paper, to the eyes of the spectator. No wonder the beauty and manual skill when viewed in the eyes of Jacquelina’s path.

Jacquelina Chenoa Alsina-Santos

Daughter of artists, she has the fortune to be immersed in art since she was a child, her own life could be said to be art.

The painting becomes together with the theater not only passion, but also study, clearly visible in the impeccable pictorial technique. Inspired by the graphic and aesthetic style of the late '80s, early '90s, she makes her personal contribution and tangible on the sheet are the emotions of the artist drilled in pencil tip. The personal experience makes alive the works of art, which exude life lived making normal what unfortunately the society judges to often as abnormal.

Although very young, it already boasts many experiences around the world.

Art Curator Erika Gravante

Jacquelina Chenoa Alsina-Santos

below her mouth

Jacquelina Chenoa Alsina-Santos

below her mouth 2

Jaime McGlinn “To me colors are living beings, highly evolved individuals who integrate with us and with the whole world. Colors are the true inhabitants of space.” (Yves Klein) For the international exhibition “Coming Out” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Jaime McGlinn exposes three artworks (“Soundgarden 1”, “Soundgarden 2 Warren”, “Soundgarden 3”) in which color emerges with all its vital force from each canvas. Through his paintings, he emphasizes all the deep feelings of the viewer, involving him/her within the pictorial surfaces in a vortex of tones composed of numerous pigments and pure sensations. Jaime's creative spirit is clearly visible in every brushstroke and nuance, energetically awakening the slumbering soul of the viewer and inviting him/her to dive into another dimension full of joy and vigor. Jaime's artistic and aesthetic conception of representing the world around him cleverly intersects with music. This key element ties in with Kandinsky's theory: his analysis of a harmonic universe of symphonies and colors led him to establish a connection between the timbre of certain musical instruments with nuances and emotions, as each tonality produces an effect on the psyche and has a specific sound. This can be seen in Jaime's works: blue/light blue, ascribable to the melody of the flute, indicating quietness and depth; or violet, linked to the bassoon, evoking spirituality and the deepest part of the soul, helping the viewer to immerse himself/herself in a mysterious and mystical atmosphere; finally, black is the final pause in a musical performance and, unlike white, make any other color emerge. In addition to music, the connection with nature is also fundamental: by depicting boundless naturalistic landscapes and, in this case, by recalling the works of the Impressionist painters, Jaime helps the viewer's mind to interact with the infinite and unknown possibilities of a world composed of authentic pictorial matter. In these vibrant colors are present the unity and totality of the existence as well as the search for a visual experience as a crucial act, as painting is capable of triggering optical-perceptual sensations. By being based on chromatic harmony, nature and the symbolic value of music, Jaime McGlinn highlights depictions and conveys positive emotions and thoughts to the one who observe his gorgeous artworks.

“Colors, as shapes, follow the changes of emotions.” (Pablo Picasso)

Art Curator Alessia Perone

Jaime McGlinn

Soundgarden 1

Jaime McGlinn

Soundgarden 2 Warren

Jaime McGlinn

Soundgarden 3

Jane Gottlieb

Art is the mirror of our soul. Through it we can look inside ourselves and we can externalize and make visible to the outside world what we most intimately feel. Each painting becomes the means through which the artist makes hirself recognizable to the world. The American artist Jane Gottlieb takes us into her particular world full of fantasy and colors through the use of Technicolor. "Grand Entrance" represents the curve of a staircase seen from above. The intense yellow color of the staircase makes you think of the sun that illuminates it completely. The yellow of the staircase contrasts sharply with the cool color of the checkered floor, that reminds to the floor of a swimming pool, and immediately gives us an idea of freshness. The vases full of pink flowers complete the picture and, looking at them, you have the immediate feeling of being in the middle of a summer holiday. Watching at "Grand Staircase,Italy", it feels very similar. Pink flowers occupy much of the work. Looking at it, we can almost feel its scent. The blue staircase and the purple wall give a feeling of freshness almost in spring. The colors of the sunset of "Pond in Chartres" strike and immediately warm the viewer. The wonderful cathedral in the distance and the luxuriant trees at sunset seem to belong to an enchanted and fairy-tale world. The colors of the sky are reflected in the water of the tub and add a romantic component to the picture, while the yellow bench illuminated by the sun gives an interrogative feeling, as if it was waiting for something or someone. Jane through her works takes us into a world where fantasy reigns supreme.

Art Curator Sara Giannini

Jane Gottlieb

Grand Entrance

Jane Gottlieb

Grand Staircase,Italy

Jane Gottlieb

Pond at Chartres

Janin Walter “Space passes through time like the body in the soul” (Novalis)

The interaction between space and the human being is the basis of the artistic research of Janin Walter, an artist who works in the dynamic reality of Berlin. Man is an individual, he is single, but he lives and works in a context that precedes him, incorporates him and follows him and with it he creates relationships that modify the interiority of the person himself, but also the space of action. It is a continuous giving and receiving that creates interpersonal, but also physical, networks that free us from a limited space, but at the same time that limit us.Only our minds can overcome them, bring them down.

Janin Walter

Walter’s abstract painting flows freely through intuitive mental processes, but is always linked to the spatial rationality in which it is contained. Significant and explanatory are the titles of the works presented in the exhibition Knowings means moving and Let’s be free again. Knowledge is the basis of movement, not so much physical as mental. Knowing allows us to move easily in the space of the interior and thus create non-binding links with the physical space of external movement, with the architectures, which are abstractly present on the artist’s canvas. Observing her works we are therefore invited, through sinuous lines and contrasting colors, but also through significant words, to scroll with our eyes the entire surface of the work, to get rid of our bonds to return again to be free.

Art Curator Erika Gravante

Janin Walter

Knowing_means_moving

Janin Walter

Lets_be_free_again

Jeff Sullivan "It is only through mystery and madness that the soul reveals itself". (Thomas Moore)

Jeff Sullivan is a young American artist from New England. His love for nature allowed him to develop an instinctive sensitivity for the infinite shades of color of the woods where he used to walk in as a child, although figurative art only appeared in his life in adulthood. In fact, Jeff's main interest had always been the study of drums, and this passion can also be recognized in his works of art. Jeff's awareness as an artist, however, is the result of a troubled personal journey, which has gone through loneliness, depression and illness. The dark abyss of suffering allowed Jeff to re-emerge into the light enriched by an enigmatic experience in which he experienced renewing and vibrant energies. This was the starting point of Jeff Sullivan's art, which recalls his experience in every artwork. The black barter of solitude and nihilism was evoked in the black panels on which the paintings come to life. The works presented for Coming Out follow this logic, starting with “Octavepus”, which depicts with “fearful symmetry” - as William Blake said - an octopus, whose tentacles, symmetrically arranged, create a sinuous intertwining of light and colors. The constant of Jeff's works is the recurrence of circular shapes, inspired by the shape of the snare drum, which define the details of the animal.

Jeff Sullivan

To this peculiarity is also added the use of psychedelic, fluorescent colors, which we also find in “Connective Inspiration germinates within the forests of awareness”, depicting an intense kiss between a man and a woman. The gaze is captured by the complex spiral-shaped motifs, which fill the silhouettes of the bodies, giving the sensation of a flow of energy between one individual and another. The forest is outlined behind the figures, unlike “Become the ocean”, in which the natural element takes over until it becomes part of the characters themselves, pervaded by the whirlwind of swirling sea waves. The border is taken to the extreme in “Elemental”: the energies of water, fire, air and earth define the very essence of the figure represented. The background - constantly black - becomes the occasion to make the colors explode in their contrasting strength between blue and orange, between white and green. In this work there is a perfect communion between opposites: the moon coexists with the sun and water with fire and the visible merges with the invisible. The stylized lines on the shoulders of the figure recall the intertwining of the vegetation and at the same time seem the dense sequence of notes that chase each other on the musical score. The artist seems to allude to the possibility that even the most impenetrable black can emerge, including a renewed self-awareness.

Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti

Jeff Sullivan

Octavepus

Jeff Sullivan

Connective Inspiration germinates within the forests of awareness

Jeff Sullivan

Become the ocean

Jeff Sullivan

Elemental

Jennifer Bothast "In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine."

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Jennifer Bothast works in the healing arts, but her quest for survival occurs through self-expression and the exploration of her writing and painting. She begins to describe her initial intentions in charcoal, using her intuition, her emotions and her movement and often paints as a channeled form of meditation or prayer. Jennifer strives to paint various subjects focusing primarily on spiritual concepts such as light, frequency and energy with a primary focus on connection and oneness. The painting she exhibits at the "Coming Out" International Art Exhibition is called "Healing the Shadow". The artwork is characterized by dynamic signs typical of the abstract expressionism of the 40s, preferring an all-encompassing approach, in which each area of the canvas is treated in the same way. This piece emphasizes a basic, almost primitive, need to heal ourselves through the work of the shadows. By looking deeply into our wounds and patterns and working through them to arrive at a place where we feel healthy and whole. This artwork encourages us not only to fight, but to be curious and try to investigate the feelings triggered that arise when we investigate the parts of ourselves that we would rather not see. We must try to understand the why of our actions and reactions. This painting is ongoing for each of us and is very important for our evolutionary growth and survival. The artist believes that it is the responsibility of each of us to make a light shine through the darkness. This is a call to document the work of our own healing, doing what is necessary to open this trail of light so that we can all shine as bright as we can. We owe at least this to our existence.

Art Curator Francesca Campanelli

Jennifer Bothast

Healing the Shadow

Jennifer Okumura “Art must be like that mirror, that reveals to us this face of ours.” (Jorge Luis Borges)

Jennifer Okumura is a talented artist residing in the USA. Art has always been part of Jennifer's life, also marking her university career and then working as founding President of the National Association for Women Artists. Jennifer's activity has been rewarded with numerous participations in US and European exhibitions, and has also been mentioned in prestigious art magazines and publications such as the Artist Talk Magazine, and the American Art Review. Jennifer's approach demonstrates a total devotion to art, placing herself from the point of view of those who always find something new to learn. The artist conceives art as the result of a personal creativity that is also defined by looking at the great masters of the past. It is an awareness that reminds the expression according to which modern men are "dwarves on the shoulders of giants", since they can see further thanks to the stature of those who preceded them. Jennifer projects this perspective in her works, without forgetting to affirm her own personality, as in "Same, Same but Different, One Word", an abstract work that alternates soft shades of pink, green and blue with more decisive and clear lines as the eye reaches the center of the composition. The artist expresses her essence, full of multiform colors that chase each other on the canvas. The work allows us to observe the nature of the artist, who in her painting brings out herself without reserve.

Painting therefore becomes a "therapy", a physical, mental and spiritual means to give shape and color to what cannot be explained in words. Jennifer's art also focuses on the inner dialogue between rationality and emotionality, as in the series "Knots of the Mind", and in particular in "Deep in Thought". On the indefinite background stands out the diaphanous profile of a female figure: the gaze, projected into the void, seems below and immobile. Despite the fixity of the representation, the background painted with vigorous brushstrokes, gives the viewer the feeling of a great inner agitation, as also happens in "Démasquer, our lives and dreams". The face - this time represented frontally - is striking for the extraordinary intensity of the expression, fixed on the viewer in an eloquent silence full of questions, which bind to each other in an indissoluble flow of thoughts, giving life to an experience of rare depth.

Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti

Jennifer Okumura

Same, Same but Different, one world

Jennifer Okumura

Deep in Thought

Jennifer Okumura

Démasquer, our lives and dreams

Jenny Jiyoung Han For the international exhibition “Coming Out” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Jenny Jiyoung Han exposes the work “I Know What I Am Looking for”, through which she manages to link different images with a very special recreational technique. It is possible to define her multidisciplinary vision: between the digital medium and the symbology familiar to her, Jenny reveals her aesthetic and abstract analysis. She is constantly searching for tools that can best express a perceptive process that aims at infinity. She emphasizes and connects numerous elements, such as form, movement, light, color and energy, by communicating directly with the viewer. In her visual language, she extrapolates her own feelings with the intention of making it available to the world and to capture a sensory and personal advancement in the observer’s soul. In this painting, the artist depicts numerous figures and dynamic nuances: their continuous swaying gives rise to other new forms that connect with each other, aiming at a floating dimension beyond time and space. Jenny invites the viewer to go beyond what the eye sees, to show a different universe that exists but cannot be touched. Exactly as in the artistic current of Surrealism, there is a clear exaltation of the unconscious within the creative process: thanks to the lack of burdens posed on reason, the human being is free to express his most authentic part. Moreover, by redefining figurative and abstract aspects, the artist wishes the observer to be free to interpret what he/she sees. Related to all this, there is a distinctive feature, namely the sunflower. While it undoubtedly evokes sunshine, cheerfulness and liveliness, it also reflects Jenny's typical multidisciplinary approach: it is a 'multiple' flower as it contains a set of flowers which assume a spiral structure. It is in this way that everything is linked to that universal concept within a dreamlike and abstract dimension. Jenny Jiyoung Han offers the opportunity to immerse oneself in her artwork, and to contemplate a new dimensional reality, by helping the viewer to internalize a new form of imagination.

Art Curator Alessia Perone

Jenny Jiyoung Han

I Know What I Am Looking for

Jeu

When does an object become art? When we fill it with another, higher meaning, when we begin to look at it with different eyes because it is communicating something to us. The artistic duo Jeu, made up of an architect, Hideaki Nishimura and a manicurist Yumi Toyama, has the ultimate goal of their artistic making, as they themselves affirm, to discover and demonstrate "a different way of thinking, feeling, and looking at things by playing with the unseen laws and structures of the universe lurking in the depth of our perception in our everyday life ”. For this exhibition, which pushes artists to come out and go further, Jeu show us three of their works that are the perfect representation of their gaze that investigates reality in depth and reformulates it, making them express new messages. Jeu, through different media and integrating the knowledge and skills of each of them, embody dialogues, thoughts and interpretations that they themselves have with "the deep reality", as they like to call it. In fact, the work "Crucifixion" arises from a simple observation: often, if we look more carefully at an object of everyday life, we can see how it has interesting forms. And just a fork with its curved shape gave the inspiration, evoking a sense of serenity. The form is so transcended by the object that it has lost its function, transforming itself into a concept, that the viewer can reformulate and connect it to his own thought, his own sensation. The contour line is so dead, to rise again in something else. Instead, in the work "Acupressure points on space", they relate our perceptions of a space with the human body. The profile of a common object is completely deprived of its meaning and function, to transform itself into a vector in space. These vectors, with their three-dimensionality, combined with each other, create an infinite rhythm of space stimulation. Each piece created is unique, thus giving uniqueness to the visual textures that can be created with their combination. Finally, "Vertebrate Trench" arises from a reflection on the relationship between exterior and interior, between space and body. And so, the morphological characteristics of the part of the body that distinguishes us from other animal species, the one that supports our whole body, the spine, becomes the pretext to reflect on how each of us perceives space. What we usually see stick out is now instead cavated inwards. For artists, in fact, the perception of space is subjective and often even ambiguous. Each of us sees what surrounds us in a different way, because we do not observe only with the eyes, but above all with the mind, with the experiences of our life and through who we are.

Art Curator Silvia Grassi

Jeu

ACUPRESSURE POINTS ON SPACE

Jeu

CRUCIFIXION

Jeu

VERTEBRATE TRENCH

Jillian Zepeda

Jillian Zepeda is a contemporary figurative painter who uses Acrylics, Encaustic, and Oils to paint in. She studies women’s everyday life, focusing on their secret moments. She mainly represents women bodies because she understands how powerful woman’s body is. Therefore, at the international contemporary art exhibition "Coming out", hosted by the international art gallery M.A.D.S., she exhibits "The internal recesses I”. The artwork shows a female body stirred with nature, there is a body hidden inside flowers. A woman who gently takes shape from nature. The grace of nature and of human body are melted and they fit perfectly. It is this ethereal concept of how even after birth we are still growing and changing. Nature give birth to humanity but even in the womb of mother earth there will be rough and dark times. Times when we try and break free before we are ready. Thinking we don’t need the womb to survive. There is that fine line of leaving the womb too early and still surviving and waiting until we are done growing to venture out on our own. The small creative community of Sisters, Oregon encourages the arts as part of your everyday life, even at a young age.

Growing up in this community helped to mold and shape the artist that Jillian is today. She received a BA in Film and Media at the University of California Irvine. Currently living in Dallas, Texas where she believes that art in the home is key to the happiness of the home. When she isn’t painting, Jillian can be found watching Formula 1, playing golf, or enjoying the outdoors.

We need the “womb” of mother earth and the energies of the earth as our umbilical cord.

Providing us with the nutrition and life support we need to survive.

(Jillian Zepeda) Art Curator Mara Cipriano

Jillian Zepeda

The internal recesses I

Jina

Painting and shapes at the service of full self-expression. Stains, vaporous clouds of color, vital and energetic pigments are transformed into letters of an alphabet that has as its primary purpose to translate through visual transposition the emotions and feelings of Jina. It happens that when an individual expresses his thoughts verbally, a part of his soul spills over into the real world and interacts with those around him. The thought, transformed into conversation, reaches other individuals and from this comes the sharing of experiences, the participation in the problems and desires of one and the other. Yet the spoken idea, although immediate and extremely effective in its expression, has its limits. Opening up to others and literally exposing oneself to the world is often an obstacle, a high mountain full of pitfalls. You can't find the words, you are afraid that the other person won't be interested in what you are trying so hard to express. One is afraid to expose oneself to the world: a medium as direct and efficient as the spoken word leaves no time to think, no time to stop and reflect. Immediacy is its cross and delight. Art - which we can consider as a real language - is on its part defined by rules that the artist himself imposes on it. It is not immediate, this is certain, and it responds to certain rules that develop from time to time, canvas after canvas and spot of color after spot of color.

Jina

Slowly the work reveals itself: you have all the time to listen to your heart and then try to translate your emotions into graphic signs. And so it is that the canvas fills up with agitated chromatic spots. They move apart, leaning against each other, taking up all the space of the composition. The representative space is now full of multiform and vaporous anemones, each carrying a thought, an emotion, a sensation. The artist is finally able to speak to the world, to express his perplexities and anxieties, his hopes and joys. We observe Deeply and we can glimpse Jina's soul. Let's let our gaze wander and get lost among these dark spots with blurred borders that interpose themselves to ephemeral touches of whitish color. Let's observe how the patches of color intersect each other, know each other and blend together. These are the sensations that make up Jina's soul, the composition is the mirror of the universe with its blurred and indefinite boundaries that lives inside her. The color and the sign are means of expression, they are the alphabet of a non-verbal but visual communication that has the ability to represent something invisible and unconscious too often difficult to express in words.

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

Jina

Deeply

Jina

Let me stay here

Jina

I understand

Jina

Look at me

Joana Lobo Anta "The highest, the most varied and the most enduring joys are spiritual." (Arthur Schopenhauer)

Joana Lobo Anta is a Portuguese artist of great versatility and talent. Besides being a painter, her multifaceted creativity is also expressed in music, dance, performances and writing. However, painting is perhaps her deepest passion, so much so as to constitute one of the artist's earliest memories. She then deepened art and graphic design also in the academic field, at the universities of Lisbon and Perugia, following studies that allowed her to achieve considerable technical ability.

To this Joana adds a prolific and original creative flair, as we see in the work presented for Coming Out, entitled “Desire”. The viewer is faced with a powerful and evocative image, and of particularly interesting interpretation. The painting depicts a woman - probably the artist herself - seen from above, wrapped in a sensual leather body, in a moment of total abandonment. The position of her body is built on a serpentine, which starts from the legs folded sideways up to her neck and head, pours backwards. The eye of the beholder falls on the skilful chiaroscuro of the skin, which increases the voluptuousness of the entire representation to the maximum degree. The figure is painted as if lying on its back, however it seems to float on a magnificent golden background, reminiscent of hieratic representations of the Byzantine period. The bold approach seems almost to suggest a spiritual conception of sensuality, as an indissoluble part of a strong individuality. The work reflects a curious self-determination, a real personal “manifesto” of the artist, which invites not only acceptance, but also a proud demonstration of his own personality, unique and unrepeatable, and therefore endowed with its own divine essence.

Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti

Joana Lobo Anta

Desire

Johann Neumayer

The Austrian artist Johann Neumayer is able to create a new world, where matter becomes fluid and dynamic. His world is something new and colourful. The viewers have the sensation that all is suspended like there isn't any gravity. Nothing helps to understand where the work of art takes place. Johann Neumayer's works look like an all-new world to discover, where nothing is defined and all the colours mix create innovative shapes. This achievement is from Johann's study of two programs: Rhino 5 and 3D modelling tools. Johann's works let the viewers see the same image from different points of view and distances. A clear example is visible in the series entitled "Play soul" that the artist shows at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery during the event entitled "Coming out". In "Play Soul 002" and in "Play soul 019", a man is the protagonist, and, in the first work, he is on one side and, in the second one, he is behind, but the body positions are the same. It looks like a suspended moment that Johann wants to capture in every single point of view. In the other shot, Johann desires to show the context and the elaborate structure that he creates. The viewers can see in the image the different perspective level with a strange net construction in the middle. Only in two-point of view, it is possible to see the figure of a man walking. Every shot of this place makes the viewers understand the area better, but, at the same time, Johann adds new things that make them feel lost again in this "alien" space. In all the points of view, Johann is able to produce different emotions: an example could be "Play Soul 015", in which the viewers may feel disorientated because of all the men standing in the empty. Johann creates a world built in some different frame of the same space; the viewers aim to recreate the area, becoming a part of this work of art. The colours used in this work are soft, such as the light pink and the colours mix of cyan and white. At the end, we could say that this series transmits peace and serenity and, at the same time, disorientation: in this area, nothing is defined, and time seems suspended. Johann Neumayer's abilities are creating incredible 3D structure and making the viewers feel part of it. He creates spaces that suspend time and space in a new dimension, different from ours.

Art Curator Beatrice Rosa

Johann Neumayer

Play soul 002

Johann Neumayer

Play soul 008

Johann Neumayer

Play soul 011

Johann Neumayer

Play soul 015

Johann Neumayer

Play soul 019

Johanna Castillo Ruiz

On occasion of the international art exhibition Johanna Castillo Ruiz presented three artworks titled Awakening, Heavenly Tempest, Malin. Starting from the first artwork titled Awakening we can see in the foreground flowers that remind the idea of spring and freshness. What is more important to consider about these elements are the movements in which they seem to be involved. As if the wind was caressing them. In the second part of the painting we can see the sun that illuminates and radiates the vision from the side of the canvas. This element that has to be seen as the protagonist of the composition reminds and communicates the concept of the title, the awakening. In this way, the observer could feel this freshness made by the moment of the awakening. The second painting presented by the artist has the same focus on the element of nature, but in this case the concept reminds the team of the tempest. In fact the observer follows the swirling movement created by the colours, until it immerses all its attention hypnotically in the centre of the composition. The last painting wants to tell about another subject that comes out from the fascination of the nature. In fact in this case the protagonist seems to be a female figure with a big colourful hat. In this artwork, we can see the face of the protagonist that seems to be indifferent and impassive. Not expressionless, beware! Conversely, the protagonist of the artwork wants to communicate with the observer. He seems to follow his eyes to says: -I want to look at you too-. There are no doubts on the intention of the artist to represent not just the image of the protagonist but also his expression to describe hi cryptically feeling. The eyes of the figure thin out on the observer who now seems to be mesmerized by the image in front of him.

Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio

Johanna Castillo Ruiz

Awakening

Johanna Castillo Ruiz

Heavenly Tempest

Johanna Castillo Ruiz

Malin

JOJO

Sharp signs of digital nature contaminate the entire composition. Scratches and multicolored thunderbolts determine and accentuate the physiognomy of an exuberant and nonchalant face. Sensual lips peep out at the center of the representative space: the rosy softness openly clashes with the above mentioned graffiti. Just above, a gaze veiled by whitish lenses captures the attention. We stare through the opaque lenses of our glasses to catch even a glimpse of gaze. We are not allowed to read the soul of this woman through her eyes, we are helpless and defenseless in front of her expressive power.

Yet she observes us, she has the ability to see the physiognomy of our face, the thoughts that spring like flashes from our eyes. Impassive to the sight of anything, the woman portrayed in LA BABY is firmly represented on the pictorial surface. Slight, delicate pinkish brushstrokes cluster toward the center to make up the delicate skin, red cheeks and barely susceptible chiaroscuro. The hair is a mass of multicolored brushstrokes with well-defined borders and again, graphic signs nervously insist on defining the limits of the forms that make up this superb face. Suddenly the physiognomy becomes labile and ethereal. Pinkish and decidedly pop tones give way to an extremely dull and attenuated chromatic palette. The color, earthy and with natural tones, determines chromatic spots that, with the help of the rather acid and strident digital stroke, outline the protagonist of NEW YORK DRAMA CRITIC. The rotation of the head and the slightly raised shoulder give the impression that this woman has been taken by surprise: she has turned around and is now staring at us. Her gaze is hidden by glasses with dark lenses - an element acquired from the real world - yet we can make out the kajal and the dark irises that observe us, impassive and unchanging. The epidermis now has a lunar, diaphanous hue, colored scratches are absent, and the hair, with its orange hue peeps out from a smoky blanket of brown marks. Although the sentiment that animates the composition is at odds with that of LA BABY, there is something recognizable, a part of the face that is clearly identifiable and evident. Like a recurring motif, the mouth makes space for itself among the watercolor. Recognizable are the contours of the lips, the cupid's bow and the glossy lipstick that illuminates the fleshy upper lip. A search for identity that is purely impossible in SEE NO EVIL HEAR NO EVIL. Here distortion is taken to the extreme: there are no more sharp scratches as well as uncertain and delicate spots of color. Now we are faced with something unknown composed of chromatic stains and images that remind us now of a mask, then of a skull, then of a frowning face. Has the identity been lost or perhaps the female figure has revealed herself, making herself visible for what she is? Under those dark glasses has there always been a gaze so deep that it could not even be represented through color? The mouth, leitmotif and red thread of our discourse, is now reduced to a bright pink spot, a blob that expands taking all the space it needs to exist. Lips are always there, aware of capturing our gaze. The difference is that now we can taste them in all their essence, in all their overbearing sensuality.

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

JOJO

LA BABY

JOJO

NEW YORK DRAMA CRITIC

JOJO

SEE NO EVIL HEAR NO EVIL

Jordin David Jordin David is a fine art figurative painter, muralist and art teacher. She participates in the “Coming Out” exhibition with three works imbued with strong meanings. To discover her identities, we will have to dig deep into her soul and take a journey into her memories, where phases of her life are jealously preserved. The works are an existential map, on which it is possible to read the different feelings that Jordin David has experienced: first, the helpless feeling of not knowing, wisely depicted in “Persistence of Existence”. In her soul lurk the most intimate questions in the continuous search for her identity."What are you doing? Where are you going? Who are you supposed to be? An unstoppable game of anxieties begins in the mind and immobilizes us before the inexorable flow of time, as the hourglass suggests. The predominance of the blue colour in the canvas is not accidental: this cold colour suggests the mental and physical block that the individual experiences when he does not know how to manage his life. Although we are dealing with brilliant minds and light bulbs that are always on, there are moments of blackout. But, we are human beings and it is normal. The important thing is to avoid the emptiness of the abyss before it swallows us forever. The second masterpiece “Ambient Blues & Fluid Hues” deals with an equally important topic: understanding one's sexuality. “Up until the age of 22, I assumed I was one way – but then my sky cracked and the light bled through, telling me I was wrong.” says the artist.

"So I let this piece paint itself. It was trying to teach me about exploration and fluidity, and I was finally ready to listen."

She let her true identity come out. From that moment on her life took shape, following her feelings. This precious liberating explosion comes from the chaos that dominates the scene: there are no preparatory drawings, the textures are unplanned, the subjects are in bulk. The artist follows the tumult of her feelings. Male bodies and faces mingle with female ones. In the top left-hand corner, a beam of warm and cold colours rips through the scene: it is the light that finally enters the artist's life and reveals her sexuality. Finally, “Where Her Power Lies” is dedicated to all the different places where women hold their power. This work is the story of a woman! Reading the body of this multifaceted divinity, we find her mind, the rational and balanced part similar to the Universe with its planets sometimes aligned, sometimes not; her belly, the area related to instinctiveness, passions, feelings, fears, the lifeblood. Finally the reproductive area which represents the cradle of the world and holds the power of life, no matter how masculine or feminine, sensual or professional she is. As the artist argues, "We are complex creatures individually, but when we are celebrated as one, the interconnected energy is divine."

Art Curator Alessia Ventola

Jordin David

Persistence of Existence

Jordin David

Ambient Blues & Fluid Hues

Jordin David

Where Her Power Lies

Juliane Blasquez “As a woman I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world.” (Virginia Woolf) Much of the artistic repertoire of Juliane Blasquez, a contemporary French artist, is a tribute to female beauty in all its aspects. It is investigated, explored and expressed through a figurative language that transforms the faces portrayed into magnificent icons full of sensuality. In the artwork "Vibration Lunaire", the artist depicts in a contemporary key the titanid Selene, personification of the Moon, queen of the night, linked to nature and the cult of the dead, and goddess of fertility. Formerly the Great Mother, the triform and trine goddess of birth, growth and death, assumes here the appearance of a beautiful young woman in a disturbing pose. Her gaze shows great self-confidence. Her softly shaped body is barely covered by a white drape. Her loose hair falls over her shoulders, revealing the moon-shaped pendant around her neck. The colours chosen for the painting refer to the moon, whose characteristic bluish light reflects and illuminates the whole painting. The background, in fact, is a gradation of azure and blues and surmounts the protagonist figure with an arched shape, unusual for a painting. Lush, white flowers bloom around her face. The female figure, showing herself in the guise of Selene, takes on a new meaning here. Juliane Blasquez wanted to elevate the woman, transforming her into a goddess and at the same time linking her to the figure of the femme fatale, a woman endowed with irresistible charm, whose enigmatic, threatening and at the same time fascinating beauty hypnotizes men. She observes us from the top of her pose with a defiant look, sure of her power and charm. Selene here embodies all women and the energy that flows from her is intense and overwhelming. It is the universal energy of the woman, Mother Earth and Mother of the World.

Art Curator Francesca Brunello

Juliane Blasquez

Vibration Lunaire

Kamyar Kafaie

Kamyar Kafaie is a self-taught artist from Tehran. His artistic production is rich in communicative elements that tell the modern way, social dynamics and historical events. At the contemporary art exhibition "COMING OUT" hosted by the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery Kamyar Kafaie exhibits a work entitled "Ex party, Tehran nightlife" which represents a crowd at a party. The faces of the people appear to be represented with a surrealist and cubist mix. The author looks at the crowd as an omniscient narrator who sees everything and hears everything. The crowd resembles a state of necessity, just look at the faces represented, each identified with his own obsession, vice, addiction. A frantic and casual movement like that of atoms. An interesting reference is Hieronymus Bosch and his work "Ascent to Calvary" in which the artist painted faces of such wickedness and dullness as to disfigure the facial features in monstrous hybrids between beasts and men. Kafaie represents hybrids between machines and men but the message is extremely similar to that conveyed by Bosch. Kafaie provides a real judgment of a specific society, a society in which people's souls are guided by materialistic instincts and unbridled fun. The use of colors is extremely impactful and participates in the transmission of the strong message desired by the artist. We perceive a voluntary detachment from the values of which the society of the twenty-first century is the spokesperson.

Art Curator Martina Viesti

Kamyar Kafaie

Ex party, Tehran nightlife

Katharina Rochat

For her first time in M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, the self-taught artist Katharina Rochat exhibits three paintings that reflect the expression of her positive thoughts. Touching and with an harmonious atmosphere, the three paintings are inherent with the concept of the current exhibition, ‘Coming Out’ that correspond also to the artist’s artistic goal. Natural beauty and water worlds are the great inspirations of Katharina’s paintings, through which she wants to give life to natural expressions. “Fight With The Waves” is a ‘double face’ painting, thanks to the artist’s ability in using the colours, the scene reflects two different moment of a sailing. On the left side a daily moment, where the boat proceeds in a calm way at the sun light while, on the contrary, the right side shows a nocturn moment, where the rough see lets swing the little and dark boat, as if it has been damage by the weather. As for the three paintings, Katharina’s way to represent the abstract background gives importance to the subjects and main characters of each scene, well defines in their contours. With the same nuances of colours, “Lovely Face” focuses its attention on the girl’s face, from which good vibes spread all around the canvas. With her deep and dark gaze, the lady seems to look at the viewer intensely as if she would like to transmit to who stares back to her, her positivity. The light that transpires from her eyes, illuminates the whole scene, giving attention to every single detail. Different in colours, but with the same light atmosphere and tranquility, appears “Sleeping Girl”. On a monochrome background with some spots here and there recalling the woman’s long hair, the artist has thought to reflect, through this painting, a serene moment of a peaceful girl, nude, just as she is, dreaming on her sofa. Created in mixed media, with structure, the three paintings are an expression of Katharina’s positive thoughts and are inspired by the simplicity of abstract expression.

Art Curator Martina Stagi

Katharina Rochat

Fight With The Waves

Katharina Rochat

Lovely Face

Katharina Rochat

Sleeping Girl

Kathrine Amble “One must leave the forms of an object as they appear, as light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.” (John Constable)

Kathrine Amble exposes three watercolors (“Houses in Lofoten”, “Landscape”, “Morning walk in the city”) at the “Coming Out” exhibition at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, in which she achieves a balance between the abstract and the figurative, capturing the atmosphere, light and shadows. In fact, such as the lens of a camera, the artist focuses on certain situations and places, emphasizing the beauty that surrounds the human being. Such a “subjective" painting enshrines a surprising objectivity: recalling the artistic movement of Impressionism, Kathrine captures a fleeting moment and paint what first catches her attention. Moreover, her watercolors seem to be painted completely “en plein air”, emphasizing the different views of a natural or urban environment, as well as the surrounding atmosphere. In this way, the artist masterfully succeeds in portraying that 'first impression', as truthful and pure as possible. The contrast between light and shadow with the intention to represent the environment, almost become the main subject of the paintings, as all this could change and never be the same again. The artworks leave an ample space for the artist's own interpretation: while she is painting, she is representing the feelings that reality triggers in her. Her intuitions flow through the brush giving color to the works, leaving a clearly visible and indelible mark. With an extraordinary sensitivity, attentive to the subtlest gradations of tone, Kathrine dissolves objects in light, making the entire pictorial surface vibrate. In addition, a romantic conception of nature can be discerned from these paintings: the artist, in addition to make evident the “impression”, describes an almost transcendental, mystical landscapes, completely immersed in a timeless reality, conveying deep feelings and tranquility. It is also remarkable how she wants to create a visual and perceptive break between one color and another, in order to emphasize each brushstroke. The artist invites the viewer to indulge in a visual experience, through which perspective, reality and imagination come together to create the universal, the infinite. The viewer can benefit from the lifeblood emanated from the place, expanding his/her perceptions to become an integral part of that natural world.

