CATALOGUE
Curated by Art Directors Carlo Greco and Alessandra Magni
Critical texts by Art Curators Alessia Perone Alessia Procopio Alessia Ventola Camilla Gilardi Carola Antonioli Chiara Isella Chiara Rizzatti Elisabetta Eliotropio Erika Gravante Federica D’Avanzo Federica Schneck Francesca Brunello Francesca Catarinicchia Giorgia Massari Giulia Fontanesi Ilaria Falchetti Karla Peralta Málaga Letizia Perrieri
Lisa Galletti Lucrezia Perropane Manuela Fratar Mara Cipriano Maria Teresa Cafarelli Marina Maggiore Matilde Della Pina Marta Graziano Martina Bassi Martina Lattuca Martina Stagi Martina Viesti Sara Giannini Sara Grasso Silvia Grassi Sofia Ronzi Valentina Valentini Vanessa Viti Viola Provenzano
Why are we moved to create art? Why do we sometimes get the impression that an artwork is silently observing the inside of ourselves? We perceive energy within the brushstrokes, between the reliefs determined by the color lying on the canvas. We sense mystery in the artist's hand and in his rhythmic gestures. There is self-sacrifice to tell what is hidden behind the opaque surface of the shaped material. Sacrifice. A gesture of offering to something, for something. Action through which an object referable to the world of reality loses its meaning, gives up its constituent form and its materialistic duties to become a semiophore object. Stripped of its native function, the entity in question acquires labile and invisible connotations, becoming a visible object of an invisible world. Delicate fiber between the dimension of the real and that of the sacred; builder of a prosperous bond between man and hope, the object is itself the sacrifice. The human being himself can be a sacrificer and, at the same time, an element to be immolated. On the other hand, in nature there is no instinct of sacrifice, animals are not driven by a moral and do not undergo ethical dilemmas. The human being is the only entity that can decide to sacrifice itself - and make sacrifices - in the name of an ideal, of a future benefit, of a hint of hope. Is hope perhaps the driving force behind sacrifice? Is sacrifice perhaps the cry of the human being who, powerless and insignificant, aspires to something unattainable? And is it perhaps the figure of the artist who embodies in his robes the sacrificed and the sacrificer? Nowadays the aesthetic expression is an activity - exquisitely human that is not subject to the rule of utility, does not respond to the strict laws of the market and is excluded from any dynamic of practical utility.
By its nature, Art, not fulfilling concrete specific tasks, becomes the bearer of the invisible, of something coming from the "other dimension". Devoid of tangible elements and expressible exclusively through the language of artistic creation, Art is the only mode of expression of what we are unable to see. Is it therefore possible to raise art to a semiophore object unifying opposing worlds? According to the theory of French sociology, the act of sacrifice is nothing but an instrument of the real through which the individual has access to the sacral sphere. Finally, man has the privilege of entering into communication with the supernatural world and the immolated element allows the sacrificer to pass to a different condition, to something that distances him from the world of the real to bring him closer to the divine entity. On the other hand, the sacrifice simultaneously sanctions the natural separation between the world of men and the world of the invisible. Men try to communicate with the "other" world through a prodigious ritual, made of atavistic gestures and formulas, trying to overcome an unbridgeable space - or time -. The artist as the haruspex of destiny, Art as action and element to be immolated on the sacred table of all humanity. Priest of the contemporary world, the one who builds the delicate way between the world of the real and that of the invisible, the artist stands as the author of the sacrifice on behalf of humanity, of its atavistic questions and its ancestral doubts. The blood of the Art descends abundantly from the profiles of the altar, it is sacrifice and gift for the whole humanity. Nowadays it is rather anachronistic to consider the act of sacrifice as an event dedicated to God or to the Gods. Yet, the latter still exist. They walk, breathe and station in our world.
They have lost their names and their physiognomies: their connotations have changed into something new: into ideals and aspirations peculiar to our way of life, to our fast - and not very meditative - contemporaneity. The incarnation of the Gods in ideals, the inclusion of man's questions in the sphere of the invisible and the immutable desire to dissect what is unexplored in the world, pushes the man-artist to sacrifice his being through the delicate creative process in order to reach a divinatory conception of himself, to a condition of existence that goes beyond physical laws to flow into the divine. M.A.D.S. with Sacrifice presents itself as an act of reflection on sacrifice as an entirely human invention; an occasion for an intimate study through the medium of painting, sculpture and digital to bring to light what feeds and determines the impulse of immolation towards humanity. Sacrifice is a chance to formulate an answer to the questions outlined above, it is an opportunity to examine the value of hope as a driving force, it is an input to reveal the vigorous aspirations and ideals that never lapsed and that dwell in the soul of each of us. The doubts, the innate mysteries, the idiosyncrasies peculiar to the contemporary world, the fragilities that reside under the skin of our body are all there, in the work of art, votive object to decipher the dark abyss that dwells within us. Let's take Art and shape it in the likeness of our sacrificial element, eradicating its visible features and removing the superficial formal patina. Let's build little by little, spot of color on spot of color that delicate and ethereal bridge between the world of things and the world of ideas, let's approach laboriously to the divine tasting the sweet taste of hope. Let's make Art our semiophore object and put matter at the service of that impalpable and longed-for desire for hope and mystical knowledge. Concept edited by Lisa Galletti, Art Curator
7even
7even’s works are complex and overwhelming, your attention is immediately captured by the scenes he creates and the narrative he tells in his visuals. 7even is an artist whose identity is unknown; we do not know his name, his face, where he is from. He always wears a white mask through which we can see a penetrating and intense gaze covered by locks of hair. His identity as well as his works are covered in mystery, which triggers the viewers’ curiosity. Every work is composed by a voice-over narrative that ties in video shots the message the artist wants to convey. He does not stop here as the dynamic compositional story is then depicted on an abstract style painting with vibrant, loud and bold colours. He paints, writes, creates and builds videos. 7even makes use of different narrative tools to tell his stories, to share his emotions and experiences. Beneath the canvas and video, in fact, there are true stories that he has experienced. His artworks, then, become the spokesperson of strong messages, ideologies and beliefs that are unmasked by the narrator’s visual, pictorial and written language. In “Hush little beauty” and “Pele”, the picture of a woman is central. Here, the artist creates an unsettling atmosphere thanks to his deep and dramatic narrating voice and visuals in the videos and vivid and impactful brushstrokes in the paintings.
7even
In both works, the narrative and the shots of the video are complementary to the paintings’ portraits. “Hush little beauty” tells the story of a woman oppressed by someone she thinks loves her. “He gave her gold to win her heart while silencing her mouth with darkness … Tasted the sweat of evil and vile. She never said a word, no matter how it hurt”, the narrator tells. The woman never complains, never says a word until she decides to speak, to scream out loud, “to finally bite off his hand” and tell her truth. These oppressive and constraining feelings are beautifully conveyed with the cold and blue colours of the painting representing a woman whose mouth is silenced by a dark hand and whose body is rigid. Such rigidness becomes fire in “Pele”, where a headless body stands at the centre on a flaming orange background. The video tells the story of a woman desired by the narrator who sees her at the side of the road. She is charming and seductive and makes her way to the narrator’s car. “ I wanted to get to know her. I wanted to stir up a conversation … But when I turned my front mirror to her, the words ‘tell everyone about what’s coming’ was burned in my car”. The woman disappeared but her figure will always be in the narrator’s memory. She was Madame Pele, the deity of fire, light, dance, volcanoes and violence. With these two works, I welcome you to “7even’s acrylic life on canvas and the narrative that drives it”.
Art Curator Martina Lattuca
7even
Hush little beauty
7even
Pele
Aaron Dürst “Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” (Pablo Picasso)
What triggers the desire to paint in an artist? The main intention of the painter Aaron Dürst is to tap into his mind and his imagination some personal cues to be transformed into images freely accessible to everyone. The artist focuses his artistic research and – therefore -his artistic career to find his own way to express himself through a free creativity. In doing so, Aaron Dürst allows himself to explore different painting techniques; his pictorial style moves between different stages, experimenting with acrylic, oil, ink and pastels and finding a spontaneous and natural way to put on paper his own interiority and the world that surrounds him. Hence follows a changeable and dynamic form of art that is able to listen and modify itself depending on its creator. Through shades, lights, shadows and nuances the painter Aaron Dürst would give to those who are looking at his artworks a sense of disorder and chaos: from the mess, the creative and artistic process of Aaron Dürst has a way of popping up, radiating an abstract beauty. The painter feels free to give to the viewers endless interpretations, viewpoints and reading keys of reality, emotions, life, thoughts and imaginary shapes that animate his mind.
Art Curator Manuela Fratar
Aaron Dürst
UPROAR
Ad.inf
Sound engineer and self-taught artist based in Germany, Ad.inf creates paintings, graphics, photographs, objects, installations with a multitude of techniques and approaches. The creative flow connects the artist to the inner child, guided by a gut feeling and dedicated to the exciting and thrilling. deep love for texture and oddities, organic and junk material are often included into the works. The chosen term used by the artist to describe the process is digital deconstruction that results in the so-called happy accidents. Images layered and cut afterwards, parts erased and other ports over layered again. This technique lets new textures and images take life, emerge from the unknown and start a new universe. A medicine shield, this painting is called like the sacred object a warrior and the medicine man build together in the Native American culture. The painting as spiritual guide, as shelter and amulet, to be kept close and to be protected. Art has always been used for the production of sacred objects since the beginning of human race. Archetypal images such as an eagle, fire, smoke, arrows and feathers may be seen with a deeper look into this abstract work of art, symbols of historical importance of the artists’ presence and the willingness to pass on information, stories and power. Four squares, four circles, four groups of lines; everything reminds of a magic formula for the spirit.
“Once, Picasso was asked what his paintings meant. He said, “Do you ever know what the birds are singing? You don’t. But you listen to them anyway.” So, sometimes with art, it is important just to look.” (Marina Abramović ) Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Ad.inf
Medicine shield
Ademola Ojo “Art is an expression of inner feelings. Just a moving dot is Art. Art goes beyond what we see. It is an expression of our experiences, culture, and a documentation of our memory" Ademola Ojo
Ademola Ojo is a prolific contemporary visual artist. He is a native of the ancient city of ile ife, Osun state Nigeria. His passion for art was kindled in through the drawings, paintings and other artistic impressions he often witnessed in his father’s studio. Even though his secondary school did not offer art as a subject, Ademola had a keen interest in art and made up his mind to become an artist. In a bid to fulfil his dream, he proceeded to study fine and applied arts at Obafemi Awolowo University, ile-ife. Ademola’s works depict the traditional African people. His works discuss the culture and traditions of the African. He participated in Sogal Auction 2021 in Signaturebeyond art gallery, Top 100 selected Artists in Life in My City Art Competition 2021, The Identity 2021 Etc. He presents Fruitfulness, his work, at the international exhibition "SACRIFICE", hosted by the international art gallery M.A.D.S. "Men have to see women as a creature that carries treasures that is more than what you could see on the surface. They are the most adorable creature because of their sacrificial lives in the family. There are hidden treasures on their inside that made them more valuable. No man is ever complete without the effect of the fruitfulness that is domicile inside them. Women are embodiment of what money can not quantify. He that find a wife, truly find favor in God's sight. They are created to only fill the gap in Men and to complete the creation story. They are inevitable in our society. Love them, honor them, cherish them, give them more attention". The artist's masterpiece is a tribute to women, to their fertility, celebrating the presence of women on planet earth and their importance. The role of woman in society is of primary importance and the beauty and importance, the abundance that reside in it make her special. The protagonist of the painting is a sensual and energetic woman, elegantly dressed and surrounded by flowers. As if it were a new Venus. Pure, beautiful, fruitful.
Art Curator Mara Cipriano
Ademola Ojo
Fruitfulness
Aditi Gupta “Your mind is a powerful thing. When you filter it with positive thoughts, your life will start to change.” (Buddha) Aditi Gupta is an Indian artist who, for the second time, is exhibiting her art in the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery. It is a great honor for me to have met an artist like her. Through the work titled "Renunciation", I realized how kind and selfless her soul is. Aditi Gupta told me that as an artist, she has always been mesmerized by Buddha paintings. "They give a sense of peace and satisfaction to my soul" - she says. For her, Lord Buddha is the idol of sacrifice. She sets the design in a red, orange and yellow background with added fuchsia shades. The choice of warm colors is not accidental: there is a desire to convey a sense of peace and serenity by looking at the painting and the relaxed face of the Buddha. He was a Buddhist monk, philosopher, mystic and ascetic from India and founder of Buddhism: one of the most important spiritual and religious figures of Asia and the world. Through the practice of meditation, the Buddha achieved increasing levels of awareness. For example, he grasped the knowledge of the four Truths: pain, the origin of pain, the cessation of pain, and the path leading to the cessation of pain. The Buddha renounced his life of nobility, wealth. He deprived himself of his possessions, food, comforts and pleasures that he could enjoy in order to devote himself to meditation. He took a vow of poverty and completed a torturous journey of critical introspection. His renunciation, says Aditi Gupta, is regarded as a great sacrifice. The Buddha saw around him only luxury, precious goods, death, devastation and innocent victims sacrificed for the will of someone who feels stronger and smarter than others. Feeling a strong sense of disappointment, he decided to abandon his family and kingdom and give himself to the ascetic life. Although these events can be traced back to 536 BC, the themes are extremely current. The human being is willing to sacrifice what is dearest to him: there are those who are willing to sacrifice their lives for the happiness of their children, those who give up their work to devote themselves to their sick parents. And, in these cases, like the Lord Buddha one, they have reached Nirvana: the state in which liberation from pain is achieved. But sacrifice is not always guided by correct motives. On the other hand, there are those who sacrifice their bodies in the name of wrong ideals and tendencies; those who kill for money; those who sacrifice their morals to have the consent of amoral people. These people make a great mistake: sacrificing without achieving anything except their own carnage. This happens because we lose sight of the real goal: ourselves. Man should understand that in order to reach a state of inner peace it is necessary for him to put on the sacrificial altar the origin of his pain: hatred, greed, power, pleasures, desire for immortality.
Art Curator Alessia Ventola
Aditi Gupta
Renunciation
Adrian "Bruks" Burcea “The human heart has hidden treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed; The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealed.” (Charlotte Bronte)
Adrian "Bruks" Burcea, born in 1993, is a young artist who reinterprets traditional figurative art in a contemporary key. The words that most distinguish his works are undoubtedly sensuality, intimacy, the desire to go beyond the boundaries of what it is difficult to contemplate and the exaltation of the most delicate and genuine beauty. How do you handle with pleasure, stranger? is a splendid representation of the most extreme and intense pleasure: the face with blue shades that almost forcefully makes space on the white surface is that of a female figure, eyes closed and mouth wide open in an expression of pleasure, represented in a act of intimate enjoyment, an almost brazen act, but here immortalized with an extremely elegant grace and voluptuousness.
Adrian "Bruks" Burcea
On the contrary, Vanity is a deep immersion in sensuality, but also in the purest beauty: to get lost in the dark background, are in fact the bluish features of a woman almost of other times, a femme fatale who in a perhaps magnetic way, with her fleshy lips that almost suggest to be kissed, kidnaps the observer and forces him to surrender to the sensuality that distinguishes her. A praise of vanity, understood not as an act to reproach oneself for, but as an essential characteristic of the human being, vital for appreciating oneself and being able to be appreciated by the beholder. Adrian "Bruks" Burcea transports us into a universe made of crossed limits, of pleasure, but above all of beauty, all made with a captivating style and technique, which undoubtedly remain well impressed in the mind and heart of the observers.