“No matter how long time I can still be painting, I will never cease to paint these places.

They have always been my delight.” (John Constable) Art Curator Alessia Perone

Kathrine Amble

Houses in Lofoten

Kathrine Amble

Landscape

Kathrine Amble

Morning walk in the city

Katina Barth

Katina Barth is a very imaginative and talented self-taught German artist. She started with small canvases and later experimented with techniques and acquired new knowledge. The theme of the exhibition "Coming out" is the theme of the artist's life, to come out with one's art, to make it available to the public.Presenting one's work to a large audience is not such an easy process to accept, one has to internalize it and be sure of what one is showing. At the same time, you should not be afraid to show your work that metaphorically represents the true essence of the person. By showing their work, an artist "lays bare", exhibits their soul and it is not a simple process, neither from an artistic point of view nor in real life in general. Showing one's work to the world means being ready to receive any kind of reaction and to feel what everyone, with their subjectivity feels when looking at those combinations of shapes and colors.

Katina "came out" and the feeling was one of extreme liberation. Art is her emotional outlet and allows her to express what she feels through a canvas and a brush, without the need for unnecessary words. The works she creates are transpositions of moods, she plays with colors and shapes always referring to a personal emotional sphere and this is the element that makes them unique. Among her artworks there is "Winterwonderland" a harmonious composition in which triumphs the white and light pink, ethereal that makes the work balanced and calm. Veils of pink give movement, a darker patch is outlined in the center of the canvas. With few colors and soft, dense and wide essential brushstrokes, the artist describes sensations that refer to the cold season.

Katina Barth

A harmonious landscape, which transmits peace to the viewer. In "Samba" the protagonist is movement, joy and happiness. On a background of yellow hues created by poured and watery color, it paints an animated tangle of purple color created with a remarkable gesture and skill. The color freely paints the canvas, the brushstrokes are varied, very free and spontaneous. Here and there accumulations of color.

Traces of white light add to the movement. The lines and shapes intertwine with each other as if to create a real dance of joyful and disruptive emotions. In the artwork "Freedom" the atmosphere changes. The background is dark and gloomy. It is an abstract work but at the same time it makes references to the natural and animal world. The shapes painted in white contrasting with the background are reminiscent of birds. All made with free brushstrokes, spontaneous and color that drips, creates, mixes. Another color that contrasts with the background is the red that mixed with white, produces shades of pinkish very pleasant. The artwork is extremely decorative and encloses in abstract and detailed elements, the true essence of nature and the balance of the universe. Also in the work "Flower Explosion" there is a clear reference to the natural world. On a background made with warm colors, variegated and with the technique of color sprayed and dripping, flowers are painted in contrast. A real explosion of color, a metaphysical manifestation of nature referable to the season of spring.

Katina Barth

The colors are pleasant, intriguing. The flowers are rendered with a few simple brushstrokes but are extremely beautiful and evocative. The artist succeeds in calibrating the alternation between full and empty spaces, making the viewer concentrate on the center of the canvas. The theme of nature and its manifestations is also the protagonist of the artwork "Butterfly". The canvas is stained with orange and red brushstrokes in different densities and a butterfly is drawn in contrast with the white. The artwork is essential but contains at the same time, different elements and feelings related to the intrinsic relationship between nature and man. Katina plays with contrasts and with the variety of brushstrokes, wider for the background while fine and detailed for the butterfly. The butterfly symbolizes metamorphosis, change, hope for the future. It is a symbol of rebirth, symbolizing "coming out", the central focus of the artist's artistic process. Katina is a skilled artist with incredible gestures who in her artworks represents her moods through color games, lines and compositions. She often combines feelings with the natural world, flowers, animals, creating symbolic and extremely evocative paintings. The viewer is attracted by the vividness of the colors and is involved in the artwork thanks to the movement created by Katina with fluid and spontaneous brushstrokes.

Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti

Katina Barth

Flower Explosion

Katina Barth

Samba

Katina Barth

Butterfly

Katina Barth

Winterwonderland

Katina Barth

Freedom

Kazuhiro Nakamura The Japanese artist Kazuhiro Nakamura joins M.A.D.S. Art Gallery with three paintings showing three different subjects but, in some way, linked between them in their meaning and technique of realization. Concerning the concept of the current “Coming Out” exhibition, the artist presents “Button” a painting that apparently, at the first sight, seems to show a blue and big flower, with enormous petals almost coming out from the canvas while dispersing and confounding with the colourful background. As the title itself lets imagine, the scene however represents a button, maybe the yellow circle with a black spot at the centre, symbolizing the empty space in which the strand passes, the buttonholes. The same concept of double lecture of what is represented in the painting can be visible in “Wizard” where, with the same artistic technique of oil and acrylic gouache, Kazuhiro gives birth to a magical subject that takes the semblances of a blue rose.

By watching the scene, in fact, the wizard’s transforming body can be seen also as a stem while, the light blue aura around him, composes the petals. Moreover, to complete the subject, the two black spots on the right and left side of the canvas, can be considered as the rose’s leaves. Undefined, dark and with a cold atmosphere, this painting can be read as the human’s inner self transformation among the nowadays society, that forces people to be all the same, against our real personality. A similar meaning assumes “Deep Purple – SHIYOU”, a painting in which the main character is a young lady – the artist’s wife - in her nakedness viewed from behind. Remaining coherent with what described before, the girl seems to walk along approaching the darkest world - that is here compared with the society – while her subconscious, represented by a sort of soul coming out from her physical body, is trying to stop her. With these three paintings, the artist indirectly opens a window and a reflection on the changes of the whole society caused by the aim to homologate all the human beings.

Art Curator Martina Stagi

Kazuhiro Nakamura

Button

Kazuhiro Nakamura

Wizard

Kazuhiro Nakamura

Deep Purple - SHIYOU

Kell Jarner Rsmussen Kell Jarner Rasmussen lives and works as a painter and rhetorician at Frederiksberg, Denmark.When he was a child, he had an uncle named Knud. He was the Mozart of drawing. Kell and his older brother could watch their uncle draw for hours. He did a lot of drawings by himself, neat stuff like birds and trees, and showed them to his parents. They were not impressed. In his own room he made another kind of drawings – crazy stuff like stickmen at war, screaming faces, a guy making pooping outside the window, etc.. These he didn't show to his parents. When he grew up he became an abstract expressionistic painter. Then one day in 2015, the crazy, secret stuff from his childhood appeared on the canvas. And it's been like that ever since. The artist Kell Jarner Rasmussen in the artworks called Padndemic, painted on frebruary 2020, wanted to represent the moment when the Covid-19 was only a rumors that would become a frightening rumor. In these artworks the artist represented the mosts important events pf recent years through thei way of expressing themselves.

Art Curator Letizia Vuotto

Kell Jarner Rasmussen

Belly Speaker

Kell Jarner Rasmussen

The beginnig of Biden area

Kell Jarner Rasmussen

Pandemic

Kiera Schlansky

Kiera Schlansky manages to make her artistic and aesthetic conception evident by exploring the surrounding environment through painting, up to reach a purely abstract vision of her inner self. She always discovers new color connections, different techniques and new expressive concepts: everything aims at capturing the optical perception of the observer, involving him/her in a wide expanse of tone, exactly as in “Awaken”, a work presented for the “Coming Out” exhibition at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery. Through this painting, Kiera indelibly represents emotions and moods, enlivened by the vision of that blue oil in perpetual movement, which releases a charge of energy and vitality. The different angles of the strokes give depth to the scene and the tones are thus highlighted, becoming the main characters of the canvas involving and supporting the observer in his/her upward phase. The free brushstrokes and the dense layers of nuances underline the artist's creativity, where red and white shades represent intense feelings of a quiet soul and indicate a new representation of dimensional spaces, beyond one perceived reality. It seems like the artist was painting with a simple action that dynamism capable of pervading the entire pictorial surface, as her gesture results to be clearly spontaneous and immediate. By recalling the artistic movement of Abstractionism, an expressive and symbolic function of color prevails, emphasizing the viewer's perceptions and suggesting a close link between the latter and the artwork. The ability to think about a dimension that is not yet real and the one to activate the imagination from which several visions can turn into reality, are some of the peculiarities of this canvas that help the artist to look for completely new abstract forms and concepts. Admiring this vivid work means being able to recognize its pictorial quality and discover the virtues and strength of the colors that defy time and herald a change.

“The modern artist works to express an inner world: movement, energy and other inner forces.”

(Jackson Pollock)

Art Curator Alessia Perone

Kiera Schlansky

Awaken

Kirsty “Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality”. (Jonas Salk)

Kirsty is a contemporary fluid abstract artist, based in London. She started creating art as an hobby but her passion grew immensely in just a few years; she likes using different techniques and experimenting, although her favourite technique is the “Dutch pour”. She feels her art as spontaneous and she draws inspiration from a wide range of music genres while she paints. Moreover, the love for nature constitutes another great source of inspiration for her. The artwork “The Awakening” reflects the turning point after all the suffering and pain that the pandemic caused, for it’s a symbol of what humans finally rediscovered. Being deprived of their freedom, people are now coming back to light, realizing the importance of their independence after a long time. The viewer of the painting is able to follow the movement of the picture, which is dynamic and energetic, as an explosion of colours or sounds. In this sense, the artwork has the intention of expressing the positive feelings that humans need, in order to bring back hope into their lives. The artist shows us her identity in this “Coming out” as a melody does in music: by opening the viewer’s mind to hope, courage and dreams.

Art Curator Maddalena Corbini

Kirsty

The Awakening

L

There is always something interesting about change, the imperceptible mutation of something we thought was static and always the same over time. We are bewitched when a golden glow, infused with warm, vibrant light mutates into a lunar reflection; a reflection that is more subtle and difficult to visualize but literally captures our attention. In Phase of Vampire this continuous metamorphosis takes place. External stimuli lead the work to transform itself to look like something else, something new. And this is how something that seemed familiar to us has now acquired new characteristics, and this is how the sense of something has been transformed into something else, into something we have yet to know and understand. The term metamorphosis has its roots in the Greek language: its literal translation indicates a change of form, the passage from one mode of existence to another. In archaic myth and in classical texts it was used to describe magical and miraculous transformations, for example, from man to animal, to plant, to object. In later literature, as well as in modern philosophy, the figure of metamorphosis has been taken up several times, but becoming an allegory, a way to explain the deeper meaning of change and the search for the self. In any case, metamorphosis is that physical and ideal process that has as its purpose the change of something, the passage from one phase to another in a living being. L in Phase of Vampire makes evident the movement, the excited transformation, the curiosity for the new that metamorphosis brings. Fluid art is experienced here in its purest form: the color, applied to the support is difficult to handle. The latter creates shapes, arabesques, areas of high intensity of form and more placid, quieter areas. The pigment is not satisfied with the flat surface of the support, it needs to expand and contract, to create hollows and depressions. A rough, almost rough surface characterizes the work: is this perhaps the hard carapace which, once the metamorphosis has been accomplished, is left behind by the being as an element that is now discarded? Is this the symptom of a change that is now about to be accomplished? The same dichotomy between the two primary colors of red and blue suggests to us the concept of change. These are two extremely contrasting colors and, in their nature, neither has elements and pigments present in the other. Yet in the work these two colors are inextricably united, literally cutting the work into two portions. It is the metaphor of before and after represented in the same space-time; it is the summary of the process of metamorphosis and change literally vomited on the support. With his work, L wanted to share this magical event, this slow and gradual transition which, aided by external stimuli, is capable of transforming something into something else, giving it a new sense of existence.

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

L

Phase of Vampire

László Retek "Everything in my work has come from the mirror," he says," and the idea that it reflects society and reality.” (Michelangelo Pistoletto)

“I was born in Serbia (then Yugoslavia) as a member of the Hungarian minority in the multiethnic region of Vojvodina. I have been educating myself in the field of fine arts in a self-taught way”. László Retek participates in M.A.D.S. Art gallery’s art exhibition called “Coming out”, which is about the liberation of self expression. The artist presents his artwork named “Near and far IV," which is a collision between two different materials such as oil painting and metal, presented on a flat surface. In this assemblage, he portrays one of the most personal aspects of a person which is someone’s calligraphy. It represents the personality of each one of us. For Retek it is imperative to depict the tension between two materials, two different forces. The calligraphy’s force is traced with oil painting highlighting on some the metal areas of the assemblage, where the color red takes protagonism at the bottom of the art piece. The area free from a graphic with oil painting is the metal, which carries its own force polished like a mirror. László Retek finds a way to express his concern into responsible consumption habits and downsizes waste by using recycled materials for his creations. The artist states: “The mirror shows us a completely different world”, due to difference between the reflection of reality and reality itself. The reflection on a surface is a recognition, on an art piece the audience becomes part of the artwork. Participation from the audience had such importance also to Michelangelo Pistoletto: “Mirrors are not the expression of my will or my feelings, but a phenomenological effect.” Mirrored images represent an alternative perception of reality, sometimes we trust reality and other times we create our own perception of it. László Retek liberates by creating an assemblage, an object to reflect reality. The effect is the same: what you observe is truth.

“These are glittering, reflective shapes stuck in a picture that give us insight into another world. If we look in a mirror, we don’t really see ourselves in it, but our inverted other, which really isn’t us.”

(László Retek)

Art Curator Karla Peralta Málaga

László Retek

Near and far IV

Laura H. Rubin

The work of Swiss artist Laura H. Rubin “Please Don’t Stare", on display during the "Coming Out" exhibition, held by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, is striking for two main reasons: firstly, the intensity of the depicted gaze, which acts like a mirror in which the observer is called upon to look at himself, a delicate expressiveness with a strong emotional impact; secondly, the underlying leitmotif, that melancholy, which the artist corroborates, redeeming it from the negative meaning usually attributed to this term. Through her graphic illustrations, the artist shows how melancholy is a powerful source of inspiration and a useful tool for creating - for the artist herself - to give shape to the state of mind and then, in a cathartic creative movement, to free herself from it benevolently. In particular, the artist draws on Greek art and mythology, as well as philosophy, with its symbolism and profound truths. The figure in Laura's work is composed of frames, a digital drawing in a realistic style depicting a young woman delicately hiding her gaze from the viewer. The artist's choice stems from the feeling of unease that the subject herself seemed to feel, as if she were forced to be subjected to the gaze of others. The artist decides to give the young woman the possibility of concealing her face, creating a see-through effect that intrigues and fascinates, as it is almost a contradiction to be a work that prefers not to show itself. A claim to its own space, that of melancholy. The color scheme plays on black and white, light and shade, and on a scale of greys to give depth to the subject. Contrasting is the choice of adding color just below the eyes, framing the lower part of the subject's gaze and marking the cheekbones. In this way, it emphasizes and makes more evident precisely what the figure is then going to hide, drawing the attention of others to what is being veiled. The gradual darkening of the hands contributes to the dynamism and symbolic value of the figure's gesture. The subject becomes darker, with his gaze fixed on the observer, giving him the same sensation of unease and anxiety. The decision to hide the body of the figure itself is given by the firm desire to bring attention to the face, with its expressions, and to the emotions that the facial muscles portray, letting the state of mind move beneath the surface of the skin.

"A poet is a nightingale who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds."

(Percy Bysshe Shelley)

Art Curator Martina Grassi

Laura H. Rubin

Please Don't Stare

Leanne Powell “To heal is to touch with love that which we previously touched with fear”. (Stephen Levine)

Leanne Powell is an artist who grew up in the English countryside and who always was passionate about creating art, since the age of eight years old; she studied art and graphic design and, after a long time where art was simply a hobby, she recently started her professional career as an artist. She feels art as a way to heal the mind and soul, as a therapeutic process, and she enjoys a great variety of techniques, with a preference for soft pastels and acrylic painting. Her art aims at capturing emotions, both negative and positive, in order to explore them in her works, as we are able to see in the artwork “Movement of the Soul”. Away from traditional pouring techniques, the artist uses her own style, which is unique and expresses entirely her playful nature. In this sense, the artist shows us all the innocence and the desire of freedom that she felt when she was younger: playing with shapes and colours, she rediscovers her childhood. Therefore, art becomes a way to explore hidden feelings of the past and the conflict between the adult world with its orders and impositions and the world of children with its freedom and spontaneity. The artist shows us her identity in this “Coming out” by letting her inner child out since, whenever the adult world imposes itself, the world of children will always be able to come back through art and imagination.

Art Curator Maddalena Corbini

Leanne Powell

Movement of the Soul

Lee Dain The versatility of the human soul enclosed in a painting. Sensations and intuitions, concepts that are difficult to represent and inexplicable are represented here in Radiate. A triangular prism causes a single source of white light to be divided into several chromatic tones. Dispersion is a physical phenomenon that causes the separation of a wave into spectral components with different lengths, due to the dependence of the wave velocity on the wavelength in the crossed medium. Dispersion is also called chromatic dispersion to emphasize its dependence on wavelength. The human soul behaves exactly like the prism: a single emotional source - a person, a landscape, a situation - once captured by the human soul is divided into various sensations and emotions. The boundary between the various types of "feeling" are blurred, one flows into the other, they contaminate and cancel each other out. The blind joy of a newborn love brings with it the worry for the future and the anxiety for a happy ending; the sweetness of a consolidated love joins the melancholy of carefree times gone by, of fleeting and instinctive moments that, once reached that stage, are only a distant memory. The image of a natural landscape brings with it heavy sighs but also an innate sense of freedom as well as a fleeting memory that crosses our mind for a thousandth of a second has the ability to inflame our souls with nostalgia and pleasure for the past time. Lee Dain encapsulates in her artwork all the complexity of the human soul. She highlights the multitude of feelings that we can feel, highlights certain sensations that we willingly or unwillingly pick up from our surroundings. The border between love and hate, between anger and passion, between nostalgia and impetus is never defined. The whirlwind of emotions is in constant motion, feelings in perpetual motion wander in our soul and feed on the games of our mind. And so it is that Radiate becomes soiled with indefinite chromatic stains, it becomes soiled while enjoying its acknowledged complexity. A supine woman occupies the space at the center of the composition. She is sleeping or perhaps she is lost in thought. Her face is extremely figurative and formally impeccable. Yet, we carefully follow the shiluettes of her recumbent body. The neck is fortuitously stained with a purplish color, the light blue top has the same hue as a large light blue patch that occupies much of the composition. Having arrived at the lower limbs, these are only a sketch: by now the struggle between feelings has taken over the composition. It's an impossible battle to win; if we didn't have feelings, we wouldn't be human.

The emotional dance that stains the composition with fury and stains the splendid figurative face with abstractness has begun and will never cease. Unwillingly or unwillingly we are condemned to the emotional vortex, to the sensations with their smoky borders and shaky meanings. Let us abandon ourselves to them, let us be lulled by their dance, let us stage the theater of the human soul.

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

Lee Dain

Radiate

Lena Marie Store Olsen "Energy is always moving outwards or inwards. It can never stay still: if it were still it would not be energy, but there is nothing that is not energy. So everything is moving somehow."

(Osho Rajneesh)

Lena's artistic work is completely imbued with energy. The artist paints emotions and sensations that go beyond all boundaries and barriers, emerge from the canvas and pervade the soul of the observer. Lena uses color as a tool of free expression, it is the only protagonist and within the work she moves in harmony with the feelings that the artist wants to evoke. A great energy is what the viewer perceives when encountering Lena's artistic work, an energy that sets the entire work in motion, which moves from the inside out to meet the viewer. Lena's artistic work is clearly of abstractionist inspiration, there is no reference to reality, no figure and no line, color and brushstrokes are the only means used by the artist. Colors that sometimes mix, other times overlap, creating unique colors, giving life to lights and shadows that move in harmony throughout the work. The artist breaks the silence of the dark with light, clearly evident signs, she creates an entanglement of lines that, like in a net, trap the observer's gaze. The white color that appears almost always, pierces the void, emerges from pasty colors, makes space and gives light and brilliance to the entire composition. If Lena's art is far from the real, it is clear instead how true and real are the feelings that push the artist's hand in creating her works. The artist's works are an explosion of colors, light and above all energy and emotions. Lena manages to set the brushstrokes in motion, the colors move, creating a vortex of feelings in the observer and recalling memories and dreams. In fact, Lena's artistic work represents the encounter with positive vibrations, through which sensations and feelings are freed, emotions are awakened and what the observer finds himself living is a unique and unforgettable experience. Colors and brushstrokes become the means, they are the bridge that connects the soul of the spectator with that of Lena.

Art Curator Vanessa Viti

Lena Marie Store Olsen

Dream 1

Lena Marie Store Olsen

Nordic

Lena Marie Store Olsen

Visitors

Leo Mateus

Leo Mateus is a transgender and queer illustrator who devoted his creative research to the representation of the queer community in order to suffice the lack of its representation in the media. Leo's artworks put the human body in focus to address the social and political debate about sexual orientation and gender identity. In the "Coming Out" exhibition, held by M.A.D.S. Gallery, the artist shows “Holding On”: the illustration represents a nude couple in the act of holding on to each other. At first glance they seem to be two different individuals and in a way they are: on the surface they have different gender attributes, but what distinguishes them the most is their opposite attitudes. The sitting figure comes out from a curled, fetal position, holding on and looking up towards the other. The standing figure stands tall with the eyes closed and grasps with confidence the other, despite not being totally in focus, still coming together in a final shape. In this delicate, emotional artwork Leo framed a key moment of his own personal experience: the coming out as a transgender. “In that moment, I was the only person I could trust to stick around. I held onto the image I had of my future self to help me get through that period, until I became that person.” The composition guides the viewer's eye along a diagonal line, from the bottom left to the upper right of the image mirroring the artist's personal journey, the uplifting of the spirit and body, the transition from past to future, the acceptance of their identity. Leo sapiently adopted two additional colours to give a 3D look to the standing figure: the distorted and shifted repetitions of its outline conveys the same movement and three-dimensionality of an anaglyph picture. The clean, black lines of the digital artwork emulate the cross hatching drawing technique of the fifteenth century while the figures' pose recalls the emphasis of the Classical artworks as well as of the ancient Greek artworks which presented distinct silhouettes on a plain background. Contrary to the Classical pudica pose, in which the figures cover their nudity drawing the viewers' attention to their sexuality, the couple is totally exposed, both their bodies and souls are naked before the viewers' eyes during their symbolic exchange. Through his artwork Leo immortalised not only his personal growth as a transgender and a queer artist, but also the meaningful and overwhelming journey of self-acceptance shared within the queer community.

Art Curator Flavia Montecchi

Leo Mateus

Holding On

Lexie Sipmann Lexie Sipmann grew up surrounded by art and design, with both parents skilled illustrators and painters and we see this in the maturity and familiarity with which she treats the world of art as a multimedia artist. Her work is bold, expressionist, and spontaneous: she tells me that she often creates her work without a plan in mind, letting her insights guide her. On occasion of the International contemporary Art Exhibition entitled "Coming Out", organized in Milan by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Lexie decided to present a square format work of mixed media on a wooden panel, entitled "Cherry Bomb". The continuous exploration of new techniques and new emotions, the creation, the deconstruction of the levels through the collage, made her discover that trusting the process and not expecting a result produces more authenticity, making the result more intimate and more amazing sense of the word. The shape of the square is so recurrent not only in the format of the canvas but above all on the surface of it, that it seems a tribute to the geometric shape, similar to the one conducted by Josef Albers around the 60s. Just like him, Lexis also pushes on contrasts, using sophisticated and colour ranges, but above all covering many different shades. We can say that we see many different influences in a single work: Hard edge painting, Constructivism, Expressionism, Abstract art, Geometric abstractionism, Modern art up to the so-called "Op Art" of which Albers himself writes in depth. Lexie Sipmann, she finds a new guide to geometric harmony, trying to appease it with thick and black lines, apparently random, which contrast with the straight and rigid shapes of the background. Personally, in this combination of soft and rigid, black, and coloured, I see the photographic capture of the personality of each of us, made up of opposite characteristics that mix in our unconscious, shaping our character and our way of doing.

“There is a vitality, a life force, an acceleration that translates through you into action, and since there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique and if you block it, it will never exist through. no other means, and to be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your job to determine how good it is, not how it compares to other expressions. It is your job to keep it clear and direct, to keep the channel open” (Martha Graham)

Art Curator Carola Antonioli

Lexie Sipmann

Cherry Bomb

Libbi Kantor

Libbi Kantor is a young artist who grew up in the desert area of Israel. As such, she has had the opportunity to work on her art accurately and in depth, addressing themes, thoughts, and sensations that we do not even imagine in the West.

Even serving in the army after high school, she continues to metabolize a reality rich in delicate contents, emotionally strong artistic sensibilities that have led her to a continuous exploration of her inner self and her subconscious. She started traveling, focusing on Africa and Asia, meeting new cultures, new ways of doing, thinking, and expressing herself. She knew new colors, new shapes and new emotions, in contrast but enriched at the same time by the previous ones, shaping her as an artist and a complete creative person. Painting is for her a fundamental need to heal the wounds that her life has caused her, the difficult scenarios, and the harsh realities with which she has struggled hard.

Libbi Kantor

On occasion of the International Exhibition of contemporary Art entitled "Coming out" organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery of Milan, Libbi has decided to present six mixed technique pieces from her repertoire collection, entitled "OneThing", "TwoThing", "ThreeThing", "FourThing", "FiveThing" and "SixThing". To be precise, these are acrylics, papers, pencils and markers, a very rich and articulated technique that manages to give life to unique pieces, of incredible energy and desire to live, to express themselves and communicate positivity to the world. The images are reminiscent of the English and American Pop Art of the late 50s of the last century, due to their square format, their use of colour and their forms of immediate figurative symbolic connection. The set of visual forms belonging to the universe of mass media, which includes billboards, television images, films, magazines, comics, science fiction, industrial design, fashion and much more, are recurrent in the works of the young Israeli artist, who through the art, seems to give vent to an interior light of positivity and joy, which despite everything, prevails over the brutality of the world and the injustices that have been experienced on its own skin and witnessed by its own eyes.

Art Curator Carola Antonioli

Libbi Kantor

OneThing

Libbi Kantor

TwoThing

Libbi Kantor

ThreeThing

Libbi Kantor

FourThing

Libbi Kantor

FiveThing

Libbi Kantor

SixThing

Lika Ramati

Lika Ramati is an Israeli permanent artist at M.A.D.S. Art gallery, who moved from street art to interior design. She is one of the most influential and powerful women in the world, based on the Art Market Magazine. Original and dynamic, Lika founded and decorated in New York the two famous downtown's Yaffa Café and Simone Martini Bar. Her artworks show her energy and her successful career as Visual Artist, fine art photographer and designer. Lika's work presents two distinctive signs. The first one is the constant use of an indefinite background considered as abstract. The second one is the representation of female figures seen as a concept of beauty, nature and power. Lika's works transmit the energy of the subjects of the canvas by using colours; in this way, she can communicate directly with the viewer's soul. An example of this expressive ability can be seen in the five works that Lika exposes at the "Coming Out" exhibition. In these works, the artist proves her idea of the figure seen as the personification of the vital force. This force is visible in the canvas' figure staring at the viewer. This staring contest happens between the figure and the viewer. A good example of it can be the work entitled "Gypsy", an amazing artwork that can remind the fierce look of "Giuditta I" by Gustav Klimt (1909). The canvas shows a majestic female figure in all her dignity who appears from a gold background. She is a goddess who has no fear to show her sensitive side, as the viewer can see in the tears in the left eye. It is not a demonstration of weakness, but it is a way to show power and awareness, as the posture and the look suggest. Another work that explains directly the personification of the vital force's topic, is the piece entitled "Transformation". In this work, Lika explains how it is not necessary to be born as a woman to feel like one, and there is nothing to be ashamed of to express ourselves. Lika Ramati is an artist who uses art to express the truth, and she tries to transmit to the viewer the determination that characterizes herself.

Art Curator Beatrice Rosa

Lika Ramati

Golden mask

Lika Ramati

Gypsy

Lika Ramati

Mystery

Lika Ramati

Purple top hat

Lika Ramati

Transformation

Lillian Buljo "Almost every situation and way of life has a blessed moment.

That’s what good artists can dig up."

(Nietzsche) A Norwegian artist, Lillian Buljo creates her works using alcohol ink. Educated in interior design and sociology, suffering from a chronic disease, she has difficulty working in her training field. Art therefore becomes care, medicine, possibility of reconstructing the puzzle of her life. Painting is what she loves to do, which frees her mind and body from thoughts and pains, leading her into another dimension of serenity and lightheartedness. Thanks to painting, Lillian manages to achieve an inner balance, forgetting, at least momentarily, the difficulties she faces on a daily basis. The painting runs free, almost a flow that passes from the mind to the hand and the canvas on which it is imprinted. It is the instinct to guide it. What is amazing is to notice that the feelings that the artist feels in the act of painting, are repeated in the mind of the observer. Admiring “A Glimpse” gives the impression that the vessel of your emotions opens, pouring them all on the canvas in the colors that mix, generating new sensations, new balances, new lives: flowers that bloom from impervious terrain. The central neutral white gives the sensation of the cancellation of the senses, of falling into a state of trance, of deep meditation, and then return more aware, new, blossomed, to real life. Lillian comes out of the mental schemes that society imposes to embrace its own interiority, recognize itself, rediscover itself in its entirety, beyond the limits that nature imposes. With her works she manages to lead those who observe along the same journey.

Those who get involved will remain addicted.

Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo

Lillian Buljo

A Glimpse

Lilyma

Lilyma is a Chinese artist, writer, actor and film producer. A personality with an imaginative and innovative artistic flair who likes to experiment, arriving at an artistic concept that draws on all her knowledge of art and culture. An artist without boundaries who finds in art a way to express herself and give her own vision of the world. Lilyma proves to be not only very skilled, but also very versatile in the use of different techniques and painting formats. She is inspired by her life, by what happens to her and what surrounds her, she takes her cue from everyday life, her thoughts and emotions. Visual art is just one of the many ways in which Lilyma gives her vision of the world. Among her artworks is "The apricot tree at the backyard", in which she depicts a realistic extract of her reality. The protagonist, as the title suggests, is the apricot tree, which is positioned in the foreground, cutting the scene at an angle. In the background is a rural landscape, a house with bell-shaped windows, stained glass and a sloping roof.

Lilyma outlines the elements with a black outline and uses vivid, realistic colours. She creates a kind of photograph, an everyday moment that is fixed in time and space, a painting that smells of home, familiarity, sharing and family.

Lilyma

Nature reigns supreme, there is a reference to the summer\spring season with the blossoming of the apricots and the flowers in the background, showing their most beautiful colours. The brushstrokes are soft and gestural, while the black outline is sharper, clearer and cleaner. The round format of the artwork emphasises the artist's creativity. The naturalistic subject matter refers to nineteenth-century painting, which is taken up here in a modern key and revisited. In the artwork "Nian Hu Bay, Tai lake", the landscape is the protagonist. It is a painting of a place probably painted "en plain air" by the artist where seasonality and nature still reign supreme. There is no human presence, except for a few small houses in the background. The brushstrokes are less defined and blend together to create a fluid and realistic effect, thanks to the oil tempera technique. An expanse of pink and purple flowers covers the grass on the other side of the water and breaks up the green colour used here in all its shades. The landscape is silent, peaceful, instilling tranquillity and serenity. It is as if human feelings were conveyed through nature, which is the mouthpiece of calm and peacefulness. The composition seems harmonious and balanced, the colours are warm and the slightly elevated viewpoint allows the viewer to project himself into the work.

In "Miss Moli" the subject changes from the other two artworks seen previously.

Lilyma

Lilyma treats a female subject with long raven and blue hats, shot in a sort of photographic format, diagonally, showing us only a portion of her body. The woman is naked and puts the back of her hand to her temple as she sighs, looking into space. She is wearing only a necklace. Her hair frames her face and falls softly over her breasts, highlighting them. The protagonist has a lost look, she seems lost and immersed in her thoughts. The girl seems to travel to other universes with her mind and seems to have finished a long cry. In fact, the eye make-up is cast on the cheeks, creating a playful and contrasting colour with the girl's pale, ethereal skin. The lips are full and bright pink. Every detail is finished, the realistic rendering is very striking. Looking into her eyes, the viewer is catapulted directly into her mind, feeling her worries on her skin and reflecting on her life. Lilyma is a very versatile artist who is able to create beautiful evocative landscapes and at the same time, realistic portraits that push the viewer and deep thoughts. She draws inspiration from everything, also drawing on literature and cinema. She lets herself be governed by impulses and emotions but at the same time she organises her artworks in a balanced and studied way. An artist with a unique and innovative style who masters any artistic tool she is given.

Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti

Lilyma

The apricot tree at the backyard

Lilyma

Nian Hu Bay, Tai lake

Lilyma

Miss Moly

Lise Vestergaard

Lise Vestergaard is educated at the Danish Design School, Kolding on the line of visual communication. Here Lise has been exchange students in England at Ravensborne College, visual Communication. She became fulltime artist in 2015.

Today she is a well known danish artist presented in Denmark as well on the international art scene in Italy, Norway and France. Lise uses her art as global voice to get attention and to call to action around important issues such as sustainability, believing that a part of the climate solution is that we fall in love with nature, again. That is why her artworks are made of recycled materials, such as plastics, and banknotes that are the background to her subjects: the aim is to sensitize the viewer to the maximum and arouse in him/her a reflection on environmental issues. “Dear Greta”, the first Lise's artwork presented at M.A.D.S. art gallery's “Coming Out” exhibition, wants to be a thanks to the young Greta Thunberg who everyday stands us and brings the important awareness message of sustainable development. The young activist, on a background of banknotes, looks at a butterfly, the only element connected to Nature, while she, with an annoyed look, is unable to speak due to her dollar mask. “Farmer”, in the same way, is a reflection on sustainable living: recreating an old Danish painting of peaceful peasant communities, Lise inserts contemporary objects such as a garbage can and a plastic bottle to reflect on the relationship between Nature and the human. How can we recreate our relationship with Nature and change routines that are sustainable? “Girl by the sea” calls us to action as well: wanting to raise awereness on microplastics that are now everywhere, from the oceans to our body, Lise uses for the background disposable plastic found in nature and from the plastic waste collected by Greenkayak to represent the sea: a little girl, in all her innocence, is in front of it. What future awaits for our Mother Earth? And wich one for our children?

I believe that art can touch our soul. That is why I create art with focus on sustainability and community.

I believe that a part of the climate solution is that we fall in love with nature, again.

That is why I use art as a sustainable communicator, with my best intention and hope that art will provide food for thought – and call for action.

(Lise Vestergaard)

Art Curator Matilde Della Pina

Lise Vestergaard

Dear Greta

Lise Vestergaard

Farmer

Lise Vestergaard

Girl by the sea

Lize Krüger

Lize Krüger is a digital artist with an incredible artistic experience. The theme of surrealism in the artist's works is constant, the combination of completely different elements makes Lize able to create unique works. At the "COMING OUT" international art exhibition hosted by the art gallery M.A.D.S. Lize exhibits five works that, in a manner consistent with the artist's artistic production, have a clear assonance with surrealism. "FOLLOW MY SHADOW I" creates oxymorons ranging from the use of light to the subjects represented, the deer skull and flowers are illuminated and this creates an incredible contrast with the shadows of children, both from a symbolic and a visual point of view, “SEARCHING FOR ANGELS II” is placed on the same communicative and artistic style, brighter than the first, but rich in oxymorons and contrasts. "I'LL MEET YOU THERE ... SOMEWHERE I" provides a sense of absence in presence, the face has no features, that is, it brings to mind works such as "Il Trovatore" by De Chirico and a famous sketch by Matisse representing a face , both works that deny the identity of the subject. In this way identity is denied, the presence of the mirror recalls, instead, the work "La reproduction interdite" by René Magritte. The absence of the face and the lack of a correct reflection in the mirror makes the work disturbing, disquiet made more accentuated by the veil placed above all the elements. "PRIME VICTIM III" combines elements of classical iconography, through the representation of the Madonna with the child, with extremely contemporary graphic elements, creating an image completely detached from any historically defined artistic current. “TRANSPARENCY” presents a triptych of busts surmounted by a bouquet of flowers instead of the face. Also in this case classical elements are combined with more modern elements, the represented busts recall the Venus de Milo according to the posture. Lize Krüger's works create parallel realities in which the observer's mind can be inspired and in which he can travel in search of his own truth and interpretation.

Art Curator Martina Viesti

Lize Krüger

FOLLOW MY SHADOW I

Lize Krüger

I'LL MEET YOU THERE...SOMEWHERE I

Lize Krüger

PRIME VICTIM III

Lize Krüger

SEARCHING FOR ANGELS II

Lize Krüger

TRANSPARENCY

LJ Smith

LJ Smith is a Texas artist. She attained an associate degree in Sequential Graphic Arts at San Antonio College in her twenties which introduced her to the different understandings of art and design; this is where her spark for art began. It was not until her mid thirties that she discovered fluid art and it was then that she began on a journey which ignited her creative passion. LJ Smith participates in the exhibition held by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in Milan, entitled "Coming Out", showing the public her path with fluid art. The work is titled "The Adaptation" and is made of acrylic paint, ink, gel, stain and resin on a flat wood panel. The work, with its wide interpretation, leaves spectators free to imagine and to be carried away by their emotions. The title begins the reflection: adaptation is a human and animal prerogative, we live surviving and adapting to any situation. In this sense, Darwin’s theory of evolution is central: only the man who adapts survives. Here we see a yellow fluid making its way through the darkness. Yellow joins blue, creating a beautiful green color that becomes the fulcrum of the composition. Green, in a sense, represents a challenge that has been met. It represents the evolution of the person who has adapted to change, who has overcome his fears by evolving. LJ Smith’s works are works dictated by chaos but on the other hand also dictated by feelings. The artist brings back, with an incredible naturalness, her experiences on her supports.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

LJ Smith

The Adaptation

Luc Josserand

Femininity is the source of inspiration of the French artist, Luc Josserand, artworks. For the second time in M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Luc exhibits his paintings made using digital tools. “Digital painters” are often influenced by the ‘gothic’, the ‘manga’ and the ‘fantasy’ worlds, instead, Luc Josserand’s works have more in common with traditional painting themes, that seem to be made with oil. Very different between them, “Alcor Act II” and “Luana”, the two paintings exhibited during the current “Coming Out” exhibition, have nothing in common if not the abstract atmosphere given by Luc’s artistic technique and goal. Delineated are the women’s features, both immersed in the different backgrounds that compose the scene, as if they were living their thoughts.

“Alcor Act II '' takes its name from the subjects represented in the background. Alcor is the name of a very little star, almost invisible, of the “Ursa Major” constellation, but this work is also said to be a tribute to the “Polar Star” that is also represented on the painting, at the extremity of “Ursa Minor” constellation.

Luc Josserand

The young girl in the foreground, illuminated by the stars’ light is the personification of Alcor, the little and insignificant star, who watches over the nocturnal sky and the Universe. What immediately stands out watching it, are the luminous stars that confer a touching atmosphere in which the young girl is absorbed. Magical is also the way in which the artist depicts his subject, wearing particular clothes such as the polka dot bonnet that, with its red spots, recalls the lady’s red lips and cheeks. The same thoughtful atmosphere that characterises the scene, is perceived also in “Luana” where the young lady, with long and odd purple hair is laying on an abstract floor. Wearing only a pair of white tights and coordinated gloves, a seductive girl is absorbed in her thoughts, shyly smiling. The colourful and abstract background with its different geometrical figures, confers a dynamic atmosphere to the scene where, the thin and white filament of ink, seem to reflect the lady’s thoughts. According to the concept of the current “Coming Out” exhibition, the two scenes reflect a deep moment linked to the women’s aim to let their essence come out and spread its real being.

Art Curator Martina Stagi

Luc Josserand

Alcor Act II

Luc Josserand

Luana

Luca Soulos

Luca Soulos is a New Zealand artist who lives and works in Ibizia, Spain. What is emblematic of Soulos' artistic production is the use of a very wet watercolor and very bright colors. At the international contemporary art exhibition "COMING OUT" hosted by the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Luca Soulos exhibits a work entitled "la seducción inocente ..." which depicts a woman's face placed in profile. The element that captures the attention most of all are the lips of a very intense red and a sinuous shape. The lack of clear outlines recalls the pictorial style of the Impressionists in which the stroke is immediate, disconnected from any rule or dogma. The background is a warm yellow and this makes the foreground subject even more highlighted thanks to the use of more muted colors for the portrait. Her hair seems to be gathered up and this highlights a very long neck that recalls the characteristic feature of Modigliani's works. Women, in Luca's works, appear to be depicted with a lot of make-up, from lipstick to eyes that have very long lashes, "la seducción inocente ..." and with it the other works of Luca, celebrate women in their beauty and essence, also telling about their defects and insecurities.

Art Curator Martina Viesti

Luca Soulos

la seducción inocente...

Ludmila Vorotnikova "It is not enough to have your hands pure, you have to have a pure spirit." (Thales)

Ludmila Vorotnikova is an artist living in Tomsk, in Russia. Although she works as a professional psychologist, Ludmila has always cultivated a passion for writing and painting, for which she has distinguished herself by winning numerous prizes in Russia, Europe, Turkey, Israel and India.

Ludmila's approach combines a technical component of great visual impact with a delicate and poetic soul, which characterizes each work with ineffable grace. The purpose of the artist is to give color and shape to the most genuine and positive emotions of the soul. Art becomes an extraordinary opportunity to project one's inner world outside, to allow others to enjoy its beauty as well. The work presented for Coming Out, “The swan girl”, reflects this logic, which is expressed with a suggestive combination of floral and graphic elements, in a harmonious and balanced whole.

On the black background emerges the sweet profile of a young woman wearing an elaborate headdress, decorated with pearls and geometric arabesques, reminiscent of oriental decorations. On top of her headdress a splendid swan is painted whose pure plumage seems to be an expression of the artist's inner purity. The blonde hair strands of the young woman intertwines magnificent pink and white flowers, creating a set of curved lines that balance with the straight lines of the headdress. The artwork represents an ideal representation of innocence and spirituality, a true praise to beauty in its noblest and highest form.

Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti

Ludmila Vorotnikova

The swan girl

Luz Sanchez

Since 2001 Luz Sanchez, a permanent artist at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, exposes her artworks all around the world. When she was young, she started to develop a passion for art, and, while growing up, she frequented courses of theoretical art, painting and drawing. As Luz said: "The use of bright colours is an expression of how painting makes her world shiner than before, when it was all dark and shadow". Her works show the artist's ability to adopt different art styles. The viewer can see this ability by comparing the canvas on display during the "Coming Out" exhibition, held by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery. “Saliendo de la adolescencia" style is to represent in a realistic way a precise moment. The other two canvases, “Trasformación interior” and “Quiero ser yo Mismo”, represent some figure in an abstract background made of bright colours that glorify the shape of the figures. In the work “Saliendo de la adolescencia" it is clear that the main figure is a young lady without a face; this may indicate the will of Luz to let the viewer identify with her. The girl is sitting at the border of a window that may indicate the adolescent period: the passage between the inside of the house and the childhood and the outside with the adult reality. It is a period of change that transforms the body and the perception of reality and that can scare the girl who is trying to protect herself by curl up. Instead, "Quiero ser yo Mismo” and “Trasformación interior” celebrate the woman figure: in the first work, no one can tell the woman how she has to dress up or how she should wear makeup, she is who she wants to be. The second canvas, highlights how the two women mustn't let anything block them to be the true themselves, they have to show their pride and their strength as the cheetah behind them. In these works Luz Sanchez wants the viewer to know how every woman must not feel "incarcerated" in the stereotypes, but she must be free to express herself without boundaries.

Art Curator Beatrice Rosa

Luz Sanchez

Saliendo de la adolescencia

Luz Sanchez

Trasformación interior

Luz Sanchez

Quiero ser yo mismo

M T Molner “Something was dead in each of us, And what was dead was hope” (The ballad of Reading Gaol, Oscar Wild)

An impressionist "brushstroke", created using a pallet knife, the vivacity of the colors, the impeccable technique build the three-dimensionality of the works of Maria Teresa Molner, artist formed at a very young age at the Academy of Fine Art in Barcelona. The artist, starting from a rigorous training, manages to find her own personal artistic research that allows her to create a strong bond with the viewer, that finds itself not only to visit virtually beautiful landscapes, places of art and historical memory of exceptional importance, but also to relive through the vibrant color rendering the emotions that these have awakened in the painter. Lights and colors are the undisputed protagonists of the works on exhibition, an atmospheric rendering almost perceptible makes those who look, almost participating in the scene represented. The call to Mediterranean beauties makes us breathe the human warmth of the people who live in these places, inviting us to visit them and breathe them in their truest essence. In Blazing Sun the observer finds himself to be an integral part of the work, we are physically present and we too, like the artist who paints, observe the landscape through the open window and breathe the summer breeze that the benevolent lush nature gives us, sipping a cup of coffee and enjoying reading a nice book.

M T Molner

The natural light, enriched by saturated colors, remind us how extraordinary and enjoyable life is even in the most difficult moments. Molner’s cultural sensitivity also focuses on the greatness of the past, on the historical memory that always invites us to reflect on the present. Abbay Ruins and Oscar Wilde prison shows the ruins of one of the largest abbeys in the UK. Despite being only remains, the visitor is amazed at the distance of centuries by the greatness and magnificence of these stones that continue to speak to us. They are living stones, as alive is the nature from which they are surrounded and the men who photograph and admire them. Behind the prison of Oscar Wilde where the writer wrote his Ballad of Reading Gaol whilst a prisoner. It amazes the feeling of freedom from every bond that flows from the work, where the prison is one of the protagonists. Many are the recognitions obtained by M.T. Molner thanks to her work. She received a Certificate of Excellence Award from the Circle Foundation for the Arts in a themed Contest: Art in the time of Coronavirus and Social Distinction. Her work has been exhibited in various place in the UK and Spain and also all over the world through various online galleries.

Art Curator Erika Gravante

M T Molner

Abbey Ruins and Oscar Wilde prison

M T Molner

Blazing Sun

Maja Dror “Really, I do not know whether my paintings are surrealist or not, but I do know that they are the frankest expression of myself.” (Frida Kahlo) Maja Dror is a Danish artist who, during the period of Covid-19, formed a strong bond with what will later become an integral part of her life and daily life: art. Inspired by great artists such as P.S Krøyer, Frida Kahlo and Pablo Picasso she creates works with an original and recognizable style among many others: Maja’s style.

The artist wants to give importance to women in all their forms and facets and, for this reason, a careful analysis of the female figure hides behind her works. In “Isolated”, in fact, the protagonist is a woman who, sitting on a chair, reads a book in front of the window. It represents a moment of detachment from the chaos of every day, a moment that each of us needs for himself, for his own reflection and personal growth. In "Superwoman" the protagonist is a female figure who wants to represent a portrait of all women: behind every appearance, there is much more than what you think. Unfortunately, the female gender is often and erroneously considered inferior to the male one: women are strong, have their own personality and independence that no one has the right to trample on and which they themselves have a duty to defend. In the two works just described, the absolute protagonist is colour: different warm and cold shades meet creating a magical chromatic contrast. In “Carrot” two abstract figures are drawn with simple lines surrounded by organic shapes. We see two faces in profile painted with a single black contour line and a body made thanks to the interlocking of several shapes. Warm colours such as yellow and orange were used, which contrast nicely with green. Maja's works are exactly the mirror of her strong personality: they contain her inner world, her thoughts, and emotions that she has the pleasure of sharing with the viewers.

Art Curator Camilla Gilardi

Maja Dror

Carrot

Maja Dror

Isolated

Maja Dror

Superwoman

Małgorzata Juzwa

The Polish artist approached large-scale painting after a visit to New York; here, in fact, she was able to admire enormous image formats in the streets of the city and this awakened in her the desire to painting on large canvases. Her painting style is a mixture of abstraction with figures and nature and in “Honey apiary” we can see how Małgorzata Juzwa perfectly manages to unite and amalgamate these elements. As we can guess from the title of the work, the protagonist of the canvas is an apiary full of honey. The bee has always had a place in art as symbol of zeal, purity and wisdom, and it was often represented in ancient and Renaissance artworks. The apiary, on the other hand, has not found the same luck except in contemporary sculpture. For this reason, we can understand the innovation of Małgorzata Juzwa: to make the apiary, and not the bees, the protagonist of a pictorial work. The honey is effectively rendered by the artist by dense yellow material flows that thicken becoming denser at the top right, just above the honeycombs. They are made mechanically only at first glance, because in reality, if we look more carefully, we realize that the artist has managed to make them all different from each other, so that the eye of the viewer does not get bored. The Polish artist also combines yellow with blue so as to embellish the work. “I feel constantly unsatisfied in my art,” Małgorzata Juzwa says, “I constantly develop and search for importance.”. It is a feeling common to many artists; Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin are only a few illustrious examples, and yet, just as their works are brilliant, so are those of the Polish artist.

Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia

Małgorzata Juzwa

Honey apiary

Malika Kathir “Veil after veil of thin dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colours of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its antique pattern.” (Oscar Wilde) An interesting combination of different techniques and materials. The desire to explore beyond tradition in order to investigate twisted worlds, narrating them through a new gaze. Colours are mixed with extra-pictorial elements that blend with the support, giving life to details whose resemblance to reality is extremely intense in some moments, while in others it fades away. This is the art of Malika Kathir, a contemporary artist of Moroccan origin, who lives and works in Mallorca. Her art immediately shows itself to be free from academic settings, a combination of a more realistic representation and a stylistic language more closely linked to a childlike expressiveness. The use of discarded materials for the creation of her artworks recalls the approach chosen by the Dadaists, when, in the early decades of the 20th century, they made the recovery of these scraps one of their main narrative intentions, with the aim of giving life back through Art. In "Aquarium", Malika Kathir makes an aesthetic analysis of some fishes enclosed in an aquarium. Interesting is the description of the scales, which, thanks to the use of a thin net mixed with the right colours, tells this detail perfectly. The eyes have been obtained thanks to the insertion of metal components, while in the central part, a rope has also been used to sew together the two canvases, on which the entire painting is structured. Most probably the artist also recycled the support, where another subject had previously been represented. The desire to renew and re-bloom emanates from the stratifications of this work and from the re-evaluation of discarded objects, just as we ourselves continue to be reborn as time goes by. This continuous bouncing between novelty and the past and between realism and fantasy, tells of experience as acquired knowledge, as observation of reality, which shapes and models man.

Art Curator Francesca Brunello

Malika Kathir

Aquarium

Manda Noorzad

Manda Noorzad is a Turkish artist, based in Istanbul. Her artistic production focuses mainly on the creation of abstract works. She is a versatile artist, always looking for new creative stimuli and, for this reason, she experiments various techniques: from fluid art, to materic art and she also approaches Impressionist art. Manda participated in the "Mater" exhibition in November 2020 at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, showing the public her skills, both abstract and figurative. The exhibited work was "She is in love. Look at her" and showed the face of a woman emerging from an abstract surface.

This time, on the occasion of the "Coming Out” exhibition, the artist exposes what seems a continuation of the first work presented in Milan. The work now on display is entitled "Believe nothing is bigger than what I glimpse". It is evident the artistic maturity of Manda and the path of evolution that the artist has completed during these months. The work has a rough texture, almost material. Also here, among the various brushstrokes and splashes of color, emerges the face of a woman with closed eyes. The woman is “coming out” from the darkness to be reborn. As previously mentioned, these two works by Manda recall Phidias' sculptural technique called "the wet drapery". In particular, the two works recall the sculpture entitled "La Pudicizia" by Antonio Corradini, Venetian sculptures of the Baroque period. On the other hand, the painting can also be interpreted as a kind of personification of art and the canvas itself. The woman represents nothing but art, to symbolize that in every canvas is present a soul. Each canvas comes to life thanks to the artist’s emotions and Manda Noorzad shows it clearly with this work. The warm colors chosen by the artist converge a sense of protection and positivity.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Manda Noorzad

Believe nothing is bigger than what I glimpse

Manfred Huitel "All the variety, all the delight, all the beauty of life is made up of shadow and light."

(Lev Tolstoj)

Manfred Huitel is a Berlin-based artist. Despite his career path led him to embrace other fields, painting is a passion that he has never stopped feeding, and after finishing his career, painting has become his priority. In fact, in 2016 Manfred's activity never stopped, and he demonstrates a remarkable artistic inspiration, ranging from figurative to abstract art. The works presented for Coming Out demonstrate perfectly this stylistic variety, given in any case by a great desire for introspection, starting from “Vie à l’ombre”, painted in shades of blue and green. The colors are spread in a dense, material way, and are "furrowed" by thin black lines, which create sinuous curved lines on the sides of the composition. The center, on the other hand, is crossed by parallel straight lines, which break the rhythm of the whole and capture the viewer's eye. “Jeu de couleurs” and “Dilemme émotionnel” are two examples of Manfred's interest in the versatility of abstractionism, which fits perfectly both a joyful atmosphere like in “Jeu de couleurs” and themes of a deeper character. “Dilemme émotionnel” allows to project yourself into the artist's inner universe, whose emotional upheaval can be guessed from the dominant use of red and black, which fill the canvas entirely, expressing a sort of chromatic horror vacui that goes hand in hand with inner anguish. “Hypnagogie” takes interiority to its extreme consequences, with a dreamlike, bizarre and audacious representation, while “Réflection sur soi” portrays the artist himself: here reality overlaps the expectations of the mind, which blurs the contours of the facial features until they forget their essence.

Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti

Manfred Huitel

Dilemme émotionnel

Manfred Huitel

Hypnagogie

Manfred Huitel

Jeu de couleurs

Manfred Huitel

Réflexion sur soi

Manfred Huitel

Vie à l'ombre

Marcelo Soria-Rodríguez "The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do.

The mistery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man."

(B.F. Skinner)

In a world where interdisciplinarity and the connection between science and art is the order of the day, Marcelo Soria- Rodriguez carries on an innovative artistic language. Science, physics, programming, sociology, culture collaborate in building digital images of strong impact, which seek answers not dialogical, but visual, to questions of great relevance. Art, in fact, does not seek a unique, certain answer, but creates mental connections that reproduce gears and patterns of life. With his works Marcelo breaks classical mental schemes, embracing the total cognitive space. From innovation departments in multinational corporations, to an international data literacy movement, to research new pseudo-intelligent species in society with the advent of AI-powered products and services, he always has had an interest in the unconventional view, the what-ifs and how can we advance in the integration of society and generation of prosperity. The question that the artist asks himself and that guides him in his artistic research is how the machine, more and more present in the life of each of us, can produce goods, objects, pieces that generate emotions in man, so as to build a relationship of positivity between man and machine and not of conflict as it still often happens.

In “encounters I” Marcelo explores the total space of possibilities defined by rings and their intersections. He created a generative paint system programming in processing, where he declares the rules for the space and he let the machine explore different combinations. Science and art, often considered as antithetical subjects, coexist with great fascination, but not only, one interdependent from the other, thanks to the technical tools and the creative mind of the artist, create new mechanical connections, but also cerebral. “machine dream III” and “portraits of emotions V” are part of a series exploring human-machine emotion response. This series initiated with a futuristic experiment where he combines a short poem or text with a portrait of an emotion, seeking to provoke an emotional response in the viewer who will fill in with their own experience.

Art Curator Federica D'avanzo

Marcelo Soria-Rodríguez

encounters i

Marcelo Soria-Rodríguez

machine dream iii

Marcelo Soria-Rodríguez

portraits of emotions v

María del Carmen Galván

For the international exhibition “Coming Out” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, María del Carmen Galván exposes “Evolución” and “Presente y Pasado”. In these two artworks one can see the artist's desire to focus and paint what she sees with the eyes of her mind: art becomes a vision that emphasizes sensations and connects directly with the viewer. Through a deep dive into the unconscious, the bases are laid for the liberation of the individual, both emotionally and spiritually. In this way one perceives the depths of the human spirit, from which powerful forces emerge, escaping from the control of the senses and reason, merging the two spheres of reality and fantasy according to what is known as “surreality”. As in “Evolución”, through which María succeeds in highlighting each individual figure: by representing the cycle of life on the canvas, she skillfully links the different characters with decisive lines and fine whites.

In this way, one could allude to the fact that all people in the world are linked with an infinite thread, as one is born and grows together in this immense dimension. The background, with its nuances ranging from white to dark orange, emphasizes the changing nature of mankind.

María del Carmen Galván

While in “Presente y Pasado”, the connection among black, grey, orange and white creates a network of geometric shapes that intersect with the space of the pictorial surface, dividing it into two parts. On the lower level we have the past with a black background, while above it there is the present, which is gradually filled with color together with increasingly more sharp and regular strokes. In this way, the key aspect of the work emerges: the viewer is invited to keep his/her past in mind, despite life's adversities, because only by doing this will he/she be able to change, mature and improve his/her present. María always discovers different color correlations and new expressive concepts: everything is aimed for capturing the viewer's optical perception, involving him/her in the broad expanse of tones. She indelibly spreads emotions and moods on the canvas, enlivened by the dynamic vision of the brushstrokes, releasing a charge of energy and vitality. She wants to represent a revolutionary artistic language that has the power to improve the complicated human condition, underlying the indissoluble union between the observer and the artwork.

Art Curator Alessia Perone

María del Carmen Galván

Evolución

María del Carmen Galván

Presente y Pasado

Maria Evseeva

Maria Evseeva is a talented artist born in Russia. After moving to Barcelona, she was able to develop her great passion, which she had had since childhood, to paint. After several painting courses in which she learned different techniques and got to know different artistic worlds, she began to develop her own personal and innovative style. Painting has allowed her to express herself, to find her own dimension for conveying positive thoughts and all the worries of everyday life, expressing them directly on the canvas with bright colours and original shapes. Few elements but significant and rich in intrinsic messages are then embellished by the artist with colours that capture the viewer's attention. Among her artworks, "Alma" represents Maria's concept very well. Curved, soft lines draw a decorative pattern, a tangle of sinuous lines that intersect to create new combinations. In the centre, the lines intersect, bringing out a figure, almost a divine apparition, a simple, stylised oval face with a spiral at the top. The face is as if emerging from this tangle of lines. Metaphorically, the face represents the soul that is behind everything, even if we do not see it. The human soul is made up of a tangle of emotions, the sinuous lines. The face emerges from sections of warm colour, red and orange, while the rest of the work is painted in cooler acrylics in shades of blue and green. The face echoes these tones, creating a play of contrasts and repetitions. The artwork is harmonious, a few elements are able to encapsulate a much deeper message that induces the viewer to look inside himself, to ask questions.

Maria Evseeva

This sinuous motif of curved lines is also used in the artwork "Massage of Katakamuna". In this case, the decorative motif surrounds the protagonist of the work: a bright, clear beam of light that comes from below and is contoured by a fine, curved line. Once again there is a contrasting colour play between the cool tones of blue and violet with the white light and/or optical yellow. The colours mix with each other and their combination seems soft and gradual. As you approach the central light, the colours become lighter and brighter. A message that arrives in a disruptive way, you can almost feel the speed with which it arrives. Movement and dynamism are given by the curved lines. A message that breaks the patterns of everyday life and monotony, a glow of light amidst all the obstacles of life. In the artwork "Meditation with Katakamuna", the decorative motif of curved lines is repeated, but in a different way from the works analysed above. There is a concentric circular motif in the artwork that leads the viewer to concentrate in the centre of the work. The colour sections alternate and show a wide range of colours from intense, warm colours such as red to cooler colours such as blue and light blue.

Maria Evseeva

The colour sections are outlined by a darker but still soft line that creates movement without mixing the colours. The artwork appears balanced and sinuous. The concept of light as the protagonist of the painting is taken up here and the viewer's eye cannot help but linger on it. The artwork offers multiple interpretations. It could be a human eye, a symbol of introspection, or a form of nature such as a flower, a rose. Maria creates artworks in which harmony reigns and in which the strong symbiotic relationship with the universe, nature and what surrounds us emerges. A relationship based on peace of mind, a relationship that is both sweet and captivating. She draws inspiration from various currents, reworking concepts and making them her own. She is inspired by oriental sumi-e painting in terms of the synthesis of a concept in a few elements and the sinuous, almost calligraphic stroke; while from western painting, she draws on the vibrancy of colour, the organisation of space and the juxtaposition of shapes and colours. Maria has a remarkable gestural expressiveness, she moves freely in space, transposing her emotions onto canvas and creating a close relationship with the universe. Through painting she achieves a peace of senses that she also tries to convey to the viewer.

Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti

Maria Evseeva

Alma

Maria Evseeva

Massage of Katakamuna

Maria Evseeva

Meditation of Katakamuna

María Jesús Berner

María Jesús Berner is an interior designer by profession and a self-taugh artist. Her constant source of inspiration has always been Santiago de Chile, where she was born 29 years ago: its high mountains, proximity to the sea and its marked seasons bringed her closer to art through the creation in her artworks of stains and layers inspired by the landscapes that surround her. At the international contemporary art exhibition "Coming out", hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, María Jesús Berner exhibits “Arrebol”, an artwork closely related to her country of origin. The intense red that harmoniously invades the whole space transports us to the sunset: even if the sun goes down and the city rests, there is another world that awakens and a series of new colors appear in the sky. The clouds of Santiago dyed pink, red and purple become stains that works as a support for lines and figures: in fact, as happens in most of María's paintings, the image of a Tree stands out at the bottom, distinguishing itself from the rest. In line with the theme of “Coming out” exhibition that emphasizez the importance of affirming one's identity in an ephemeral world that continually imposes different canons, the Tree made by María Jesús Berner symbolizes the firmness and rooting in the ground, the freedom against the movement of the wind, always growing in search of light, even if in a sea of colors so different from itself. Representing how big dreams can grow and how real they can become true, the Tree has also pointillism at the ends of its branches, symbolically to remind us that sunsets also have a special brightness, a different sensitivity.

I visualize the colors of the first layers on my blank paper, and then, I give room to my imagination regarding the color combination.

(María Jesús Berner)

Art Curator Matilde Della Pina

María Jesús Berner

Arrebol

Maria Sofia Brännvall

On occasion of the international art exhibition Coming Out, the artist Maria Sofia Kristina Brännvall presented the artwork titled Liv. The artist wants to represent a female figure but not in her entirety. The face represented is cut from one side. As if it was not the expressiveness of the face that was important, but the detail of which it is composed. As if the artist wants to say that in the other face that we see, there are some elements that can catch our attention and become more meaningful. Another element more important in the painting is the technique used for the colours.

The way they are arranged on the canvas refers to the concept of fluidity, of change. About that the artist says: << I am searching for meaning in the change, the growth, the loss of colour, the circles surround-ing us, being us. I imagine our belonging to nature and the making of art is my compass.>>. This means that for the artist the art belongs to this idea of changing. The colors are therefore born from this evolutionary movement. In this way they seem to fall on the neck of the figure, as if they want to describe a changing figure. At the same time as she says, in this changing, in this evolution, what resists art.

Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio

Maria Sofia Brännvall

Liv

Marianne Braathen

The art of Marianne Braathen is a melting pot of artistic languages and different representations. The artist moves from suggestions that are more abstract to touching impressionist intentions in the representation of landscapes. On the international art exhibition Coming Out, she presents five paintings, each one with a peculiar desire. Starting from the first titled Flamingos dancing in the sunset. The colors and suggestions evoked tend towards the desire to represent a landscape at sunset. Everything was hidden behind a vagueness of the vision. The brush stroke does not want to represent the landscape in a definite way but wants to allude to a precise moment of the day. Tracing on the canvas the story of an emotion in its making. Also in the second painting presented Perfect condition for fishing the artist's will is to represent a landscape. The colors used refer to the motifs of water. Here the stroke tends more to the abstract rule, the colors seem to want to homogenize and tend towards a monochrome. Everything is clarified, in a clearer representation in the painting entitled Plenty more fish in the sea. Cracks can be seen in the background that refer to a mountain landscape. And again water plays the leading role in the foreground of the composition. Also in this painting, the colors refer to the theme of water and the sea. In the Rubber Boots painting the colors mix while maintaining their identity charge. Shapes are created with rather defined outlines. The representative will in this case fade to make room for the power of the gesture and the creative act that underlies the creation of the canvas. In the last painting Shabby chic is potential work, a house can be seen in the center. The shabby style is the protagonist in the use of colors and brush strokes. As if the artist's intention were to recover this style of furniture above all for the creation of atmospheres and scenarios. The artist Marianne Braathen shows that she knows how to use various languages and master the stroke by underlining the gesture that is before the realization of the painting as an emotional shot, the desire to represent the images as they are depicted in front of her and what they are able to evoke in his artistic creativity.

Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio

Marianne Braathen

Flamingos dancing in the sunset

Marianne Braathen

Perfect conditions for fishing

Marianne Braathen

Plenty more fish in the sea

Marianne Braathen

Rubber Boots necessary

Marianne Braathen

Shabby chic is potential work

Marie Demiz Marie Demiz, one of M.A.D.S. Art Gallery permanent artist, welcomes the exhibition entitled "Coming Out" with great enthusiasm, deciding to expose works that explore her artistic side unknown to her. The artist in fact begins her career focusing on the creation of figurative works that see as protagonists beautiful mysterious women. Already, in admiring her early works, such as "Lilith", "Sia", "Into the unknown", her curiosity about the abstract sphere is perceptible. The artist in fact adorns the backgrounds of her works with immediate and instinctive brushstrokes. Her artistic career is constantly growing also thanks to her studies, her countless trips that lead her to know new cultures and new landscapes, and also thanks to the community of artists that Marie creates thanks to her "Art Studio n.7". Her cultural enrichment emanates in the creation of five abstracts that the artist brings to the exhibition, showing the public the other side of the medal. The female subjects disappear and Marie focuses her attention on the development of what used to be only backgrounds. In the case of the works "Midsummer" and "State of mind" the artist plays with contrasts: these two works in fact have a strong component of light, broken by the darker brushstrokes, alluding to a dualism: the eternal struggle between good and evil, light and shadow. In the case of "Midsummer" Marie manages to convey what appears to our eyes as an abstract landscape: the heat rising from the asphalt, the mountains still snowy and the red that the sunset releases at the end of the day. The other three works, "Midnight", "Lost in summer" and "Daze", are darker from a tonal point of view. "Midnight" is the opposite of "Midsummer": the night takes place in the light and the mysteries of darkness emerge. Marie Demiz chooses for this work a strong contrast between the blue of the night and the emerald green of the trees, which shine in the light of the moon. Interesting is the work entitled "Lost in summer" which, despite the predominantly dark colors, lead observers to a feeling of joy. The dynamic brushstrokes of intense fuchsia and the small yellow fluo brushstrokes, recall a summer evening full of fun. What is certain is that Marie Demiz is in an experimental phase, where emotions dominate the canvas. Her abstracts reflect her feelings and capture within them moments and feelings felt by the artist. What now comes to the question is: where will this experiment lead? Will we see her abstracts again accompanied by beautiful mysterious women or will the artist change completely?

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Marie Demiz

Daze

Marie Demiz

Lost in Summer

Marie Demiz

Midnight

Marie Demiz

Midsummer

Marie Demiz

State of Mind

Marie Michaud "Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you."

(Frank Lloyd Wright)

Marie Michaud is a Canadian artist, with a university education in Communication and Graphic Design, who since 2016 has dedicated herself to her main passion: painting. She lived for many years in Gard, in the south of France, where she grew her most beautiful works of art, her two daughters and where she did not miss the charm of the colors, lights and landscapes from which she was surrounded, a source of inspiration for her creative work. In the work on display, “Colza et coquelicots”, her life path is well evident. The landscape can only refer us to the immense fields of poppies and rapeseed in the south of France, expanses in which the gaze and mind are lost and find their primordial essence. The thoughts disappear submerged by the vivid lights and warm colors and leave room for a feeling of freedom, the pleasure of contact with nature, which invites us to dive into this colorful and welcoming sea. The viewer is inside the work, she is emotionally involved, thanks to the pictorial rendering, with an almost impressionist brushstroke, which leaves room, in the background, to a graphic style, simple, that speaks an immediate language, modern, but above all universal. The landscape becomes a comfortable place. Nature is luxuriant; it is a maternal nature, which gives its fruits to its children, nourishing not only their body, but above all their spirit. The sun, the light of the day, the direct contact with the earth, the green of the trees and of the meadows, in contrast with the yellow and the red of the flowers, generate joy, lightness.

Marie Michaud manages to give the observer moments of pure joy, moving him away from the frenzy of everyday life.

We can only thank the artist for giving us such a precious gift: the time of carefree.

Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo

Marie Michaud

Colza et coquelicots

Marília Henriques

Marília Henriques is a Portuguese artist with a long career. Last three years she started to create allegorical paintings with bright colors, where the dreamlike mixes with reality and the goal is to tell a story. Marília exhibits at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in Milan, the work entitled "Laughing about the past and the future" made of acrylic on canvas. The work is part of a series that the artist is making with enigmatic subjects in which paradise is protected by monsters. The work in question has a vertical composition and the most prominent colors are orange lobster and blue-lilac. The colors inevitably refer to the famous work of the cubist painter Pablo Picasso "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon"; even the heavy black lines and the influence of African art refer to the cubist style. The subjects of the painting are many: you are in an architectural setting, precisely inside a church, made through a central perspective. The environment, although realistic, takes on surreal connotations, as if we were inside a confusing dream. Three subjects represented in white silhouette occupy the upper part of the canvas, as if they were floating in the air, as if they were ghosts belonging to the past. The figure on the right is probably the main subject: it’s a man intent on a laugh. He creates the link with the title given by the artist: the action of laughing and mocking everything that has been and that will be is perhaps to be interpreted in an ironic way, as to make it understood that the phrase "history teaches" it’s nothing but a utopian phrase. Humans do not learn from their mistakes and so we can say that the most realistic phrase is "history repeats itself".