Art Curator Chiara Isella
Adrian "Bruks" Burcea
How do you handle pleasure, stranger?
Adrian "Bruks" Burcea
Vanity
Agustina Ronconi "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)
Agustina's artistic work is completely imbued with energy. The young artist paints emotions and sensations that go beyond all boundaries and barriers, emerge from the canvas and pervade the soul of the observer. Agustina uses color as a tool of free expression, in fact it is the only protagonist within the work. A great energy is what the viewer perceives when encountering Agustina's artistic work, a force that sets the entire work in motion that travels from the inside to the outside. The colors that the artist chooses are intense, lively and brilliant, they completely capture the attention of the observer, not only that, they are able to fascinate the heart of the beholder. The bold and colorful brushstrokes make the works of great impact and acquire an enormous aesthetic and emotional value. Agustina's artistic work is of clear abstract inspiration, there is no figure or subject that refers to contingent reality, everything the artist creates is purity.
Agustina Ronconi
A purity that finds fulfillment in the skilful use of colors, at times extremely mellow and material, at other times more fluid. Agustina creates in her works an important balance given by opposites, that is, by the static nature of the material colors and the movement of fleeting brushstrokes. The artist has the great power to evoke great emotions, on her canvases, not only the colors explode in their total brilliance but also the feelings. The viewer is completely overwhelmed by the emotions that emerge from the works. In fact, Agustina's artistic work is full of energy, meeting her works means coming into contact with positive vibrations through which sensations and feelings are released and emotions are awakened. The observer finds himself living a unique and unforgettable experience, he goes on a journey to discover himself, of forgotten emotions and dormant memories. The brushstrokes and colors that are the absolute protagonists of Agustina's work are imbued with a strong passion, the one that the artist possesses towards life and art. Agustina's work is strength, passion and a true expression of herself and freedom.
Art Curator Vanessa Viti
Agustina Ronconi
Cenizas
Agustina Ronconi
Hija del viento
Aico Hattori
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” (Albert Einstein)
Each work of art is created with a specific purpose: to communicate, to convey unique sensations to viewers, to make them feel emotions in front of it. Fun: this is the key word to understand the Japanese contemporary artist Aico Hattori’s works. The protagonists of her paintings are curious characters created through a few simple strokes that outline the body and face. "Many muu" was created in 2021 with the acrylic on canvas technique. The subject in the centre is reproduced repeatedly around itself in a reduced size. White body, coloured pants, and thoughtful expression. What will be happening around him? The protagonist could be a character from a funny cartoon represented during the scene of an episode, or it could be an unprecedented and nice representation of each of us: here we are at the centre of our world and here are our various personalities that rotate distinct around us, even though they all belong to us. Art is immense, art is universal: in front of it everyone is free to see what his mind and his heart see. The quote from the famous physicist Albert Einstein states that creativity is intelligence having fun. Aico is an inexhaustible source of creativity: she plays with shapes and colors to create works of which the distinguishing mark is absolute originality. Aico invites viewers to immerse themselves completely in her world, thus knowing the characters who make her stories come alive and who speak with us and about us.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Aico Hattori
many muu
Akane
A work of art that contains within itself the story of how it was created and the creative intention that sprang from the artist's soul. A work that unites within its boundaries the various states of its creation and its complete realization on the canvas. The creative act begins with a canvas. It is white and immaculate, ready to receive the colored pigment spread in large fields. Shy and uncertain, a wisteria-colored patch peeps out of the canvas. It is extremely ethereal and its boundaries are essentially blurred. From the right side of the support it expands, stratifying itself on the fabric and bathing the central part of the work in color. Just below, a large green-ochre chromatic mass attracts the viewer's attention. Its golden glows break all over the composition. The stroke is arid, the color is dry and stretched in broad strokes over the support, allowing a glimpse of the porous texture of the canvas. And then the sky. A large blue spot takes over the composition creating an unusual golden balance. Occupying almost the entire left side of the work, we can consider it as a structure, as the skeleton of the work that is being built. At the sight of the sky-colored patch, the greenish stain loses its incisiveness, submitting to the opacity and chromatic matter that characterizes the cerulean brushstroke. It is a highly balanced chromatic composition where the colors and their respective tones are perfectly balanced with each other. The tones in general are rather dull, they almost seem to evoke a feeling of sweet nostalgia, a melancholic feeling of waiting. Like a creative epiphany, the work suddenly changes connotations. From the abstract sea, recognizable elements begin to emerge, associations that have the world of reality as their point of reference. And this is how that violet-pink stain acquires meaning, becoming the diaphanous skin of the girl portrayed. And this is how that ochre stain and the blue blotch become the shoulders, the bust and then again the hair and the beret that characterize the figure in question. Point after point, calmly and quietly, the needle guides the thread, rigorously constructing a human physiognomy. The result is a sinuous serpentine line that, moving gently on the canvas, defines with meticulousness the girl's body. It is a continuous line that from the right sleeve goes up to the shoulder, descends on the back and then goes up again to the base of the neck. From this point on, its nature changes and takes on the appearance of the hair, then the cheekbones and then again the eyes and facial features. The image under construction is all played out on that thin thread sewn directly onto the canvas. And so it is that the image of a girl with her back to us unravels, gently turning her head and looking towards the viewer. A sweet creative epiphany.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Akane
Woman looking back
Alan Brown “Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.” (Salvador Dali)
The landscapes by Alan Brown, a contemporary American artist, are enigmatic journeys to unknown places, where reality shows itself in a totally bizarre and eccentric form. The subjects represented are the most disparate, challenging the logic of physics and perception, making Metaphysical and Surrealist art a strong source of inspiration. In the two works exhibited at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery for the SACRIFICE exhibition, there is a common element: the apple. A fruit that has become part of the folklore and mythology of various peoples, it is often associated with the theme of the Original Sin, but also with the myth according to which Isaac Newton discovered gravity. Indeed, the artist in these works wants to experiment with new possibilities, letting his mind give life to unexplored worlds, where the meaning of things is completely overturned. In "Anticipation", we see a large armchair in the middle of the desert, on which rests an enormous pocket watch.
Alan Brown
Around it are three red apples placed at different distances, on the right a tree and in the background a grandfather clock. In the other work, entitled "Tree of Knowledge", the vegetation changes, and we find ourselves on an apparently endless, well-tended lawn. In the centre, there is a tree enclosed within a fence and a large golden key lying on the ground. In the background, an interesting scene opens up before our eyes: a naked man is pushing an enormous green apple, while a companion sits on the ground in front of it, preventing him from moving it. The altered dimensions, the motionless time, the logic of things, everything is deliberately distorted in an attempt to challenge the limits of reality. Alan Brown acts as an intermediary between the world of ideas and the real world, allowing us to see beyond the horizon.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Alan Brown
Anticipation
Alan Brown
Tree of Knowledge
Alex Mangano “Truth is like fire; to tell the truth means to glow and burn.” (Gustav Klimt)
The artworks by Alex Mangano, a contemporary Italian artist, are weaves of sinuous lines that develop on the canvas, winding in tortuous spirals, telling the story of an emotional universe. Long ramifications speak of a luxuriant, almost invasive nature, where flowers and plants grow incessantly, clinging to every surface. Artworks that tell of a deep inner journey, towards an analysis of feelings and emotions caused by the direct relationship with the surrounding world. The artist's sensations thus become the main source of inspiration, taking on distinct forms each time, finally identifiable to the eye. In "Il Dono", a silhouette with human features is placed in the centre of the painting, dominated by the presence of a large bird whose features are reminiscent of the Arabian Phoenix, also known as the Firebird. A strong symbolism accompanies Alex Mangano's paintings, in order to narrate the universe in its most intimate spirituality. Indeed, the phoenix is a mythological bird that is part of the traditions of various cultures, considered to be able to control fire and to be reborn from its own ashes after death. In this work, we find another interesting element: on the forehead of the silhouette, at the third eye, we see a very ancient symbol, the triskelion - or triskelis - known for its three intertwined spirals joined together at a central point. For the Celtic Druids it represents the forces of the universe, the three elements of water, earth and air, which spread the energy of the fire from the centre. "Il Dono" thus takes on an ancestral meaning, telling the concept of death and rebirth of the spirit, here closely connected to nature and its energy. The delicacy of the colour blending with the subtle floral patterns, expresses an inner evolution, a deep connection that the artist has managed to establish with an otherworldly universe.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Alex Mangano
Il Dono
Alexandra Hediger
For the “Sacrifice” exhibition at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Alexandra Hediger exposes “Das Chaos 19”. By using the technique of collage, the artist undoubtedly recalls the artistic avant-garde of the early 20th century, such as Cubism, Futurism or Dadaism. A common element between Alexandra and these past international movements lies in her desire to create a new way of looking at photographs or images in general: from poetic representations of reality up to tools which carefully modified and put together to create a new work of art that never ceases to amaze! The use of “readymade” and the various references to the great artists of art history have served to Alexandra as a bridge connecting the past, the present and the future. In fact, there are several innovative aspects into her collage: in addition to personal photos, one can notice a link to other works of the artist herself, such as drawings, geometric compositions as well as handwritten thoughts. Everything depicts her artistic and aesthetic conception, her feelings and moods: from the title the observer can feel her emotions for this “Chaos 19”, probably a clear reference to the current global situation. During the work and recreational process, she proceeds layer after layer, as if the pieces of paper were independently starting their journey towards a well-defined meaning. The ultimate goal is to tell a story with words, images, shapes and colors: her collage contains many tales, all of which are to be described to the viewer as if it was an adventure story. Each glance reveals something new, thus creating a new narrative. The artist invites the viewer to think of this collage as a “space” that leads to one’s soul, to the wonder of the invisible.
“With my images I want to encourage people to see the world as a whole and us humans as individuals who combine different aspects into a whole. The goal is to try to see the good in it, accept it, and move on.” (Alexandra Hediger)
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Alexandra Hediger
Das Chaos 19
Anastasiya Zaitseva "Color is my daily obsession, joy and torment. I paint what I see, I paint what I remember and I paint what I feel." (Claude Monet)
With the birth of French Impressionism at the beginning of the 20th century, the use of external light for the reproduction of works of art begins to be more and more important. The fashion of painting en plein air becomes more and more widespread and great painters like Claude Monet become true pioneers of the artistic movement. Monet himself is defined in the times to come and up to the present day "The painter of light". His study of him leads him to analyze subjects at different times of the day, always painting them the same, but with completely different colors based on the light and the season. We can clearly see this in his reproductions of Rouen Cathedral in which we have different representations of the building all represented with different colors and shades based on the time of day that the painter chose to paint.
Anastasiya Zaitseva
The contemporary artist Anastasiya Zaitseva demonstrates the same skill by presenting her works complementary to her in the choice of subjects and opposites in the use of colors with which she represents them. The subject of a woman accomplished and one with the colors around her hides the dark side of her in which she herself brings her sacrifice. Alongside the achievement of the star that represents the goal achieved only through the suffering of the journey. Already present in our set-up, Zaitseva once again gives us two complementary works in which she manages to convey the total sacrifice of the artist who gives art itself her talent.
Art Curator Letizia Perrieri
Anastasiya Zaitseva
One on one (Day)
Anastasiya Zaitseva
One on one (Night)
Anastasiya Zaitseva
Devastation (Night)
Anastasiya Zaitseva
Devastation (Night)
Anastassia Skopp
The smell of painting has accompanied the life of Anastassia Skopp since she was a little girl. She, in fact, aware of her passion for art, began her artistic studies very early and she continued them with constancy and determination. Thanks to them and her innate talent, she is now a contemporary artist whose works can be found in Europe, America and Canada. The canvases of the artist of Russian origin, currently residing in Germany, are in continuous experimentation, but there is in them, however, a recurrent element: flowers. "Flowers are like messengers of another world. Like a bridge between the dimension of physical forms and the formless." Eckhart Tolle says. Anastassia Skopp’s painting is therefore a strongly symbolist painting and it aims to explore and convey in images the inner silence and our thoughts. Her artworks are extremely sophisticated and give the best of themselves through the colors, bright and cheerful, chosen by the artist; they are juxtaposed on the canvas with wisdom thus managing to show all their expressive strength. The three works under examination are part of the series "Breath Of Now", inspired by the book "New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle. In them Anastassia Skopp uses all possible ways to apply painting on canvas and the result is an “artistic patchwork”. She "sews" different colors and different textures, and gives life to breathtaking artworks which the artist describes as "luminous abstraction, full of energy and silence at the same time". Through shapes, lines and colors, Anastassia Skopp shows the complex of feelings that agitates within her and within each of us. Our eyes dance bewitched in front of her works, never satisfied to discover new details of these amazing painting that act psychologically on our unconscious.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Anastassia Skopp
Be
Anastassia Skopp
Happy morning
Anastassia Skopp
Wonderful dream
Angel Nebel “The purpose of art is not to represent the appearance of things, but their inner meaning.” (Aristotle)
For the international exhibition “Sacrifice” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Angel Nebel exposes the work “Doll Parts”, bringing out the best to represent the contrast between the ethereal figure of the young woman depicted and the surrounding environment. Like a dancer in a music box, the artist emphasizes the beauty and grace of the character, placing her representation in a specific space: a disused urban dwelling is the perfect place for the young girl to emerge, as light as a feather, while a beam of light shines down on her. With her dancing pose, she almost seems to take flight as if she was an angel! The girl appears to be placed exactly in the center of the work, developing the scene vertically, in a way that the viewer can fully admire her silhouette. Everything overwhelms the viewer, both perceptually and sensorially. Through her photography, Angel triggers deep emotions, enveloping both the protagonist and the observer in an intimate, mystical and dreamy atmosphere. The juxtaposition between image and language is strong, and the artist skillfully manages to emphasize both aspects in order to best express reality. In this atmosphere of purity concealed by mystery, the observer's gaze is invited to dive into the work, to simulate the girl's posture and follow her harmonious dance, accentuated by her delicate lines.
“Learning to walk sets you free. Learning to dance gives you the greatest freedom of all: to express with your whole being who you are.” (Melissa Hayden)
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Angel Nebel
Doll Parts
Angela Federici “My art is about feelings, finding harmony through the contrasts of colors and their drafting. Making abstract paintings it is interesting to see how different colors and shapes can stimulate viewers to different reactions. An awakening for the soul” Angela Federici
Born in Assisi, she has always had a remarkable skill in china drawings and painting. With acrylics, set forward to take dentistry career. During the lockdown the passion for art is released. Presenting an abstract painting, transmitting emotions of harmony through the contrast of bright colors, reliefs and symbolism.. She defines his works as baby sensations. She presents Altalena at the international exhibition "SACRIFICE", hosted by the international art gallery M.A.D.S. and she says "My sacrifice. Getting rid of the crosses that life puts us in front of our path every day, our desires for our being. An invitation to sacrifice ourselves for something greater. But if it is true sacrifice, it is not. Climb an arid mountain to get to the greenest leaves, full of life and climb that swing that takes us higher and higher”. The symbolic representation of the artist is very particular. Altalena is a work that represents sacrifice and the will to feel lighter at the same time. To fly higher and higher, reach new heights, new goals. All this involves great commitment, as the artist says, is comparable to climbing a mountain. The representation is almost metaphysical, we find some colors of De Chirico's palette. The lines are strong like the message the artist wants to leave to us.