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Marília Henriques

Laughing about the past and the future

Mario Vaccaj <<mr WAVE>>

Art is the means through which the artist expresses himself, brings out his way of being, his deepest self and gives it to the world. With the work "HO7" the artist Mario Vaccaj, aka Mr. Wave, in fact, lays himself bare in front of the viewer, because he shows us his DNA, the deepest essence of him. Mario defines himself as a child of the sun and a space traveler. Only an astronaut, from space, observing his immensity, can understand how every man is simply a microscopic particle that travels in the universe.

The earth revolves around the Sun with an immense spaceship, and we are the astronauts, the travelers of the universe who, observing the magnificence of the sky and space, we cannot help but realize how small we are in comparison. Instead, in the work "Faith" he shows us the female part that lives in him, that sensitive and profound part that lives in every man. The butterfly has always been a symbol of inner transformation which, as in the case of this wonderful being of nature, starting from a limiting condition, reaches the full manifestation of its beauty. Her transformation leads her to show her true being. The beauty of the butterfly is already inherent in the caterpillar, even if there is apparently no trace of it. The same is the destiny of man: in each of us there is all the splendor of what we are and we should show it to the world. Finally, the work "Divine" is a tribute by Mario to our wonderful artist Lika Ramati. The artist blends Lika's art and his into an explosive work. Mario achieves a perfect fusion between the expressive power of Lika's art and the energy of his own artistic style. The energy that springs from this work is astonishing and overwhelming.

Art Curator Silvia Grassi

Mario Vaccaj <<mr WAVE>>

Divine

Mario Vaccaj <<mr WAVE>>

Faith

Mario Vaccaj <<mr WAVE>>

HO7

Marion C. Hoepflinger

Marion C. Hoepflinger is an Austrian artist whose characterizing element is the creation of works of art that follow a graphic and illustrative style. At the international contemporary art exhibition "COMING OUT" hosted by the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery she exhibits the work entitled "Choose your Mask, blue" with a vertical composition showing two female eyes framed by a sort of blue mask. The canvas is left white, raw and pure, this choice allows the viewers to travel with the imagination and create the totality of the face within their mind, which appears as if it were magic. The mask is made thanks to the use of a very wet watercolor, this feature allows the color to drip onto the canvas, recreating the action painting technique, famous thanks to the master Jackson Pollock. From a certain point of view, the red spots splashed on the canvas are reminiscent of blood, the symbol of pain par excellence. The gaze, in fact, is in some ways melancholy, very deep, the color of the iris recalls the color of the mask, in this way the sensations commonly mediated by blue change totally, calm becomes melancholy. “Choose your Mask, blue” and the other works in the series created by Marion lead us to reflect and admit to ourselves how many moments of our everyday life we wear a mask so as not to really show ourselves, to hide a disturbance, a disappointment, a defect. The eyes represented by Marion are not restless, the sense of melancholy does not disturb the soul of the beholder, the gaze, in fact, conveys a sense of security and certainty.

Art Curator Martina Viesti

Marion C. Hoepflinger

Choose your Mask, blue

Marion Gunesch

Marion Gunesch is a German-based artist. Always interested in art, she finds her maximum expression through abstract art. She creates her bold abstractions mainly with acrylics and pastels on paper or canvas. These means are ideal for her spontaneous painting style. With mixed media collages, she strengthens the expressiveness of her artworks by playfully integrating transparency and contrast. She herself states: “While I am painting, I am transferring my inner energy dynamically and intuitively into a newly created artwork, depicting colors in lively movements and letting them work together. This approach fills me with deep satisfaction and joy.” These feelings described by the artist are clearly perceptible in admiring the painting that Marion decides to exhibit at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in Milan, entitled "Playtime" made of acrylic on paper. The work, vertically, has four main colors: pink, yellow, blue and purple. The title itself expresses the fun of the gesture. The artist is completely transported by emotions and the brushstrokes are free from any scheme and premeditation. The abstraction of the painting brings viewers to the imagination. The color subdivision helps viewers follow a visual path, starting from the blue line on the right that converges at the top left in rhythmic wavy lines.

Also on the right, the line is interrupted by what the imagination associates with a basket, maybe is it a basketball match?

Then the look is struck by the yellow that, in some cases, acts as a filling for the circular figures at the bottom of the painting. The pink instead lightens the composition and goes to create a relaxed environment. This technique can only lead back to the Abstract Expressionist artists of the Post Second World War, just think of the artists Helen Frankenthaler and Mark Rothko who undoubtedly inspire Marion Gunesch and share with her the immediacy of the brushstrokes.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Marion Gunesch

Playtime

Marion Recher “Do anything, but let it produce joy”. (Walt Whitman)

Marion Recher is a French artist who lives in Paris. She always was passionate about art, which she discovered thanks to her maternal grandmother who was a painter. After graduating as a “Doreur Ornemaniste” (an artist who is specialized in gold leaf work) she has experimented various techniques, finally choosing her favourite: the collage. While creating art, she feels the purpose to communicate her inner self in the most spontaneous form, expressing her sensations and building her own world. The collage technique recalls in many ways the gold leaf work: it’s by assembling images on canvas that the artist feels free, creating her own puzzle. This is well visible in her artwork “HAVE FUN”, where she decided to assembly images of beauty, joy and positivity, as the most important goal in her art is to express positive feelings and a good energy. In this sense art becomes the place where to express spontaneity and improvisation and, therefore, the artist enjoys playing with shapes and bright colors in order to connect with the viewer. The artist shows us her identity in this “Coming out” by communicating her refreshing art, crying out loud her willing to be free, lively and joyful.

Art Curator Maddalena Corbini

Marion Recher

HAVE FUN

Marlene Luce Tremblay “For the myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconscious.” (Thomas Mann) Faces and silhouettes dance lightly like ghosts before our eyes, magically merging into vibrant backdrops where plants and trees move luxuriantly. Bodies described in a now distant language, like sculptures touched by a delicate light. At times it filters through the leaves, blurring the landscape, which blends into a surface of enigmatic depth. The artworks by Marlene Luce Tremblay, a contemporary Canadian artist, are points of encounter between a distant past and the avant-garde of the present. The photographic medium blends with oil painting, in what she herself has defined as "Pintography", giving life to magnificent landscapes, within which stories and memories of the great masters of the past flow. Renaissance and modern painters form the backdrop to her artworks, allowing their dancing souls to come alive in Nature. In fact, Marlene Luce Tremblay blends these historical paintings with photographs taken in flourishing green spaces, shaping surreal scenarios that communicate peace and serenity. There is a strong resemblance to the technique of double exposure photography. In "Timelessness", blues and greens fill the architecture and the soft dresses of the women in the painting below. The sunlight filtering through the trees on the right seems to be the real light source, making everything perfectly connected. And this is how the Art of the past, so fascinating and still so powerful, blending with Nature, the space of estrangement from the world par excellence, throws us into an ageless place. Marlene Luce Tremblay's artworks are a perfect combination of flavors, where the passage of time dissolves, leaving the observer suspended in a moment of pleasant contemplation.

Art Curator Francesca Brunello

Marlene Luce Tremblay

Timelessness

Marlies Zindel "We are what we are because we have been what we have been, and what is needed for solving the problems of human life and motives is not moral estimates but more knowledge."

(Sigmund Freud) Swiss artist, Marlies Zindel since childhood has a creative desire, but in adulthood she manages to achieve in pictorial acts. The landscapes where she grew up, the unspoiled nature, the lake, the mountains, with their memories linked to the nest to her youth are a source of continuous inspiration, to which are added her travels, in particular two years spent in Great Britain, after which he gave shape to his passion through courses and the study of different painting techniques.

Professional psychologist, often painting has been a source of inspiration for herself and also for the search for solutions and help towards her patients. The white canvas, the colors and the creative power give the artist the strength to face an emotionally difficult work, it give the possibility to look at reality from a different point of view, filtering it through the emotions that flow from the mind while painting. The viewer in front of the works of Marlies manages to empathize, thanks to the power of colors and images used. Direct experience is always the starting point for Zindel, but it is never the end point. What the eyes see is enriched by what the heart feels. Nature in all its majestic beauty and emotions are equally protagonists, leaving ample interpretative space to the works thanks to the interesting mix of abstract and concrete. Majestic trees that stand out on the horizon until they touch the sky, a flower garden that smells of summer, an almost abstract, mental journey: these are the subjects that we find in the works on exhibition and in front of which everyone, thanks to personal experience, can find his own personal interpretative path. Marlies uses images that we all know and that for this reason awaken in us different feelings, emotions driven by the use of intense colors and dialogues, which lead us to a greater awareness of ourselves and our action.

Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo

Marlies Zindel

UP TO THE SKY

Marlies Zindel

SUMMER GARDEN

Marlies Zindel

THE PATH

Martin Stenbak Drescher “Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.”

(Leo Burnett) Martin Stenbak Drescher is a Danish artist with an intense and exciting career behind him. Change, courage, and willpower characterize the relationship between Martin and art which, despite some period of forced interruption, has always been part of him. Works created thanks to a deep research and experimentation combined with memories of personal experiences, thoughts, and emotions. The works we will analyse were created with the acrylic on canvas technique. "My Imaginary Skyline" was created by the artist thinking about the cities that could be taken by Ocean in the future. By combining colours of similar shades, he carried out a study on the colour of blue. Skyscrapers of different heights, domes of buildings characterize the landscape created with curious plays of perspective and shadows. "Sharks belong in the Sea, not in Your Soup!" was born from Martin's passion for sharks and the ocean. The grey fins of the protagonists emerge from an orange and purple checked carpet that characterizes the entire background of the work. The animals are represented in their natural environment, the sea, which however the artist wanted to represent according to his own personal interpretation. A colourful sea like a rich soup in which, however, sharks should not be. They have the right to swim in the deepest waters, they have the right to be free. "The Commercial Manager" is part of a series dedicated to the representation of Sardinian and Danish beach sellers made between 2017 and 2021. The features of the face are not identifiable, but we can identify some details that refer us to the typical figure of the beach sellers: multiple hats stuck on each other on the head, his traveling companions like bags containing the goods and the hope of selling them by the end of the day. Martin, through his art, invites us to learn about his life, his passions by inviting us to give a personal and unique interpretation to his precious works.

Art Curator Camilla Gilardi

Martin Stenbak Drescher

My Imaginary Skyline

Martin Stenbak Drescher

Sharks belong in the Sea, not in Your Soup!

Martin Stenbak Drescher

The Commercial Manager

Mary Ann Amos "Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing."

(Georgia O’Keeffe) Mary Ann Amos has tried to express her creativity throughout her life through various ways, by drawing, taking pictures, singing, or writing. In the past, most of her work was created with charcoals, colored pencils, and pastel chalks, with few inks. In recent years, instead, she has extended her love for art through the use of acrylics, and this has represented a real joy in her life. Mary Ann Amos decides to participate in the "Coming Out" International Art Exhibition because the realization of the paintings she exhibits at this exhibition were her great "coming out", her greatest liberation. And this is precisely the intent of the M.A.D.S. Milan Art Gallery. Art as Liberation. In the first artwork, which is titled “A Wave of Color”, a huge blue / purple wave invades the canvas. It seems to be more of a still image of the canvas, in which by touching the imaginary “play” button the color will continue quickly and vehemently to invade the rest of the canvas that has remained white. The viewer will remain almost hypnotized by continuing to observe the paiting, generating in him the optical effect of movement. The second artwork is called "Lava Burst" and depicts what happens when a volcano erupts. Lava is rushing off and covering everything it encounters. The colors are so bright and shiny that the viewer can almost see himself in the work because, after all, art is the mirror of the soul. An explosion of lava, an explosion of colors but also an explosion of emotions. The latest painting is called "On the Move". And what the work conveys is the sensation of movement. Very often the movement in art has found obstacles to express itself through the immobility of the works themselves, but this has been overcome by means of forms that contain the indications of the movement. And in this artwork, the floating of the paint on the canvas allows us to perceive the dynamism of the work in its entirety.

Mary Ann's artworks are the mirror of her identity and represent a meeting place in which to dialogue with the world.

Art Curator Francesca Campanelli

Mary Ann Amos

A Wave of Color

Mary Ann Amos

Lava Burst

Mary Ann Amos

On the Move

Marzena Bukowska "Expressionism rummages in the blood, in the soul" (Francois Orsini)

Marzena's artistic work is instinct, it is freedom, it is absolute self-expression. The artist does not set limits and boundaries to give voice to her art and her soul. In fact, her works are born from the desire to express one's passions and feelings. Intense colors give life to shapes that recall the surreal, like memories that emerge on the surface, thus the figures in Marzena's works emerge. Bright colors, vivid colors meet, mix and overlap with each other, what comes out are works of a high emotional level. In the work "Self-liberation" we witness a real explosion of colors, brushstrokes, dreams and abstract shapes, the artist creates in complete freedom. Along with the explosion of colors, the viewer also witnesses the explosion of sensations and emotions, as if nothing could hold back the energy that is released from Marzena's creative hand. The artist's works are abstract but with references to expressionism, where the absolute protagonists are colors and passions. Marzena's artistic work is highly evocative, arouses emotions in the viewer and makes memories leak. Meeting the works of Marzena means coming into contact with her soul and her feelings. Through the artist's work, the observer can make an introspective journey and discover himself, Marzena's works, in fact, have a great impact and possess a great communicative power. The artist wisely uses colors and brushes, she makes the gesture and the brushstrokes the main elements of the entire composition but even more she uses her heart with great skill, she lets herself be guided by instinct and sensations, creating unique works of great effect. Definitely, Marzena's artistic work is strength, energy, a true expression of passion and love.

Art Curator Vanessa Viti

Marzena Bukowska

Dreamworks breaking the codes

Marzena Bukowska

Emerging vision

Marzena Bukowska

Self-liberation

Mats Andersson “Hundreds of butterflies flitted in and out of sight like short-lived punctuation marks in a stream of consciousness without beginning or end.” (Haruki Murakami) Lightly textured backgrounds alternate with complex patches of more or less opaque colour. Waving drops emerge from space, like long links between one place and another. The bristles of the brush leave light furrows in the material, creating vibrant surfaces and interesting plays of light and shadow that tickle the viewer's eyes.

The artworks by the contemporary Swedish artist Mats Andersson, are dynamic games that carry with them emotions and sensations, where slower and more delicate movements blend with more instinctive ones. They are like a stream of consciousness, where the artist has left complete freedom to his unconscious actions. Strong influences certainly derive from the technique of the Action Painting, otherwise known as Abstract Expressionism, adopted around the middle of the 20th century by Jackson Pollock. The famous artist used to leave the support on the ground, composing his canvases with long drops of colour falling from above. This was certainly a great inspiration for Mats Andersson, who did not leave complete control of the composition to reason alone, but also embraced a more instinctive and random idea. His canvases are therefore a combination of balance and abandonment, a combination of feelings free to wander, together with consciously described sensations. Layers of materiality emerge from the surface, accompanied by a background of irregular nuances.

Mats Anderson's entire artistic repertoire is characterized by a liberating dynamism, in which Art becomes an expression of a spiritual state, conveying in the work a series of significant complexities, each time unique, each time different. To look at them is to allow these scores to unfold in front of us, allowing the music that emerges to whisper to our eyes.

Art Curator Francesca Brunello

Mats Andersson

Art music

Mats Andersson

Emerging life

Mats Andersson

Sound waves

Matteo Masciocchi

In the Italian artist Matteo Masciocchi's digital illustration "Passione a sangue freddo", one of the works on display for the duration of the "Coming Out" exhibition at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, the symbolism of the compositional elements plays a decisive role in interpreting the message that the artist wants to convey. Matteo is inspired by the Japanese painting movement in line with the cultural phenomenon known as "ero-guro nansensu", which is one of the many expressive facets of Japanese modernist aesthetics. The work's characteristic erotic charge is clear, combined with elements that arouse emotions and cause strongly contrasting reactions, instilling fear, horror and disgust. The artist chooses to use as a means of expression the sublime fascination exerted by the juxtaposition of such contrasting elements as to give an effect of perversion and deviance. The works of Toshio Saeki and Suehiro Maruo stand out as a point of reference for the artist, who also draws on the work of Katsushika Hokusai, whose ukiyo-e prints inspired both European Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists. The thick, marked lines trace two figures: that of a naked woman and a tortoise in an amorous, carnal attitude. The symbolism is twofold: on the one hand, the tortoise, a profane reptile which, in Christian iconography, has always been associated with cunning and perversion, with evil, as it is depicted in the Old Testament; on the other hand, a young woman without veils, accompanied by the Stilnovist concept of "mea domina" which gives the female figure an aura of inviolable sacredness, an angelic woman whose beauty is virtuous and chaste because it is an emanation of the divinity of God himself, who cannot arouse anything other than a feeling of sincere love, a way for the man to perfect himself, through the contemplation of woman, reaching a spiritual elevation. The artist decides not only to contrast these two figures, profane and sacred, but also to unite them in a carnal relationship which, although not consummated, increases the contrast between the two. In this case, it is the woman who is fascinated by the animal creature, entering into an ecstatic experience. As the artist says,

"In my new robe/This morning-/Someone else."

(Matsuo Bashō)

Art Curator Martina Grassi

Matteo Masciocchi

Passione a sangue freddo

Maya Beck

For the international exhibition “Coming Out” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, the great artist Maya Beck exposes three works through which her passion and love for life clearly emerge. By recalling the concept of the event, in these works there is a liberating explosion, where matter takes shape following the feeling, creating in this way a new space for the conception of reality. Maya gives ample space to art conceived as liberation and renewal, a compass that shows the way to come out without fear, a mirror that reflects both the artist’s identity and the one of the observer. In all this, Maya connects with every person in the world through her works, allowing each one to enjoy and deepen love. As in “DAMN! FIGHT FOR ME!” two women and a man are closely linked by this continuous and strong embrace. The title, clear and powerful, must certainly be read energetically and aloud, implying a passionate and loving declaration. The union of the three characters underlines deep emotions and feelings, mysteries which are hidden in the heart of the viewer. It is a profoundly symbolic and completely descriptive work, designed to express the introspective reality of each individual. While in “READY TO LOVE”, the medium used for this work, namely a sheet of newspaper, is interesting as well as remarkable. This choice allows her to create a two-dimensional world: the first showing reality written in black on white and the second displaying two women depicted. The aspects of her artistic and aesthetic conception, marked by the exaltation of the lines stretched out on the surface with such fluidity and spontaneity, further emphasize her desire to free each figure from the charges of drawing, allowing harmony and sensuality to stand out. The element of the yellow flower is equally important: it symbolizes light and creativity, the desire to act and transform a thought into matter, through positivity, vitality and the liveliest imagination. Finally, in “SHARE YOUR BODY” Maya evokes the embrace of the first work, which now becomes increasingly more emotional. By being surrounded by a lively and deliberately vibrant atmosphere, love and happiness emerge from the work itself. Through the strength of the nuances that shape each character represented, Maya succeeds in immortalizing those moments of happiness and desire, inviting the observer to be lulled by passion, light-heartedness, and happiness.

“Joy is simply being yourself: alive, vibrant, in full vitality. The feeling of a subtle music around and within the body, becoming a symphony: that precise sensation it’s joy.” (Osho)

Art Curator Alessia Perone

Maya Beck

DAMN! FIGHT FOR ME!

Maya Beck

READY TO LOVE

Maya Beck

SHARE YOUR BODY

Mayu Jono

Small raised elements rise from the composition. United by a chain of fabric they seem to move gently cradled by an inexhaustible and slow wave motion. Wandering through the placid and good-natured liquid these beings collide, get to know each other, silently exchange information and bind themselves to each other through precious imperceptible threads. Ethereal diatoms that glitter intermittently in a mirror of water, seaweeds so small as to be imperceptible to human vision. Mayu's is the reality of microcosm. An imperceptible and silent world that can be observed only through a magnifying glass. Single-celled beings, paramecium, amoebae or spores coexist with us imperceptibly.

The earth we walk on contains these organisms, as does the water we drink and the air we breathe. And yet our thoughts usually wander in search of greatness and immensity: we raise our eyes to the sky to discover new worlds animated by the hope of knowing something more than the infinitely large when between the folds of our epidermis, between the blades of grass and the foam that breaks on the rocks there is a whole other world, equally fascinating and mysterious, to discover. The physical laws to which we are accustomed also govern the world of small organisms: so light and microscopic they can hardly move in water. What to us seems like a transparent liquid that is easy to pass through, to them is more like a dense and consistent fluid, not at all slippery. And this is how these microorganisms use a considerable amount of energy to move within the watery matter, to meet and exchange imperceptible information. It is a world far from our sight, an invisible universe in constant movement that literally lives before our eyes. And this is how Mayu uses Bengara dye to depict this microcosm. The color palette is earthy and the colors are warm and guttural. Such ethereal brown flecks give way to reddish patches with blurred, undefined boundaries. The iron oxide dyeing gives a muffled and stratified atmosphere where it is possible to see through the microorganisms, so transparent and ethereal. The texture of the fabric can be seen between the watery and light spots of color. The narrow mesh of the yarn is metaphorically similar to the tight bonds between atoms, between molecules that make up matter: it houses the small living beings making them submit to its physical laws. With In the Earth - Quietly there, the artist gives us a glimpse of invisible lives and existences unknown to us. She reminds us that our world is also populated by the invisible, by a microscopic universe as rich in elements of wonder as the sky and space. We close our eyes, become aware of the complexity of nature, and embrace new ways of seeing.

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

Mayu Jono

In the Earth -Quietly there-

Meike Preusser “It is almost an absurd prejudice to suppose that existence can only be physical. As a matter of fact, the only form of existence of which we have immediate knowledge is that of the mind” (Carl Gustav Jung)

Let’s imagine ourselves in the deepest, darkest sea, the breath begins to fail, we need to return to the surface to take air.

We begin to swim, we increase the rhythm because we realize that our lungs have no air, we begin to see the light that penetrates through the blue of the sea, we stretch our arms to reach it and at the end, laboriously, the breath arrives. We are on the surface and we can return to enjoy the blue sky, the sun that warms our skin, the green of the worlds from which the sea is surrounded. We are alive and after living the abysses every breath is beautiful. The artist with her works leads the viewer out of the frenzy and the feeling of suffocation of daily life allowing her to enjoy the wonders that life offers. Meike’s paintings lead through a sensory journey, the colors evoke scents, tactile sensations, sounds, flavors of near and far lands. The color contrasts sometimes strident awake our inner battles, and then guide us towards a peace of mind to the point that pink, gold and brown can coexist without colliding, but embracing harmoniously. The artist declares that some of her works allow her to get out of real life, to find herself in a parallel world of freedom and lightness. Meike’s technical and expressive ability allows the viewer to live the same journey out of time and space, to find himself immersed in an ocean of pleasure. Art becomes for those who paint and for those who observe a true medicine of the soul, a moment of deep meditation, understanding of the ego and energy recharge.

Art Curator Erika Gravante

Meike Preusser

Pink Jungle

Meike Preusser

One thousand Oceans

Meike Preusser

Copper Stream

Melanie Lengowski

Melanie Lengowski paintings here exhibited at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery during the current ‘Coming Out’ exhibition, are very similar in the technique and in their return. Both “Female” and “The Loved Ones” are created with acrylic and mixed media material focusing their attention on the main characters of each artwork, represented with a full of colours, silhouette. “Female” presents a single lady, at the centre of the canvas, with a prosperous breast and a thick head of hair. The artist’s ability in using the stroke, permits her to create an almost 3D figure that exalts the subject, perfectly showing its features. Thanks to this element, it is possible to capture the emotion of the character, with her head and lowered eyes. The brilliant pink used to give more intensity to the scene, seems to be a restriction for the young lady who has no possibility to move her arms, and so to take part to her life, living passively the situation.

Melanie Lengowski

The undefined background seems to reflect the time passing by, from which the girl is watching her memories. Considering this lecture of the painting, “The Loved Ones” represents a continuous scene, a sort of feedback of the Female’s life, a past time spent with her lover. The same used of the background gives importance to the lovers’ profiles, intense and deep in emotions and feelings. Melanie always works towards a visual balance to create a symmetry that is aesthetically pleasing to the eye - the calming feeling of balance between human and environment – where shapes and colours are visually transported into space. Her works give access and opportunity in a sustainable way to discover art in new perspectives.

Art Curator Martina Stagi

Melanie Lengowski

Female

Melanie Lengowski

The Loved Ones

Mem Sevenster

Mem Sevenster is a very original and creative South African artist who likes to explore multiple art forms and not limit herself to just using a brush and canvas. She makes use of different techniques producing a style that is contaminated not only by different techniques but also by the creative subjectivity of the artist. In art, and especially in drawing, Mem finds liberation and peace, a microcosm that is far away but at the same time close to reality, which allows her to extricate herself and create unique and imaginative pieces. The colours, shapes and artistic practices are a sort of therapy that help the artist to bring out her true nature, her inner self, which breaks through the mechanisms of a society that forces us to repress our emotions. Her artworks are full of emotions, overflowing with feelings, sometimes positive and sometimes negative or introspective. Whatever the case, Mem uses art as a means of liberation. In her artwork "Mia Culpa", Mem deals with a feeling of shame, of the prejudices that a set society such as ours emits towards people who are "different". On a background divided into sections decorated in turn with geometric motifs of parallel black and white lines, a greyish-blue patch is drawn and a red trace running down from it. A drawing that offers multiple subjective points of view, it can be seen as a flower that is born in the midst of chaos or a cloud of thoughts that suddenly explodes, leaving behind a trail of colour.

The dripping red colour is a reference to the colour of blood but at the same time the colour of passion and pain, strong and disruptive emotions.

Mem Sevenster

Mem plays with the contrast of the coloured protagonist and the monochrome background which brings out the true focus of the artwork. This work also gathers a sense of loneliness, it gathers the uncertainty of every day, the fear of never being enough simply because they are different from others. In the artwork "Superbia-Pride", the play between the monochromatic background and a multitude of colours is taken up by the artist who organises the elements in a rational way within the work. She represents pride as something abstract and variegated that rises from the earth, bringing with it a multitude of elements. In the lower part a soft, undulating pattern, in the upper part small details make up a larger element and alternate between monochromatic and original textures with coloured sections of yellow, red, blue and brown. The bright colours contrast with the rest of the artwork. In "Ratio-Intelligence" three natureinspired elements are drawn on a frame with a tangle of threads. An incomplete loom, frayed at the sides, on which the three protagonists, arranged in a pyramidal composition, find space. The colour-no colour contrast is still very evident.

Mem Sevenster

The artwork instils a feeling of something that is incomplete, a destiny that has yet to be written. The three figures look like animals resting on leaves, or like elements that meet animals and nature halfway, made in unreal colours, in shades of green and blue. A work that ties in with the human psyche, with the hidden mechanisms of the human mind. Every detail is refined. Mem starting from concepts, she reworks artworks that are closely linked to doubts and questions she asks herself. Suffering from OCD, an obsessive-compulsive disorder, Mem has found her outlet through art to represent her world, which is not always rationally accepted by this society. The artist asks questions and tries to find answers through the use of pencil, pen and colour. She is very skilled in drawing, her stroke is detailed, powerful and at the same time delicate. Mem never stops exploring different artistic worlds, finding in art a way to escape from the pre-established reality of society and seek answers to her existential questions. The viewer cannot help but be fascinated by the world Mem describes through her drawings.

Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti

Mem Sevenster

Mia Culpa

Mem Sevenster

Ratio-Intelligence

Mem Sevenster

Superbia-Pride

Michal Avrech

Michal Avrech is an Israeli artist whose artistic production is clearly influenced by the current of impressionism. At the international art exhibition "COMING OUT" hoste by the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Michal exhibits a work entitled "Blue Lupins" which recalls the painting "en plain air" emblem of the Impressionist current. The brushstrokes turn out to be given extremely quickly, without any premeditation and with a complete absence of outlines. The color seems to be applied directly from the tube, in the absence of any mixture. The colors are bright, vivid and light, giving an ethereal intensity to the work that comes to life under the watchful eye of the observer. The impulsiveness with which the work is created allows the artist to create a completely different world than the real one, the observer's mind has, in this way, the ability to travel with the mind and soul. "I often paint in strong and optimistic colors that also give me a sense of hope, joy and vitality, daring and energy, while reflecting on my inner world. I try to convey these feelings to the viewer so that he can see the reflection of his inner di lui as well as the outer world. The landscapes are a kind of general generic landscapes so that a viewer can find his own landscapes in them. " Said Michal. The ability to convey her own internal world to the viewer of the work allows the artist to share herself with the world.

Art Curator Martina Viesti

Michal Avrech

la seducción inocente...

Micheal Shami "Creativity is contagious. Pass it on." (Albert Einstein)

Michael Shami is a young Israeli artist living in Tel Aviv. His art is expressed with abstractionism, which allows him great freedom to experiment with color, themes and textures according to the inspiration of the moment. Michael, in fact, does not make drafts, and his works present unrepeatable combinations of forms and chromatic contrasts that are absolutely unique. The work presented for Coming Out, “Bird”, comes from a fleeting inspiration, but it’s the result of a twomonth work, during which the artist has experimented with new uses of color. For example, he washed the canvas to explore the acrylic reaction. The colors, mixed directly on the palette, were applied with the palette knife technique, and the final result is an interesting set of phosphorescent colors, almost reminiscent of urban graffiti. The viewer's gaze is captured by a single black circle perhaps the eye of the bird that gives the work its name - which stands out in the center of the composition. One of the most interesting peculiarities of the painting is the "cast" white paint that collects on the right side: on the one hand it partially hides underlying swirls of color, but on the other it allows the work to give an unexpected rhythm, surprising the viewer with a bold and unconventional choice. “Bird” perfectly sums up the irrepressible creativity of Michael Shami, sustained by a disruptive and explosive energy, a planter of great promise for the future.

Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti

Micheal Shami

Bird

Michelle Dahl On occasion of the International contemporary Art Exhibition organized in Milan by the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, the American artist Michelle Dahl decided to show "Midnight Garden", "Finding Home" and "Moody Blues Garden", three acrylics on birch wood panels. In the history of art, floral-themed paintings established themselves together with fruit paintings with the specific genre of the so-called "still life", between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. From that moment on, they have always remained one of the most popular subjects even after the advent of photography and design, which disciplines recovered the success of this fact, which lay precisely in their versatility. When we think of flowers in painting, we cannot help but think of the flowery meadow of Botticelli's "Primavera", the vases of Flemish and Renaissance painters, the fields of poppies and the various water lilies by Monet, the luxuriant flower gardens painted en-plein air by the Impressionists and above all to the full-bodied sunflowers immortalized by Van Gogh, to the Art and Craft wallpapers of oriental inspiration, which then channelled this fashion towards new worlds and new frontiers of creativity. Even in the contemporary world, we can say that the floral subject never tires, especially for the different interpretation that each artist can attribute in Michelle's case, in fact, we not only see flowers, but perfectly in line with the request of the "liberation” of our "personal pains", we see a gloomy, dark, and gloomy context, suddenly awakened by the happiness and light-heartedness of the flowers. From their colours and their soft shapes, but also from the smells that just looking at the work we seem to savour. Michelle has been able to enclose in these works, the two parts of the life of each of us, studded with ostriches of light and colour, which we must be able to grasp.

"The artist is the confidant of nature; the flowers carry on a dialogue with him through the graceful fold of their stems and the harmoniously tinted shades of their petals. Each flower has a cordial word that nature directs towards the artist" (Auguste Rodin)

Art Curator Carola Antonioli

Michelle Dahl

Finding Home

Michelle Dahl

Midnight Garden

Michelle Dahl

Moody Blues Garden

Mimo Zhengjia

There is something sublime in Mimo's works. Something that urges us to the most intimate observation, to the deepest vision of the pictorial surface. We are attracted by those broken forms, by those barely noticeable roundnesses, by the blocks of black pigment that blind our vision.

There is something carnal hiding within the confines of these silhouettes, something sanguine and passionate. A heterogeneous composition stands out on the porous surface of the canvas. A grayish oval spot dictates the nature of the structure. The color is faint, just hinted and the color palette changes from gray to quiet red, from deep blue to peachy pink. Strips of color outline with their expressive force the contours of this figure; they penetrate, they creep between the folds of what is described and then get lost in the opaque surface of the canvas. Our gaze is captured by black spots that, impossible to penetrate, stand out on the support with all the expressive certainty with which they are endowed.

Their contours are well defined, nothing can resist the absolute void that saturates these patches. Pools of the unknown that drown the gaze.

Yet there is something, small elements that make us return to the usual space-time. At a closer look we find a faint line of greenish color intersected in parallel by small dark scratches. Suture points. The image brings us unconsciously and inevitably to the thought of a flap of sutured skin. The image takes shape, the silhouettes, the blurred colors and the blackish patches acquire a sense of existence. What is hidden under the epidermis is revealed, what has always been concealed by a thick impenetrable blanket is now revealed to the eye. We immerse our eyes in the chromatic wonder of something that has never before been seen. Like the veil of Maya, the fog of not knowing unravels; the wound is open and the interiority, at first protected, now begins to leak out. It does not bleed, it oozes. Oozing humors, filtered emotions, unprecedented sensations reach the light of the sun going up to the surface of reality known to us. This is the sensual corporeity of Mimo's works: the open flesh as the direct protagonist of the representation, like a sublime allegorical image of the illusory unravelling. It is an aggressive art in its sophisticated forms, in the repetitiveness of gestures and in the faceting of the forms represented. The slightest brushstroke is a cut in the emotionality, it is a wound from which the most private, most intimate Ego comes out. Gather and Disperse is the pictorial transposition of this continuous process of accumulation and dispersion of the elements. The same broken strokes, almost calligraphic; the same black patches immense in their depth. The inner self is piled up in a narrow space and then released. It is impossible to escape this perpetual process: let's go into our soul and weed out the veil of Maya.

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

Mimo Zhengjia

Gather and disperse part1&2

Mimo Zhengjia

Skin in dreams

Mimo Zhengjia

Untitled

Minke Havemann "Every landscape is, as it where, a state of the soul, and whoever penetrates into both is astonished to find how much likeness there is in each detail."

(Henri Frederic Amiel)

Bare trees, as in winter, seem to begin a real battle. The branches, almost human arms, are desperate for help: they struggle, they wriggle. The roots sink into the sandy soil, clinging to life with all strength. They do not abandon hope. All around there is the sea, with its beauty and tranquility; a sunset with summer colors is reflected on the entire surface of the canvas. Behind, just mentioned, we see a city, with battlements, structures that contemplate the contemporary and architecture of the past. A landscape almost metaphysical, ethereal, that recalls the colors of vespers, strikes the attention of the spectator. A striking detail: small, on the mountain, a tree stands out with all its foliage and majesty, confident, away from the insecurities that reign in the foreground. With these images, Minke deals with a theme of great relevance: the destruction of the beautiful landscape and many maritime pines in the Tuscan Maremma, especially in the city of Grosseto, visited many times by the artist herself. “Shadows of the past” is part of a working series Zeitzeichen - Signs of time. The artist invites us to a deep reflection on the incessant running of time, which with nature benign, but also evil in some of its meanings, constantly changes landscapes, cities, horizons and indirectly the interaction between man and space. Minke’s works can be defined as micronarrations, which carry with them a sense that is released in the fast and energetic synthesis that holds together the images creating lightning short circuits. What is most striking is the criticism of a world that is perceived as absurd.

Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo

Minke Havemann

Shadows of the past

Mirren Hinchley

The desire to reinvent herself led Mirren Hinchley towards painting and it was a rebirth. For 4 years now the emerging Canadian artist has been painting bold abstract works. Her works are, in fact, so full of color and dynamism that they almost make the head spin to those who look at them. They are works so full of life and so full of joy that the viewer remains as enchanted before them and needs a couple of seconds, at the very least, to recover and realize that he has been catapulted into a whirlwind of life that has little to do with this world.

Mirren Hinchley doesn't create just artworks; she creates magical portals to unknown worlds. In "A Symphony of Colors" rapid brushstrokes of color cover the entire surface of the canvas. In this way the painting has neither center nor periphery and the image, a stretch of quick strokes, suggests a possible continuation beyond the edges. This technique, exploited to the maximum of its potential by Jackson Pollock, is called "all-over" and the Canadian artist shows a great talent in its practical realization. "The Dancer" can be compared, rather, to Futurism: the artistic current that most of all tried to represent the movement. The work of Mirren Hinchley presents her typical joyful chromaticism and a structure certainly animated, but not aggressive. In this work she tries to represent a typically human movement, as Gino Severini had already tried to do, but Mirren Hinchley goes beyond figuration, completely embracing abstractionism and thus making the dancer visually unrecognizable. "The Eye if the Storm", finally, is effectively a hymn to colors and geometric shapes. The acrylic colors are flat, instinctively laid out, but well balanced; the geometric elements on the surface intersect and connect to each other creating linear structures, while the colors create a spiral at the top of the work. The latter and the sense of chaos that transmits the entire composition, manages to make perfectly the storm and the eye of the storm. As we have seen, they are three works unmistakably of the same hand, but yet so different from each other. The artist, in fact, chooses to consciously change the style and pictorial techniques in each painting, so as to make them more dynamic.

Mirren Hinchley also states: “I want my paintings to be unique, to make a statement, to draw and hold the viewers’ attention and provoke discussion.”, and as I said at the beginning, that’s exactly what these magic works do.

Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia

Mirren Hinchley

A Symphony of Colors

Mirren Hinchley

The Dancer

Mirren Hinchley

The Eye of the Storm

Miya Turnbull “A mask tells us more than a face”.

(Oscar Wilde) Miya Turnbull is a half Canadian and half Japanese artist who made of her inherited identity the starting point of her work. In fact, she works on her image, analyzing the feeling of being in between two cultures. The artist’s work includes painting, photography, screen printing, textiles, video, animation and projection but Miya mainly create masks. Her masks are distorted self- portraits, with the aim to show how can she be seen from the outside and how the outside image differs from her in reality. The distortion of her face permits her also to concentrate her artistic research on the topic of margins. Here the beauty becomes grotesque and her identity is turned from the inside to the outside and vice versa.

Masks are normally used to disguise, but Miya wears her own face. She manipulates her appearance to see herself from the outside to examine her heritage experiences, perception and inner world. Her masks are a way to wear a hidden or unknown part of self, since she refers to them also as a second skin and a false face. The masks are a way for Miya to show how our personality changes in other people’s mind from time to time, indicating how much the identity is flexible and fluid. As she distorts and reconstruct her own semblance, she aims to make the observer feel related with the changes in perception that often occur when a person see another for the first times. For Coming out, Miya exhibits a photograph titled "Self-Portrait" constituted by twelve transformations of her outside identity. She indagates herself, always adding some elements of her identity which were missing and inducing the observer to do the same. In this way the mask becomes a layer used to separate the inside from the outside, both of the artist's and the observer’s.

Art Curator Sofia Ronzi

Miya Turnbull

Self-Portrait

Mohamed Essawy

Mohamed Essawy is an Egyptian interdisciplinary artist with an eclectic and modern style that combines tradition and modernity without holding back from the playfulness of experimentation. By working with mixed media on alternative supports and by drawing from his cultural heritage, Mohamed paints his personal vision of the world with bright colours. In the "Coming Out" exhibition, held by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Mohamed presents “Foreign Feathers”, an acrylic painting on canvas, “Morning Star” and “Stealing Back”, two acrylic paintings on handmade Egyptian papyrus. The first artwork represents three, different birds standing on branches and on top of each other on an abstract background. The animal species are not entirely recognisable as they originate from both the artist's memory and fantasy. The subject as well as the birds' poses recall the Asian Art, while the cartoonish, figurative style and the colourful shapes of the background share the expressive quality of Pop Art. This harmonious clash between two distinct forms of expression, distant in culture and in time yet close on the artist's canvas, is a distinctive trait of Mohamed's creative approach. The subject of “Morning Star” is a cheerful scarab with the features of an animated character: white gloves, bold gestures, flashy smile, big eyes, a shiny body, motion and expressive lines comes straight from a familiar and iconic cartoon vocabulary. The artist reinterpreted the scarab, a beloved symbol of life in Ancient Egypt associated to the resurrection and the Sun God Ra, to salute the beginning of a new day. By opening energetically a colourful, striped wing, the vertical movement of the scarab guides the viewer's eye from the bottom to the upper part of the image. The wing's colours are also symbolic and deeply connected to the Ancient Egyptians: blue was the symbol of the Nile, often associated to rebirth and fertility, while yellow was the colour of the gods, an emblem of their power and immortality. The dense colours of the subject pop out from the abstract background which is a curious and experimental result of acrylic paint smeared on papyrus. “Stealing Back” features another artist's original character: a mummy running away from the police with stolen money. The subversive quality of the subject is furtherly enhanced by the artwork's title which suggest the drastic claim of a payback, probably associated to the economic exploitation of Egyptian culture. In the foreground the mummy, also characterised by distinctive, cartoonish features, is walking enthusiastically on a grey, wavy, asphalted street at the end of which, far away, an iconic black police car appears. Along the path runs a blue river and behind it stand the green landscape and the pyramids, immersed in pink clouds before an orange sunset. The vertical evolution of the saturated colours, from cold to warm, conveys a comforting feeling that contrasts with the sensation of uncertainty given by the portrayed, ongoing action. The naivety of Mohamed's artworks invite the viewers to reconnect with their childish curiosity, as well as to reflect upon important issues, such as the exploitation of cultural symbols and the flexible boundaries of contemporary art.

Art Curator Flavia Montecchi

Mohamed Essawy

Foreign Feathers

Mohamed Essawy

Morning Star

Mohamed Essawy

Stealing Back

Monika Saathoff <<Thought reveals itself only through contemplating a little without content (meditation). The contemplation is imperfect because you understand and then lose what you have understood momentarily>>

This is the beginning of the artist’s Monika Saathoff creative process, perfectly visible also in the three paintings that she has decided to exhibit in M.A.D.S. Art Gallery for the current “Coming Out” exhibition. For the artist, what is important during the creation’s process is the sensation that the act of drawing generates in her, and that consequently is reversed on her scenes. Deep expression of love, gratitude, beauty, and appreciation for what surrounds us, are the main feelings that Monika finds important and that, according to the concept of the exhibition, must be perceived from everybody. “PERPETUAL FEELING OF LIFE” in its chaotic, but full of symbolic meanings background is the reflection of what listed above. With the title itself, the artist’s aim is to invite the viewers to always find in life the feelings that permit us to be confident with our essence and to let them spin out just as she does while creating. The yellow frame that encloses the colorful central scene represents the light to which yearn for. Similar in the realization and in the hidden message is “Love for Life” where some defined and significant elements are recognizable. The love, to which the title and the artist as well refers, is described by the black heart on the left side of the canvas, big as to capture the attention of the viewers. The Life instead can be seen in the chaotic background as to refer to its unpredictability and vividness but also in the small and pink flowers drawn here and there, as to symbolize the fragility and the ephemeral. With a careful look, we can notice two big and light blue wings, opened to take flight, giving a sensation of freedom, the researched freedom. Just to recall this sensation, Monika presents “Butterfly” , a vivid painting on a monochrome background that emphasizes the main characters of the scene. Never abandoning the colors, the artist inserts them in a smaller space, the butterflies’ body to underline their importance and their meaning. The encoded color messages in all the paintings is to inspire and stimulate thinking in different vast forms as we are the only species with the gift to shape and modify matter through our conscious thinking process.

Art Curator Martina Stagi

Monika Saathoff

PERPETUAL FEELING OF LIFE

Monika Saathoff

Love for Life

Monika Saathoff

Butterfly

Nancy Yanaky

Nancy Yanaky is inspired by the beautiful Canadian landscapes for the realization of her works. The Canadian artist is a lover of nature, excursions and kayak trips, and she felt the need to paint to express the joys that all this aroused. "Canadian Tree 3", specifically, was inspired by an excursion to Killarney Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, which overlooks the clean, crystal-clear water of Georgian Bay. In the left half of the work, we can admire a tall and majestic white pine that hurls solitary against the sky dotted with soft white clouds. “As I paint,” the artist says, “I try to capture the spirit of the place I am visiting, using expressive brush strokes.”, and this is absolutely true. Looking at the artwork we can feel the fresh wind blowing in on our skin, we can hear the sound of the water flowing and birds chirping, and our lungs are filled with the clean air and the pungent scent of pines; Canada seems to wrap us up and kidnap all our senses. Nancy Yanaky was able to transmit to us, carrying it on canvas, everything she felt in front of this wonderful landscape. The palette used by the artist has clear tones, it is lit by the contrasts between the complementary colors and it is modulated on the light. The brushstrokes are not wide and relaxed, but they are elongated and split, somewhat in the manner of Van Gogh.

Nancy Yanaky’s emotional sphere and reality combine to create a wonderful artwork full of life, able to transport us to the uncontaminated parks of Ontario.

Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia

Nancy Yanaky

Canadian Tree 3

Naoki Hanayama

The heterogeneity of the earth in a painting. The lively water and the splashes of foam; the opacity of the earth and the crystalline transparency of the air; the mountainous reliefs and the placid, wave-free morning sea. The chromatic and multiform cluster present in Harvest Festival is a tribute to the multitude of elements that make up our world, a hymn to the mixture of techniques that make something a work of art. Oil color, acrylic color and pastels are used here in harmony. The result is a symphony of colors and shapes that is purely atypical and unusual. Spots of color unfold across the pictorial surface. A large bluish marsh takes its place at the center of the composition. It makes room between areas of dotted green and whitish splashes that resemble sea foam. The blue stain tries to build an identity for itself until it meets a splendid calm and pinkish space, a cloud of ethereal color that insinuates itself between the folds of the element in question, entering its ravines and gorges. And yet, the two spots will never meet. Naoki draws heavily on the Japanese painting tradition. The delicacy of the mezzotints, the care of the most minute detail catapult us into an oriental dimension. What most upsets eyes accustomed to a purely Western art is the contour line. A line of demarcation that contains within itself all the expressive power of a spot of color.

Naoki Hanayama

A line that jealously preserves and guards the pigment, trying to keep it within extremely limited boundaries. The blue stain and the pink one have understood that they are in the presence of each other and yet they will never know each other. There will always be that limit, that thin but constant line of contour which is the promoter of the subdivision of pigments, of diversity and heterogeneity of elements. Nothing can become homogeneous, the world is too vast and rich in elements to be represented in a flat and calm way. The composition is animated; the lines that run throughout the painting are excited and animated. Ample is the amount of curves and sine waves, of rotations and changes of direction.

Each element is aware of one another; each form, each shade of pigment is extremely balanced with one another, one on top of the other creating a harmonious complex of elements. The organicity of this composition recalls and resumes the landscapes with their sinuous and never geometric shapes, the nature with its protagonists moved by the wind and the waves. Naoki Hanayama's painting is a hymn to diversity, a cry for expressive freedom that can be applied outside the granted canons, a wish to experiment with new forms and new materials, new pigments and new combinations to represent what our eyes see.

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

Naoki Hanayama

Harvest Festival

Naoki Hanayama

In the rainy season, I don't notice tomorrow, yesterday

Natascha Segers “And so it is: if we don’t try to express the inexpressible then nothing gets lost. But the inexpressible will be - inexpressibly - contained in what has been expressed.”

Natascha Segers is an independent artist and art teacher, sharing is part of what doing art means for her. After completing a training in the fine arts of Geneva and a pedagogical training, she has been teaching visual arts for a few years. Her purely abstract style meets plastic surrealism in the evolution of her paintings in search of the very form of light which are resolved in a luminous cycle that ends with the cancellation of the light itself. Natascha's artistic path is full of geometric experiments and research beyond the shape of things, her sensitivity and her deep eye sees in reality the real form of animated and inanimate objects and are able to perceive the very essence of the soul of them. In the work "the Cycle of Light" the aim is exactly to bring to the apex of its splendor the very form of something that can't have a form in real life. The fluidity of a gray light that seems liquid and calm, meets the angularity of crazy rays that try in every way to explode, to get out of the ordinary to meet the extraordinary and mitigate the dynamic movement of their angularity with the calm of fluidity.

The strong contrast between the light and dark parts create a suggestion that leaves a sense of restlessness between the parts, as if there is actually a void dividing them and at the same time they were united by the white in the middle. As the light burns in its eternal cycle, as the artist burns too and expresses himself entirely through the flame of his own art with which she emerges in s splendor. Between the first and the second job we have a sudden detachment and we dive into the frenzy of bright and gaudy colors from the calm of the black and white.

Warm colors and cold colors meet in this surreal environment that leaves the impression of looking at the scene as if we were underwater. As if a blanket of clouds could have incredible colors and be under a sea of bubbles. In its splendor of colors it wants to have a limelight on black and white and show a surreal lightness that imposes itself on things and in the last work it is summarized in the shadow areas that supplant the colors and points of light. In the last phase of the light cycle, every color, every shade and every shape gradually give way to a dense darkness with a dynamic and very vivid spiral shape. The shapes we see are reminiscent of a bouquet of roses left to dry and the conclusion of a journey that has been very tiring. The artist gives us a vision of a whole life and through this cycle we can recognize the personal will to emerge, to change, to explode and then rejoin their own state of rest, aware that they have changed forever and the trail of their own light. it will remain even after dark.

Art Curator Letizia Perrieri

Natascha Segers

Light cycle 02

Natascha Segers

Light cycle 04

Natascha Segers

Zone d'ombe, changing lighti

Neumueller

German artist Ralf Neumuller, in art Neumueller, expresses with these words his art’s vision: “I want to paint the state of the inner. I call it pictures of the soul things that you do not see…. that are not obvious.” With these words the artist anticipates what his art transmits. Neumueller is able to dig deep into the soul and capture small fragments of it on the canvas. Most of his paintings depict human subjects in various situations using a unique style, undoubtedly influenced by German Expressionism "Die Brucke”. On the occasion of the "Coming Out" exhibition, organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in Milan, Neumueller exhibits his oil work entitled "Wistful". The work depicts a human figure whose gender is difficult to identify. The long and red dress that the subject wears may suggest that it is a woman but, at the same time, the connotations of the face and body and the lack of hair lead to a male subject. The background is black and the man’s body is totally pale. Red stands out on the composition. From a chromatic point of view, the reference with Banksy’s street-art works is immediate, just think of "Girl with Balloon”. From an iconographic point of view, the subject seems to vanish into thin air because of the shades that obscure half of the face, as if the wind blows strongly on his face. The dress is like a blur. All these details make the spectators feel a sense of mystery. Is the subject a ghost? Or is it a soul that is flying away? What is certain is this work offers much to think about and conveys a certain melancholy and sadness.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Neumueller

Wistful

Nicholas P. Kozis For the exhibition “Coming Out” Nicholas P. Kozis exposes five works with a strong aesthetic, symbolic and chromatic value. On the one hand, it is the color, so vivid and strong, that captures the viewer's attention by creating contrasting sensations; on the other hand, the symbolism is accentuated and completely involves the viewer in the works. As in “Earth Day 2020”, the artist recalls femininity at the dawn of the world, as if it was the figure of the goddess Gaia. This represents the woman as if she was emerging from the surface, in all her beauty and royalty, enveloped in a vibrant atmosphere. Moreover, this work could be related to "Vessel 3": by depicting a prior moment, through great creativity and dynamic vigor, it is like Nicholas wanted to pay homage to the creation of the Earth. Every aspect is full of intense sensations which are issued by the light beam. The colors’ strength together with the surrounding environment generate a powerful vibration, an echo of mystery, inviting the observer to take a personal journey into his/her own soul. The work encloses an essential component that unites the sacred and the profane, evoking an infinite spirituality. The young girl is about to come out of the cocoon to be born and grow, becoming our beloved planet Earth, so that every human being can wait and celebrate her coming (as it appears in “Earth Day 2020”). While in “Flamenco”, the viewer is attracted by the gaze of the woman who appears to be so proud while she is performing the typical Spanish dance.

Through her Hispanic and typically Mediterranean beauty, the sensuality of the woman is accentuated by the color red, which is so predominant and used in all its shades, including darker tones till to get a burgundy effect. The almost amber hue of her complexion blends harmoniously with the whole context, while the fan, being red as well, gives liveliness and sinuosity to the scene. Instead, in “Lioness 2”, one can notice the artist's intention to represent the woman as an emblem of strength and courage, who dominate and intimidate the observer with her grace and determination. In order to emphasize this, purple is used to further mark the royalty of the girl, queen of the savannah. Finally, in “The Body Electric” the form, tones and pose perfectly synthesize a different openness and representation of the female universe. The girl is herself light and energy, capable of going beyond all limits till reaching an otherworldly dimension, thus connecting with her inner self. Only in this way can she be in complete harmony with what surrounds her, and this is also reflected in the entire artwork, giving rise to a dynamic and expressive balance.

Art Curator Alessia Perone

Nicholas P. Kozis

Earth Day 2020

Nicholas P. Kozis

Flamenco

Nicholas P. Kozis

Lioness 2

Nicholas P. Kozis

The Body Electric

Nicholas P. Kozis

Vessel 3

Nicoletta Carella "I don't paint for people to understand me. I paint to show what a certain scene looks like."

(Joseph Mallord William Turner) Nicoletta Carella is a self-taught contemporary artist who has been creating art since her childhood. Her scientific education generated a new field of research, that combines art with topics related to Medicine, where simple elements of nature and unreal objects describe, through strong colours, different medical themes. The landscape in the first artwork seems to be pervaded by a destructive fire that completely fills the scene. Very warm colors and incredible dynamism give life to a real storm of emotions that arose from the sight of a house in the distance. The title of the work which means "return" causes a deep nostalgia and the house with indefinite contours becomes the home of each of us in our personal imagination. The artist succeeds through his purely abstract technique to recreate in the mind of the viewer the whirlwind of emotions that causes the sight of a place loved and long lost, to which one can return physically and emotionally, a place that attracts us and scare us at the same time for what it can bring to memory, however the certainty of the fascination that arises, forces the gaze and the heart to dwell on the greatest emotion that man can feel: homesickness.In the second artwork he sky and the sea become one in this painting in which the warm color of the sun seems to divide the scene in half. A strong contrast between the colors is mitigated by the artist's delicate technique reminiscent of the great romantic masterpieces of Friedrich or Turner. The force transmitted in the use of bright colors is reflected in the viewer who can grasp all the greatness of the concept of a sunset. The end of the day marked by this moment of the day has a strong emotional impact on the human soul that is pervaded by the quiet and nostalgia for the day that is over. The transition phase of sunset prepares for the future of the darkest moment and warm colors console people for the last time before night. The nostalgic soul of the artist comes out in all its beauty through the strong image of an exciting sunset. The title of the third work which means "green sea" shows the expanse of movement that develops throughout the work. The viewer's initial impression is that of being in front of a vast green lawn with hills in the distance and some pieces of yellow grass, but by observing carefully we can capture the dynamism of the waves and the tormented movement of the sea that the artist wants to show us. The strong similarity between the meadow and the sea is due to the grandeur of the landscape which in the common imagination is connected to the idea of infinity that fascinates the human soul. The abstract current meets the romantic surrealism used by the artist to show a sea exactly as it is in his imagination and thanks to which he expresses an inner torment and with which he emerges from the conventional image of the sea and the sea itself becomes an instrument of liberation for the artist

Art Curator Letizia Perrieri

Nicoletta Carella

Il ritorno

Nicoletta Carella

Tramonto a Torre Vado

Nicoletta Carella

Verde mare

Niklassion “Let me, oh let me immerse my soul in colors; let me swallow the sunset and drink the rainbow” (Khalil Gibran)

Niklas Simon, in art Niklassion, is a 27 years old contemporary abstract artist from Germany. The artist’s research is not limited to the study of aesthetics, matter and support on which he imprints his works, but a scientific component is fundamental to the achievement of the final result. His paintings are created through a mixture of physics and chemistry.

The research focuses in particular on the reaction to UV light. Observing roses&rainbows, the work exhibited in the exhibition, we are in a centrifuge of colors, the mind is lost, following the vortex, the thoughts vanish and you reach a moment of ecstasy almost meditative. The colors of the rainbow, elegantly distributed on the canvas, bring the observer to another dimension of beauty and harmony. If the life is made of moments, in which the carefree and pure happiness last only a few seconds and then leave space to life with its thoughts, this work allows us to enjoy one of these moments suspended, outside of time and space. The artist has the ability to lead us on an extraordinary journey, we feel Alice who finds herself in Wonderland. The size of the canvas, 145x90 cm, helps to empathize with the painting. The sinuous lines seem to dance with each other, the colors are intertwined, they merge with each other while remaining well separated, as well as the man in relationship with other men, but always in relation to himself and his inner self. On a delicate white background the circle of life flows and in its flow transforms, in good and evil, and the moments of beauty that man passes through modify it epigenetically, imprinted the feeling of happiness in his DNA and returning alive in the dark mementos of human existence.

Art Curator Erika Gravante

Niklassion

roses&rainbows

Nikolas Fotiadis “They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.” (Hermann Hesse)

Nude female bodies, with sinuous forms, move through space. Restless brushstrokes tell of a swaying movement, accompanied by an inner frenzy. The pigments dissolve into each other, creating infinite facets that seem to be reflected as if on the surface of a mirror, on which a thousand cracks run. These are just some of the details that characterize the "Pleiades" series by Nikolas Fotiadis, a contemporary Greek artist. The female body takes on a new form, almost barely recognizable, because it is wrapped in movement like a photograph taken with long exposure times. The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, are a cluster of stars visible in the constellation Taurus and in Greek mythology they are celestial nymphs. The Pleiades, by Nikolas Fotiadis, are also like stars, luminescent and vibrant bodies that hypnotise the viewer by leading his gaze from one side of the painting to the other. These works have certain aspects in common with the Futurist aesthetic. Indeed, Futurism and its exponents looked with interest at the concepts of time and movement, albeit in a more scientific sense.

Nikolas Fotiadis

Nikolas Fotiadis appropriates this language, transforming it and filling it with an expressiveness that is more oriented towards the analysis of eternal becoming, understood as change, movement, the endless flow of reality, in the perpetual birth and death of things (Panta rei). The dynamism of the brushstrokes, always oriented in different directions, recalls the flow of water, a fundamental element that guarantees our survival. An element that, in some ways, is also strongly connected with the origin of the term "Pleiades", linked to "plein", i.e. "to navigate". These stars were therefore an important reference point for navigating the waters. Water runs through our bodies, connecting our being to the flow of everything.

Nikolas Fotiadis manages to translate this complex concept into magnificent visual waves, lulling the observer into a progressive change of sensations.

Art Curator Francesca Brunello

Nikolas Fotiadis

Pleiades

Nikolas Fotiadis

Pleiades

Nikolas Fotiadis

Pleiades

Nikolas Fotiadis

Pleiades

Nina Liemola For the International art exhibition “Coming Out” at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, the Finnish artist Nina Liemola decided to display an artwork “to come out” her way to depict and make art. She creates works and different patterns inspired by nature and botany, experimenting through various techniques such as watercolors, oil, acrylic and even wood. But also letting herself be carried away by her instinct and intuition, as it is visible in the painting Under the cherry trees. A country path, characterized by the presence and magnificent appearance of cherry blossoms highlighted by the contrast of colors of pink-fuchsia and a light blue sky. A quiet place, where, like the exhibition suggests, to feel free to be whoever we want. In fact, the cherry tree has a very special meaning: it blooms and fades in a short time. The spectacle of the fall of flowers represents the transience and ephemeral value of life, fragility, but also the desire to enjoy every moment. The flower is so delicate and fragile, but at the same time tenacious in its perfection, representing the beauty and transience of humans in the world. Its life cycle is therefore that of people: they are born, they live in splendour and then they leave the tree to die and peacefully reconcile with the soil, that is the place from which they come. Its name, Sakura in the Japanese language, recalls the entire Japanese philosophy linked to the culture of patience, respect for nature and inner peace. That is a focal point of artists who dedicate themselves and experience being in close contact with nature. This tree, like all the others, contains secrets and wise advice that guide man in his being and in accepting himself for what he is, without distinction or selection. With that, art plays an essential role: not only guiding the artist but managing to unite the two parts and make them coexist. As Nina herself stated, art is an interesting way to discover and do research.

"Let us find inner freedom in each lucky moment that we encounter, like a sun-basking butterfly that finds peace on a cherry blossom petal."

(Erik Pevernagie)

Art Curator Ylenia De Giosa

Nina Liemola

Under the cherry trees

Ophélia Buchelin Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom. (A. Einstein) Ophélia Buchelin is a young artist of French origins, who thanks to her art has discovered a world without limits, a new reality that she can express through colors and movements, and as she herself claims, she does not try to describe her works too much because it could diminish their natural strenghth and limit their meanings. The work “Untitled” is a mixed technique on canvas, an explosion of bright and saturated colors that could represent anything or perhaps nothing at the same time, a distant galaxy or an accidental fall of color, some landscape seen from above as an aerial view. There is no starting point in this work, we have to enjoy it in a different way, by simply throwing ourselves into it to be enveloped by its colors and by the new an sudden directions it takes. It is a painting that leaves the viewer surprised and suspended, because the mind tries to analyze it but fails, and the eyes let themselves be captured by the flashes of blue, the turquoise splashes, the large brushstrokes of red and the lively yellow. The artist’s mixed technique includes acrylics and oils, leaving the paint free to run and drip onto the canvas, in a liberating and revealing action, recalling in some details the dripping technique so used by Pollock and other artists after him. This freedom given to color as if it had the ability to decide where to go makes it a sort of co-creator of the work. Perhaps instead of trying to understand what it represents, it would be enough to stop and admire these fusions and shades, without thinking too much about the rest.

This painting is the liberation of the artist and her inner worls, as well as her desire to awaken new sensations in the viewer, whitout shyness but rather with strenght and carving out her own space.

Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.

(J. Pollock)

Art Curator Irene Vettori

Ophélia Buchelin

UNTITLED

Pål Török

Everything that is change and transformation inspires the Swedish artist, Pål Török, and just as it is liberating to find your own way and be what you really want to be, so it is liberating to him colors, and in fact his artworks, most of them abstract, are always full of color. "Big Bada Boom" is a triptych, but we could also see it as one big painting because of the continuation of motifs from one canvas to another. It arouses feelings of liberation and rebirth in the artist and he also associates it with the film "The Fifth Element" by Luc Besson. The work is crossed by several horizontal elements: on the lower and upper edge of the canvas - like a frame that encloses the work -, in the upper half, and finally in the middle. This latter horizontal pattern starts from the left canvas in a semicircle and ends in the right canvas as in an explosion. The predominant color of the composition is blue, but it is important to note as well as the presence of white, expertly used by the artist for the background. The second artwork is a diptych, but unlike the first, there is no immediate feeling of continuity. Although it is possible to see the symbol of infinity when you approach the two canvases - the number 8 lying down -, I think it is better to talk about two sides of the same coin. With this work Pål Török wants to focus on transsexual people and, as you can guess from the title of the work, “I become who I want to be - Towards the horizon – Transformation”, he wants to focus on their legitimate right to choose their gender identity without this being imposed. The gold color illuminates and embellishes the entire composition; it is, indeed, an uplifting and encouraging shade, and it is the color of success and triumph. “Wave - Dare”, finally, is a typical example of what and how Pål Török paints. He has always lived in contact with the sea and the ocean and they have always guided his painting process. A large stylized wave lashes against the grey background, out of time and space. The artist proves to be able to use and dominate the fluid color and each splash of paint is exactly where it should be. As the Swedish artist explains, the waves, even after breaking, still move forward like an unstoppable force. "If the wave were human, it would not be a coward. But a brave one." he says. We should all be like the waves, we should never let ourselves be broken down permanently, we should change without losing ourselves.

Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia

Pål Török

Big Bada Boom

Pål Török

I become who I want to be - Towards the horizon – Transformation

Pål Török

Wave – Dare

Pato Reichler

Pato Reichler is an Argentinian multidisciplinary artist born in Buenos Aires who has been passionate about art since she was young. She paints on various media with different techniques and is always looking for new creative processes. Pato is a bold, courageous artist who is not afraid to dare and who never stops questioning herself. Her artworks reveal her fluid, manual and decorative strokes that draw creative and original forms. Her subjects are delineated and every detail is impeccably rendered. She often places the protagonists of her artworks on empty or undecorated backgrounds, so that the viewer's eye can focus on the intrinsic meanings of colour and form. She often chooses subjects linked to the world of childhood in order to encourage the viewer to question himself about that side of his personality that concerns light-heartedness and childishness. In front of Pato's marvellous artwork, the viewer cannot help but identify with the protagonists and experience the process of evolution from childhood to adulthood simultaneously with what is painted on the canvas. In the artwork 'Desdoblados', this concept is very evident. It brings together many of the artist's distinctive features. Against a black background, a young woman is drawn in profile, dressed in a long, fairytale-like dress. It is impossible not to notice the reference to Little Red Riding Hood, which is also suggested by the presence of a wolf, also in profile, which coincides with the face of the protagonist. The wolf's silhouette is hidden behind Little Red Riding Hood's body, with only its muzzle visible. The artist thus creates a character with a dual interpretation, involving two different personalities living together in one person. The artwork leads to a profound reflection on the intimate human soul and the many nuances that make it up. Each of us contains a hidden, hidden side that we often try to conceal for fear of the judgement of others.

The work is an invitation not to hide, to come out and become aware of oneself. This implies a process that is not easy but is necessary in order to know ourselves and become aware of who we are, for better or for worse. The artist uses the technique of white chalk on a black background, a strong contrast that still draws our attention to this dual aspect of reality. The yellow chalks draw the soft waves of the hair that seem to be moved by the wind; red is used for the dress and to give three-dimensionality to the sleeve; brown is used for the wolf's fur.

The use of chalk pastel is a difficult painting technique to use because it is not always possible to obtain defined and detailed results. But this is not the case with this splendid artwork. The artist's gestural expressiveness is remarkable and shows great skill even in using such a difficult technique. The stroke is decorative and flat, but the shading obtained with the chalk dust gives dynamism and three-dimensionality.

Little Red Riding Hood's face is delicate and contrasts with the gaze of the wolf, who grinds his sharp teeth and has a ravenous expression.

Both are looking forward, in one direction but with two opposing attitudes. In this artwork, Pato plays with contrasts to construct the entire image. This is the focus of the entire work. Life, like the human soul, is made up of contrasts, and becoming aware of this makes us the protagonists of our own lives. It makes us choose whether to be the wolf or Little Red Riding Hood, or both at the same time.

Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti

Pato Reichler

Desdoblados

Patricia Rubano

For the second time in M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, the Canadian artist Patricia Rubano exhibits two of her abstract paintings, similar in the technique but different in colours and in the meaning. As the concept of the exhibition wants to focus the attentions on the importance to feel free to express ourselves and to share who we are, Patricia here has decided to show to the viewers her instinct act of painting. “Three Copper Pennies” shows in its cold atmosphere - given by the nuances of blue and white colours - two abstract and stylized figures drawn only with thin and white lines. We can imagine the figures as the representation of a continuous scene, in which the figure at the centre of the painting is the final evolution of a first scared and wary woman, gaining the trust of society and of herself. The crystal atmosphere can be considered as the fragility of a self-esteem and that is going to dissolve on the foreground where hotter spots represent the light, a sort of ‘coming out’.

Patricia Rubano

With the same intensity in technique, the artist realizes “Stolen”. This second piece is completely abstract, with no figures nor symbols, just deep and big brushes giving to the scene a brilliant atmosphere. Nothing of rational, this piece reflects Patricia’s pour out, her need to let her emotions, linked to a particular moment of her life - to come out. The title itself ‘Stolen’ – as the artist explains - is coming out of a chaotic moment, understanding the fragility of life and how a moment can change a person reality in an instant. A flux of thoughts and feelings is what the artist transmits while creating her artworks, listening to her inner self, Patricia can disconnect from the reality; to don’t be conditioned by society and to spread her real being.

Art Curator Martina Stagi

Patricia Rubano

Three Copper Pennies

Patricia Rubano

Stolen

Patrick Lyngbirk "The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring."

(James Joyce)

Patrick Lyngbirk is a Danish artist who creates artworks by pouring the most internal and intimate part of his ego onto their surface. In his pieces it is possible to find various monstrous and distorted figures, they are probably personifications of nightmares, thoughts and fears but also desires and feelings related to the mutation of the artist's soul.

Among his artworks, it is also possible to see characters, objects and aspects of the everyday life, probably to represent, transmit and reinterpret the contemporary pop culture. The artist's favorite tools are undeniably acrylic paint, oil pastels, markers, spray and sometimes even chalk. He uses all of them to create pieces that have vibrant and bright colours and that are studded with figures, objects and writings. Admiring a Patrick Lyngbirk's piece means entering and having access to his most hidden and profound self. The viewer is left with the task of interpreting and giving meaning to his paintings.

Art Curator Alessia Logatto

Patrick Lyngbirk

DREAMING NIGHTMARES

Patrick Lyngbirk

EMOTIONS WITHOUT FEELINGS

Patrick Lyngbirk

MATRIX

Patrick Lyngbirk

PEGASUS

Patrick Lyngbirk

SAD PEOPLE

Perla Mignanelli “My goal is never to copy.

Create a new style, clear luminous colors and feel the elegance of the models.”