Art Curator Mara Cipriano
Angela Federici
Altalena
Angela Thouless "I don't think art is propaganda; instead it should be something that frees the soul, fosters the imagination and encourages people to move forward." (Keith Haring)
Throughout history, the culture of populations has always influenced the artistic currents and the genes that developed them have contributed to fueling cultural phenomena and contemporary fashions. In this work the artist Angela Thouless shows us her genius by bringing to the artist's attention an ancient tradition rich in profound meaning and Sacrifice. In fact, the tsantsa represented in these works come from an ancient custom of the South American and Melanesian peoples. Ancient peoples firmly believed in a vengeful deity who could be summoned at the moment of death due to enemy warriors. To prevent this from happening, a ritual was carried out that changed the heads of the defeated warriors into tsantsa so that the spirit could not take revenge and the deity would not act.
Angela Thouless
The greatest sacrifice of the warriors was to lose their life in battle with pride and in respect of this sacrifice entire generations have carried on traditions and customs. The genius of Thouless was to bring this sacrifice back to modern art using an absolutely contemporary style and close to everyone's customs. In perfect urban art style, the representation of tsantsa in these works are exaggerated and stereotyped, but their symbolic value remains unchanged over time and engraved in history. Once again Angela Thoules manages to convey the concept of the entire performance making it coincide perfectly with her unique and inimitable style making it hers.
Art Curator Letizia Perrieri
Angela Thouless
Shrunken Head 1
Angela Thouless
Shrunken Head 2
Anita Aardalsbakke
Moving away from abstractionism, the artistic current with which she is used to paint, the Norwegian artist Anita Aardalsbakke has ventured this time in figuration. The subject she chooses is a small sparrow and before even picking up the brushes, she has thought to realize two works that represent it in two opposites, but equally meaningful, moments. For this reason, they can be considered as a diptych and however, at the same time, they remain two independent works in all respects. Each one is perfectly complete even without the other. "Small but strong" is inspired by a black and white photograph recently seen by the artist in which a sparrow bent its head in a pouring rain. Carrying it on canvas, the artist wants to represent those difficult moments that everyone must face at least once in their life, but she also wants to make it clear that it is not necessary to be big to be strong. Each of us has more strength than we can imagine. In "Small and free" Anita Aardalsbakke wants to show, instead, the other side of the medal.
Anita Aardalsbakke
The life of each of us is also crossed by moments of joy and freedom, and she represents them through a sparrow that flies free in the sky. The two works are thus the synthesis of life: joy and pain, ups and downs, serenity and adversity, pleasure and sacrifice. The decision to approach figurative painting is certainly interesting because it highlights the new artistic horizons that the Norwegian artist has decided to explore. In these works, mainly made with various shades of blue and yellow/brown, we can observe lines and drips that at first glance convey a feeling of great chaos and disorientation. The brushstrokes are quick and thin, and are placed on the canvas with great emphasis and vehemence. It seems as if the artist pours all her soul on the canvas, so much is the fury transmitted. Thanks to Anita Aardalsbakke’s skill, our senses can thus perceive the wind blow and the rain fall like we are there, with the little sparrow.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Anita Aardalsbakke
Small and free
Anita Aardalsbakke
Small but strong
Anjana Varghese “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science" (Albert Einstein, The World As I See It)
Anjana Varghese is an Indian artist and doctor who lives in the UK. She believes that the art has a liberating power, beyond any description. A power that allows a person to travel to a different world, unknown and far from the chaos of everyday life. Anjana Varghese loves to travel, to meet the new, the unfamiliar and uncertain as it happens when she paints. The artist always takes pictures of the places she visits. The photographs will then be a source of inspiration for her paintings, along with human brain, philosophy, nature, landscapes and sunsets. The goal of her artistic sacrifice is to express the strong emotions felt at the moment of the shot and of the journey, as well as to make the observer feel the same emotions and sensations, giving him a sense of satisfaction, energy and completeness. Those who watch one of Anjana Varghese’s works can perceive the miracle of the transformation of the blank white canvas, in a wonderful place made of brushstrokes, color and harmony of senses, lines and tones. “For you, I offer myself. I would give my life to you. My soul, my time, my energy all I offer to you. In return I expect nothing as sacrifice is always one sided.” For Sacrifice exhibition Anjana Varghese exhibits an oil painting on canvas titled The Ultimate Sacrifice. The work invites us to reflect on the sacrifices we make during our life. On the reasons behind our every choice, any help even small and disinterested towards our neighbour. The work ask ourselves to search for the reasons behind our actions and behind our being. Behind what we give to others, despite our time and the resources we possess to use it are limited during the course of our lives. Will we be happy and fulfilled for each of our choices and sacrifices, or will we feel some shortcomings?
Art Curator Sofia Ronzi
Anjana Varghese
The Ultimate Sacrifice
Anna Fairs “To photograph: it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.” (Henri Cartier-Bresson)
A spiral made by intense and bright colours winds around itself on a totally black background. It is called “Intuition” and it is a digital work by British artist Anna Fairs created with the intentional camera movement effect. This photographic mode offers the artist the possibility to create a different and romanticised version of a geometric figure such as a spiral. “I love colour and I’m drawn to using creative photographic and digital techniques as they enable me to explore the human condition in ways representational photography doesn’t allow.”, Fairs explains. Creative photography allows the artist to discover new shapes, colours and distortions that stimulate the viewers’ imagery and create a connection with them.“I’m drawn to spirals”, the artist says about the work “Intuition”. Fairs has a passion for art since an early age; however, at a certain point of her life, she had to stand in front of a crossroad: reasoning or passion. She chose her passion by sacrificing a successful career in another field. By doing so, she left a part of her identity to dive into the unknown, to discover a new part of herself; without really knowing who she was becoming, she took this journey of self-discovery led by her intuition and listening to her inner wisdom. Intuition has drawn Fairs to spirals. The spiral is a geometric figure that is found in all ancient cultures; its shape reveals and infinitely prolongs the circular movement that comes out of the point of origin. As such, the spiral is never-ending, acts as an intermediary between opposites of becoming, symbolises development and cyclical continuity. The spiral is a representation of the energy movement, a symbol of rebirth and growth, evolution and awareness. It recalls the flow of events in a continuous motion of creation and destruction, the same process that Fairs went through: deconstructing her life to build a new one. In this way, Anna Fairs uses the spiral to talk about her life, it is her spiral movements communicated to you with the hope to touch, soothe, uplift or inspire your soul.
Art Curator Martina Lattuca
Anna Fairs
Intuition
Anna Romero
Spanish artist Anna Romero participates in the exhibition "Sacrifice" held by M.A.D.S. art gallery, presenting two works inspired by the subject. The first work analyzed here is entitled "Sacrifice" and expresses, through the representation of a woman, the act of sacrifice. The background is typical of Anna’s style, ripples of color come out of the canvas and the colors are light and soft. Matter also invades the subject, placed in the center in a twisted position, as if she was floating in the air, as if she was rising towards paradise. The woman appears at times like an angel, like a soul that has detached itself from the body. The raw element that becomes the focus of the composition, giving pathos to the scene, is the blood that flows from the neck of the woman, following the vertical course of the scene, therefore going against the gravity that would bring it upwards. These elements give drama to the artwork and bring viewers to reflection.
Anna Romero
The second work, entitled "Haunting Stillness" is a tribute to the Italian photographer Giovanni Gastel, recently deceased, who made in his incredible career, a series of photographs with models-angel. The combination of Gastel’s subjects and Anna Romero’s style produce an elegant and refined effect that at the same time causes the viewer a sense of melancholy. The theme of sacrifice is linked to the female figure, accentuating the sacrifices that women are sometimes forced to make as women but also the innate sacrifices that a woman makes as a mother.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Anna Romero
Haunting Stillness
Anna Romero
Sacrifice
Aranka Szekély
Our dear artist Aranka Szekely decides to participate in the last International Exhibition of 2021 organized by the M.A.D.S. project and entitled "Sacrifice", addressing the issue from a personal and particularly delicate point of view. With a selection of three figurative works, unified in the “Feminity” series, Aranka gets naked once again, showing us the female figure as the undisputed protagonist of the sacrifice itself. The characters are angelic figures, sweet and gentle who in this specific case exhibit their various artistic talents. While they dance and while they play music, they always keep the eyes closed, almost as if the painter intends to emphasize their purity, their confidence in the future and in destiny. In response to all this, the colors used in the series of works are always bright, positive and rich, framed by a sensation of movement obtained from the now refined technical skills. The artist states that "Women are humans who instinctually are devoted to do sacrifices. From the moment when they are responsible for someone or just for themselves, they sacrifice a piece either from their bodies or from their souls and their mind. (…) Being an artist woman needs even more sacrifices. It needs to be hardworking, perseverant, ambitious and a little-bit selfish." With this speech, Aranka Szekély seems to really want to turn to women themselves, making a real appeal to the female public not to give up and insist on their own realization.
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Aranka Szekély
Passion of the music
Aranka Szekély
Passionate tango
Aranka Szekély
Purple Ballerina
ArtsyBaddy
<<How to create something beautiful and interesting?>> with this sentence, that reminds to the exhibition’s concept, the artist ArtsyBaddy introduces his works. “The Galactic Eye” and “precious as Gold” are two big paintings, both representing a big eye full of deep meanings and symbols. The first one, realized together with his friend Graham, is the result of a couple’s work; reasoned and unique in its style because it is the final product of two different individuals who tell the same story. “The Galactic Eye” is a colourful painting, dynamic and full of precious elements that highlight the meaning of the subject. The background, representing the Galaxy, perfectly underline and exalts the central and big eye expressing hot passions and emotions. The pupil, which is not black as it usually is, seems to be opened as to let the viewer to enter the painting and to start a journey into this magical and sentimental world.
ArtsyBaddy
The profundity that characterises this painting, together with the attention gave to the details composing the eye, is substantial for the meaning of the whole scene: <<the unification of two different people with different thoughts; the beautification in diversity>>. More sentimental and expressive is “Precious as Gold”. This scene is the <<representation of the purest and deepest emotions of human beings, where happiness and sadness merged at the same time, to express the purest form of love>>. The painting, well defined in its particulars and details represents an almost vivid eye, through which it is possible to capture the importance of its meanings by looking at it. The game of reflections and the yellow spots, exalt its symbolic essence, helping in giving to the tear its importance. These two paintings, similar in their subjects but different in their performs are an invitation to look preserve the emotions and to protect them.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
ArtsyBaddy
The Galactic Eye
ArtsyBaddy
Precious as Gold
Ashley Wright “If you could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint." (Edward Hopper)
Ashley Wrirgt is an artist from California. Her artistic Sacrifice comes from the conception of painting as a means to free her own wounded interiority. As a person who fights with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Ashley uses textures, brushstrokes, and color palettes as elements of a process to bring to light the places that she herself has reworked in time and in her mind, to escape the traumatic reality that she was living since her childhood. In her canvases the observer can meet the places of Wright’s mind. Places with vibrant light, where the landscape has a material and tangible component, as well as an immaterial and elusive allure, like a dream, thanks to the body and tones of color. The places painted by Wright are transpositions inspired by what a person with who struggles with derealization, dissociation, and maladaptive
Ashley Wright
daydreamingcan live, see and feel with his whole body. The decision to make a state of suffering a tangible painting is linked to Ashley Wright’s desire to raise awareness about such mental illnesses. The artist also wishes to accompany the visitor into her world, where suffering is often transformed into beauty, where, despite the pain, nostalgia and lack of comfort, there may be a glow of light and a sense of love and familiarity. For Sacrifice, the second exhibition in which she takes part at M.A.D.S. Art gallery, she exhibits two acrylic on canvas, Find Deliverance in You and The Last Climb. As all her works, Ashley Wright’s dreamscapes are inspired from the Californian landscapes and sci-fi. They seem to ask the viewer to enter the artist’s sacrifice with all his senses, to touch them, to hear them, to smell them and not just to see them.
Art Curator Sofia Ronzi
Ashley Wright
Find Deliverance in You
Ashley Wright
The Last Climb
Astrid Hutengs
Illustrator and visual artist Astrid Hutengs decided to dedicate her life and resources to the practice of her art. She finds inspiration through music and poetry, her works are mirroring women’s deepest and unrevealed feelings. From the purest of them which is love. Romantic and fulfilling, unraveling and poignant, complicated and simple, adored and feared, love. Obsessed with love is the title of Hutengs’ series of watercolor paintings. The subjects have the appearance of fashion models and at the same time they seem like frames from some movie of a not very distant time, perhaps a recent postwar period, the aesthetically context seems to be very old time glamour. Scenes of a love, lived together, spontaneous and gay, an awareness of the feeling, so simply visually disposed.
Astrid Hutengs
Lonely moments in love are usually mentioned in a very struggling way but here we see a flash of what is just reality. The use of the pen as an instrument that determines the sign, recognizes in the stroke a sort of scratch engraved in the fluidity of feelings. The splashes of color consider a point of view internal to the subject and therefore deprive the viewer of a linear reading, the magic of one's feeling, the privacy of emotion of which in any case the secret is known. Colors as a suggestion of moods mark the person's golden territory. A perpetual light, at the same time changing. Love as the driving force of life. An obsession translated into aesthetics, this is what he deals with Astrid Hutengs in this series.
"Love is the spirit that motivates the artist’s journey." (Eric Maisel)
Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Astrid Hutengs
Obsessed with love I
Astrid Hutengs
Obsessed with love II
Astrid Hutengs
Obsessed with love III
Astrid Hutengs
Obsessed with love IV
Asuka Ripple
Asuka Ripple chose to use a brushless technique using spray can paint and spatulas, boards and all the kinds of instruments that come to hand. This technique allows them to produce amazingly bright paintings characterized by these very intense rays of light that immediately give the image an intense spiritual allure. Geometrical forms are particularly necessary in these works, they speak directly to the spirit, circles are the circles of life, straight, immersive, true. Elliptical shapes and intersections of lines like a mandala of supernatural light appeared to illuminate and nourish the arid and decaying soil. The blood acts as the only living element in the wasteland of the just happened sacrifice. Hands that collect the last hopes and bring them into the dark. Branches that frame a divine healing thought coming from death. Life sap floating in outer space.
Asuka Ripple
Ripple's works of art are intense and contemptuous of a shared positivist aesthetic but they convey a message of healing and rebirth. Observing the artist's work, one comes to visual memory The Triumph of Death, a terrifying painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The theme is that of the victory of death over humanity. In fact, the painting depicts a devastated and apocalyptic landscape. Everywhere tragic and desolating scenes are observed. If with Bruegel the triumph of death seems to put an end to human civilization and the world of things, the pieces of Asuka Ripple instead tell a human triumph of death, an armageddon, where the sacrifice is made conscious and full of hope.
"Nothing is born from diamonds, flowers are born from manure." (Fabrizio De Andrè)
Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Asuka Ripple
Skull flower
Asuka Ripple
Healing light
AT
Korean artist and Interior designer AT produces amazing paintings that come from a personal reflection of his life experience. As a foreigner, the period of time she spent in the United States working in an artistic company started a personal deep thinking on racism and how people live on envy and the constant gaze on the other that consequently gets back on the self. Face to face, eye to eye, the look, that look. AT inserts sensitive and often censored themes into his art. In an age where everyone can be and claim to be what they want, one still cannot be different and surely cannot be loud and feel safe from judgment and pity. Magical wooden puppets with a sad facial expression, wrapped in a golden cloud of coherent beauty. The passage of color and light in the artist's works imposes the dictates for a correct vision and interpretation of the work. Where does your gaze pose, the subjects of these paintings seem to wonder. The intrusiveness of another's glance and superficial analysis translates into mirroring these miserable emotions. The markedly geometric line, the angular shape of the contours, imposes an exhaustive point of view on the part of the artist. Please don’t look at me they seem to say. While from the eye a silent tear, like the holy night, awaiting the arrival of the redeemer is falling.
“Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.” (Gertrude Stein)
Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
AT
Stranger
AT
Confused
AT
She in the greenhouse
Aurora Vernazzani
The intense productive activity of Aurora Vernazzani, born in Italy and living in Marseille, France, is due to her being a painteress, a video-maker and anthropologist. In all these fields of interest with a strong focus on archival images, Aurora's works intend to shed light on our fragile lives and on the strength of memory and recalling. At "SACRIFICE" exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Aurora presents two paintings that are part of a larger project called "Genealogica", a mixed media installation. "Genealogica" is about family, ancestors and how we perpetrate histories that took place way before us, especially inviting the viewers to feel the sacrifices of women in the name of profite and tradition. The first painting, "The bride", portrays a young woman depicted half-length, dressed in a silver dress that merges with a curtain to her left. The woman, on a day of celebration as the title suggests, does not seem particularly happy and enthusiastic, a state of mind that can be found in her muffled face, from which only the edges and the faded colors that constitute it emerge, making her expression flattened, empty.
Aurora Vernazzani
With this expedient, the identity of the young woman remains indefinite, thus representing not only that woman but also all the women before her, many of whom are often forced into arranged marriages and therefore to abuses and difficult situations: the viewer is therefore able to identify with her, immersing himself in her state of mind and see all the women who have had to compromise in the name of tradition. Even in "Working day" Aurora's intent is the same: to bring light to a particular moment in the life of a woman, namely that of work on embroidery. Her features are once again rarefied, indefinite, allowing us to imagine her identity and physiognomy. The element that stands out most in our eyes is the white thread of the fabric that she embroider that diagonally cuts her face: a ray of light that overshadows the figure of the woman concentrated on her work even more.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Aurora Vernazzani
The bride
Aurora Vernazzani
Working day
Bar Reddin “Fire has always been used as a demonstration of truth, because it is light, chasing away the darkness that conceals all essence.” (Leonardo da Vinci)
Bar Reddin exposes “Fire This Time” for the international exhibition “Sacrifice” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery. Through this work, the artist's chromatic and aesthetic research has directed him towards a skillful use of different nuances. Moreover, drawing inspiration from what surrounds him, succeeding in extracting certain details that manage to strike both him and the observer on a perceptive and sensorial level. Every gift that nature offers brings positive energy, lifeblood that releases light into the surrounding atmosphere: in all this Bar immerses himself in the freshness and vivacity of his palette, highlighting the rendering of the luminous and expressive effects depicted. In this naturalistic and abstract canvas, fire is the natural relationship agent between the microcosm and the macrocosm. This is a dynamic element, as it generates transformations: in particular, it tends to purify all things, raising them to a greater perfection. This theme is so strong that it also recalls an otherworldly dimension, where everything is realized through an interweaving of colors and signs, emphasizing the combination between the flames’ movement and the canvas’ texture. One can see the interest in creating a strong and clear image, encouraging both himself and the observers to immerse themselves in that harmonious dynamism from which optimism and joy come from. An enveloping luminosity from the inside to the outside of the painting, combined with a rich and complete chromatism that allows even the shadowy areas of the pictorial surface to be read, producing an evocative atmosphere. By playing on the visual superimposition of colors and gradations, as well as on lines, Bar Reddin creates and enhances a three-dimensional optical effect.
“Art is the creation of an evocative magic that embraces both object and subject.” (Charles Baudelaire)
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Bar Reddin
Fire This Time
Barbara Bertino
German artist Barbara Bertino works with collage technique and found in this medium her best way to express herself. She is very proud and attached to her safe environment that allowed her to develop a clear sense of beauty and consciousness of herself as an artist and as a woman. An almost total Black image, a color that stands out forever, black is incredibly powerful. It is the color of magic and sophistication. A black hole is a place where lost things go. Mysterious and mesmerizing, there are nine known shades of pure black and an endless list of blacks mixed with other colors to give it a little vibe as side effects, nine said shades of what is even called a non-color itself. A reflecting engine, which works in extended and perpetual times, a living nucleus that generates itself of absorbed light. This black part of Bertino's work is very strong, it absorbs and catalyzes the gaze and thought, for an ideal of universal beauty. Elegant and charming, this numbered work of art refers to the luminous transparencies of blown glass. A filter through which it is possible to see and show at the same time, to observe and be observed, and perhaps shown. A three-dimensional feeling that accepts the spectator's interpretation without rejecting or fighting it. The artist produces in his aesthetic research an event through which an image and a body come to life. An emotive and metaphysical communion with his viewers is welcomed and searched, according to the great Mark Rothko, whose abstract paintings are some of the most iconic artworks of the 20th century, black and orange is just exquisite.
“Silence is so accurate.” (Mark Rothko)
Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Barbara Bertino
Black Moon
Beatrice Becker
Beatrice Becker is a German self-taught artist, for the first time guest of an exhibition organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, on the occasion of "SACRIFICE" you exhibit a work created with avant-garde techniques, such as Fluid Painting. "Female Energy" is a work that tells the awakening of female energy, as the artist explains, this awakening appears, from the work, as an explosion. The reading should take place starting from the lower right corner and then culminate in the rest of the painting. Feminine energy has, for centuries, been relegated to the canons dictated by a patriarchal society that wanted women unable to realize their potential in any other sector, outside the home. "Feminine energy" tells us how the structure and the rules are progressively failing, creating the conditions to ensure that the feminine energy spreads and is no longer controlled. The artist powerfully expresses this message through her artistic work, conveying a feeling of pride and power that unites women who have been sacrificed until now and are now free to express themselves. “ For a long time, control & power in society led to sacrifice. But society is changing and the female energy is being reawakened and can slowly unfold and the traces of sacrifice are fading.” Becker explains, sharing her own emotions and feelings. The colors and their movement involve the observer to the point of feeling identified with this vortex of possibility and freedom that the artist expresses, everything becomes uncontrollable and impossible to keep locked up.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Beatrice Becker
Female Energy
Bekim Ala "The others saw what is already there and wondered why. I saw what it could be and wondered why not." (Pablo Picasso)
Abstract bodies and an almost total absence of color is what characterizes the
work of Bekim Ala, an artist capable of inducing amazement and curiosity in the
eyes of the observer and of leading him to an analysis of his inner self through the resurfacing of memories. A few simple lines, connected to each other, to form faces, mysterious figures that turn to those who are observing them, leading an unexpected game of glances. The artistic world of Bekim Ala does not delegate to color as to the numerous abstract forms the task of concretizing his inner self on the canvas, populated by figures and symbols in reference to his own experience and life.
Art Curator Federica Schneck
Bekim Ala
Untitled
Bill Santelli
Bill Santelli has always been an artist, art has chosen him from birth. A full time practice in the studio allows him to concentrate his forces and energies within himself which then become internal to the work he produces. Interested in 20th century abstractionism, Santelli uses bold colors and shapes to express his intuition derived from an attractive magnetic charge that we will call inspiration. The skilful use of acrylic color considers areas of very fine chromatic overlap, almost from fabric or marble textures. Two very different elements, perhaps opposite, whose vibrations coexist in the artist's work. Element of particular compositional interest is the choice of white as a void, images and shapes seem to carve out their own space, becoming aware of it through the absence of the same.
Bill Santelli
Lights going on and off by Martin Creed, I am there, I am no longer there, in any case I exist. Santelli's work dialogues with self-discovery and the unveiling of the improper capacity to contain emotion. Sentiments and reflections are not meant to stay quiet and hidden by an overlap of containing structures. The bold and full colors take their place in the overall view. The viewer's eye is lulled by the slow movement of the dance of forms. In a state of visual trance, emotional considerations and spontaneously shared emerge from the chorus of the suburbs’ sensitive restrictions.
“Art is not about beauty, art is an expression.” (Vikram Roy)
Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Bill Santelli
The Hour is a Big Eye
Bill Santelli
Opening for a Soul
Bill Santelli
The Spirit Sustains the Stone
Bill Santelli
Threshold of a Dream
Bill Santelli
Memory Calls the Circles for its' Name
Bill Santelli
Threshold Crossing
Bindia Hallauer
Globetrotter and multidisciplinary artist, Bindia Hallauer let herself follow her instinct and enthusiasm through her art. Her work focuses on anthroposophical topics and research, she investigates human resilience, what drives us into this world and what makes us stop and stand for. Her painting starts on a physical material such as wood and it continues on a digital path, layer after layer it goes and develops its own presence and emotional response to human narcissism. In front of Hallauer’s pictures the viewer can almost feel the scratches and cuts and wounds, the earthy colours and composition can immediately give a complex circular mix of feelings.
Bindia Hallauer
The earth is suffering, it is sacrificing for human’s sake, injuries, hacks, a whole map of scars can be seen on this planet, on the biggest mother, everyone's womb and home. There it still is, standing steel, not giving up, the earth’s sacrifice is unbearable to assist, but yet it is caused. There is a feeling of Lacaux caves that can be found in the artist’s works, Unesco world heritage list Upper Paleolithic parietal wall paintings. A complex multiplicity of mineral pigments, the colours black, yellow and red, the contemporary fauna, it all started a story, the art history. Here we see a digital version of this complexity and characterisation, that may point at the end of a natural era or the incredible strength of the actual ground we are all on. Art can be the resilient's relief and power to keep on.
“We have learned nothing in twelve thousand years. -Upon exiting the Lascaux cave, France-” (Pablo Picasso) Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Bindia Hallauer
Kintsukuroi
Bindia Hallauer
Denudation
BogdiFy "The colours are made to vibrate and sound in multiple dimensions" BogdiFy
Iva Bogdanova Vandergheynst, known artistically as 'BogdiFy', at the international contemporary art exhibition SACRIFICE, hosted by the international art gallery M.A.D.S shows her Affection and Willow moonlit. She’s at her third exhibition with M.A.D.S. art gallery and the public love her masterpieces and starts to be fond of the artist. All the follower of the gallery wanted to discover her new two pieces. Concerning Affection she says “This painting portrays a mother and a daughter in an endless embrace. The vibrant colour use supports the emotion that the painting conveys. The réplétive details used for depicting both figures show the intense and unconditional love and affection from a parent that can make the children emotionally happy. A freshness and a beauty is shown using the flowers that come in a rain like manner”. Her works are a caress for the spectators. What distinguishes the artist is also her marked elegance. Elegance of the soul becomes elegance on the canvas. Just like in the painting, the artist embraces the viewer, cradles him, pampers him. All this in the harmonic frame of her lines we know very well. The feature that distinguishes BogdiFy from the others is the use of color and shapes. Vibrations of colors and geometric lines create a parallel universe belonging exclusively to the worldview of the artist. She seems to be the reincarnation, of the new millennium, of the master Klimt.
BogdiFy BogdiFy’s artworks are mainly abstract and painted on canvas using mixed-media. Her paintings are vibrant and energetic, meticulously crafted with repeating patterns, based on specific choice of colour contrasts, and detailed thought. She uses colour contrast and richness of details to transform the invisible into visible. She does it, for example, in Willow moonlit. She says “The dropping branches of the Willow are frequently seen brushing the grass next to the river, or gently touching the water in the river. Often planted beside creeks, rivets and ponds, the weeping Willow is happier when planted in a moist location where it’s roots can easily find water. It resists the strongest water current while remaining gracefully at its place”. This work is an extraordinary example of the artist's skill. The magical and transcendental atmosphere is given by the use of pictorial tools and the choice of colors. Once again gold becomes the protagonist. Inspired by geometry, curved spaces and infinity concepts, "the colours are made to vibrate and sound in multiple dimensions" like she says. Shapes and colors of these two works, chosen by the artist for her third exhibition at M.A.D.S., create an otherworldly metaphysical scenario. The shapes capture the attention of the beholder and make us travel in thoughts, a journey into our mind through the representation of the artist's mind. This embodies the spirit and purpose of the art itself.
"I transform the invisible into visible. Inspired by geometry, curved spaces and infinity concepts" BogdiFy
Art Curator Mara Cipriano
BogdiFy
Affection
BogdiFy
Willow moonlit
Bowyi “By sacrificing myself to come up with ideas, hiding and showing my paintings even though I can convey them myself, I convey my intentions to people and show what I think and express to them.” (Bowyi)
Bowyi's works of art are fully part of what can be defined as Conceptual Art, an artistic current in which the work of art is not disconnected from the context in which it is born, indeed, in some cases it is the same context which is necessary to take into consideration to give meaning to the work. The art object is not considered a decorative object, but has a deeper intrinsic meaning, it tells a vision, an idea, a theory. Black, the absence of color or the combination of all colors, is a totem of the artist's works of art who masterfully expresses herself thanks to it. The works "FADE", "FADE_" and "FADE—" recall Kazimir Malevič's "Black Square", but in Bowyi's works this black is gradually fading, therefore it does not appear to be so defined, as in the work by Malevič. From a theoretical point of view, this could be considered a real critique of art recognized up to now, a new era for artists and their expression. The three rectangles represented seem to be pulled by a thread, as if they were inside the water they leave a trail of color behind them, the defined black mass, therefore, is melting. The essence of the artist could be hidden inside the rectangle, his deepest self, hitherto hidden to support the art market and what the public wants to see.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Bowyi
FADE_
Bowyi
FADE--
Bowyi
FADE
Brenda Rodriguez “Painting is my favourite language, strongly influenced by who I am, my experiences, my travels, my relationship with others and with myself. Every artwork is a story that does not need words to be told, a journey without a set destination, a trip of my soul without a predefined outcome” Brenda Rodriguez
"We experience situations in life that leave their mark inside us. Intense situations that surround and trap us, experiences that overwhelm and that plunge us into chaos. They seem often impossible to escape from. Turbulent situations comparable to a strong storm. This painting results from it. But after the chaos everything remains static. We observe the aftermath from far away, now with different eyes, we have left it behind but something inside us has changed forever." These are the words of Brenda about her work at the international exhibition "SACRIFICE", hosted by the international art gallery M.A.D.S. A bright color palette that develops in a vortex on a neutral support. Bright colors that represent strong moods that change the personality forever. The artist succeeds in the arduous task of representing the motions of the soul. What life situations leave us in forever. A painting that is a session of psychoanalysis. Where the artist is our psychotherapist and tries to give shape and color to the visitor's discomfort, to his soul movements. Brenda RodriguezCorsi is an artist and designer currently based in Frankfurt, Germany. She studied arts and Interior Design in her hometown Lima, Peru and she dedicated herself for many years to the design and production of handmade rugs using different kind of natural fibers. By a twist of destiny, she moved to Germany in 2008 and worked for many years in the commercial aviation industry. However, her creative vocation was always present in her life. When relegated at home by Covid-19 she made the decision to have a new start and fully immerse herself into what really fascinates her and makes her happy. About art she says "Painting means to me the best way of communication and connection with the deepest side of my being. Through my art I can express my emotions, dreams and feelings. Painting is my favourite language, strongly influenced by who I am, my experiences, my travels, my relationship with others and with myself. Every artwork is a story that does not need words to be told, a journey without a set destination, a trip of my soul without a predefined outcome"
Art Curator Mara Cipriano
Brenda Rodriguez
One day after the storm
Bruce Barber
Bruce Barber is an interdisciplinary media artist, cultural historian and curator. For the first time guest at an exhibition organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, on the occasion of "SACRIFICE" exhibits a filmic work of art entitled "Bertrand Russell NYC Trace." Bertrand Russell was an anti-war activist at first and anti-nuclear at a later time, which was twice indicted and imprisoned for his battles. Bertrand Russell appears to be the emblem of the act of sacrificing one's freedom in virtue of an ideal. In the work exhibited by Barber, images of everyday life in New York City follow one another. the life that flows unaware of the battles that are fought every day for justice and to make the world a better place to live. Iconic is the phrase that flows throughout the entire video "If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years. " - Bertrand Russell. The artist made the video thanks to many hours of filming in Manhattan NYC using a Time Lapse camera. The message is clear and direct, Barber has eliminated any superstructure to convey a simple concept, a vision of the pure world that should unite all human beings to realize the utopia of a peaceful existence. Those who look at the work feel pervaded by this feeling of responsibility that should unite us all, focusing on individuality in order to help the community to heal.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Bruce Barber
Bertrand Russell NYC Trace
Camelia Mohebi
Every experience lived, in addition to changing ourselves deeply, changes the way we see the world around us and with which we dialogue every day. This is reflected in the artists in their works of art, because these creations of theirs are their window on the world, the key to interpretation that they give to those who observe them in order to understand them and see reality with their own eyes. Artists give us a new perspective with which to look around. The artist Camelia Mohebi, through her series of works entitled "NO SIGNAL", of which the work exhibited here "Numb" is part, and as she herself points out, pushes us to a particular reflection on an element of our daily life, that binds man and nature, but on which we perhaps never stop to really reflect: frequencies. Camelia really questioned how much and how these waves that are emitted and received through the instruments of both man and nature can influence us, on a conscious, but above all unconscious level. Camelia shares, through her works, her reflections on the importance and, at the same time, fragility of the unconscious. The unconscious almost always guides our actions, our decisions, without us even realizing it. Man must be able to find a balance between what he has deep inside him and the world around him. By observing the work presented here, we are able to grasp, even at first glance, how these frequencies are interfering with the woman's thoughts. The artist visibly shows us this whirlwind of thoughts spreading and flooding everything around her, numbing the perception that she and we have of it. The contrast that is created between inside and outside, between conscious and unconscious, is clearly visible, underlined by the artist also by the choice of opposite colors on the chromatic scale and by the different techniques and expressive methods used.