(Tamara de Lempicka) Perla Mignanelli is an Italian figurative artist that immortalises and empowers women in her hyper-realistic portrayals: by focusing on the small, unique details that characterise femininity with her bold technique, Perla enthrones the female subject under a glamorous spotlight. At the "Coming Out" exhibition the artist presents three oil paintings which she personally crafted to convey a three-dimensional feeling through their peculiar structure: the paintings consists of overlapped canvases which are arranged in three geometric compositions to powerfully claim an additional, third dimension. Perla's artworks feature three emblematic female figures which stand out from the dark backgrounds, framed by glamorous, decorative patterns. “Aphrodite”, as the title suggests, celebrates the Greek goddess of love and beauty. The female divinity is represented as an hypnotic, entangled mystery that dynamically unravels before the viewer's eye in a perpetual rebirth. Natural elements and Aphrodite's own body frame her face, red lips and piercing blue eyes. The goddess encloses herself in a delicate, protective embrace, inviting the viewers to come closer at their own risk. Conversely “Daphne” stands up proud with her chin up high, crowned by golden laurel leaves and curly blue strokes. The pointy extensions of the tiara match the corners of the overlapped canvases, enhancing the threedimensional appeal of the portrait. The goddess of Nature condescendingly looks down on the viewer with the arrogant confidence of a queen. Her mouth, slightly opened, suggests the intention of expressing a meaningful statement and enveloping the viewers in pleasing expectations. Contrary to the other subjects, “Ru-Giada” is an original character conceived by the artist and nonetheless, the main protagonist of her own story: “ […] a lady stuck between past and future, she knows life goes on, she decides to look back for the last time”. The woman is portrayed from behind, half turned, looking back with her sweet, nostalgic gaze. Drawing inspiration from Classicism and Mexican art, Perla encircled the subject with graphic, natural elements. Deeply influenced by Art Déco, Perla's artworks evoke the same theatrical and sensual quality of Tamara de Lempicka's painting: the hard lights and stark shadows elevate her female subjects to fashionable works of design, without depriving them of their natural, provocative and powerful beauty.

Art Curator Flavia Montecchi

Perla Mignanelli

Aphrodite

Perla Mignanelli

Daphne

Perla Mignanelli

Ru-Giada

Pollyanna “Step into your authentic truth, because your truth will light up the world”.

(Gabby Bernstein) Pollyanna is a filipina digital artist who aims to show the beauty and the force hidden behind human emotions and fragility trough abstract and dreamlike portraits. After her recent shift into full digital illustration, she started to remodel her traditional drawings and photography by using digital art tools.

She considers art as a mean to dialogue about untouchable topics, thanks to its power to heal, strengthen and transform. With her works she aims to raise the awareness over mental health. Shifting it from something that can be socially seen in a negative way, to a journey which express both a person’s strength and his understanding of its own emotions and vulnerability. As much as the acceptance of self.

By taking up those topics, the artist wish to increase the discussion about them, in order to make the observer, who struggles with those themes, feel related. Pollyanna’s fight against depression and her steps to acceptance of self, give her artworks the fuel to convey the importance of recognizing our feelings, with bravery and without being ashamed of them. “HEADSPACE” is her work exhibited for Coming out. Inspired by the artist own experience with mental health and self acceptance, it reflects all the intimate and entrenched struggles in our head, showing the importance of being able to process and let go all what harm us. Fiercely show outside who we are despite any health condition.

Art Curator Sofia Ronzi

Pollyanna

HEADSPACE

Poporo

A painting that springs directly from the soul and the most intimate part of himself. A means to express feelings and sensations difficult to identify and describe, impossible to decipher in their elaborate complexity. Art, in this sense, is the most suitable means for the externalization of something that is inside us, for the representation of an invisible that many times is so heavy that it takes the form of an opaque boulder. Poporo grasps art and makes it her own. The technique as well as the color, the shapes as well as the nuances are all elements at the service of the artist's soul. A human figure stands out in the middle of the canvas. His skin is diaphanous and takes consistency thanks to a chromatic range that varies from pale pink to purple to yellowish. An epidermis illuminated by the cold moonlight, a skin that is cold to the touch yet extremely soft, immaculate. The human figure unravels among a dark blanket that occupies most of the corners of the representation. A very deep bluish backdrop holds within itself amoebas of color, rivulets of pigment and lively microorganisms. They are swimming in the darkest depths, in the abyss of Overseas in which they were born and have spent their entire existence. Yet the individual depicted here manages to extricate himself from the lump of infinite abyss to land in safer, clearer waters. He is surrounded by a green-water backdrop, by a quiet and recognizable space-time, by constellations of known and domesticated elements.

Immersed in a tranquil atmosphere, far from the now unravelled darkness, the individual is necessarily displaced by the diversity of the landscape before him. His arms fall perpendicular and his shoulders are rather stiff. The slender neck supports a diaphanous and ethereal face. The lips are purple and the small nose peeps out from the round face. Yet our gaze turns fixedly to his eyes. Glassy, crystalline eyes.

Eyes so bright as to make us forget the aforementioned darkness. Eyes that stare us in the face. The expression is not questioning, let alone astonishment. It almost seems as if this person knows the truth, is aware of the past and the future of existence and silently watches impassively the flow of events. It is a presence that is not part of our world, it belongs to something else, to a place far away where reality struggles to arrive. The feeling of disorientation that we recognized before is now replaced by the conscious vision of events without being able to do anything about it. One cannot change the past, much less chase a desired future. Time flows incessantly according to its own rules, according to its will.

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

Poporo

Cosmos

RaccoonDesign "Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris" (Genesis 3,19) RaccoonDesign participates in the “Coming Out” exhibition with a very introspective work, entitled Floral Pandemic. This work is an exhortation to be who we really are, to free ourselves from the false masks and over-exploitation that we or society imposes on us. It is time “to come out of the closet”, before death takes over. In a central position is the last pillar of humanity represented by a bust of a human skeleton. We are flesh and blood. Nature passes through us, like a floral pandemic, creeping into the empty spaces of our skeleton and reminding us that "We are dust in the midst of nature and in the end we will return to dust", just as the artist RaccoonDesign suggests, taking up a phrase from the Bible. He also places the subject of the work against a grey background that heralds the Last Judgment. The advice is to reflect on the brevity of life or the vanity of human ambitions. "Ideals will be the first thing to die, even before our flesh", says the artist. Therefore, there is no point in displaying impeccable ethics, adhering to principles that we ourselves do not share just to please the world. The time has come to be sincere and transparent people and to show our true identity. Although he is a young artist, RaccoonDesign pays attention to every detail: you can notice the different sizes of the water droplets, their perfect perspective and, inside them, the reflections of the subject and the setting from various angles.

Art Curator Alessia Ventola

RaccoonDesign

Floral Pandemic

Rachel Varden "My work allows me to resolve issues that I have in my everyday life. When I paint I have no fear or anxiety and I’m taken on a journey of wonder each and every time. I have been painting full time for the last 2 years and I am finding that through my paintings I am beginning to become a person that is confident and self-assured. A person that has less aniexty and I can thank my art for that."

(Rachel Varden) "I create worlds of imagination that are charged with symbolism and I have always underlying narratives that I hope leaves the viewer intrigued, confused and curious. I use bold colours to trick the viewer into thinking that my work is happy and cheerful but on closer inspection there is a sinister element to all my work. I guess it is my way of dealing with aniexty and fear trying to get these monkeys of my back and resolving these self-inflicted issues through my work.” say the artist about her personal coming out with her art. Rachel is an artist living and working in Tuam, Co. Galway on the west coast ofIreland. She has a Bachelors of Arts Degree (Honours) in Fine Art Painting. She has exhibited locally and nationally. Rachel's paintings are charged with colour, symbols, pattern, creatures andmovement. She regards composition and format to bekey threads in her paintingprocess. Her unique style and technique gives her work depth, incorporating subtlereferences and constantly playing with perspective that creates tension in her work.Her current body of work is predominately inspired by stone carvings that can befound at Glenstal Abbey in Co. Limerick, Ireland. She is also inspired by primitiveart, symbolisms, pattern, colour and ‘Outsider Art’. She really likes art that is different and unusual. Through her own work she is trying to decipher the general of life, doing so by been totally truthful and honest with her own work. Integrity is a huge part of her ethos. The painting titled "Never for Money Always for Love" is predominately inspired by stone carvings found at Glenstal Abbey, Co. Limerick, Ireland. It has been developed from a series of works called ‘The Scaredy-cat Collection’. It incorporates a-lot of elements from previously made work and it shows Rachel's love of primitive art, pattern, colour and ‘Outsider Art’. The Coming Out Exhibition really resonates with Rachel as it is through her work she tries to find answers to her own fears and inadequacies.

Art Curator Letizia Vuotto

Rachel Varden

Never for Money Always for Love

Raichbhe Walkman

Raichbhe Walkman is an Australian artist who has a unique way of approaching her canvases: the artist realizes works completely free from any premeditation, "straight from head to hand" as she herself says. Raichbhe draws with melted wax and never corrects what was produced on the canvas. The immediacy and purity of the gesture are therefore the protagonists within Raichbhe Walkman’s artistic production. Her works, in general, are colorful and vibrant. The geometry, symbols and colors inspire the artist or perhaps it would be better to say that she is guided by them during this spiritual journey. The artist decides to exhibit at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in Milan, the work entitled "LifeBlooms" which contains a strong message. The work is in fact composed of countless colors, mainly those of the rainbow, colors associated with the LGBTQ flag. In addition, beautiful flowers dominate the composition, bringing viewers to discover slowly all the details that make up the work. The artist compares the flowers in her painting to love. A flower blooms without deciding, it is a natural path that leads it to be born and create something wonderful. The same happens with love: we cannot decide who we fall in love with, we cannot choose who we are, but our soul is simply driven by feelings and emotions. In the artist’s words: "When love blooms, it is a connection of souls." This reasoning and this work are therefore a message of freedom, freedom to be who you are and freedom to love who you want to love. The artist thus fights against the prejudices of people who define bisexual people as "greedy", stating: "Bisexual people simply feel that the mind and the personality inside someone is more important." Raichbhe Walkman, during the Pride month, chooses to join an exhibition that celebrates the freedom to be who you are without being afraid of the judgment of others and does it with a wonderful work that releases freedom.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Raichbhe Walkman

LifeBlooms

Rakhila Bernikova

Rakhila Bernikova exposes the artwork “No title” for the international exhibition “Coming Out”: it is a reference to the pure and simple beauty of the female universe, where every detail is emphasized by strong lines and colors.

Through an informal pose, the models are shown as if the artist was standing in front of them while she is portraying them on the canvas. Each brushstroke gives shape and substance to the painted elements, especially to the intense and penetrating girl’s gaze, bringing out a sense of depth from the whole scene. An in-depth study of the individual prevails in this representation, without forgetting a great attention and ability to combine figurative art with the use of light and shaded tones, giving to the work an extreme delicacy and pleasant harmony. Rakhila's desire to release her emotions is evident, making some interesting stylistic choices: by selecting the nuances to be used, the artist can highlight fundamental details, such as the red lips, with the aim of conveying numerous sensations, since it is precisely through the mouth that the whole body is able to express its emotions to their fullest. Another crucial aspect is represented by the eyes: a sign of transcendence and spirituality, they are so big and deep that they can read the soul of any individual. This is how feelings and moods are mixed in this painting, as if the two women were completely abandoned to ecstasy between the real and the dreamlike dimensions. Rakhila succeeds in enhancing the passion and synergy of the young women, bringing out a great nonchalance and sensuality, just as in the female silhouettes typical of the Belle Époque. The intimate humanity is imbued with an inner light and makes this painting incisive. The attention given to the female image underlines the beauty of being a woman, where art and emancipation are absolutely united, representing Rakhila's style at its best.

“The beauty of a woman must be perceived from her eyes, because that is the door of her heart, the place where love lies.” (Audrey Hepburn)

Art Curator Alessia Perone

Rakhila Bernikova

No title

Rebecca Stenn “Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art.” – Margot Fonteyn “I paint the way I dance” is Rebecca Stenn’s philosophy for which she combines her core values as a multi-skilled artist.

Since she is a professional dancer based in New York, USA, Stenn has been familiar with the concept of movements her entire life. Strength and softness, sensuality, spaciousness, and her body are the media through which she visualizes music and expresses her thoughts in her dance production. In the same way, Stenn applies these techniques in her visual art production; bold curves, lines, and vibrant colors are the key characteristics of her works where the combination of line, color, and shape is spilled onto the canvas in a quick motion as if it were a stage on which she performs her dance movements. Through the painting exhibited at the Coming Out International Art Exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Stenn experimented for the first time with cityscape painting created with acrylic on canvas. The painting is titled “Central Park Reservoir New York City” and depicts a panoramic view of New York City from the Central Park reservoir area. Rebecca initially painted this cityscape using warm-toned colors ranging from dark red to yellow as the prominent colors to create an evening ambiance. In her finishing process, however; she applied the over-painting technique by putting 12 horizontal grids on top of the first draft. Each block was painted in different tones, which not only characterized the work by transforming it into an abstract landscape but also created new stories inside the same painting. When viewers take a quick look at it, they may feel calm, as the painting conjures up images of a twilight moment when lives in the metropolis become less hectic and slow down by an evening stroll in Central Park. When looking at each block more closely, one can notice the tone and colors Rebecca used to convey a variety of stories and messages. The upper panels, where burnt orange and yellow are dominant colors, evoke feelings of warmth, enthusiasm, and happiness, while the combination of dark blue and orange, which imitates the reflection of sunset sky on the water surface, evokes sensations of tranquility and peace. An NYC building line is painted mostly in dark red and black in the middle of the canvas, implying a late evening time, a few moments before the city’s nightlife begins. In fact, the artwork is a collection of the artist’s visual perceptions of New York City from different hours as seen, experienced, and felt by her, which she also desires to share with her audience.

Art Curator Trithida Trising

Rebecca Stenn

Central Park Reservoir New York City

Remy Szutran

The art made by Remy Szutran presents a different style and language. If we consider the three paintings that he presented at the international art exhibition Coming Out, we can see different languages used. Starting from the first titled Three of Life. This one seems to go towards the surrealist shapes. In fact on a red background the image of a three is put in the centre of the vision to catch the attention of the observers. There is no doubt on the importance of this image.

The whole artwork seems to revolve around this element that wants to symbolize the rule of life. In the surrealism at the same, the elements put into the composition are called to remind something else. And in the same way the artist Remy Szutran uses the three to say something that belongs to himself. The three of life represent life at the same time the way it is represented by the artist communicates the way the artist intends the life, what is important for him. For example the choice to represent roots larger than the trunk and the upper part could mean the idea that, for the artist, what is important in life is the past, the memories on which to build for the future. For the other paintings presented the style used is that of the abstracts. So his vision became less representative to underline the importance of the shapes used and the colours. At the same time we can see some differences in the two compositions. In the Authenticity and vitality the shapes are more fluid and indefinite, also the colours seem to blend together to strive for homogeneity. In the last one painting titled Compassion we can discover the use of some geometries which describe the space of the invention and the creativity.

The composition is concentrated in the centre of the painting at the same time we can see defined lines that cat the canvas. Are the impact of those lines that become more suggestive and remind me of the idea of compassion. As if the artist wants to tell us about something necessary and extremely potent in life and in the relationship with others.

Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio

Remy Szutran

Three of Life

Remy Szutran

Authenticity and Vitality

Remy Szutran

Compassion

Renata Romano

<<At that time, painting came out of me as a way to process and express every pain, loss, fear but also overcoming, resilience, compassion... I put out the artist that was kept in me.>>. To introduce the art made by Renata Romano could be very interesting to start from her consideration about the art and her rule as an artist.

Connecting the idea expressed by her to the concept of the exhibition we can say that the movement of coming out is that created by the artistic creation. So let out latent emotions and thoughts to free the soul. About this the painting presented on occasion of the international art exhibition Coming Out, titled Changes, seems to talk properly about the desire of the artist to use the art to express her feeling. As if it was a necessity. The painting represents a female figure that looks up. She doesn't want to look at the observer, but just express something deepest, that belongs to her and her emotion. More important element is that the face appears decorated, masked by colors and shapes as if the artist wanted to hide or conceal something of his face. At the same time the energy and communicative power of the gaze reveals the emotions of the represented figure. The observer is mesmerized by looking ahead, and trying to connect with, discovering more about himself. In this way, turning around, he may discover that he is different, changed.

Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio

Renata Romano

Changes

Roberta Gomes Miranda

The composition by Brazilian artist Roberta Gomes Miranda “Desejo confinado”, present among the works exhibited for the "Coming out" exhibition hosted by the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, is the expression both of the artist's desire to be deeply in contact with nature and of the impossibility of realizing this desire, due to the recent events that have shocked the whole world. As the artist says, “the inspiration came from the forest as a call to enjoy its purity, its colors and the pure air without a mask. My desire to connect with pure nature strengthens me, leading me to paint”. The work is also particularly significant on a symbolic level: as the artist states, the sense of deprivation accompanied people during this period of pandemic, becoming a common element of most people’s lives, marking their days sometimes in a profound way. The canvas is the result of what the artist sees as a poetic construction carried out through painting, a place where she feels free to translate and interpret her own relationship with the world and the living beings that surround her, making her not only part of the infinite, but infinite herself. The style adopted by Roberta is reminiscent of Monet's Impressionism: the focus on color rather than drawing, the choice to represent the desire expressed by the artist through a natural landscape, the sense of incompleteness that the canvas conveys to the eye of the observer, the emergence of the artist's emotions through the thick, confident brushstrokes that release the artist's sensitivity, transforming it, through the language of art, into form and color, making it concrete. Its patches of color blend together, creating a mixture of soft, delicate tones in pastel shades set against different shades of green, some light, some dark, some intense bottle green, and bright orange. The choice to make color prevail over drawing exempts the work from the rigidity imposed by a thick outline, giving lightness to the composition, recreating the harmonious freedom with which nature grows and the contrast that the various elements of which the nature is composed create if and when placed side by side, emphasizing each other. What the artist depicts looks like a clearing surrounded by trees with thick, drooping foliage, a cascade of colors that opens up to make room for the observer, the artist, allowing them to come into contact with the peace and calm that nature offers, a refuge, a safe place far from the greyness of urban monotony.

" Desire is possibility seeking expression."

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Art Curator Martina Grassi

Roberta Gomes Miranda

Desejo confinado

Robin Blažek “Freely exercise one’s genius, here is the real happiness.” (Aristotele)

Robin Blažek is an artist originally from the Czech Republic whose imagination has been the key since he was a child to create his own new world in which to take refuge and escape from the chaos that populates the world. Initially attached to figurative art, he then moved on to experimenting with abstract art in which splashes of colour meet, unite and blend, creating magical effects. "Swimming pools" was created in 2021 with the acrylic on canvas technique. Soft blue, white and brown brush strokes are skilfully combined to create a pleasant chromatic contrast. The work has a very inner meaning for the artist: the water of the pool wants to be transformed into a mirror in which his important personal experiences are reflected which he has the courage to share with the viewers. Robin was a professional swimmer and along the way his shyness and the fact that he was queer often conflicted with the classic stereotypes of masculinity.

Furthermore, the painting wants to identify itself with a message of love for every straight man who accepted and appreciated boys like him who often found themselves imprisoned in a cage from which they wanted to do nothing but escape. This is the meaning of Robin's work, but he at the same time invites those who observe it to give a free interpretation to it. He wants the viewers to see themselves in the pool water, look inside themselves and ask themselves: am I really free? If I am not, why don't I go out of my way to be? Everyone in life is called to face important challenges with himself and with others. The important thing that the artist remind is never to be afraid of being yourself. Robin through his art not only wants to give beauty, but also to give voice to themes to which it is right to give importance.

Art Curator Camilla Gilardi

Robin Blažek

Swimming pools

Rodolfo III Molina “Connectivism is a form of therapeutic art, which means that life is best lived through connecting the dots as we go along and that we can only see the bigger picture once the dots are connected.”

(Rodolfo III Molina)

The importance of the passionate and fearless process exceeds the final result. Rodolfo III Molina “raised in the Philippines and grew up in the United Kingdom” found the artistic expression after a period of turmoil.

Nevertheless, he constantly followed his “purpose in shinning a light out of the darkness within our world”.

M.A.D.S. Art gallery presents Rodolfo’s artwork named “Secare” for the “Coming out” art exhibition, which focuses on the liberation of self expression as a vital part of our identity. “Secare” illustrates, with various shapes, the contrast between the light and potential turmoil. The balance created with the different colors represent a state of mind, a state of calmness during a period of tension, where the subconscious will triumph with its positivity. This is the first art piece, which Rodolfo created for a style he named “Connectivism”, a philosophical theory towards progress and reclaiming the relevance of it. Perfection is often perceived as a final result, instead we could establish the art process as the main goal for the artist, due to the greater value experience has during the creation process. “It is my deep personal philosophy that each person has an obligation to walk in line with their destiny and to leave something of themselves to this world, an offering to the future, which others can choose to walk in. Connectivism is a movement created to connect others, to unite the future and the past together”. “Secare” carries the responsibility to reclaim a fearless relevance of the art process representing a light in the middle of turmoil.

Art Curator Karla Peralta Málaga

Rodolfo III Molina

Secare

Ron Woods “The man who believes that the secrets of theworld are forever hidden lives in mistery and fear. Superstition will drag him down” Judge Holden (Blood Meridian, Corman McCarthy)

Not only a fine painter, but also a fine intellectual, Ron Woods exhibits curious works imbued with symbolism. Born in 1948 in Australia, studied art at W.A.I.T where he has been guided in his art by the Artist Margaret Woodward. His artistic research is inspired by David Hockney’s advise: Go back to the basis. A deep personal search is therefore the basis of his works. In 2014 he had a meeting with australian author Christos Tsiolkas, and they talked about books and life. They had two favourite authors in common: Cormac McCarthy and Patrick White. This meeting was also an important source of inspiration for the artist, as well as reading and comparing with artists and musicians from all around the world. The Judge 1 is Ron Woods' visual interpretation of Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece Blood Meridian. The work strikes the viewer’s attention with its dry and rough style, just like the style of Cormac’s writing, intriguing him and opening the mind to the most disparate interpretations. Ron Woods takes us back to the literary epic and mythology through atavistic images and characters so absurd that they become true and lead us to deep reflections and existential questions about the presence of evil in the bowels of the earth. Only the creative genius can lead a man to photograph meat on a supermarket counter and from these photos take inspiration for an unusual and extremely interesting work.

And so Meatman springs from a peace of scotch fillet steak. Finally we can still admire Here Floppy Get This Down You. Floppy, protagonist of the work, was born from a long search for freedom of expression, that evolved into his present day painting called cartoon art. It is a storytelling. Every picture is a piece of art in itself, but links into a wider universe.

Art Curator Erika Gravante

Ron Woods

The Judge I

Ron Woods

Meat Man with Female Bird on Horse

Ron Woods

Here Floppy Get This Down You

Roy Shechter "I dream of painting and then I paint my dream." (Vincent Van Gogh)

Roy Shechter is an Israeli artist. For Roy, art represents not just a way of expression, but also of selfaffirmation. His works are a real riot of bright and saturated colors, juxtaposed together in order to make the most of the chromatic contrast. The abstract form thus becomes the privileged means to show one's identity through shapes and colors that appear to the artist in his lucid dreams. The expanse of acrylic colors thus becomes an opportunity to make visible the most intimate part of one's personality, as in "Be", in which vivid colors chase each other on the wooden support. Roy's abstract works have an enormous visual impact, and the strong and contrasting colors capture the attention of the beholder, as an invitation to linger on them. "Good morning Georgia" follows this logic, and impresses with a bold use of colors, out of any scheme.

Roy Shechter

On the other hand, Roy's art is highly introspective, a safe haven in which to give vent to one's personality. "Where am I" seems to declare a moment of inner bewilderment, as can be guessed from the "agitated" trend of the trails of color. Anguish, however, finds a way out precisely in art, which also constitutes an authentic therapy for the artist's diagnosis of PTSD. With "They are everywhere" and especially with "The Dreamcatcher" the acrylics blend with each other in volutes of dense, material color, which express to the utmost the will to emerge, to be noticed, proudly affirming the its innermost essence.

Roy uses abstract form to make visible what has no shape or texture. After a journey of introspection that leads the artist to face the most tormented part of himself, the perspective changes radically in his figurative work "All I need", in which with a stylized illustration of himself, of a girl and a dog, Roy seems to find a fixed point, which suddenly stops the whirling thoughts and unspoken anxieties.

Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti

Roy Shechter

All I need

Roy Shechter

Be

Roy Shechter

Good Morning Georgia

Roy Shechter

The Dreamcatcher

Roy Shechter

They Are Everywhere

Roy Shechter

Where am I

Ryan Brandimore

Ryan Brandimore is an artist who, through the medium of acrylic painting on canvas, emphasizes extremely important issues related to sexuality, religion, and acceptance. The crucial message of love and equality is clear through these artworks, and they are directed to every human being through Ryan's artistic and aesthetic conception, succeeding in creating representations that are complete in every structural and compositional aspect. It is possible to notice a reference to other artistic currents, such as that of Street Art: in fact, in the various backgrounds, the artist creates a reference to the different textures of concrete or plaster, as well as those writing made with spray cans or to the remains of a billboard. All this emerges from the canvases with a strong vital energy, a sensory and colorful vortex that captures the viewer's attention. Moreover, these paintings reveal a hymn to the beauty of the human body, which, from its earliest forms of representation to its constant development of form, has taken on a social meaning charged with emotion and perception. In addition, the expressive component is shown through the analysis of the certainly natural gestures of the various protagonists. As, for example, in “CLASSICAL COURAGE” Ryan wants to highlight the love and joy between a Roman soldier and a persecuted Christian gladiator. The latter, in fact, has a small symbol drawn on his neck made by the overlapping of the first two letters of the Greek name of Christ, the X equivalent to “CH” in the Latin alphabet, with the P indicating the sound “R”. This detail is crucial because the artist gives the viewer a clear connection with the present day: as in ancient Rome, even today world faces with prejudices and persecutions from which the global society absolutely must get rid of! The two characters, enemies par excellence, are united both with a hug and a passionate kiss to show that a war is not only fought with technical and military force, but also requires courage, willingness, and love. This message is so powerful and vibrant that it is capable to shake anyone who admires this work, wishing for change and liberation. While in “MY SECRET IDENTITY”, Ryan emphasizes the power and pride of the LGBTQ+ community to its fullest: with a beaming smile, the boy shows his happiness, despite those who continue to keep their misconceptions, prejudices and nonsense arguments. The hair is reminiscent of the rainbow or "freedom" flag created in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, where each color bears a particular meaning: pink is associate with sexuality, red with life, orange with health, yellow with sunlight, turquoise with art and blue with serenity. In addition, another key aspect turns out to be the glasses: referring to Clark Kent/Superman, Ryan is ironic about the idea that just by taking off the glasses you can reveal your inner superhero. Finally, in “NUNNERY QUEEN”, he emphasizes the contrast between religion and human nature. In this case, one could allude to the Nun of Monza in the famous novel “I Promessi Sposi” (The Betrothed) by Alessandro Manzoni: obedient to the precepts of the Catholic religion and the laws of the household, the nun had been deprived of her essence. The artist depicts her as she wanted to be reborn in order to manifest her thoughts and ambitions. As in every age, from ancient Rome to the 1600s up to our contemporary times, hatred and prejudice have always tried to prevail; but the moment of saying enough to that abuse of power has come: Ryan Brandimore's works invite the viewer to bring out, with all the determination and positive energy, love! The only unstoppable force capable of changing the world.

Art Curator Alessia Perone

Ryan Brandimore

CLASSICAL COURAGE

Ryan Brandimore

MY SECRET IDENTITY

Ryan Brandimore

NUNNERY QUEEN

Ryoka

Subtle and ephemeral delicacy of a female face stands out on the canvas. Her silhouette takes all the available space going to occupy the entire pictorial surface. The background is pure white, the texture of the canvas can be glimpsed among the spots of color that contaminate the surface. Peachy pink, vibrant fuchsia, purple and livid colors animate the pictorial composition. They take possession of the support and make it their own. Large stains, exaggerated drippings dirty the immaculate white canvas. The upper part is already totally occupied by the pigment that - gently - is dripping downwards. The color is so overbearing that the two-dimensionality of the canvas is not enough: there are remarkable clots of color and brushstrokes, so sure and indelible they leave depressions and reliefs on the pictorial surface. A textured surface is created that gives character and tenacity to the delicate female face depicted. Thin, uncertain strokes of black pigment combine to delineate the physiognomy of the woman portrayed. The contours of the face are extremely indefinite and the features are almost sketched in their incorporeality. The strength of the color infuses this black, dry and nervous stroke with vital force. The cheeks are colored, the eyes reflect that pinkish aura that is so present in this work. Ryoka makes the woman's emotions visible, describes them, makes them literally palpable. The invisible becomes tangible and that mixture of hidden thoughts, fears, passions and emotions comes out thanks to the color to stand out on the canvas. Pandora's box has been opened, sensations and feelings drip onto the surface, clump together, dry out and mix together in a dance that to our eyes seems endless, untiring. Thoughts of the duration of a second, manias carried on for a lifetime, deep fears and unfulfilled hopes are rejected on the pictorial support causing an explosion of pigment and expression. In this painting there is the true essence of this girl, the side hidden from the real world, from the society conditioned by rules and precepts. The unusual is to be condemned, the whimsical is a source of disapproval. Thinking outside the box is not suggested in a society based on an intricate system of social rules.

Homologation wins against the breaking of the schemes, against the disintegration of the pre-established balance. Yet sensation and feeling must be externalized. The energy provoked by fears, passions and hopes is too powerful to be enclosed within the human soul, too exuberant to be protected by our more conscious Ego. In Mixed feelings the dam of interiority is broken, the feelings are finally free to be seen.

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

Ryoka

Mixed Feelings

Sabine Dustal-Vetter "When I no longer have blue, I put red" (Pablo Picasso)

The artist Sabine creates a work that seems to be alive, the colors appear as if they are moving, it seems that they are coming into contact and mixing. The predominant colors are red and blue that meet and overlap in a continuous chase, creating liveliness and harmony within the entire composition. The absolute protagonist is the color in its purity, there are no signs or figures that refer to reality. Color moves freely in space and almost escapes from the confines of the work to come into contact with the world of the observer. The artist Sabine creates a work that not only has a great aesthetic impact, but also an emotional one. The lines of color that are created seem to chase each other, creating a movement even in the soul of the observer, he begins a chase and a search in his own self. Encountering Sabine's artistic work means starting a journey inside oneself and one's emotions, finding lost memories and feelings. The splashes of color that move inside the work become a puzzle of memories to be reassembled, Sabine manages to give life to an interweaving between her work, her soul and that of the observer. A totally abstract work is that of Sabine, in which color is the only artefact, it is he who decides where to go, how to move and how to trap the emotions of the viewer. In a continuous getting lost and found again, Sabine's work represents the means to discover oneself. The colors that the artist uses catch the eye and come into direct contact with the observer. Quoting Kandinsky: "Color is a power that directly affects the soul", this is how Sabine's work appears, it is imbued with power that reaches hearts. Definitely, Sabine's artistic work teaches us to let ourselves be guided by colors and the power of emotions.

Art Curator Vanessa Viti

Sabine Dustal-Vetter

Territorios de fuego para una poética

Sabrina Ehlert “For me, art is life.”

(Sabrina Ehlert)

Sabrina Ehlert is a self-taught mixed media artist who lives in Colorado. She discovered a passion for art at an early age and in 2018 opened the "Sabrina Ehlert Art Studio", where she not only gives lessons but also organizes painting events.

Her production is mainly characterized by the use of ancient art of paper quilling mixed and combined with contemporary acrylic painting. However, she defines herself as an artist who does not preclude anything, she is always ready to experiment with new and unique things that can best convey her point of view and her story. Her artworks are inspired by everything that surrounds her, such as plants, animals, nature, but also family, mythology and fantasy. In the realization and creation of art, she also finds relief and peace, as if art was able to heal from internal torments and demons, both her own and other ones: in fact, she tends to portray an image of trauma and abuse and a set of sensations and emotions that have been voiceless and hidden.

Art Curator Alessia Logatto

Sabrina Ehlert

Discarded Plaything

Sabrina Ehlert

Not Broken Anymore #5

Sabrina Ehlert

Unspoken Truth

Sadie Aston “Whatever is a reality today, whatever you touch and believe in and that seems real for you today, is going to be, like the reality of yesterday, an illusion tomorrow.” (Luigi Pirandello)

A figurative style characterized by intense expressiveness. Carefully balanced colours describe tortuous and emotionally distorted faces. Gazes that tell of universally perceived feelings, creating long lines of interspatial connection. Deep eyes seemingly disrupted by life, but intensely connected to a deep awareness and consciousness. The art of Sadie Aston, a contemporary English artist, aims to investigate the human soul in its most secret intimacy. Part of her art sees strong influences from the Expressionist avant-garde of the early 20th century, showing a common search for colour - in particular with the Fauves - and a need to express states of mind, deforming reality on the wave of her own interiority. In "Perception-Self Portrait", we hardly recognize the artist's female face in what is her self-portrait. The woman's features tend to dissolve in surreal lines and colours, but above all in the facial wrinkles described by large brush strokes.

Sadie Aston

The result is a distorted face with a frowning mouth. Her gaze is slightly tilted downwards, absorbed in a thousand thoughts, with a refusal but, at the same time, with the desire to be lulled by the reflection of her own image in the mirror. Digging and delving layer by layer into the human soul, Sadie Aston goes back in time to rediscover the animal side, the one untouched by social conventions: our connection with the origin. Who am I? Why am I here? This artwork by Sadie Aston is a reflection on existence, it is the desire to understand and grasp the meaning of life and the true identity of each of us. The resulting bewilderment becomes real to our eyes and by transferring it to the canvas, the artist succeeds in imprinting its emotionality.

Art Curator Francesca Brunello

Sadie Aston

A representation of panic

Sadie Aston

Perception-Self Portrait

Sai Pattaraporn "Red is the ultimate cure for sadness" (Bill Blass)

A series of works dedicated to the power of red, in them the artist evokes feelings and memories. The artistic work of the young and talented Sai is the cure for everyday ills. Her works are the means through which the observer can draw on various experiences, can take carefree, freshness and passion. The colors, the only protagonists of Sai's work, burst and create movement and fluidity, creating lively works. Before the eyes of the observer there are works that seem to fluctuate, colors that remain suspended and transport the viewer into an unknown reality. Red, the protagonist of the series, finds space inside the work together with other colors and shades, the artist manages to create a pleasant harmony by mixing the various colors. Balance and fluidity are the main characteristics of Sai's artistic work, works that evoke memories and sensations. In "Red of nature" the reference to mother earth is evident, it seems to see from above large portions of forests or woods, rivers and springs that mix with the earth, in fact the work has a great aesthetic value and a strong visual impact. Sai's entire artistic work reminds us of the great power of color, especially red, the artist reminds us that it is love, motivation and freedom. What Sai produces is a real hymn and a celebration of the great force that releases the red color. The artist has the great ability to produce works with great communicative power, they are imbued with emotions and feelings that come out, go beyond the boundaries of the work to make room in the minds of the spectators.