Art Curator Silvia Grassi
Camelia Mohebi
Numb
Cara Roberts
As an emerging London-based visual communicator fresh out of university, Cara Roberts particularly enjoys capturing the hidden strata of the human face. The tuition she has received allows her to fuse skills in traditional painting with those of modern graphic design resulting in photorealistic 2D digital portraiture using ‘ProCreate’ software.“I incorporate subjective feelings into my portraits and preserve them for later generations. I like to make full use of posture, expression, scale, negative space and semiotics to allow faces to direct narratives” Cara says. At "SACRIFICE" exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Cara presents the “Homelessness” project, two works of this type.
Cara Roberts
The subjects are the faces of homeless military veterans living in the UK: the latest estimate is that up to 15% of homeless people in London have a military background; when they come out of service, military veterans suddenly find themselves devoid of basic life skills and deprived of the social order to which they have become accustomed - key ingredients for a downward spiral. By portraying details of the faces of these men, Cara therefore increases and strengthens their physiognomic features, forcing the viewer to look at these people who are like ghosts in our cities in the face. With a photographic and extremely realistic cut, the artist invites to look deep into the subject's eyes, visualizing a better future for these individuals based upon hope, and to sacrifice a bit of money to help the cause of veterans, which seems little in comparison with the ultimate sacrifice they were prepared to make on our behalf.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Cara Roberts
Homelessness
Cara Roberts
Homelessness 2
Carien Borst "Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions." (Pablo Picasso)
The goal of Carien Borst's art is to succeed in the difficult undertaking to grasp the infinite potential of facial expressions, since every slight change decisively changes the feeling of the beholder. Every hint of a smile, every glance and every nod of the head are a visible symptom of a particular emotional condition, which often extends its power to another person as well. The artist tries to investigate this silent dialogue with portraits that are not real but ideal, which explore the complex ramification of sensations and emotions. With the works presented on the occasion of "Sacrifice", it is possible not only to make a fascinating journey into the world of art, but also to confront the very face of our most intimate dimension. The approach to Carien's works is a reflection of the artist's attitude towards the creative moment: intuitive, sponeaneous, emotionally participated. The paintings, in fact, are created without a draft, and are the result of layers of color that - stroke after stroke - come to life on the canvas. We can appreciate this technique in Emma - Be Silent and Listen, in which the inspired face of a young woman emerges from a background in shades of pink, orange and red. The details of her face and hair are accentuated by shades of blue, which also contribute to giving the whole composition a feeling of evolving serenity, based on a process of inner knowledge. The closed eyes seem to allude to a move away from meaningless sounds and noises to focus on a wise listening to the slight voices of thoughts and sensations. Also in Judi - Surrender the beautiful female face closes her eyes on her own personal cosmos, but the dimension is very different. Wrapped in dark brushstrokes of blue and purple, the young woman seems to be fighting a lonely inner battle that weighs on her mind, and which is also represented graphically by words and phrases written on her hair. Judi's deep melancholy constitutes a moment of great intensity, and one cannot but be surprised by the ineffable effectiveness of the composition. With Lea - Future will be good, Carien returns to the more reassuring and hopeful dimension of those who look to the future with positivity. Lea, in particular, revolves around the confident and intense gaze of the woman, who hints at a smile of decisive self-affirmation. The orange tones that surround it infuse the viewer with the same warm sensation, as happens in Sara Expected and Receive. The delicate choice of the chromatic system - faded into a soft cloud of pink and blue - combines admirably with the sweetness of the candid face, which turns upwards with a curious air, as if waiting for something. With Luna The power of vulnerability Carien expresses a real poem on the canvas, which perhaps represents in the highest degree the ambition of her artistic intent, that of sharing and increasing emotions. The conscious smile and Luna's eyes, opened in an optimistic expression - thus become the emblem of a serene acceptance of oneself and above all of the sensations that stir in the mind and soul. If at first a strong emotionality may seem an obstacle as it exposes the frailties and limitations of each person, it then becomes a strength. It reveals its precious value as the golden veins that run through the braid of Luna.
Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti
Carien Borst
Emma - Be Silent and Listen
Carien Borst
Judi - Surrender
Carien Borst
Lea - Future will be good
Carien Borst
Luna - The power of vulnerability
Carien Borst
Sara - Expected and Receive
Carlos Cayo Rojas
Carlos Cayo Rojas is a Chilean abstract artist who combines the practice of recycling and inspiration from the upcycling movement to create pieces that reflect not only a thought on how art can impact on the current catastrophic environmental situation, but also on the process to transform and give new life to materials and elements that are left aside for trash, to manifest a new perspective on transformation and existence. With the use of different techniques, always working with materials rescued from garbage or recycled directly from the street, the main claim of Carlos Cayo is to transform and upcycle elements into an artform for a message, a point of view and criticism on how we are destroying ourselves and the planet, and how we are part of the universe itself. With an abstract gesture, the focus is on linking colors and figures with two themes in distance: one in relation to the infinity of the universe, expanding space, galaxies and the unknown, and the other in relation to what makes us part of this planet. the environment, nature, vegetation, flora, and fauna. At “SACRIFICE” exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Carlos Cayo presents two artworks.
Carlos Cayo Rojas
In “IMPERMANENT COLOR” the artist intends to expose, through fluid acrylic pouring, a combination of fluorescent colors as an abstract explosion of tones that represent biodiversity both present in the vast infinity of space and in our own planet ecosystem and environment. The different figures in bubbly and liquid movement run through an opening direction from one side of the piece, extending and inviting the viewer to go through the flow of colors and relate to the paradigm of the law of impermanence: Nothing lasts, everything is destroyed, everything changes, as a universal inevitable law. As a reflection of existence, the piece is shown as a photo of an instant of expansion but also of combination, of us as living beings, our environment and with the dispersion of the universe to infinity. Using color as a tool to give another visibility to a piece of wood that would be destined to be trash, the piece is transformed and reborn. "The only permanent thing is impermanence”. In “TIMELESS MOVEMENT” the focus is on the contrast of a material that is shown as static and colors in a flowing movement and direction, where the idea is to contemplate the texture of a distant planet from its atmosphere and appreciate elements that are floating and flowing. The recycled stones and shattered glass embedded in the piece, are combined with the texture of the resin to show a harmonic but at the same time disperse movement, keeping each element on its way and freedom of action. The questioning exhibited is about different times, speeds, and movements that elements and living beings have in the universe and in their moment of existence.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Carlos Cayo Rojas
IMPERMANENT COLOR
Carlos Cayo Rojas
TIMELESS MOVEMENT
Carola Grenzer "We have a round head so that we can think in all directions." (Francis Picabia)
The symbolism behind the art becomes more and more important in the course of the development of the different avant-gardes. The contemporary artist Carola Grenzer manages to assimilate this concept so well that she does it right within her representations and we also find it in this reproduction of an abstract mandala. In the oriental addition the term mandala indicates a sacred object with a circular shape that instinctively refers to the sun or the moon. In this purely punctual executive technique we find many artistic references that the artist manages to match simply using her own artistic flair. As in the phase of synthetic cubism, we can find subjects completely distorted and detached from their original form, so the representation of the mandala brings us back to the concept of distorting the form and finding balance through the order of its parts recomposed in a circular form. The reference given by the artist to the title of her work leads the viewer's imagination to combine the subject of the mandala with the imaginary concept of ice, which in nature finds its form in a natural and perfectly balanced way. In the abandonment of the original form the artist finds her own balance and her will to transfer it through art finds her form in the universe itself.
Art Curator Letizia Perrieri
Carola Grenzer
Blue Ice Crystal
Caroline Knickmeier
Caroline Knickmeier is an international artist, guest for the first time at an exhibition organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, on the occasion of "SACRIFICE" she exhibits an ethereal work with a sweet but powerful atmosphere. Subject of the photographic work are the clouds, a subject that has studded the history of art and photography, from Constable, during Romanticism, who represented them to study them and investigate their shape and anatomy, to Magritte who represented them in calm surreal, passing through the photographs of Alfred Stieglitz represented by American photographic pictorialism, the clouds have become the emblem of the moods and emotions of man and this does not fail in “Constant 1”. Knickmeier captures an instant, freezes a moment and emotionally transmits its power, this is what arises from observing the artist's work which appears to be suspended in a silence made of colors and shades that seem to have been made with watercolors. Knickmeier eliminates the superstructures of the world and focuses on the essential, inspired by the water cycle he captures the most visceral and iconic aspect of the world, and more generally of the universe and gives it a precious image, conveying the need to protect the beauty that defines them. The light is concentrated only in some points, we find it in the foreground as if it came from within the cloud and in the background from which it instead appears to spring from our shoulders. The observer feels enchanted and fascinated by Knickmeier's work, the movement, the lights and the colors allow a journey inside the work.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Caroline Knickmeier
Constant 1
Carrie MeeRan
“A painting is not a picture of an experience, but is the experience.” Mark Rothko
Carrie MeeRan is a delicate, sensitive artist with clear
intentions. The work presented on this occasion explores the concept of sacrifice as a deliberate choice. The identification of a preference also and above
all in the sacrificial field. In this case, the artist focuses on the rest, the survivor. A souvenir as a
reminiscence of a past self and as a reminder of what is left. The colors of the earth hidden by the white of a possible snow, seem like leaves fallen from an emotional branch that probably coincides with the hidden subject but the protagonist of this reflection. A spiral movement permeates the whole composition, like a whirlwind of memories that take different and new forms over time. What is the criterion for choosing the expendable is not clear. The beauty of this painting expresses the typical aesthetic dualism of the pleasant, what is apparently pleasing to the eye often reveals a deeper and more important reflection often on issues that cause discomfort and therefore commitment.
Carrie MeeRan The apparent aesthetic lightness of the painting hides the real effort that the work of art requires from the viewer who therefore moves away from pure contemplation to evolve the gaze into active conversation. One tone, the patience of a monochromatic piece that slowly reveals itself over time. The attention required is very high, an act of sacrifice is also done by the mere presence of the public, one's own time. The choice to take some away from a possible visual enjoyment for another. In MeeRan's work, sacrifice is brought to a daily, tangible level. Sacrifice a part of oneself and survive with the resources of what remains, waiting, in fact, patiently, for a new genesis.
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Carrie MeeRan
Parisienne Fruit
Carrie MeeRan
Disappearing Fruit
Catarina Diaz
Catarina Diaz is a collage artist, whose artistic production focuses on the representation of women and their essence and beauty. Catarina is a permanent guest at the exhibitions of M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, and on the occasion of "SACRIFICE" she exhibits two works "Dare" and "Peach perfect". From a chromatic point of view the two works are completely different, in "Dare" we have a significant chromatic contrast between black and white and the bright pink of the roses, while in "Peach perfect" a tone-on-tone is developed more in the tones of the 'orange and peach color. It is not the only difference, in fact, "Dare" sees the model's face covered by flowers, as opposed to "Peach perfect" in which her face is highlighted, framed by the other elements inserted by the artist.
Catarina Diaz
The first gives particular importance to the posture and attitude that the model has, there is a profound identification between the white tiger, a rare and precious creature, and the woman who is almost protected by the flower that covers her face. In "Peach perfect" her attitude is highlighted, the bold and proud gaze of the model is emphasized, underlined and accentuated by everything the artist has created around her. Two different but unique women, this is Catarina Diaz's modus operandi, an expression of a woman's intimacy in one of her many facets, making her a totem of herself and an emblem of never giving in to being different from who she is.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Catarina Diaz
Dare
Catarina Diaz
Peach perfect
Celia Wilkinson
The works of art exhibited by Celia Wilkinson on the occasion of "SACRIFICE", the new exhibition organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, are landscapes that the artist represented following a trip to the Canary Islands. The artist's artistic production focuses mainly on landscaping, through which she expresses herself and her worldview. Instinctiveness is a key element of Wilkinson's works of art, which does not make a priori decisions and does not think in advance about what he wants to achieve, the artist lets himself be carried away by intuitiveness and instinct creating works from incredible visual and emotional impact. The technique is precise, decisive, the brushstrokes are defined and fast. "Beauty and the Beast" turns out to be an impacting work, metaphorically one can imagine nature protecting itself, a wall of cacti that protect the pristine landscape behind them, from here, explains the artist, "Beauty" is the landscape that stands out in the background, while "Beast" are precisely the cacti. "Bliss" conveys love and charm for what you are looking at, a unique landscape of its kind, made of shades and wild nature, with this work the artist has transmitted all his passion for the island that inspired these paintings. The last work on display is "Still Life" tells of the rebirth of nature following its devastation by nature itself, the artist was struck by the resilience and power that nature demonstrates. Celia Wilkinson's works of art are a real Ode to nature and her greatness, this feeling pervades those who observe these pieces of art, making them partakers of the feelings felt by the artist.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Celia Wilkinson
Beauty and the Beast
Celia Wilkinson
Bliss
Celia Wilkinson
Still Life
Celine Bechert
Celine Bechert exposes “Blind Trust” for the “Sacrifice” exhibition at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery. The artist concentrates on thoughts and feelings that stimulate the visual-perceptual process of the viewer. This painting becomes a celebration of women, regarding and their protective and benevolent spirit, invoking joy, vitality, purity, harmony and infinite sweetness. Her artistic and aesthetic conception focuses on spirituality as well as on creative expression: in this way, Celine manages to find a magical connection between painting and the pure feminine essence. This aspect is clearly visible, as the two characters emerge from the background in extremely warm tones, relaxing and satisfying the viewer. Her methodology also reflects both meditation and innovation, placing art at the center of numerous mental and sensory processes. The artist depicts the woman as if she was in a state of trance, as if she were on a journey of introspection, reaching her own soul, purifying it of evil, while trusting her spirit. The latter is protecting her and blessing her by caressing her shoulder and kissing her forehead. In addition to this scene, there is a slight dynamism given by the energetic vortex behind the two protagonists: each element, color, shade and line blends indissolubly with the pictorial surface, giving the work the well-being that the woman in the foreground is seeking. The use of a particular choice of colors, mainly pink, purple, yellow and white, gives the viewer a pleasant feeling of serenity and calmness. Celine Bechert takes the viewer into a journey through art, imagination and spirituality, creating a unique and inimitable experience.