Pure color as pure is the force that the works emanate, a whirlwind becomes a metaphor of the observer's soul and unconscious. In a continuous succession of colors that mix, overlap, sensations and emotions that chase each other, Sai's works become the meeting point between real and surreal, between reason and feeling.

Art Curator Vanessa Viti

Sai Pattaraporn

Red of aspire

Sai Pattaraporn

Red of liberty

Sai Pattaraporn

Red of love

Sai Pattaraporn

Red of motivation

Sai Pattaraporn

Red of nature

Sean Gray “A quiet, secluded life. And a job that hopefully could be of some use; and then rest, nature, books, music, love for others. This is my idea of happiness” (Lev Tolstoj)

In the suspended years marked by the Covid epidemic, coming out in full lockdown might look like an oxymoron. It is impossible in itself to go out in the house, but only if you think it in physical terms. Sean Gray shows us how much the Covid actually taught us to come out not to a group, to a company, but to ourselves. It was an opportunity to meet again, to rediscover the true values of life, to rediscover oneself and to come out into the open thanks to one’s own art. Nature, the contact with the real world, slow and not with the daily frenzy have allowed the artist to find the mental space to reflect on existential questions, to find the inner peace that has allowed him to renew his creative curiosity. He found himself coming out of the shadow of what perceptions others may have of him and his art, and embrace his sincere, authentic self. Despite having passed through figurative art, the work we find exhibited in the exhibition belongs to the world of abstraction. The figure, whether it is human or physical place in some way encloses us in patterns, evokes precise memories of places visited or human relationships lived. Abstract art, when conducted with just coloristic force, material and psychological, comes beyond the lived and digs into the unconscious, touching the deepest ropes of our emotions and allowing not only to those who painted, but also to those who watch the work of coming out with themselves. If figurative art leads us on guided paths telling us stories, abstract art leads us on unexplored and different paths for each observer. Sean succeeds perfectly in his intent, he bares himself and the power of the image bares even those who are in front of the work.

Art Curator Erika Gravante

Sean Gray

Natura Beta

Sean Gray

Natura Delta

Sean Gray

Natura Gamma

Shahd AlMutawa “Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist”. (Rene Magritte)

Shahd AlMutawa is an artist who lives in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She has graduated at the University with a major in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Physics and always looked at the world from a scientific point of view, which is deeply reflected in her artworks. She finds the motivation to develop her art in her city of origin Dubai, one of the fastest growing cities in the world that provided a strong catalyst for her growth as an artist. Her art aims at communicating her own unique perspective of things, as she believes that every human has to share his or her individualistic experience of the world. In the artwork “Transcendence”, inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe's study of forms and Salvador Dali’s dreamscapes, we are able to see a mysterious and surreal scene. The warm colors and the vividness of gold make the viewer feel a sense of desire and aim for consciousness about life. The artist wants whoever observes the painting to feel free and have his or her own interpretation of the artwork, in order to find a unique symbolism of one’s own, in this piece inspired from Aurora’s song “It Happened Quiet”. In the artwork “Burning”, we are able to see a flame, quickly consuming its fire. The uncertainty of life and the passing of time, as well as the essence of turbulence: these are the sensations that this work provokes to the viewer. In “Temptation” we stand in front of a tree, and the artist wants its branches to symbolize the science of fractal symmetry, resembling the form of neuron endings. Alone, the figure of the apple stands, as an arcane symbol. The artist shows us her identity in this “Coming out” by making the viewer discover her inner self, letting whoever observes wonder what hides behind a mysterious symbolism while contemplating the beauty of Art.

Art Curator Maddalena Corbini

Shahd AlMutawa

Transcendence

Shahd AlMutawa

Burning

Shahd AlMutawa

Temptation

Shakira Lee Quin "They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." (Edgar Allan Poe)

Shakira Lee Quin is a talented Australian artist. Shakira's love for nature becomes a fundamental key to develop an original and unique artistic language. In fact, nature becomes a perfect metaphor of the artist's inner universe. Shakira Lee Quin's canvases allow you to immerse yourself in emotions endowed with an imaginative set of shapes and colors, inviting the viewer to participate.

The artist's aim is to represent the essence of a stimulus or a positive sensation through plays of light and fluid lines, as in the work "Dare to Dream", presented for the "Coming Out" exhibition.

The composition revolves around a female figure, immersed in a dense sea of clouds, giving a feeling of immediate serenity that - we can imagine - corresponds to the same perception experienced by the artist during the creation of the artwork. The relaxed but concentrated face of the young woman gives the impression of alluding to the creative process and the inspiration that radiates from the diaphanous bust in the form of colored beams of light. The closed eyes seem to suggest a swirling stream of thoughts, which materialize in front of the girl in the form of two kingfishers. One of them, leaning on her shoulder, looks down, almost uncertain. The second, on the other hand, hovers upwards with the lightness of a daydream. The stylistic precision and the evocative character of the images allow you to enter the intimate world of the artist with the ease of a beat of highs, a world pervaded by grace and an impalpable delicacy.

Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti

Shakira Lee Quin

Dare to Dream

Shana Vermeulen

Shana Vermeulen is a Belgian artist who, in connection with the concept of the current exhibition ‘Coming Out’ exhibits at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery one of the pieces that better represent her ‘creed’. The artist loves to believe that each of us has a light in his inner self that brings to kindness, but that, because of the nowadays society’s conditionings is going to hide in the deep subconscious. As anything is lost, “Gods Grace”, the painting here exhibited – tells a story about a spiritual awakening, that can also be read as the reconnection with God, the Universe. The scene offers a peaceful atmosphere, pleasant to look at. The monochrome and smooth background, representing the sky, exalts the figures at the centre of the canvas, representing the process of ‘Illuminating’. Closed to the Buddhism way of thought, the artist represents three symbolic passages to reach the divine light. Everything, in this painting is well thought out: starting from Shana’s belief on the humans’ own kindness, represented by the black figure at the extreme left side of the canvas who, while attending for his piece, already gets the light within, that his in him since his birth. The process of obtaining more confidence comes with the meditation and it is represented by the kneel figure at the centre of the scene. Light grows and spreads just when he takes time to reflect and think about his inner self, that is what brings him to raise his being and to reach the piece. The whole scene can be considered as a sort of help for the ones who hid himself behind a mask, the mask imposed by society.

Art Curator Martina Stagi

Shana Vermeulen

Gods Grace

Sharon Perris English artist Sharon Perris decides to "come out" during the exhibition organized by the M.A.D.S. art gallery in Milan, entitled "Coming Out". The aim of the exhibition is to encourage artists to exhibit themselves, to show without fear something never shown to the public. Sharon enthusiastically welcomes this exhibition and decides to exhibit two of her abstract works never exhibited to the public. The abstract style is in fact something new for the painter, a world still to be explored but that spurs her to dig inside herself. The works on display are entitled "Birds song" and "June Dawn Chorus" and are both made in mixed media on board. The first one has blue as the dominant color and the artist says she was inspired by a day sitting in the garden listening to the birds singing. She herself says: "Each with their own individual characteristics together producing a unique orchestra with immense energy." The work is in fact a set of wavy lines, arranged in an apparently random way, as if they followed the singing of these beautiful creatures.

Sharon Perris

On the other hand, the work looks like a deep ocean through which the light penetrates and which reveals all the secrets of the seabed. Even more, the work can lead to an unexplored galaxy. The artist is undoubtedly influenced by Abstract expressionists painters, from whom she draws the immediacy and purity of the gesture. The second work is presented as a beautiful contrast between blue and intense red, while a multitude of colors make their way to emerge. The circular lines, also present in the first painting, become protagonists. The work pushes the viewer to travel with the eyes, observing the countless details. What is certain is that Sharon Perris begins her journey of self-discovery, always inspired by her beloved nature and the birds that inhabit her delightful farm in Hampshire, leaving imprinted the strength of her gestures and the naturalness of the brushstrokes. These abstracts are therefore the result of a strong emotional involvement in which the artist, closing her eyes, is transported only by sudden emotions and sensations. What fascinates us is the feeling of being in front of a revelation, as if the artist was giving us a piece of her soul.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Sharon Perris

Birds song

Sharon Perris

June Dawn Chorus

Shawn Benison “You dance inside my chest, where no one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art”. (Rumi) Shawn Benison is an a artist who lives in North Carolina, USA. She was interested at first in photography and digital art as a hobby and was encouraged by her mother, who is also an artist, to discover brush painting: now she enjoys the combination of digital technique with acrylic or oil painting. In this sense, where traditional art meets the digital techniques, she is able to create a unique effect. The artist's goal is to explore her imagination, in order to express freedom and creativity by connecting with her true inner self. Art, in this process, becomes a way to heal the soul, as we are able to perceive by looking at the artwork “Deranged”. The colors are intense, with a predominance of dark shades in the background and warm nuances at the center of the painting, making the picture look profoundly mysterious. The mixed technique of digital and physical painting allows the artist to overlap several layers and colors: moreover, by adding more layers, the viewer is able to feel many textural effects that give a sense of concreteness and palpability to the artwork. The experience of creating art becomes a spiritual journey, which can heal from trauma and pain and help connect the artist with the whole world. The artist shows us her identity in this “Coming out” by revealing her regeneration through art, in a harmonious union of color and texture which was inspired by the wonderful music of David Bowie.

Art Curator Maddalena Corbini

Shawn Benison

Deranged

Shu Qi

Shu Qi is an abstract painter from Singapore. She received her Diploma in Digital Film and Television from Temasek Polytechnic. Her works have a strong visual impact, which creates in the viewer a poignant conversation with himself, forcing him to question himself and creating unconventional mental connections. Abstract art has the ability to speak a universal language, touching in each chord and different memories depending on their experience and generating emotions the most disparate. This universality is rendered by the artist, in the work “Gum, Toe and Sole”, through dark colors: black, in contrast with blood red, almost fluorescent fuchsia, and the green that emerges in some points of the canvas almost to create a hope in a battle with tragic contours. The painting seems crossed by a thousand thorns, reminding us of the daily struggles that each of us carries forward, so intimate and hidden, but that all come to mind by observing the work. The ego is fragmented, like a broken mirror in a thousand pieces. Art sees in our deepest soul, touches unexplored sensations, imperceptible, helps to put together fragments in search of a purpose, a goal of life, a security in themselves, beyond the world we are surrounded by and which influences us with its energies, sometimes positive, sometimes negative. In conclusion, art helps to reach inner peace, coming out of the shadow of indifference.

"The central inner conflict is one between the constructive forces of the real self and the obstuctive forcesof the pride system, between healthy growth and the driveto prove in actuality the perfection of the idealized self."

(Karen Horney) Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo

Shu Qi

Gum, Toe and Sole

Silvia García

Silvia García is a Spanish contemporary artist based in Madrid. Silvia has previously exhibited two of her works at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, showing the public her particular acrylic technique that makes her art unique. Silvia, during "Kromatic@rt", chose to show works belonging to her "blue period" in which the contrast between blue and red was the protagonist. This time, on the occasion of the "Coming out” exhibition, Silvia García shows her new period, definable “colorful". The small brushstrokes this time become colorful and contribute to make the works bright. Her incredible technical and figurative ability is perceptible by the details, just look at the work on display entitled "Surprise in the pool" in which a woman wears swimming glasses. The details of the eyes seen through the lenses of the glasses are incredible. Silvia plays with colors and shades, making the subject incredibly real. At the same time, however, Silvia draws inspiration from Pop Art style, creating iconic subjects. In this regard it is good to mention the fact that the artist prefers female subjects thus affirming her feminism and her will to celebrate the woman.

Silvia García

Another woman is the protagonist of the second work in the exhibition, entitled "No Bubbles". From the stylistic point of view, this work differs from the previous one in an evident way: the small dense brushstrokes make room for large brushstrokes drier and more immediate, given instinctively. Realism prevails over Pop style and the artist experiments with new instruments. The woman’s gaze is undoubtedly central: two beautiful blue eyes strike the viewer who is subsequently attracted by the fleshy red lips. The title, "No Bubbles", jokes about the fact that the work is studded with small pink and red circles, used on one side as decoration and on the other could represent a message for some: "each of us has some flaws, do not hide them but let them come out”.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Silvia García

No Bubbles

Silvia García

Surprise in the pool

Silvio Piesco

The "Eu Clides" art project - some of whose works are on display for the duration of the "Coming Out" exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery was born from the creative mind of Brazilian musician, photographer and artist Silvio Piesco. “Eu Clides” is a kaleidoscopic instrument that shows changing images of the same subject, the artist himself, in his different facets. Subsequently, the creature almost becomes aware of itself, beginning to show its many faces, the fragmentary nature of its image and personality, which is revealed with each portrait it makes of itself. Marked by a turbulent childhood, Eu Clides is a solitary character due to his inability to form personal relationships. The mixed style, which is reminiscent of Pop Art, allows him to experiment and to give a different characterisation each time, giving the project a tendency towards transformation and mutability. In “Eu Clides Self Portrait #176” the artist marks the edges of the figure, which stands out against a dark background, emerging from it; on the tightly closed mouth a vermillion-red stain focuses attention on the closed mouth, on the impossibility of communicating, while ovals encircle the eye to the viewer's left, drawing attention to the subject's curious gaze.

"Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle."

(Lewis Carroll)

Silvio Piesco

In "Eu Clides Self Portrait #177” concentric circular shapes are also concentrated around the same eye; the mouth is delicately emphazised by a lightwhite outline that seems to mark the boundaries of the figure. The hairstyle contributes to giving an almost feminine air to the subject, who stares at the observer with an almost disappointed and incredulous look. The last two works, "Eu Clides Self Portrait #182" and "Eu Clides Self Portrait #200" have in common the use of a whitish color tending towards ice and sugar paper blue, which gives the subjects luminosity. In the first, the bright red colour brings the closed lips into the foreground, with concentric elements around the right eye and a cerulean colour that emphasises the eye itself, marking the hollow. The left side of the face, completely in shadow, contrasts with the rest of the work, on whose surface words and phrases appear as if to speak for the character himself. While in the other works the subject is in a frontal position, in the last one we find a face turned 3/4 with a questioning look and slightly frowning eyebrows. Indecipherable signs stand out against the light background, while in the figure we find the same recurring elements: a thin line that marks the contours, coloured lips and concentric circular shapes that emphasise the orbit, as well as the cerulean color.

Art Curator Martina Grassi

Silvio Piesco

Eu Clides Self Portrait #176

Silvio Piesco

Eu Clides Self Portrait #177

Silvio Piesco

Eu Clides Self Portrait #182

Silvio Piesco

Eu Clides Self Portrait #200

Simon James

On occasion of the international art exhibition Coming Out the artist Simon James presented his work titled Dressed in Pink. Starting from a backdrop which seems to recall the colors of the earth and thesky, or maybe the end of something.

At the same time the end in ontological meaning, often coincides with the beginning, the birth of something else. Infact, the lines appear to lean against 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 more light, other colors. 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 is meaningful. If we proceed in the exploration of the composition, emerge other lines, these one more decisive. The geometry of the seintersections is less defined, more accidental as if it were a confusedgesture.

Something that concerns duration, a gesture that lies in becoming, inchanging things. That’s what the artist Simon James wants to tell us on the occasion of the international contemporary art exhibition ‘Coming Out’. Agesture that stays inside the experiences, that is always true and has adisarming energy. As the artist says: - Ithink as an artist you must let yourself go, but at the same time setlimitations. It’s like a framework within which to work. By setting limits incertain ways, it forces you to investigate more intensely the details of whatyou are doing within the framework. It’s a kind of introspection-. In this, Simon's composition becomes a lucid tale of the artist's emotions. A pretext to facilitate the encounter with the observer and to share his thoughts.

Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio

Simon James

Dressed in Pink

Sirpa Heponiemi

Sirpa Heponiemi has been painting for over 15 years, so when a rare disease has temporarily deprived her of the ability to paint, she felt lost and now that she has returned to create, she places all her joy, her passion and her love for life in her artworks. Her art “It is not monotonous,” she says, “it changes and surprises, for the only thing that is permanent in life, is change.”, and in fact in her art she represents both joy, dreams and hopes, and occasionally sadness and despair. In short, she represents life. "Against all expectations" is a powerful work; it contains all the emotions that a person feels after defeating a long battle against a disease. In the upper part of the canvas, slightly decentralized to the right, is the human figure, alone, arched backwards as in a spasm. But this is no longer a spasm of pain, but of liberation, of liberation from pain. The gesture of the Finnish artist is quick, almost nervous, to make better the avalanche of emotions that cross the human soul. In the background, in the center, an explosion of light rips through the canvas. It is the joy of life that powerful overcomes any obstacle. "I walked through the fire" is a personal work; it is the walk through the fire that Sirpa Heponiemi had to go through because of her illness. The visible scars on the face and the use of ink are wanted by the artist to show how this kind of battles leaves you marked, but, at the same time, through the vivid colors, she wants to represent the beauty of the soul. The technique used is particular and shows how Sirpa Heponiemi always experiments new artistic practises, but even here, as in the previous work, the sense of action, of desire to live is clearly visible. The protagonist of "They say I’m a dreamer" is a woman’s face framed between a bushy hair from the shades of fuchsia, pink and yellow, with a touch of white that illuminates the whole. The brushstrokes are wide and light in the hair, while they appear imperfect and rough in the face. It is a choice desired by the artist to express the "imperfections" that each of us feels to have. This work is a hymn to being and loving oneself, embracing all the imperfections that in reality are our strengths. This canvas conveys absolute calm and tranquillity in the viewer; it seems to look at a mother goddess, a protector goddess. The way in which the Finnish artist manages to express and arouse feelings with her brushstrokes is something unique: she manages to shake the soul of those who look at her works.

Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia

Sirpa Heponiemi

Against all expectations

Sirpa Heponiemi

I walked through the fire

Sirpa Heponiemi

They say I'm a dreamer

Snjezana Cirkovic

Interpreting perfectly the concept of the exhibition, which aims at exalting artistic expression as "liberation from the self-imposed or imposed constraints of the normality of today's society", Snježana Ćirković uses a skillful combination of tones to create a personal language capable of expressing her thoughts and worldview. With Spirits of the past, the artist intends to evoke all those unconscious feelings, thoughts and legacies that have been passed down over many generations like burdens and now need to be released and dealt with. The idea of the intensity of this explosion is rendered through the strength and brilliance of the color, which is spread through full-bodied brushstrokes of different materiality, meticulously blended together according to chromatic chords. Each fragment of the canvas has its own aesthetic value and is charged with a strong expressive density.

In front of Snježana's canvas, the viewer is particularly attracted by certain areas of the composition where the chromatic density becomes greater. Here the contrast between the brightness of the yellow and the darkness of the black seems to want to highlight the polarity between light and darkness. This polarity lends itself well to representing an idea of society in which light and shade coexist and in which our different personalities can sometimes struggle to express themselves. However, the artist does not merely emphasize this coexistence but decides to convey a message of positivity and hope, which she makes clear by preferring warm to dark tones.

Through her artwork, in fact, Snježana exhorts us to free ourselves from the legacies of the past and to live our destiny.

Art Curator Marta Graziano

Snjezana Cirkovic

Spirits of the past

Soosoostudios "Life is not a silent or black-and-white spectacle. It is an inexhaustible rainbow of colours."

(Oriana Fallaci) The artwork entitled “Rainbow Paradise” made by Soosoostudios is an explosion of surprising colours.

Like Pandora opening the box given by Zeus, the artist opens the treasure chest of her soul and brings out the true self in the infinite shades of warm and cold colours, like a rainbow. However, if Pandora's curiosity pulled all the world's evils out of the box, Soosoostudios does the opposite. She creates a positive liberating explosion and an act of extreme courage. We often don’t accept that we are complex creatures: first happy, then sad; sometimes demanding, sometimes superficial; misunderstood and insecure; wrong or right. This artwork is about setting yourself free and showing your true self in all the colours of the rainbow. This is the wonderful "Coming Out" by Soosoostudios who, working with pigmented alcohol inks and using a heat gun to create “flows” on the page, brings to life a rainbow of expressive forms, following her feelings. The soul is only one, but infinite are the layers of our cortex which, every day, every month and every year is enriched with new experiences, new emotions and new goals. This is why the self of an hour ago is no longer the same as the self of now. Each flow represents a step towards “coming out”, towards accepting our strengths suggested by the warm colours and our weaknesses underlined by the cool colours. While the white, grey, yellow and green strokes of oil pastels, which start from a single fulcrum and gradually extend across the plane, represent the electrical tension that the action of "coming out" creates in our bodies. A tension that liberates and gives at the same time.

Art Curator Alessia Ventola

Soosoostudios

Rainbow Paradise

Stacey Douglass

The art is a liberation from self-imposed constraints or imposed by the normality of today’s society. Art as a renewal and as a compass indicating the way to come out, fearlessly showing the truth that belongs to us. Stacey Douglass is the author of "My Mind Blossom", an inner expression of many emotions that she expresses through a multitude of colors. In this work there is a strong contrast between the geometric and precise shapes of the walls and the colorful and chaotic brushstrokes that represent an explosion. At first glance the dynamism of the work recalls the works of some Italian futurists, in particular those of Umberto Boccioni. The artist represents an explosion of colors that lets glimpse on the bottom the shapes of the petals of a flower. An explosion that arises from the inside of an environment made of bricks and that releases all the vitality of the art itself. Stacey paints a picture that represents the power of life and artistic creation. This painting is the representation of an explosion of emotions, thoughts and memories that give life to the art itself. Painting is the representation of the strength and power of the artistic act, of all that a work contains: all the thoughts and emotions that an artist experiences and expresses through art.

Art Curator Sara Giannini

Stacey Douglass

My mind blossom

Steffen Schwien

Steffen Schwien is a skilled young German artist with an inimitable artistic expression who creates unique, original and lively works. His style is unmistakable, characterised by colours that explode on the canvas, creating contrasting effects with the background and giving life to an amalgamation of hues that produce new chromatic combinations. The viewer is overwhelmed by a mix of emotions that are difficult to control and that manifest themselves in a powerful and lively way, just like Steffen's colours. Despite the power of the images produced by the artist, they are balanced and very harmonious, both in the colour combinations and in the composition of the work. It is impossible not to be overwhelmed by his powerful, gestural painting, an expression of vitality, freedom and novelty. Starting from his emotions, he creates unique and unmistakable artworks such as "Explosive", a real mix of energy. Adrenaline and ecstasy are contained in the density of the acrylics, which are left free to expand on the canvas. It is an overwhelming work that invites the viewer to embark on a life journey that is fully satisfying, with no regrets. Life should be lived to the full, exploring all the emotions it offers us. A multitude of colourful hues break against the black background, expanding like an explosion of vitality and will to live. Colour is also the protagonist in "The Wolf", an abstract artwork of great impact. Only after acute observation is it possible to distinguish the animal form. The colours are more controlled but at the same time disruptive and varied, the backgrounds are never monochrome but vivid and with colours that mix, underlining the complexity of the artwork. The wolf has always been a fascinating animal, the protagonist of millions of fairy tales and fables. It presents itself as dangerous but at the same time extremely intriguing. Pure energy and passion. All these emotions are captured in Steffen's canvas. In "Red Dragon" shades of colour contrast with the explosion of feelings that this canvas is able to unleash. Passion, determination and warmth are the keys to understanding the painting, a fire that burns within us and enables us to achieve the goals we have set ourselves. Once again, Steffen invites the viewer to never give up, to always live to the fullest, warmed and protected by that fire that burns within and around us.

Steffen Schwien

The colour expands on the canvas, covering it entirely and letting the acrylics mix together in harmonious melodies and contrasting emotions. Red is the undisputed protagonist, the colour of passion and life. The latter is also a fundamental element of the artwork "Gold Flame" in which the chromatic explosion in the centre is set against a precious, luminous and enthralling gold background. Several interpretations are proposed in this masterpiece. Thanks to the gold pigment, which gives ambiguity and originality to the work, the viewer is able to see different colours depending on his mood and on the light. This artwork brings light into the emotional journey, a journey that must be illuminated by liveliness and positivity. Emotion explodes, overwhelming the viewer and guiding him at the same time. Steffen's style is very captivating: he is able to gather impulses from his emotional states and translate them onto the canvas in an immersive, powerful and at the same time harmonious way. Steffen takes his cue from contemporary artistic currents, internalising them and at the same time revisiting them completely, creating a new way of making art. It is impossible not to be captivated by the expressive intensity of his paintings, which strike the viewer and take him on an unforgettable journey through his feelings and inner worlds. It is marvellous what Steffen achieves with colours and what he conveys with just a few elements. He creates artworks that introduce the viewer to his emotions and moods, which are closely linked to the ambiguity of colours and their manifestation. The key words are: dynamism, vitality and passion. The artist invites us to let ourselves be overwhelmed by emotions.

Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti

Steffen Schwien

Explosive

Steffen Schwien

The Wolf

Steffen Schwien

Golden Flame

Steffen Schwien

Red Dragon

Steph Marx

Steph Marx is an innovative and versatile young artist born in Germany. She started out as a self-taught artist who has been able to cultivate her passion for art to the fullest, until it became much more than just a hobby. Steph likes to explore different artistic worlds and creates diverse artworks, linked by a common thread which is her innovative and distinctive style. The colour red is often the protagonist of her artworks. It is a colour that represents passion, anger and emotions experienced at the height of human energy. It symbolises life, love, power, but also anger and rage. In short, it is a colour with an intrinsic expressive power that says a lot about the artist's explosive personality. Steph's artworks bring emotions to the surface, forcing the viewer to bare his or her heart and mind to their vision. Being a complete artist she also has a different conception of the canvas, not only as a surface to be decorated but also as an artistic body, it represents the artwork itself, it is an integral part of the artistic process. Steph starts with a smooth, rough surface, like that of the canvas, and then begins a creative process that brings to light the signs of time, the scars, the wounds. Everything that man has always tried to hide, she brings to light, exhibiting it and in a certain way, normalising it. Each of her works tells a story, such as "Das Kleine & Große Mädchen" (The Little & Big Girl), which is designed to be seen from both sides. The colour red, which covers the entire surface of the canvas, definitely triumphs. The front of the painting depicts a girl squatting down, holding her knees with her arms.

Steph Marx

A position indicating fear, shame, typically assumed by children, and here we can understand the young age of the character. The girl is deliberately shown smaller than the space around her, as if to emphasise her state of mind even more. She is drawn with a few simple strokes, with long, raven hair falling over her face and body. The rest of the canvas is monochrome and three-dimensional thanks to the use of mixed materials. The red colour almost seems to engulf the girl. The back of the canvas shows an older woman with the same sketchy but recognisable features as the young woman depicted on the front. The woman assumes an unusual position with her gaze turned backwards and her body divided into four different parts juxtaposed next to each other. The woman's body covers the entire surface, leaving space in the background for the colour red. The colour red is presented here in two shades, one darker and one brighter, more vivid, clearer. The colours are strong, striking and have a direct impact on the mind and heart of the spectator, who is led to investigate the innermost, hidden aspects of his soul. It is a artwork that explores the world of growth, of change, which brings to light pain, insecurities and fragility.

Steph Marx

The faces are made quickly, the concept is more important than the realistic rendering of the two women.

It is a three-dimensional artwork, somewhere between sculpture and painting. It is impossible not to notice references to German Expressionism in the rendering of the bodies and the striking colour. There is also the influence of artists such as Francis Bacon in the apparently banal subject matter but in which there is a feeling of indefinable catastrophe and existential shipwreck reflected in the spaces left empty and silent. Steph creates marvellous artworks with a strong impact. The wounds, the scars, the signs, are part of us, of our history, they mark our passage through the earth. We should not be ashamed of them, but simply become aware that we are not only made of positive emotions and moods. Sometimes something comes into our souls that has nothing to do with tranquillity and serenity. We have to learn to decipher these feelings, to make them our own, to normalise them. By hiding, we do not defuse them, but set them aside, creating a mixture of anger that will explode sooner or later.

Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti

Steph Marx

Das Kleine & Große Mädchen

Stephen Linhart “In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.” (Carl Jung)

Stephen Linhart, is an American contemporary artist, linked to digital art and photography. Means with which he researches the infinite possibilities of expression, in particular aesthetic manipulation through vectors and algorithms. In spite of this strong link with a mathematical background, his works show an intense attraction for life, of which he seems to search spasmodically for the origin. His images are made up of lines and details that move like little whirlpools, recalling the behavior of atoms, the particles that structure matter. He investigates the human body in its deepest instincts, showing not only others but also himself, telling his story through a series of self-shots and self-portraits. The series of images presented here is a documentation with strong references to performance art.

Stephen Linhart

The lace fabric, a material usually associated with the female figure, is placed in relation to the artist's male body, unhinging the cliché and annulling the distinction between genders. The details and complexity of this fabric suddenly become the means of describing the complexity of matter and man.

This analysis by Stephen Linhart also sees a combination of references not only to science but also to religious spirituality. The presence of gold details, white lace and divine light becomes a metaphor for a spiritual connection with the whole world, where we have all been, are and will be in a continuous flow.

A flow, where we exist without differences, a unicum, which composes the whole and infinite network. A mesh made of a precious thread, delicately woven, to create a perfect immense work of art: the cosmos.

Art Curator Francesca Brunello

Stephen Linhart

All Night

Stephen Linhart

Black & Gold

Stephen Linhart

Lace in Colors

Stephen Linhart

Lace

Stephen Linhart

Lounging

Stephen Linhart

Robe & Light

Sunny Altman Sunny Altman is a mixed media artist, designer and art educator working from her home studio in a cottage on the beach in southern California. She draws inspiration from the natural beauty that surrounds her, travel and the human experiences that can’t be seen. Sunny paints intuitively, through her brilliant use of color, layers of various marks, her paintings are a visual pep talk, inviting the viewer to be inspired to delight in the beauty and joy of life. “Painting is always where I come home to myself and open my heart to conscious dreaming.

Where I hear the whispers of my soul nudging me. As an intuitive painter, I paint in a meditative flow. Using mixed media, each mark leads to another, layering marks and textures, giving the painting rich, saturated pigment and depth. There is a specific energy and feeling I tap into with each piece of work When I paint, I take time to honor moments of reflection, allowing room to grow, moving through the transitions of the painting. I like to take time to explore a concept in great depth; I immerse myself in the idea, through research, travel, books, music and experimentation. I spend years developing a body of work, interweaving ideas and concepts, while working on multiple series of paintings in unison. Currently, I have three ongoing series of paintings: Divine Feminine, Dream Garden and Earth &amp; Sea. Although the work is compartmentalized into three separate series, they are all related, through my use of color, imagery and in the commonality of expressing my love and adoration for Mother Earth and the beauty and light in humanity. My intention is to spread a joyful awareness through my paintings, inspiring positive change. My work is intended to be a reminder that each new day is full of enormous possibility, to linger in the heartfelt moments and to be a seeker of light.” The power of the women in the foreground is synthesized in her direct gaze. The cold and gaudy colors of the decorations on her head and around her figure are in contrast with the warm and calm colors of her complexion and background context. The use of marine elements in the decoration is closely linked to the concept of the vastness of the ocean that encompasses wonders and dangers together, thanks to this concept the artist's will itself shows the grace and strength of the portrayed figure.

The mermaid as a mythological creature represents magic and beauty that lives in our imagination, but in different cultures, the figure of the mermaid is also dangerous since sailors had to be careful not to approach these creatures. The fascination of what is dangerous brings us closer to the subject as humans are attracted by the “sublime'', the direct and serious gaze of the mermaid wants to convey her sufferings, but also her inner strength and her total will to live. The artist "discovers" herself in her painting as the supportive and strong woman who is in the representation of what is strength and will together.

Art Curator Letizia Perrieri

Sunny Altman

Marmaid Dreams

Susanne Strandänger “A work of art is a world in itself reflecting senses and emotions of the artist’s world”.

(Hans Hofmann)

Susanne Strandänger is an international award-winning visual artist from Stockholm, Sweden. Since 2010 she lives and works between Sweden and Morocco, where she is planning to start her own art gallery, in Marrakech. She expresses herself through different techniques as sketching and painting but also in mixed media like photo-based art on canvas, collages, sculptures and glass art. She is particularly interested in the meeting between different people and countries, as she feels that discovering the uniqueness of every culture can be a great source of inspiration: in this perspective, the artist’s ambition is also to organize art events for the benefit of charitable organisations. The importance of a fascinating place such as Morocco in the artist’s life is well visible in the artwork “La Porte d´Entrée de mon Espace Libre”. As explained in the title, the work represents the start of a new life, moving from the artist’s home country to a completely different place: the adventure of jumping into the unknown is symbolized by the door which stands next to the artist herself. And it is beyond that door that she will find freedom as an artist and a human being. In the artwork “Le Jardin de Désir”, which also takes place in Morocco, the artist wants to express the transformation that she felt entering Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech for the first time. The colorful combinations and strong nuances that recall Pop Art creations, which she enjoys using in her works, found inspiration for the first time in this enchanted garden. Color represents joy, love and positive feelings and makes art able to open the viewer’s mind as well as the artist’s mind. The third artwork “Stockholm Scenery I” takes place in Sweden, the artist’s home country. We are able to see people and vehicles in the street: someone is entering a car with JANTE written on the license plate. The artists is referring to a typical Swedish expression named the “Law of Jante”, which means that people should always keep a low profile. As well as the previous works, the artist makes the viewer encounter a different world: it can be Morocco or Sweden or another country with its own customes. The artist shows us her identity in this “Coming out” by revealing the singularity of all people and places and making us discover the beauty and complexity of each culture.