“Good can be achieved amongst human beings who are prepared to trust, prepared to believe in the goodness of people.” (Nelson Mandela)
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Celine Bechert
Blind Trust
CemArda/Matocem
Four paintings perfectly denote the artist CemArda/Matocem’s artistic characteristics. Different in colors but all of them realized with the same technique, the scenes represent something different that is well defined by the titles themselves. Four paintings showing a moment, an exact instant of everyday life captured by the artist’s eye. ‘Into’ and ‘Look Up’ present the same subject, a man absorbed in watching what seems to be a painting. The scenes can be read as something autobiographical, a sort of selfportrait presenting the artist himself looking at and contemplating his own creation. ‘Into’ with its hues of gray and white colors highlight the yellow and shining painting he is holding in his hand, guiding the viewers’ gaze to it. In a less melancholic atmosphere, given by the use of a most vivid background, ‘Look Up’ seems to represent the satisfied artist, always looking at his artwork as a sort of something important that deserves to be shown. The painting in the scenes seems to be ‘Almost Everyday’. Remembering CemArda/Matocem first paintings presented at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, it shows, this time, a dynamic atmosphere given by the dark brushes here and there in the background.
CemArda/Matocem
A man, walking towards a big coffe cup, in the middle of some spots of colors observed by a cartoon’s face underlines the artist’s characteristics that accompany almost his whole group of artworks: his passion for cartoons associated with the quotidian. It can be considered as a sort of invitation to look at the present society and its problems concerning the environment, a sort of painting of hope and of sacrifice. Enigmatic for the elements and the subjects that contain, ‘Not Sure’ in its whole, seems a painting full of symbols with deep and hidden meanings. The viewers’ attention, however, is focused on the black silhouette sat on the right side of the painting, conferring a negative atmosphere to the scene. What is unsure about? Concerning the concept of the exhibition, the four paintings with their different meanings answer the question: why are we moved to create art? CemArda/Matocem answers with these scenes, different between them, but representing something meaningful for him, so that he has decided to share them with the viewers and let them interpret driven by their own imagination.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
CemArda/Matocem
Into
CemArda/Matocem
Look Up
CemArda/Matocem
Almost Everyday
CemArda/Matocem
Not Sure
Chantal Hulshoff “The earth has music for those who listen.” (William Shakespeare)
Lively energy is what best describes Dutch artist Chantal Hulshoff. Living in a rural area of the Netherlands, Hulshoff lets nature be her muse, the source of inspiration for her art. In nature she sees the divine, through nature she grasps the manifestations of the infinite; nature is, for Hulshoff, a ‘living organism’ whose soul is God. The artist combines different media and colours which better resolve her creative and experimenting visual language. Hulshoff’s artworks seem to be the result of the spur of the moment she paints, where intuition leads her hand. Layers upon layers, Hulshoff creates seemingly natural landscapes whose colours alternate in horizontal and vertical quick brushstrokes by creating a perfectly balanced composition. This ‘free play’ of colours, layering and brushstrokes manifest the artist’s intent not to imitate nature but to visually depict what nature inspires her. In this way, the artist explains that she invites the viewers to “find something in her work that resonates with their soul”, hoping “that they may discover new things in all the layers of the painting every time they look at it”.
Chantal Hulshoff
Flying geese are present in almost all Hulshoff’s paintings; “Cobalt adventures” and “A prospérité” are no exception. Here, the artist uses different shades of colours to depict a similar scene. In the first painting, flocks of birds fly in an orangey sky which contrasts with the deep, dark, cobalt blue of the sea. Pinky and cloudy is the sky of the second painting, where birds freely dance, and the deep and calm sea gives way to an emerald one. It takes just a quick glance at the paintings to be overwhelmed by hope and will to live. “Cobalt adventures are calling you “, writes Hulshoff, “go hunt for what is kind and right and find life itself - glorious life!”. A message of hope is conveyed by the beautiful, free flying geese, through which the artist invites us to live, to find beauty and happiness in our life. She offers us the opportunity to take a journey within ourselves and to think about what makes us happy and glorious. To her paintings, we add our memories, feelings and experiences. Her eyes become ours, her paintings become a mirror through which reflect our lives.
Art Curator Martina Lattuca
Chantal Hulshoff
Cobalt adventures
Chantal Hulshoff
Prospérité
Che-Yu Wu
Che-Yu Wu presents “Nightmare”, “Sweet Dreams” and “Causality” for the “Sacrifice” Art exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art gallery. Every inch of organic movement across the digital art creates a display of a heavenly path to tell someone it is available for them to walk by. To chase sacrifices make us dream. What would you sacrifice to dream? Dreams can often transfer into nightmares only if we are extremely aware of reality. Digital art let us go beyond the tangible space to explore. To be brave and pursue the reality continuum to discover a parallel perspective in order to develop a synthetic understanding of your surroundings. On the first artwork we see a nightmare within a maze, which is an altered reality of the second artwork titled “Sweet dreams”. “Nightmare” presents cool tones trying to pull from left to right going downwards to escape from a continuum turmoiled maze. “Sweet dreams” depicts the merge of warm tones into the harmony needed, which tries to stand still as long as it as possible to obtain the tranquility desired. “Causality”, portrays a map with instructions, the beholder is in charge to choose which path is relevant, where cool tones will advise you where to go and warm tones will and reveal the way. It is up to the beholder to transform a nightmare into a dream. Sweet dreams are the causality of explored nightmares. Be brave and explore them.
Art Curator Karla Peralta Málaga
Che-Yu Wu
Nightmare
Che-Yu Wu
Sweet Dreams
Che-Yu Wu
Causality
Chris Barley “Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions.” (Pablo Picasso)
A life full of changes, experiences, and emotions: all this comes to life through shapes and colors. The brush follows instinct and sensations, it moves on the canvas without any pre-established pattern. Contemporary French artist Chris Barley creates abstract paintings that tell his deep inner world. His works are a mirror of his personality: in them his thousand facets are reflected, sides of himself that he decides to share only and only with his viewers. The paintings analysed were made in 2012 with the oil on canvas technique. "Bacchanal": Bacchanal was a Roman feast whose name derives from rituals dedicated to Bacchus, God of wine. The colors of the work, in fact, exactly remind those of the drink: the red in different shades is illuminated in some places by gold and in others it contrasts with black. "Mermaids Head" has a very suggestive title that allows the viewer to travel with his imagination, immersing himself in a surreal world. What does a mermaid think while swimming in the ocean waters? What do you think while she is sitting on a rock and looking at the wonder that surrounds her? This flow of thoughts is represented by Chris through the contrast of cool colors, including green, with warm colors, including yellow. "Swamp": green in different shades is the absolute protagonist of the work. The swamp can symbolize a limit, an obstacle that prevents us from continuing our journey. With “Swamp” Chris invites the viewers not to stop at the first adversities, but to have the strength to go on despite everything. Chris through his works shares his magical world, gives a part of himself, and communicates important messages.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Chris Barley
Bacchanal
Chris Barley
Mermaids Head
Chris Barley
Swamp
Chris Collier “A p“Picasso is a communist. Neither am I.“ Salvador Dali
Cheeky and direct artist, Chris Collier breaks the scene with his figurative paintings. Faced with the works of this artist we can meet trolls, fantastic and humanizing figures who come from a grotesque imagination to dialogue with the contemporary world. The comic strip or illustrated book stroke allows Collier's work to get straight to the point without equivocal superstructures that would weaken its purpose. The impersonation of the policing system, of the hierarchy and of justice, a hungry character who survives by feeding on the unconscious sacrifice of people. The artist makes a generous gesture by asking others to indicate a way, start a path: ten words given begin a reflection. He asks for a sentence from which he will start to build his work of art. He thus puts himself at the service of his people, overturning the role of the troll represented, where there was the executioner, there is the sacrificed volunteer and peace is restored.
Chris Collier
Collier’s practice is characterized by a bursting graphic synthesis of thought. A fable is described in a precise and exhaustive way. Morality does not need to be intuited but is clearly suggested without the possibility of misunderstanding. A landscape alien to the contemporary minimalist panorama, an intense and limitless prose of cadenced rhythm and syllabic form. Each work could be a graphic novel that completes itself in a single image. The author through his art always leaves the viewer a glimmer of freedom of choice, will the public be the ones to pull the knob, to desire so ardently to stop this delusion that they decide to become aware of their own power?
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Chris Collier
Con-Troll
Chris Collier
JAM!
Christian Burnham “My creativity stems from somewhere deep inside of myself and is often referring to emotions that I feel and the state of our collective consciousness as a society" Christian Burnham
“An expression of the restrictions on our inner thoughts and outer behaviour to situations generated from years of disciplinary programming in the society we live in (social expectations, peer pressure, political and cultural acceptance). If we could release ourselves from this preconditioned state of mind, we could see the world around us in a healthy new way and set ourselves free from so many of the impulsive and claustrophobic thoughts we carry within us. The chance to embrace a world of different opinions is a chance to unite the opinions of our divided world. Preconditioned state of mind is painted on a stretched canvas using stencils and spray paint”. These are Christian Burnham words to describe his artwork, Preconditioned state of mind at the international exhibition "SACRIFICE", hosted by the international art gallery M.A.D.S. A boy crossing the binary code tunnel on his skate. At the end of the tunnel there is light, however we cannot say with certainty what the end of the tunnel is. The boy could be stuck in a space-time loop in which he continues to wander, with no real goal. The binary code is the clear representation of today's society, we are absolutely dependent on machines and their language. Everything that surrounds us is binary code and we are unable to fully get back in touch with reality. Like the boy represented, we become one-colored, transparent, without a real personality and continue to wander within this world of duality (0 and 1) taking its shape. Christian Burnham was born in Eastbourne, England in 1973. Christian’s father was a civil engineer, and during the seventies his work took Christian’s family to South Africa for several years, before returning to Europe to relocate in Sweden and Belgium. By the age of twenty he was multilingual in four languages. From an early age Christian realised he had a talent for riding off road motorcycles, and in 1991 he made the brave decision to move to Belgium and focus on a career as a professional motocross rider. Christian, after, rediscovered his passion for art, giving him the strength to explore and regenerate the inner mechanics of his creative conscience, and to start the long journey to overcome the biggest challenge of his life. His love for art gave him back the sense of purpose in life that he was missing.
Art Curator Mara Cipriano
Christian Burnham
Preconditioned state of mind
Christine Bent “The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.” Robert Henri
Self taught multidisciplinary artist based in New York City Christine Bent works with abstract painting together with digital art. Its aesthetic is light, dancing, and airy. Splashes of color are skilfully choreographed. A clear sky, an emotional momentum in the serene landscape that these blues suggest. Pastel tones have the appearance of overlapping ceramic sheets. A delicate work but of great sculptural presence. The three-dimensional aspect is given by the textures that are formed through the layering of colors and gestures. There are several levels to flow on these paintings, rough transparencies that are the background to overflowing gestures of bright and glossy color, spots and passages of temporary flavor. An exploding carnival, an irrepressible mix of instinct and pure expression of being. The artist believes in and practices a visual healing process through images. A moment of imaginary nature, a sea, a wave of the moment lived. Bent wants to immortalize his present and put him at the service of others. Her paintings have a very marked chromatic balance, her instinct has guided her and now guides her in the choice of her visual apparatuses, a data visualist, as she declares herself, absorbing from everywhere and by having the undoubtful talent of the truest souls, translating what she sees in lines and shapes and spots to be admired. Art is blooming in her hand in the purest way, beauty.
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Christine Bent
Devoted Force
Christine Bent
Higher Calling
Christine Bent
Awakening
Christine Bent
Downloads
Christine Bent
Green Healer
Christoffer Nilsson
Christoffer Nilsson uses art in its purest form, to know himself after his diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. He succeeds thanks to his two alter egos: Dogtown and Mr Fraxley. The expression alter ego refers to the hidden personalities, which live within us, in our unconscious, that we often build to overcome our limits. The use of the alter ego is widespread in the world of the arts, especially in literature. Many writers make their alter ego the protagonist of their stories. In this case the alter ego helps the artist to bare his emotions, to know himself. The first artwork, “Planet DC”, is the last of a project known as Dogtown Imaginarium, It represents the final stage of exploration of himself and the worlds of his mind. A world that is taking shape, but isn't quite complete, as can be seen from the white spaces between the colors. A world shaken by a badly treated bipolar disorder that led him to psychosis, represented in the second work “Overdrive: Psychosis”. The walls with the fragmented colors represent his mind, lost by now, while its essence is heading towards the deterioration of intellectual abilities. The hole in the wall represents the crash of his limits of sanity, giving life to a new and unexplored part of himself, real and imaginary. After the psychosis a new alter ego comes into play Mr Fraxley, with him he explores all the surreal events he experienced and finds inspiration. Thus was born "Intermetareferentialism". Represents an abstract image of the ripples in the water, which symbolize the changes that occurred in his life and in his mind, after the psychosis. Christoffer is an example of how art can transform something terrible into something beautiful.
Art Curator Lucrezia Perropane
Christoffer Nilsson
Planet DC
Christoffer Nilsson
Overdrive:Psychosis
Christoffer Nilsson
Intermetareferentialism
Claes Frowein “We shall find peace. We shall hear angels; we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.” (Anton Čechov) Each symbol has a meaning; the set of symbols in turn takes on a significance that tells us a story. The contemporary artist Claes Frowein’s works are a representation of his deep inner world that comes to life thanks to elements that revolve around the protagonist. Claes since his youth has had gifts of clairvoyance and on several occasions, he has represented his visions through shapes and colors. "The plan of the fallen angel" was created in 2021 with the technique of acrylic on canvas and is identified with the representation of an artist's point of view of the present. The sword of Damascus, that is the sword that the Ottoman soldiers used during the battle against the Crusaders, is implanted in the earth and darkness hovers around it. Next to it, the fallen angel supports Claes, who holds a flower in his hands that raises him towards the light represented by the union of Christ with the Virgin Mary. Below, there is a selection between good and bad wheat that the angel cooks. The table is a metaphor for significant moments in the artist's life: the nails are the representation of the work that Claes has done during his life, the red trail is the blood that will be shed on the earth. Finally, the triangle and the snake biting its tail are the new laws of the universe that make man a slave and no longer free. This explanation makes us understand the complex and interesting world that lives in the artist's mind. For Claes, art means much more than a simple act of creation: it is a tool with which to communicate important messages and give one's own vision of reality.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Claes Frowein
The plan of the fallen angel
Clarissa Banos
Life imitates art far more than art imitates life Oscar Wilde
Clarissa Banos comes from El Salvador, she is a passionate visual artist and visual arts instructor living and working in Canada. Her ancestral heritage inspires her artwork and gives power to her practice. Through the admiration of Pre-hispanic iconography and the study of indigenous civilisation of Ancient Americas she depicts the figure of the woman as the axis of a magical universe and pays homage to them in this honest way. Sincere fascination for the beauty, strength and resilience of indigenous Latin American women, who bring Banos' work to fulfill the celebratory mission of their subjects. The woman, in a static and natural pose, imprinted on canvas in the fulfillment of a gesture of care and love for her land. A colorful landscape of vibrant presence, the warmth of the light present in the paintings has an immediate reference to the feeling of welcoming warmth that can be found in those areas of the world. An important part of these paintings is the local fauna, a careful choice of animal spirits, whose active presence seems to be essential to life therefore beautifully represented. Looking at these works of art, one gets the feeling that Paul Gaugain met Frida Kahlo in some passing place and gave her some sketches finely completed afterwards by the famous Mexican painter. Clarissa Banos tells what art was born to be, an imitation of the most loved reality.