Art Curator Maddalena Corbini

Susanne Strandänger

La Porte d´Entrée de mon Espace Libre

Susanne Strandänger

Le Jardin de Désir

Susanne Strandänger

Stockholm Scenery I

Suzanne Watters

Suzanne Watters is an American artist who mainly works on linen with an abstract and conceptual style, with soft colors that transport to a natural world. The artist herself states: “This work is a call to notice nature. To pause and have a moment of peace. And maybe to think about how we as humans can take better care of the planet.” The artist’s words imply her strong environmental interest and her love for nature. She herself claims to be inspired by nature and even to integrate images from the natural world in a call to not only appreciate it, but to preserve and protect it. In a certain sense, the artist wants to “come out” and bring to light those that are environmental problems and therefore push viewers to reflect. One of her wonderful works is on display in June during the "Coming out” exhibition held by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery in Milan. The work in question is entitled "So much soft rain in spring" and is made of ink on linen. The colors used are light: water green, petroleum blue, pea green and ochre yellow dominate the composition. The artist shows the natural background of the canvas, accentuating even more the link with nature. The work looks almost like a photography area, a set of rivers, small lakes and uncultivated lands. Stylistically, the artist approached abstract expressionist painters, including William De Kooning and Mark Rothko. Suzanne Watters undoubtedly adds elegance and sophistication to totally abstract compositions that conceal a strong conceptual message.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Suzanne Watters

So much soft rain in spring

Takashi Yasuoka

A painting that smells of spring, which contains within it all the freshness of the silvery morning breeze. A painting that "plays", capable of instilling in the human soul a light and sophisticated melody. Takashi Yasuoka's is the painting of sensation, an art that is not limited to mimesis, to the representation of things as we see them. The artist's works go beyond the objective side, overcoming the boundaries of form and method, overcoming the physical laws of the world to take us to another dimension: that of sensation. It is a mental space where shapes, colors and nuances are never mimetically taken from reality but reworked and applied on canvas according to the artist's intuition. On the other hand, Takashi's paintings - inspired by Morandi - do not present a defined space-time, they are not perfect elaborations of something existing in reality. The universe that the artist wants to represent is mental rather than physical: the spatial coordinates languish with information and time seems to be immutable, stopped in a given moment. It is the time of memory, of remembrance; an instant that is fixed and that lasts in the mind not susceptible to the laws of aging and decay common to the elements of the cosmos. And so it is that a crystalline melody resounds in a room illuminated by the warm light of the sun. The golden rays illuminate a grand piano, an object that has increasingly lost - during the pictorial process - that realistic taste, that attachment to the opaque world of things. It is the ethereal image of the piano, the ghost of a melody that - vibrating - resonates in the air. We can hear it: it is delicate and crystalline; light and diaphanous. Little by little the piano turns from deep red to faded and evanescent pink: the purification from the dense and thinking matter has taken place, all that remains is for us to listen to the silent music that those big black and white keys never stop making resound. Takashi's world is intellectual, immaterial in its search for the essence of sensation. Even ceramic, a hard and resistant material, is sublimated to be ethereal and dreamy. Clay, iron oxide, feldspar and siliceous sand, eager to denature their earthy and opaque composition, rise to elements floating in space, light bubbles of existence that vibrate at the slightest variation of color.

Objective boundaries are blurred, memories leave uncertain images of things and Still Life acquires a degree of lightness and vitality that clashes with the heaviness - regal and sophisticated - typical of real solid matter, that which we see with our eyes and touch with our hands. The dreamy universe is here a soft declination of the hard nature of the material. It is as if in Takashi's paintings we can see the empty space inside the atoms. We can sense the boundless distance between a nucleus and its electrons, we can perceive the void and the electromagnetic force capable of holding matter together. The artist's is a painting of air, an art that does not disdain the empty spaces, the uncertain stroke and the barely sketched color; on the contrary, it finds its true nature in these characteristics. The real world does not need to be represented, we already see it with our eyes. Takashi makes the mental visible, the sensation of an instant. Now let's close our eyes and listen to the sweet melody of sensation.

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

Takashi Yasuoka

Lavender Farm

Takashi Yasuoka

Music Room

Takashi Yasuoka

Still Life

Tamara von Mappe

Tamara von Mappe is a talented artist born in Santiago, Chile. During this last year, marked by the Covid 19 pandemic, she has been able to devote herself to a passion undertaken since childhood. Tamara learns to weave from a very young age. She is an extremely original artist who encapsulates her art and personal vision of the world, not in acrylics and canvases but through the use of textiles. In Chile, craftsmanship is closely linked to cultural traditions. Tamara therefore takes influences from her culture and renews them, adding a personal touch that shows her versatility and ability to expand her creative vision to an international panorama. The artwork "Eye" shows Tamara's skill in weaving. It is an extraordinary work.

Through knitting she realizes something exceptional. The front view of the work is quite uniform, very interesting is the contrast between the dark background and the light threads in the foreground. One reads the image of a wide-open, attentive, observant eye. But if the frontal view may seem apparently classical, ambiguity is revealed by the lateral and oblique views of the artwork. Looking at it from different points of view, the image of the eye is clearly more visible and recognizable. This is because the white knitted threads, when viewed from the side, seem to form a whole, making the black that contours the drawing stand out. An ambiguous, mysterious and at the same time extremely fascinating artwork. Tamara creates a lenticular image by creating an optical illusion that allows the viewer to perceive the work in different ways depending on the point of view of observation. This system allows for surprising results both in terms of quality and visual effects. It is a curious, intriguing and extremely attractive process. The viewer is enraptured by this ambiguous game and cannot help but ask himself a thousand questions.

Tamara von Mappe

Tamara invites the viewer to a deep reflection. The same subject represented induces questions. The eye is the most expressive part of the face and those most closely linked to human psychology. It is said that "the eyes do not lie to me" because man trusts sight more than the other senses, considers it fundamental to understand the true nature of a person, his desires, his emotions. Eye contact is fundamental in any kind of relationship and eyes also convey messages. It is also argued that our gaze can reveal aspects of our personality. In short, the eye is an ambiguous element but at the same time it functions as a sort of mirror of the soul. It has this dual nature that fits perfectly with the technique used by Tamara. The artwork "Eye" has different interpretations that are related to the subjectivity of the human being. The dilated pupil gives a signal of alarm, of surprise, of a watchful and attentive look. A great eye that watches over human beings and that watches everyone's behavior, extremely attentive to details and capable of drawing the attention of the person concerned when needed. At the same time, looking at Tamara's artwork is like looking inside, a real mirror for the soul that leads the viewer to question what is his true "self". Tamara is a versatile and very skilled artist with an extremely personal and original style. She creates innovative and creative artworks with techniques that are not very common and not easy to achieve. She plays with contrasts, with concepts making ambiguity and mystery the keys to reading her works. Impossible not to remain deeply and psychologically involved.

Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti

Tamara von Mappe

Eye

Tamara von Mappe

Eye

Tarilabo Koripamo - Korita "The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web."

(Pablo Picasso) Tarilabo Koripamo - Korita is an artist whose work aims to speak to our imagination. She combines colors and shapes in the most natural and abstract form. Her artistic style depends on his mood. She loves to create with colors that cause texture and spark conversation. Her art explores the recovery of the Nigerian woman's sexuality, the need for self-liberation. She uses many large and bright colors which usually express the abundance of individuality that a Nigerian woman has. “Ina Son Ta” is the first piece she exhibits and in the Hausa language it simply means that she likes her. For an artist, admitting admiration is the first step in allowing relationships that hopefully will flourish. It is a portrait of a black-skinned woman with a brown scarf tied around her hair and red lipstick. She is naked. Her breasts and stomach are exposed. Tarilabo has included things that can be interpreted in various ways. Her nakedness, her purple veil, her sitting position and the glowing pearls. All of these choices were made deliberately, to dishonor the need to control women to fit the male gaze in Nigeria. “Lady Egungun” is the second work exhibited. Egungun is a visible manifestation of the spirits of deceased ancestors who periodically revisit the human community for remembrance, celebration, and blessings. It is a unique cultural tradition practiced by the Yoruba of West Africa and their descendants in the African diaspora, particularly in Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, and the United States. These spirits constantly bless, protect, warn, and punish their earthly relatives depending on how they neglect or honor them. Egungun's appearance in a community is invariably accompanied by pomp, dance, song, and celebration. The following festival goes on for several days and strengthens the bonds that unite families and communities with deceased ancestors. These masked displays are often accompanied by the whirlwind of fabrics and colors, augmented by intricate body movements. At best, Egungun is both an imaginative parade and a concrete manifestation of the acrobatics of the spirit in motion. The latest work is called "Still Black Grandeur". Four women sit comfortably secure.

With a colorful background that does not detract from their skin tones. These women are caught in a private and intimate moment, not so much because they appear naked, but because in addition to the awareness of their nakedness, they acquire a certain awareness of them, as living beings, people, women. And this is precisely what the artist loves most about this piece. All three works presented are an expression of how far we must go for the cultural reset of the Nigerian woman.

Art Curator Francesca Campanelli

Tarilabo Koripamo - Korita

Ina Son Ta

Tarilabo Koripamo - Korita

Lady Egungun

Tarilabo Koripamo - Korita

Still Black Grandeur

Tomasz Rut

Tomasz Rut exposes for the international exhibition “Coming Out” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery three creative works (“Metamorphos: changing in time”, “Metamorphos: modern man”, “Phenomenon: Temptation of St. Francis”) bearing a strong visual and perceptive impact. By transporting the viewer into an alternative dimension within his/her own subconscious, the artist seeks to reveal the essence of the universe in which each individual lives and continually evolves. His personal aesthetic concept consists of observing and perceiving the events which occur within any aspect of life, in a way to be able to extrapolate feelings, forms and thoughts, creating an indissoluble connection among the real world, the imaginary and the one made of purely of sensations. By combining in his artistic work both elements of nature and themes from the Bible, literature and science, Tomasz continues to go beyond his limits in each painting in order to find something new and unexplored. By allowing himself to be guided by his own feelings, he also manages to follow his instincts. This method helps him to exceed the canvas’s borders, creating a work that goes beyond the mere consideration of space, and furthermore manages to delve into both the evolutionary and phenomenological process of the subjects represented. Exactly as in “Metamorphos: changing in time” and in “Metamorphos: modern man”: by detaching himself from any pre-constituted form, every feeling is powerful and represented through lines and colors that are freely mixed and matched according to a rational order. Impulses prevail over reason and its structures, thus capturing the viewer's attention with all the dynamism generated within the two paintings. As if Tomasz himself wanted to mutate himself into something new, he manages to strike every perceptive faculty of the viewer. Through such an immediate and spontaneous technique, free from any scheme, a bond is created between the artist, the work and the viewer, allowing a close proximity to the pictorial matter, where each element becomes part of it. In “Metamorphos: modern man” in particular, there is a clear reference to the famous works of the Futurist art movement: speed, change and above all movement stand out as crucial aspects in this work. Finally, in “Phenomenon: Temptation of St. Francis” the interweaving of lines traced by brushstrokes, colors and shades is the direct result of an impetuous and vital gesture, through which abstract and chromatic themes come from the deepest parts of the mind, bringing out the most unconscious motivations of everyone. By expressing all this energy, Tomasz creates an optical-perceptual explosion, where the dynamic action and the different moods of the viewer generate a strong and expressive language on the pictorial surface, transporting the viewer into an impetuous atmosphere.

Art Curator Alessia Perone

Tomasz Rut

Metamorphos: changing in time

Tomasz Rut

Metamorphos: modern man

Tomasz Rut

Phenomenon: Temptation of St.Francis

Ulla-Karin Lundgren

The art created by the artist Ulla-Karin Lundgren is a tale. The experience of seeing her canvas consists not only in the mere observation of something, but we can attend the action of watching a real experience. In which we can have the opportunity to discover new stories and new truths about life. On occasion of the international art exhibition Coming Out the artist presented her work titled ‘Anthropas’. Watching her painting we can discover a lot of details and elements that refer to a story that the artist wants to tell to the observer. However, the protagonist of the composition is put on the centre of the artwork with arms wide open and upside down. But who is this image? What she wants to represent in the vision of the artwork? As the artist Ulla-Karin Lundgren says: << She tells untold stories of The Sacred Feminine. She is the celestial alchemy of the Night sky,the Sacred fires of Passion and the Awakened Soul. The Voice of Intuition and The Wisdom of Earth. She is a Woman. Her body is Sacred and her essence is Divine. Her heart beats at the same beat as the Universe. She is the daughter of the Moon and the Sun. Sister to the Wind and the Water. Mother to Life. Her voice whispered words of Wisdom. Remembering the unremembered. I salute you! Your mysterious presence, ancient essence, magnifilous power, creative soul and radiant light.>>. For this reason, watching the painting made by the artist UllaKarin, the observer has the opportunity to discover new ways to imagine reality, new stories about the world. And in their inner meaning discover something new about himself.

Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio

Ulla-Karin Lundgren

Anthropas

Vaida Kacergiene

Vaida Kacergiene exposes her work “DREAMERS” for the international exhibition "Coming Out" at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery. The use of bright and vivid colors emphasizes her desire to communicate happiness and optimism. The artist succeeds in making the viewer explore new universes, transporting him/her into a dreamlike and unspoilt world. In fact, one can see a lush and bright green environment with a magical, paradisiacal atmosphere all around it. The observer can imagine with his/her mind and enjoy the view, just as the two characters sit on a golden bridge, who are admiring their surroundings. Thanks to creativity it is possible to overcome the laws of physics, such as being suspended in this otherworldly dimension, far from everyday life.

The fairy-tale and surreal elements, halfway between dream and reality, are emphasized through the use of chromatic nuances that underline the purity and harmony of the representation. All this imagination is accompanied by a graceful sense of upward movement that pushes the observer’s attention from the bottom to the top: the aim is to let oneself be lulled by all the natural beauty of that “Neverland”, just like in the Peter Pan's fairytale. The great sweetness and delicacy in the choice of subjects becomes the symbol of an escape from the daily life, and the lightness and carefreeness belong to this freedom. Vaida skillfully succeeds in creating a connection between the needs as well as the spiritual side of a human being who is overwhelmed by the desire to reveal his soul. The artist gives the viewer a chance to get access to the depths of a parallel universe in a completely original way, without limits or constraints, allowing his/her feelings and moods to emerge.

“Life and dreams are sheets of the same book. Reading them in order is to live, to leaf them randomly is to dream.” (Arthur Schopenhauer)

Art Curator Alessia Perone

Vaida Kacergiene

DREAMERS

Vajjaz “Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.” (Arthur Schopenhauer)

In life everything is born from a change; so it is in Art. The artist has to allow himself to live what life propose him. Following this flow, the painter Vajjaz focuses his artistic investigation on how and why something around him can be modified. Taking into consideration a main subject, the artist leads his art journey to discover always new aspect of the same thing. Vajjaz feels free to be carried away by the natural stream of Art. As well as his artistic poetry, he is open to change; he leaves his personality, allowing it to evolve with the artworks. By doing so, the painter creates art forms always new. Vajjaz entrustes to Art the great responsibility to tell his story; the colours become the narrator of what the artist experiences on his own skin. Indeed, the colours – with them different shades and nuances – are able to be considered the fundamental part, the centre of the artistic research of Vajjaz. As self-taught, the artist puts his energy in studying everything related to the colours and the power that they are able to transmit and convey to the audience. He discovers that even the smallest shades of dye can trigger the most varied, countless and always different sensations in who is looking at the canvas: behind a simple tint can be hidden infinite feelings. That’s exactly why the artist Vajjaz spends a lot of time and work to create many mixtures – result of experiments made with passion. In doing so, the painter wishes to give to the audience endless possibilities of rhythmical and colourful combinations, as expressions of what characterizes the life.

Art Curator Manuela Fratar

Vajjaz

Third Soulkey

Valeria Fuentes “The power of imagination makes us infinite.” (John Muir)

Valeria Fuentes is a Chilean artist for whom art has represented a real sheet-anchor. Following an accident, painting has become a tool through which to express herself, a means through which to release her energy and then transmit it to those who observe her precious creations. “Balance on dirt” was made in 2021 with a mixed technique. Broad lines, thin lines and small geometric shapes meet and overlap the grey, of a more intense shade in the centre. The dark background creates a pleasant chromatic contrast with the bright colours such as orange, red and blue of the shapes scattered around the canvas. The title of the work is very evocative and hides a deep meaning. Apparently difficult conditions can reserve pleasant surprises: flowers grow in the swamps, order can emerge in chaos, by feeling pain we become stronger, following a storm a colourful rainbow is born. This happens if we look at what is happening around us from a broader point of view, not dwelling on the appearance, but going beyond it. This is the message that Valeria wants to communicate to viewers, giving life to a work that is not only precious from an aesthetic point of view, but also with a strong meaning. Her abstract paintings give the viewers the opportunity to set out on a magical journey during which they are invited to reflect on important issues without forgetting to let themselves be carried away by the whirlwind of emotions.

Art Curator Camilla Gilardi

Valeria Fuentes

Balance on dirt

Vanessa Mac-auliffe “Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye...it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.” (Edvard Munch) Vanessa Mac-auliffe is a very promising artist of Chilean origin but born in the USA. Her taste and interest in the art world started very early and led her to embark on a bold and creative artistic career. Her taste for juxtaposing colours, shapes and lines that create spatiality but at the same time are equally distributed in space, denote a strong taste for design and decoration. Vanessa is an artist who likes to experiment and explore the most diverse areas of art. In her artworks there are different artistic influences from design, ceramics and a strong aesthetic taste.

In her artwork 'Tsunami', the spirit of the artist and her original and energetic concept come out gingerly. An energy is released from the work, thanks to the combination of colours, the use of a vivid and deep lapis lazuli blue. Against a dark background there are a few simple flashes of light which allow the surface not to be flat but dynamic and three-dimensional. Games of contrasts, lights and shadows, solids and voids are outlined on the canvas. The protagonist, however, is the zigzag wave, which is presented in the foreground. What catches the viewer's attention above all is the bright and overwhelming colour. The colour blue symbolises creativity and artistic flair. It makes us more extroverted and inclined to communicate. It is also a colour that symbolises research that leads to reflection and internalisation. This research process is at the heart of the artist's work, which is always changing and renewing. The technique used, that of oil painting, allows the colour to blend perfectly in a soft and gradual way, as happens with the wave that contains several darker shades that give it three-dimensionality and dynamism. The brushstrokes are freer and more gestural in the foreground and more rational and controlled in the background, as if to signify a tsunami of energy that arrives and involves everything, breaking the mould of everyday life and monotony. A tsunami of emotions, strong and unstoppable, that strikes the viewer and leads him to reflect on the balance of the universe in relation to its soul full of contrasts.

Nature becomes man's accomplice, becomes a physical metaphor for human emotions and transposes feelings into metaphysical manifestations. This concept, which unites the vibrations of the universe with the intrinsic human nature, Vanessa translates it on canvas through the juxtaposition of shapes and colours that create harmony but at the same time disarray. Emotions need to be expressed with strength, vigour. We must not be afraid to express them, to tell them. Emotions overwhelm us like a tsunami, they are not rational and are often the basis of any artistic process. The message the artist wants to convey comes through loud and strong to the ears and eyes of the viewer: let yourself be overwhelmed. An invitation not to hide our feelings, to express them, to shout them out. We must live each day with energy, without hiding our true being, our true soul. We have to come out of the closet, to be every day a tsunami of energy and vitality that breaks the patterns of monotony. Vanessa is very good at communicating messages through the colours of her canvases. Her gestural expressiveness is unique, free from any scheme, instinctive. She puts her feelings into her artworks and at the same time makes them universal concepts in which everyone can mirror themselves.

Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti

Vanessa Mac-auliffe

Tsunami

Vanja Zanze

“This artwork takes you to beautiful untouched landscape where you can feel peace and nature power.”.

With these few, but coincided and effective words, the Croatian artist presents her artwork. Vanja Zanze approached painting after a surgery that led her to risk her life, but since then, as a self-taught, she began to create artworks with the technique of fluid acrylic, enchanting art lovers around the world. In "Green landscape" we can admire a beautiful natural landscape represented in the way of Vanja Zanze, a different way, personal and fascinating. Fluid trails of color overlap each other creating wonderful juxtapositions of different shades of green, while, in the lower half of the canvas, she adds a touch of purple. To the color symbol of hope par excellence, the artist combines that symbol of metamorphosis, transition and magic. Through the curved lines, the work expresses calm and tranquillity in the viewer, through the colors, instead, Vanja Zanze gives us confidence and optimism. Metamorphosis as change is positive and sometime is necessary. The realization of works with the technique of fluid painting requires not only a lot of imagination, but also the ability to properly mix colors to form striking contrasts, and the Croatian artist proves to be an expert in this. Indeed, her harmonies of colors are enchanting and explode on the canvas illuminating our soul.

Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia

Vanja Zanze

Green landscape

Vincent Huizinga

Vincent Huizinga’s work is a contemporary, impressionistic style of painting founded on thin transparent layers of acrylic paint and blended figurative elements that bring both depth and life to each piece. These characteristics that emphasize the artist’s way of creation can be seen in the three paintings exhibited at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery during the current ‘Coming Out’ exhibition. In all three paintings, the subject and composition are reflective of three different moments, as stated in their titles. As the exhibition’s concept aims to exemplify individualism, as being separate from society’s constrictions and rules, Vincent’s three pieces seem to reflect a mode of escape both literally and through reifying the concept. In fact, “Escape” is the title of one painting whose hot colors illuminate a dynamic, atmospheric scene.

Like the futuristic creations of the Italian artists Boccioni and Balla, Vincent focuses his attention on the whole scene, resulting in vague distinctions between every single character and the undefined colorful background. The little black spots at the center of the canvas are like representations of human figures escaping from themselves while the white spots of colors recall to mind their souls; an act of imagination.

Perhaps, the three paintings can be viewed as a continued history of these figures who travel in search of their personality and freedom.

“Migration” and “Expedition” reflect the process of a long walk in two different moments and landscapes: the first one, hotter and characterized by brilliant colors where the human beings, far from where their journey began, are defined by their silhouettes; on the contrary, the second one appears to highlight the souls’ point of view through a composition defined by its colder atmosphere. The artist’s ability to the color palette brings the viewer into the represented scene permitting them to feel the emotions and feelings that had motivated Vincent to paint.

Art Curator Martina Stagi

Vincent Huizinga

Escape

Vincent Huizinga

Expedition

Vincent Huizinga

Migration

Virginia Van Gaalen

Virginia Van Gaalen is an Australian artist with an incredible artistic background. Virginia's works coincide with the historically defined current of abstract expressionism. At the contemporary art exhibition "COMING OUT" presented by the art gallery M.A.D.S. Van Gaalen exhibits a triptych of works. The work entitled "Passion Flower" recalls, for the setting, "Moon Woman" by Jackson Pollock, thanks to the use of an extremely flat background, in this case left rough, and the drafting of color and lines. The colors are bright, vibrant, almost fluorescent, which leads to sensations full of energy and vitality. The color is applied in an energetic, impulsive way, without retouching and this is demonstrated by the drippings, very similar to those of the artist Cy Twombly. The positivity of the three works is concrete, it enters the soul of those who look at the pieces of art, thanks above all to the color. “Spring Bloom” enters into the detail of a flower, in its essence and interiority, so it also happens to the viewer who feels pervaded by shapes and colors. This work in particular recalls the stylistic technique of the artist Helen Franckenthaler. Flowers represent rebirth, the opening to what is new, but also the revelation of one's essence, one's heart, of what the flower has that is most delicate. "Spring Floral" is the last work on display and is darker than the previous two, due to the inked background used to contrast with the delicate and textured details of the emerging flower.

Art Curator Martina Viesti

Virginia Van Gaalen

Passion Flower

Virginia Van Gaalen

Spring Bloom

Virginia Van Gaalen

Spring Floral

Yar Kirsanov "If nothing eternal existed, not even becoming would be possible." (Aristotle)

Yar Kirsanov is a Russian artist. His multifaceted talent leads him to range from visual art to illustration to graphic art. His work is also accompanied by an active role in the Russian College community, with which he has participated in numerous national and international initiatives. Yar's creativity finds its ideal dimension in virtual and mixed media art, as for the work presented for Coming Out, entitled "Alien poetry v4". The artist constructs a composition with multi-layered images in which a human face is depicted: the superimpositions intersect with each other creating an almost spiral-like pattern, which branches out on the top of the head like a dense network. The contrasting tones of light blue, blue and pink accompany the shapes in a set of remarkable visual impact. With these overlapping images, "resting" on each other, the artist alludes to the archetypal forms of the Unconscious. The representation, however, is not aimed only at interiority: it is rather a double level of reading, in which Yar's interest in post-cyberpunk motifs must be remembered.

This implies a more "external" reflection on the vision of the body in the future: the artist seems to imagine it as something in constant movement and development, capable of adapting and evolving with great dynamism. Yar's experimental inspiration pushes him to use figurative art - for the great fascination of human corporeity - to try to make visible what cannot be seen with the naked eye.

The collages of images effectively express the artist's will to grasp with a single glance the complexity of the human psyche, fragmentary and elusive, but of sublime and poetic beauty.

Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti

Yar Kirsanov

Alien poetry v4

Ylva Frändén “I want to express the feeling of possibilities, freedom, and tranquility by painting open expanses where nothing prevents the gaze from moving towards the horizon.” (Ylva Frändén)

For the international exhibition “Coming Out” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Ylva Frändén exposes her work “God morgon 2021” (Good morning 2021), in which one can see her favorite technique, watercolor, and her passion for the surrounding environment. The artist’s aim is to transmit human feelings while she can notice those emotions and that pure energy in each brushstroke she makes, up to reaching her hand and heart. In this work, color has a pivotal role: dark blue is used in all its nuances, as if Ylva wanted to study its different gradations. This shade best represents the nature that surrounds her during a winter morning in Sweden, her motherland. With its power and strength, blue emphasizes both real and mental space, by creating a fusion of art and life. In this way, one can witness to its transformation from a pictorial matter to a moment of indescribable poetry. Lines, contours, shapes and perspectives are absorbed by that single, unifying and compact draft of color, enveloping the surface of the canvas in its wholeness. Exactly as for the French artist Yves Klein, famous for "his" blue, for Ylva this nuance contains an important aspect for the stylistic and aesthetic analysis of her watercolor. As a matter of fact, this color invites the viewer to take a journey into the depths of his/her soul, as if was a personal spiritual quest: the viewer's gaze is lost in infinity, captured by both the landscape and the essence of the color. The aim is to create an artwork that actively involves the public, which is full of candid feelings and an enveloping serenity, in order to make it participate in the painting itself.

“The deeper the blue, the more strongly it draws man towards infinity, arousing in him the nostalgia for purity and ultimately for the supersensible.” (Vasilij Kandinskij)

Art Curator Alessia Perone

Ylva Frändén

God morgon 2021 (Good morning 2021)

Yoko Kitazaki

Yoko Kitazaki is a Japanese artist. She was born in Kyoto and she learned oil painting from an early age. She loved the layered colors of “Water Lilies” drawn by Monet, and she wanted to express the changing light. With the changes in the world in 2020, she began to create abstract paintings using acrylic paints. The theme of her production is based on duality and contains the message of “Seeing the whole phenomenon from the viewpoint of the mind.” As a feature of the work, she changes the smooth paints to “movement, flow, luster, lumps, and cracks” and so on. This is due to her idea of rebounding the pigments. Yoko Kitazaki shows her ideology by exhibiting at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, the abstract and conceptual work entitled "Awakening" made of acrylic on canvas. The work, square in shape, depicts an infinite vortex of intense red like lava. The square of the canvas marks a circle, immediately creating a certain harmony on a visual level. From the semantic point of view, the work seems to lead to a lava vortex that encloses the origin of life. The artist comments on the work with these words: “The shadow of the Earth covers the full moon and creates a lunar eclipse. The shadow contains everything that exists on the Earth… Then the red moon mirror that reflects the demon world appears as the sky turns into an alternate space. What kind of future do you see in the mirror?”. In fact, the red vortex that the artist compares to the Earth and the reflection of its demons, conveys a certain catastrophic sensation that inevitably leads to the desire for rebirth. It is a work that invites reflection, invites us to look inwards and reflect on the future of humanity.

Art Curator Giorgia Massari

Yoko Kitazaki

Awakening

Yuki

From the Latin root of the word emotion we can understand its meaning: e (out) + movere (move). Feelings flow naturally, like a river, or they are dammed up. If blocked, they may awaken in the subconscious, in that underground region too deep to reach the light of awareness.

Relegating unwanted emotions to our depths can cause headaches or worse. Eventually, these orphaned feelings will come out, overflow or explode in a deluge. Despite this, it often feels like our society is a victim of dyscrasia: we assign a very high value to emotions to the point that we celebrate their importance at every turn. Then, when we fear that they get out of hand, we do everything we can to drive them back as soon as they arise, as if we were afraid of being trapped, overwhelmed. These are divergent and opposing behavioral patterns that sometimes exist within us, generating tensions in one direction and in the other. Although they are the result of a complex psychological behavior typical of every human being, these actions are usually managed and expressed through the use of verbal communication. The spoken word in fact, is the fastest and most immediate way to externalize any feeling and also to take back what has been said, in the blink of an eye. And yet there is another means to express the inner world, another way with substantially different intrinsic characteristics. Yuki takes possession of the color and the canvas and makes of the white space a window on her interiority. The immaculate whiteness of an empty universe is irreparably stained by the colorful exuberance of the artist's emotions and sensations. Milky purity is replaced by the force of color. Tongues of pigment flood the space represented. Fiery brush strokes rise upwards, their movement is impetuous, their expressive force unheard of. Orange nuances meet with yellow pigment that in some places turns to white. It is the heterogeneity of the material that dominates and the rich nuances and evident brushstrokes are nothing but the visual externalization of the complexity of the human soul.

Spots of bluish color fall from above. The color palette is quite broad: from the blue beyond the sea at times it veers toward purplish and then falls back into a playful turquoise. The movement seems even more excited than that of the tongues of fire below. With impetus they fall from the top of the composition: they are heavy, opaque drops that stain the surface. Then the encounter takes place. The union between the two elements in a violet embrace, a bond is just born. New emotions will spring from this innovative understanding and Coming-Out is its satisfactory pictorial visualization.

Art Curator Lisa Galletti

Yuki

Coming Out

Yuliia Nikolaienko Yuliia Nikolaienko is a Ukrainian professional artist based in Kyiv. She set off her journey into the creative world as a child by enrolling in an art school and eventually attained a degree in Architecture from the Poltava National Technical Institute. Yuliia has since then established her own artistic style and concept for the majority of her paintings: she often creates artworks in Modern Petrykivka, which is a traditional Ukrainian decorative painting style, and abstract expressionism. Watercolor, acrylic, and oil paints are used in most of her paintings, while themes of nature, selfdetermination, and occasionally sociopolitical issues are what she accompanies within her artworks. Yuliia exhibits a large abstract-expressionist oil painting entitled “Emotions” at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery as part of the “Coming Out” International Art Exhibition. The concept of the painting is based on the sociopolitical situation in her home country.

Created in 2019, a year in which the Ukrainian society faced tension and turbulent political turn due to the presidential election campaigns, "Emotions", as the title suggests, is the artist’s interpretation of numerous kinds of emotions prevalent at that period. The artist uses a combination of color applied in sharp strokes and thick layers to create disorder and confusion onto the canvas. Palette knives were used to paint a variety of colors, ranging from white to yellow, red, violet, blue, and black, over one another. Yellow and blue shades were the primary colors used on the initial layer as a background, which resembles the colors of the Ukrainian flag and is covered in layers with quick and sharp strokes of other colors including red, black, and violet. The color mix intensifies in the middle of the canvas where black and green, the secondary color mixed with blue and yellow, became prominent, suggesting a growing sense of tension. From a stylistic point of view, the technique in which the rapid overflowing and splashing of colors became the primary approach in expressing thoughts and feelings is reminiscent of the Action Painting method introduced by Jackson Pollock, particularly in the masterpiece called “Convergence”. A sign of movement is visible as the artist aimed to adjust certain curve lines to wavy ones to represent insecurity, a shared emotion experienced by most Ukrainians during that time. In fact, Yuliia's abstract representation through a wide range of colors not only creates aesthetic value but also delivering meaning with social context, allowing viewers to link themselves to such a state of mind.

Art Curator Trithida Trising

Yuliia Nikolaienko

Emotions

Zed Erevanayen Zed Erevanayen understands the process of dealing with the unexpected. M.A.D.S Art gallery presents “Coming out” art exhibition, which is about the liberation by the expression of our identity through art. Zed creates a digital art trilogy. His background in computer science resulted in a passion for digital art. The trilogy called “Starry eyed people” is about accepting himself, which depicts three different stages.

The first artwork is “Awakening," followed by “Realization” and finally “Acceptance”. The digital art trilogy illustrates a half shaped body in the center of the vertical composition using monochrome and golden tones. The particularity of the monochrome body is the shell shaped head composed by two shells and between them we can see the presence’s core, which varies from golden to monochrome tones.

“Awakening” comes as an impulse. “Realization” is the presence that understands what is going to happen and manifests itself. The brightness irradiates from the intensified golden core and opens into a new dimension. We are witnessing a birth after a period of turmoil.

With “Acceptance” we observe that temporality cannot alter the path already initiated by “Awakening”. Inside “Acceptance” we are aware of the core represented by a black sphere. “No matter how bright we burn the only way to go forward is to let go, that's why the shell is looking dark and empty. But it still has its core. Which means that not all is lost and that the process can happen again”. Zed presents digital art with a clear methodical concept, trying to organize impulses. It is a cycle presented as a reaction formation, which intends to project the presence’s introspection that shows a light upon the breakdown and the attempt to react in a positive manner. There was an art exhibition called “Art in Europe 1945-1968”, which depicts the post war art scenery organized in ten different phases, I will name only first four of them pertinent to this trilogy: Phase 1: Trauma and remembrance, 2: Abstraction, 3: Focus of object and 4: Destruction of the object. The first four parts of the exhibition is about expression and what happens after the solace and violence. Phase 1 depicts Trauma in a figurative way such as Zed presented the half shaped body. Phase 2 of the exhibition is about the crisis of representation and the uncertainty to portray horrors and violence in a figurative way. Zed’s core portrayal illustrates the internal violence and how it shifts depending the stage you find yourself. Phase 3 is when the art piece focuses on the object, where art pieces art created with objects not with strokes, Zed uses digital software to create an object pursuing a figurative dimension. And Phase 4 of the post war art exhibition is where artists destroy the object. A clear example of this depiction is Lucio Fontana’s works embracing destruction. Zed’s digital art comes out seeking a positive outcome through the realization of liberation. We are in constant war with ourselves and our surroundings, it is a matter of how we perceive each different stage in life and how confident we are staring into the eyes and be aware of what we have accepted.

Art Curator Karla Peralta Málaga

Zed Erevanayen

Starry eyed people: Awakening

Zed Erevanayen

Starry eyed people: Realization

Zed Erevanayen

Starry eyed people: Acceptance

Živilė Bardzilauskaitė-Bergins

Živilė Bardzilauskaitė-Bergins creates truly amazing artworks. All her paintings have colors and shapes as their main elements. The artist exhibits an artwork entitled "Ambition" at the International Art Exhibition "Coming Out". The canvas is invaded by spectacular shapes, geometric and abstract, referring to the style of lyrical abstractionism which, however, is also geometric at the same time. Lyrical abstractionism leaves ample room for the artist's imagination and personal universe. The term "lyric" refers to a poetic attitude of the painter that also transpires from the signs and colors spread on the canvas, suggested by the relationship between man and forms. Within these abstract shapes, precise geometric shapes are also represented that convey order and rigor.

The contemplation of this artwork makes us completely lose ourselves in the image, continuing to direct our gaze in every direction, relentlessly, in the continuous search for new elements and forms to discover. Živilė does not paint what she sees. Her ambition, the title of the artwork itself, is to communicate her most intimate emotions as freely as possible, sincerely, to convey perceptions, moods, through the use of shapes and colors chosen independently.

"Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art."

(Andy Warhol)

Art Curator Francesca Campanelli

Živilė Bardzilauskaitė-Bergins

Ambition