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Clarissa Banos
Flor de Sol
Clarissa Banos
Luna Azul
Clarissa Banos
Madre Tierra
Constantina P. Jones "Trust in progress, which is always right, even when it is wrong, because it is movement, life, struggle, hope." (Filippo Tommaso Marinetti)
Digital art begins to develop around the 50s but only recently has it taken more space in the contemporary art scene thanks to the advent of the new NFTs. The first attempts at computer graphics were very approximate and above all they were associated with everything that was not written text or single sound. With the advent of the 90s, computers were able to produce not only vector images and feature films, but three-dimensional images and special effects for the first video games. The best part of digital use is the absence of limitations since you can make any subject and create any color. The artist Constatina P. Jones is able with her graphic skills to create real hybrid works of art between the classic and the modern. We find a slight trace of pop art culture in the use of fluorescent and contrasting colors, however the subjects are even more contrasting than the colors! The union of the digital world and the classical world that emerges from the subjects represented is the real turning point that is presented to us by the artist. The spectator feels like in a dream in front of the works and he too becomes part of the "non-reality" that the artist is able to reproduce with the tools at her disposal. In this case Jones is forced to sacrifice classical art, but the result she has achieved of her will make her immortal beyond the natural crumbling of things.
Art Curator Letizia Perrieri
Constantina P. Jones
God Pan 1
Constantina P. Jones
My Renaissance 34
Constantina P. Jones
Enigma 10
Cosima Becker
Cosima Becker is a German artist who finds expression in abstract art. On the occasion of the exhibition "Sacrifice" held by M.A.D.S. art gallery, the artist exhibits two works entitled "Blue" and "Yellow". These two works reflect what the title expresses: they carry within themselves the essence of these two colors, so different from each other and so strong. The work "Blue" contains different shades of this deep color, different levels of depth and different techniques. In the foreground what catches the eye are the drops of color that flow down, thus approaching the informal technique of American artists, but in the background it is possible to notice that the first layer consists of brush strokes of color nuanced between them. This overlapping of different planes leads the observers to get lost in the work, to sink into the abyss.
Cosima Becker
The artist invites the observers to dig into themselves, into their own personal abyss and immerse themselves in the intimacy of their thoughts. Similarly, Cosima offers viewers another type of journey through the work "Yellow". Here it is not only yellow that dominates the canvas but it is accompanied by black and white that mix together creating a sort of fog. In this way darkness and light meet, confront each other. In this work the nuance becomes the protagonist, everything is blurred, as if the viewers were in the night, dazzled by the headlights of the cars. The disoriented feeling is confirmed by the words of the artist who comments on the work: “The black surrounds you. Your thoughts flow through it, and they disappear into the horizon like a yellow stream. It holds you tight and gives you strength and at the same time it demands everything from you.”
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Cosima Becker
Blue
Cosima Becker
Yellow
Cristina M. Palomares Cristina M. Palomares is a very talented multifaceted artist with an original and creative language. Through research and the use of numerous techniques and artistic expressions, she investigates the true human essence through colours, shapes and lines. Very expressive and capable of disruptive artistic communication, Cristina juggles various techniques and is influenced by many factors during her artistic process. She is a daring artist, keeping up with technological and sound developments in the art world and always ready to experiment or research new languages. Her creations are able to transmit to the viewer a whirlwind of emotions that overwhelm him and catapult him into the immersive and suspended atmosphere of her colourful artworks. The relationship that is created between the viewer and the canvas is something unique and two-way. The canvas absorbs from the man and in turn he is stimulated by the intrinsic vital energy of the brushstrokes. Cristina adopts an extremely spontaneous artistic process. She lets herself be guided by the materials and her emotions, letting the canvas create and reveal itself autonomously, without boundaries. In this way, the feelings contained within are as if amplified. In the work "Stratus" the artist explores his abstract and energetic side, proposing rapid, overlapping brushstrokes. The blue colour presents different gradations thanks to the use of water to dilute the pigment and the support. The black colour is inserted to give dynamism and contrasts with the neutral colour of the canvas. The pigment has various intensities and different textures that combine to give a harmonious and balanced result. Light and shadow, colour and absence of it, silence and noise. All these sensations and characteristics are clearly evident. Cristina prefers not to use traditional instruments, once again emphasising the artist's original and dynamic character. She returns to a state of primordial creation that favours a direct and profound communication with the spectator. She seems to release all tensions, she throws out everything that is locked inside her soul and heart. The canvas is a means of liberation, of opening up to the outside world. Freeing one's emotions and hidden emotional states on canvas is an extremely courageous and daring gesture. It is like laying bare, stripping away every superficial element to heal our inner soul. the technique used allows the materials to speak for themselves, without the need for an intermediary. Every line, every mark and every trace expresses a concept that is not yet complete, waiting to be defined. This is why the coloured traces on the canvas seem to have no beginning and no end, because they follow a cyclical movement waiting to be completed. The white of the support also plays a fundamental role and not only a background as one might think. With this composition full of interesting ideas, Cristina identifies herself as an artist with energetic gestures, capable of involving the viewer to the point of identifying with him.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Cristina M. Palomares
Stratus
Cristina Ortiz
Cristina Ortiz is a visual artist who is inspired for her works by the spiritual, dream world, mystery, nature and the beauty of simplicity. At “SACRIFICE” exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Cristina presents three works. “La gota de agua” is a digital video con continuous overlapping images. Initially it represents some children in a surreal environment that radiates peace and mystery at the same time, with a look of surprise that transmits the innocence and the ability of children to see the essence and the authenticity of things. The central theme is water as a symbol of purity, transparency and the ability to convey relaxation or passion that the sound of this element has. The continuously falling drop of water also represents persistence, saturation and the limit until something overflows. “Los sonidos del silencio” is indeed a painting which portrays a woman in an idealized parallel world, between the dimension of the real and that of the sacred. Lying in bed, she appears to be between a dreamy state and one of lucid and frightening coldness, with a large blue moon above her sealing this mystery. In this mystical state, Sacrifice is seen as an offering for salvation, to try to reveal something unattainable, which can only be reached through a process of creative introspection, guided by intuition, as a kind of revelation of something hidden in the soul. Finally “Sacrificio”, a digital video, is a reflection on the way some people enjoy exercising power over others: they have to control everything, and they enjoy mistreating those who do not submit to their interests, believing that everything revolves around them. They find their emotional stimulus breaking the dreams of others, influencing and generating instability on many levels in an attempt to damage and slow down the life of that person: they are wolves in sheep's clothing. It is an experimental video work that deals with the destruction of a work, a painting entitled "Something", which represents a strange figure with the head of a duck. In the video, the work is symbolically destroyed to erase the abuse and the Machiavellian character.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Cristina Ortiz
La gota de agua
Cristina Ortiz
Los sonidos del silencio
Cristina Ortiz
Sacrificio
Da Man
A dreamy atmosphere unfolds before our eyes. A chromatic palette all played on neutral tones induces us to stop, calm our soul and observe the represented. On a dove-colored backdrop here lie elements so light as to seem almost evanescent, small islands of color and sense that hover going to occupy the entire space of the representation. Dull blue, a sweet and melancholic pink, a light brown that smells of steam are here combined to create an extremely light and ethereal composition, almost transparent in tone and intentions. Directly inspired by Japan, the work draws on the pictorial culture of the Rising Sun and contemporary pop imagery to produce a decidedly innovative and unusual solution of styles. And so it is that a sea of clouds stands out before our eyes. Their vaporous and ethereal essence is dictated more than by their shape by the color used, a neutral light brown that, tracing the tone of the backdrop, almost seems to let us glimpse the latter within itself. On the other hand, the small clouds have extremely rigid and well-defined shapes. The outline is black, thick and surrounds the brown pigment without leaving any way out. The outline then insinuates itself into the colored stain, creating blackish swirls with, surprisingly, rather geometric contours. As if endowed with a will of their own, the puffs of vapor settle within the pictorial space, forming a sort of alcove that encircles the body of a girl lying softly. The face, as well as the clothes and hair refer to pop culture and to our contemporaneity. She has a surprised expression: probably, intent on dozing, she has been disturbed by the spectator who, in an almost importunate way, has woken her from her sweet sleep. Her limbs are still resting on the clouds, and a hand listlessly supports her head. Once the shock of awakening has passed, it is possible to glimpse in her large black eyes and in her small half-open mouth a spark of curiosity for the spectator who has unwittingly interrupted her dozing. Puffing a cloud of smoke from his mouth, a dog, a friend of the girl, turns to us in astonishment as he is about to slowly melt his limbs onto the girl's stiff hand. Melt Dog is a work that smells of spring idleness and tranquility, it is a breath of fresh air to rigid academicism and traditional pictorial impositions, it is a pleasant window into a world of quiet and docile lightness.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Da Man
Melt Dog
Darya Nakvakina
Artworks always start from a thought, an emotion or experience, from something in your soul that has to be freed out and expressed. Darya Nakvakina’s art starts from her desire to communicate an idea; her paintings are the expression of free, spontaneous and personal emotions and experiences that become tangible forms on canvas through the artist’s bodily performance recorded by videos. “I’m combining abstract painting with intuition”, Darya says. In her works, the action of making art is as important as the painting itself. Here, her individuality takes shape through a bodily and abstract pictorial language which plays a central role. Her paintings are, in fact, the results of her actions undertaken without a preconceived project, where her body acts freely and reveals the picture during the moment of acting. Contrasting black and white lines alternate in the painting “Whisper of your fingers” to narrate the story of two people who communicate through art, painting and music. They complement each other as black and white do, their lives work in symbiosis. Theirs is a platonic story, pure and beautiful. However, they never met and never will, “they sacrificed human communication to bring a new sensual experience of perception, another person only through art”. In “Non è niente”, Darya finds herself on a stretcher inside a dark room of an abandoned and decadent hospital covered with a white sheet. Her body is full of white bandages, dirt and black liquids come out of her mouth as if she has been underground. Darya gets up, walks, starts to feel her body again. The light in the room becomes brighter and the artist starts to move elegantly, covering her body with white and black paint in a delicate and intense dance with herself. She fell and was badly injured, but she is finding herself again, she is rising from the abyss of the ground by feeling and touching her mind, body and soul. She exposes her most vulnerable sides, frees herself from the heaviness of her bandages, which become just plain memories on the painting called with the same name. “Nichego. Everything will change; all things must pass.”, she tells.
Art Curator Martina Lattuca
Darya Nakvakina
Whisper of your fingers
Darya Nakvakina
Non è niente
Darya Nakvakina
Non è niente
Dave Thomas
Dave Thomas is a self-taught artist living in Bedfordshire, whose artistic production investigates the relationship between figurative and abstract techniques, and the balance between very bright colors and monochromatic tones. Dave is again the guest of an exhibition organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, on the occasion of "SACRIFICE" exhibits three works, "Blue", "Purple" and "Red" in which the subject represented is the same, the face of three women in the foreground, covered by a butterfly-shaped mask , what changes is the color of the mask itself. The three works are part of the "Color Energies" series whose intent is to convey different moods and emotions depending on the color that the artist has decided to use. Blue is the color of calm, of healing. The woman conveys the message of resilience and strength. Red, on the other hand, can be translated with feelings of power and strength, from posture to hairstyle the woman represented expresses confidence, self-awareness, self-confidence. Purple is the symbol of spirituality, of higher energy, but also of royalty and preciousness. It is also the combination of the two previous colors and in it there is the maximum expression of the moods previously conveyed.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Dave Thomas
Blue
Dave Thomas
Purple
Dave Thomas
Red
David “A therapy, a medicine for body and soul, a deep meditation that brings me back to the present. To reflect. Sacredness of the moment, unstoppable drive, and desire to vent lead me to brandish the brush, dip it in a black of perplexity and start a new job, where lights and shadows fight, overlap, mix and give life to paper” David
Davide Muraro, aka David Bolf was born in Thiene in 1998, he attended the Art School "A. Martini" in SCHIO and now, in the private sphere, he creates watercolor paintings and black gouache on paper. The works, made with only the black color, are the result of a long personal research, where the continuous mixing of lights and shadows perfectly reflect his character. At the international exhibition "SACRIFICE", hosted by the international art gallery M.A.D.S. he shows his Lightened tree. He says "The work depicts a totally white tree that, with a hint of hope and a new beginning, grows among the rubble and the gloomy ruins of an old building. The memory of the old extinct humanity, and the prosperity of a new and free nature that, no longer subjugated by the Sapiens, reaches out towards the light". Nature takes its revenge in David's works. The atmosphere created by the artist has something of an apocalyptic scenario. A scenario in which man is no longer present and nature takes hold in the spaces that belong to it and which in time were stolen from it for human purposes of capitalist society. The message that the artist sends to the visitor is clear and it is even more clear because it is expressed in the artistic form selected by David. He says "Everything becomes alive and real, everything vibrates with energy, blades of light and chasms of shadow. Totality. Ruins, abandoned or forgotten objects, sinister landscapes ... The legacy of the SAPIENS. There is no man in this painting, he has disappeared, he no longer dominates this world. Only VEGETATION, herbs, plants and flowers that, ravenously, devour and swallow everything that in his time was subject to the will of the human being. Not anymore. NATURE has awakened, is back, violently takes possession of the anthropic landscape among the stones and of what in the past has been badly and without respect. Everything now relives, in silence, between ruins and abandonment. Calm. Serenity. SILENCE. It is not dilapidation, it is only my vision of the world, now consumed by the neglect of man and of a nature that is increasingly rebellious and eager to take back what it has always been its own".
Art Curator Mara Cipriano
David
Lightened tree
Davide Ganora "The measure of intelligence is the ability to change." (Albert Einstein)
Davide Ganora is an Italian artist residing in Abu Dhabi. The passion for art appeared in his life from his youth, taking root in him together with the interest in music and philosophical speculation. However, it is in adulthood that Davide's artistic ideal has shifted from a personal point of view to a more universal one, fully embracing the idea that art can be a powerful tool for approaching, analyzing and improving the world. In particular, Davide has been pursuing an artistic concept for some time that goes hand in hand with an exciting ecological project (Art To Earth Project) born from the awareness of the repercussions of plastic pollution. His artworks, therefore, are the result of the artist's two souls, the creative and the scientific, which enhance and complement each other, and the work presented for "Sacrifice" - titled Perditionem sui - is a virtuous example of this. It is a splendid sequence of digital works, which immediately strike the viewer's attention for their remarkable stylistic, technical and expressive effectiveness. The compositions range with ease from figurative works, such as the poignant initial figure of a little girl, to urban landscapes up to eloquent symbolic representations, among which the last part of the sequence stands out. It is the artist himself who suggests the fil rouge that binds the various works which, occupying the facades of an ideal square, revolve around the same center, the words "plastic". Plastic is the symbolic and real center of Davide's artistic intention, which finds a way to materialize in the creative representation of a "skeleton" composed of pipes and metal elements, of a portentous glass whale that jumps to the surface from a city canal, of an unusual still life made of an ocean of floating plastic bottles. The last work of the video, on the other hand, constitutes a final, bitter thought on the consumerism, greed and narrow-mindedness that consume the Earth. With his innovative works the artist aims to bring a widespread problem under the eyes of all, to raise awareness, and to share an original solution through the universal language of art.
Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti
Davide Ganora
Perditionem sui
Delia Sveglia "In the dark, the imagination works more actively than in full light." (Immanuel Kant)
Art as an act of distancing, abstraction from oneself and from one's own rational
world: this is what Delia Sveglia bases her artistic poetics on. Darkness, mystery and restlessness become the main components of his works, suspended creations, full of a disturbing atmosphere that is difficult to understand in total rationality and concreteness. Thanks to the predominance of darkness, space ceases to exist and everything becomes darkness. But in all this a glimmer of hope, of vitality can be found, which is expressed in the desire to reach a new space thanks to this relationship with darkness. The digital technique, associated with a skilful use of colors, gives the works of Delia Sveglia a particular energetic charge, which generates a multitude of sensations in the soul of the observer and leads him to embark on an introspective journey into the darkness of his works and, perhaps, also within that of his own memories, of his own soul, to be able to find light in a new space.
Art Curator Federica Schneck
Delia Sveglia
001
Delia Sveglia
002
Delia Sveglia
003
Diane Kuster “The modern artist is working with space and time and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating.” (Jackson Pollock)
The artworks by Diane Kuster, a contemporary German artist, are magnificent explosions of colour, whose profound dynamic expression tells of tumultuous inner experiences. Unstable balances and sudden chiaroscuros take the eye on an unexpected and overwhelming journey. The decision to use bright colours conveys an intense energy, opening up the artist's intimate feelings to a vibrant dialogue with the observer. Stylistically influenced by the research of American Abstract Expressionism after World War II, Diane Kuster uses the artistic medium to express her emotions, letting them flow on the canvas, which condenses their forms. In "In my mind", one of the three paintings presented at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery for the exhibition SACRIFICE, we notice how the colours are distributed on the canvas in the form of tortuous lines, which whirl in space merging with each other. Inconsistent strokes wind around themselves in an incessant visual dance, as beautiful as it is painful. Yellows, reds and purples clash with blues, azures and whites in a compelling duel, making the whole work shine. The artist seems to have portrayed the pulsations of her heart which, during the act of painting, have at times become more intense and rapid. What we see is a continuous alternation of emotional changes, transformations of the soul, which have been directly transposed onto the canvas. "In my mind' becomes like a score, a music of the artist's soul that we can finally read and hear. Diane Kuster opens our gaze to immense inner landscapes full of scents and wonderful sounds of nature. She leaves us free to dialogue with these intense and impetuous parts of her, opening our senses and making us smell the music of an intimate spirituality.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Diane Kuster
Don't stop me now
Diane Kuster
In my mind
Diane Kuster
Modern love
Diego Knowledge Becurios
The painting depicts an apocalypse dictated by nature revolt against Man, always fighting between religion and perdition. Diego paints a stormy sea and a fire blazing on the right. On the left, the stylized face of a helpless man, desperate for the fall of the crucifix into the water. He feels lost and abandoned, forced to struggle between life and death with the power of the ocean and incessant fire. But there is still hope in this struggle for survival. A sailboat survives the storm, together with a tree, placed in the lower left corner, a symbol of strength and return to origins. A painting that find reference in Christian apocalyptic paintings. We can take for example the painting "Apocalipse" by John Martin, a painter of the nineteenth century. Mountains collapse over helpless men, red magma escapes from the earth and large dark clouds are ready to swallow everything. The tension of the scene increases from the dark hues. Diego's art is a form of expression for the deepest emotions: fragility, melancholy. Emotions accentuated by restless brushstrokes and dark colors. For the artist, painting is material. Resins, colors, plaster, lime, make the artwork three-dimensional, increasing its impact on the viewer. Everything is in motion, everything is in tension. The storm broke against the shore, the fire comes from afar, the crucifix falls and the man remains inert in his fragility. Nature seems to win against religion, but everything stops a moment before the climax, leaving the spectator stunned, but at the same time curious to know how it will end.
Art Curator Lucrezia Perropane
Diego Knowledge Becurios
Apologize
Dolores Mišković
Dolores Mišković presents “Sacred Being” for the “Sacrifice” Art exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art gallery. No matter what you decided, whether you kneel or fly with imagination, a piece of art will grow on yourself and carry you away from reality. How would you love a being if it has been taken away? Would you pursue it till the end of time? The world was built for decisions to be embraced by the same group of people. In the end, pain is left as the decision to walk through a path of enlightenment. Witnessing everything fall, develops creativity. After turmoil, clarity is perceived as a status quo, where your surroundings present you the choice to discover new perspectives. For the artist, color takes the place of sounds and spaces to contain beings. Red is Dolores’s anthem for her blues in the sky reflected on water. A red background contains an evolved being, which carries the action depicted by cool tones and reminds us of the flow of living water. Red carries the responsibility to contain life. Passion contains nature, which will continue to evolve and develop new sacred beings. Sacrifice tranquility, accept the sacredness of passion and transform it into a new life.
Art Curator Karla Peralta Málaga
Dolores Mišković
Sacred Being
Dominika Köck
The Austrian artist with Polish roots Dominika Köck takes part at "SACRIFICE"exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art gallery with five artworks that perfectly embody her dynamic yet profound and introspective style. In “DEVOTION” a man and a woman half-length naked are depicted. The man, from behind, lifts the woman to the sky, releasing all her energy and beauty. The man then uses his strength to raise the woman to heaven, a gesture that highlights all the devotion he has towards her. In “EXPLODING EMOTIONS” Dominika portrays the naked bust of a woman from whose chest a cloud of a deep color emerges from which fantastic decorations emerge. In a mix of colors exploded on the canvas from which the profile of this bust emerges, the artist seems to portray the moment of maximum pleasure of the woman, expressing therefore all her energy and beauty. In "LONGED for LOVE" it is always a woman who is portrayed but this time from behind, closed in on herself, whose dark and gray colors highlight all her sadness and desolation. As the title suggests, the woman is in fact worried about perhaps unrequited love, or a distant or unhappy love. Dominika manages well to portray this mood of immense sadness and the sense of loneliness that derives from it, so much so that on the back of the woman a lonely figure is depicted at the top of a steep and steep road, an image that perfectly represents this sense of suffering and melancholy for a finished love. The same sense of disorientation and frustration can also be found in “LOST SOUL”: all the pain and sadness live in the body of this woman curled up on herself, dressed only in her black hair that envelops her like algae. The ground on which he lies is also a dark black, hosting his fragile body with a lost soul. Finally, as in a chronological path in the works presented, from boundless love to its loss, the last work presented by Dominika is "SURRENDER": the subject is always that of a woman, shot from the back and wrapped only by her arms, as if to protect herself from the rest of the world but also from herself and from what ails her. The everconstant expedient of using light watercolor colors also returns in this work and once again it is extraordinary for depicting the moods of her subjects: the woman's back is in fact a set of colors that overlap and they amalgamate with each other, as if to represent everything that she sadly had to undergo to the point of making her a surrender.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Dominika Köck
DEVOTION
Dominika Köck
EXPLODING EMOTIONS
Dominika Köck
LONGED for LOVE
Dominika Köck
LOST SOUL
Dominika Köck
SURRENDER
Dominika Stanczak Dominika Stanczak is a young and promising artist who is able to create original and innovative artworks, both from a compositional and chromatic point of view, the result of a research matured over time. Her energetic art, somewhere between figurative and abstract, proves to be very evocative and rich in stimuli. Dominika paints without limits, she is not anchored to any specific style but learns from the world around her, from the emotions she feels and the stimuli of artistic movements, drawing on and assimilating notions. She is strongly influenced by the theme of the search for her own identity and being, especially with regard to the figure of women and their self-empowerment. These reflections are reflected in her art, which is extremely impactful but at the same time rich in stimuli for deeper reflection. In "Gaia", Dominika creates a balanced composition structured on the intersection of geometric figures and on the exaltation of the sinuosity of the curved line. The shapes fit together perfectly, creating a colourful and luminous intrigue. In the centre, an abstract, simplified female figure is flanked by a bird with a long, curved beak that is precariously balanced on the young woman's arm. Both are surrounded by a bright, shining light that recalls a golden, otherworldly universe. In the background the coloured hues of blue, green and violet are mixed together. An ambiguous and contrasting element, which gives the viewer the key to interpreting the painting, is a golden full moon in the right-hand corner of the canvas. Dominika thus places women at the centre of the work, strong and emancipated, free from prejudice, able to rise and flourish. The name "Gaia" refers to the mother of the world, the mother who generates everything and protects nature. The combination with the animal and the moon is not accidental. The acrylic is applied with a special technique that enhances the shapes, outlined by a sinuous black line, and gives them an original and varied texture. Small chromatic traces are superimposed, creating games of transparencies, reflections and stratifications that make the whole dynamic. The reference to the natural, primordial world is evident both in the choice of colour and in the subjects. Nature appears closely linked with the vital and sensual energy of the female figure, forming a harmonious whole. Dominika's style is personal and energetic, rich in references to the abstract world and with primordial forms that recall cubism. The apparent simplicity of the elements contains an intrinsic deep and evocative value. The way she applies the colour, the freedom with which she moves across the canvas and the energy of her strokes are typical of Dominika. It is interesting how she manages to combine elements in such a way that they fit together perfectly, as well as the creativity with which she manages to give dynamism and power to a three-dimensional image through the power of colour and light. Dominika is an empathetic, spontaneous and intuitive artist who lets herself be guided by her instincts and who offers the viewer a visual experience that evokes reflection through the power of colour and composition.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Dominika Stanczak
Gaia
Dorothea Van De Winkel “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire." (Gustav Mahler)
Dorothea Van De Winkel is a textile artist from Belgium. Since September 1992 the place dedicated to her artistic sacrifice is her own gallery “Galerij Theaxus”, along with her studio. Here the past meets the present in a harmonious and colourful, yet complex and intricate fusion of wool, cotton or silk wires and history. Her handwoven tapestries contain and collects two different forms of sacrifice. The one of the ancient craftsmen and artists from Oudenaarde, Dorothea’s home town, who developed the technique, and the Dorothea’s one. Who since her childhood is everyday choosing to transform a passion and a curiosity, to a profound research on materials, tools, colours and patterns; as well as to a contemporary revisitation of the traditional technique of the handwoven tapestries from Oudenaarde. The ancient
Dorothea Van De Winkel
technique from Oudenaarde to weave tapestries, connects to the artist’s lifelong objective of creating her own abstract tapestry style, as much as with her desire to let pieces of her personal history flow into her final works. As it can be seen by looking carefully through the lines and the subjects represented. In fact, the lines drawn on the sketches are elements that give an additional breath of life to her subjects, thanks to their permanence from the first moment of creation, to the whole existence of the tapestry. For her third exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art gallery, Sacrifice, she exhibits two handwoven tapestries made of cotton and wool, Impression in Colour 1 and Impression in Colour 2. The two works, as her whole artistic production have the aim to not just be contemporary pieces of art and crafts but standalone artistic elements, to add warmth to the homes who welcome them.
Art Curator Sofia Ronzi
Dorothea Van De Winkel
Impression in Colour 1
Dorothea Van De Winkel
Impression in Colour 2
Dr. Stierle-Lee, Hyerim Dr. Stierle-Lee, Hyerim presents “Interval of memory”, “Spring waltz of fragmentation of memory” and “Aggressiveness and catharsis” for the “Sacrifice” Art exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art gallery. We can stand still and close our eyes to create our own paradise with our memories. A method of loci is needed to attempt our desired perception. Usually we do not want to rush our awareness of reality, to wake up without rushing ourselves, is to believe on what we desire. Frances Yates on “The art of memory” told us about non stopping memory, telling us stories of Simonides de Ceos and Giulio Camillo, dreamers of memory as an evolution to pursue life as a means of communication. To create a palace of reminders as a keepsake of our lived treasures. Would you sacrifice your memories to pursue enlightenment? Would you risk your knowledge, for creativity? Printmaking presents problems to be solved, where accidents develop into the purest creativity. The artist presents printmaking as a process of how memory evolves into an archive palace in our mind willing to achieve a constant goal. On the first artwork, cool tones reveal the longing to purse tranquility, a moment in time is presented as a glimpse of light. “Spring waltz of fragmentation of memory” is a paired conversation, represented by two of the most contrasted colors, red and green listening at the same tune, while memory is rearranging itself to make space for more. The third artwork carries the responsibility to portray the result after the first artwork, an interlude, followed by the second one, an organization of our memories. “Aggressiveness and catharsis” represents creativity itself, which is the constant goal in an artist’s life.
Art Curator Karla Peralta Málaga
Dr. Stierle-Lee, Hyerim
Interval of memory
Dr. Stierle-Lee, Hyerim
Spring waltz of fragmentation of memory
Dr. Stierle-Lee, Hyerim
Aggressiveness and catharsis
Drowning Picture
Since ancient times, man has had the need to recreate reality through drawing. The reworking of reality through the use of a support and color can therefore be considered as an atavistic action, as if man has always had the need to create. Yet art is not fundamentally useful for anything. At least it is not useful on a practical level. Art does not feed or quench your thirst; art does not produce heat or shelter you from the elements. Art does not protect you from external agents and does not affect the duration of your life. So why do we feel this immoderate need to represent something? Why, since prehistoric times, has man wanted to express a part of himself and the world around him with cave paintings? Because we are human beings. Art is to all intents and purposes exclusive to man. No other animal uses pigments, brushes, paper and canvas in order to represent something. No other animal feels the need to paint. To fix for an indefinite time a mental image on a support is therefore exclusive prerogative of the man. The motivations? To pass on information to posterity, to record the actual reality of things, to express what lies within the deepest places of our soul and to give a new sense, a new meaning to what we see. The art of Drowning Picture falls into the latter category (if we can talk about categories). What the artist does in his works is a pictorial reworking of reality.
Drowning Picture
What the eyes see is fixed on the canvas but this recording of reality is not free from subjective interventions that distort the features and change the contours. Creation Myth essentially represents a scene at night. Characterized by greenish and bluish tones, the composition is played out entirely on the contrast between the dark background and a concrete brick placed in the center of the composition. The light, coming from the moon or from a dim bulb, is reflected on the wrinkled surface of the object, producing unprecedented light reflections on the floor. On the other hand, Old Place represents a scene that smells of everyday life, of relatives and family meals. A blue ornament - probably ceramic - introduces us to the main subject of the work: once again the brick, or rather two in this case. Although they are the same thing, although they have the same function, although they are painted by the same hand of the same artist, these two bricks have a diametrically opposed intrinsic meaning. On one side there is the cold concrete brick, a very hard and dark element, almost hidden from the light; on the other side there are two guttural red bricks on top of each other. They are not cold and their surface is rather smooth, they do not present any disturbing or disturbing features. The recording of reality is therefore shaped by Drowning Picture through a working methodology that has the task of modifying the nature of the portrayed object by creating new meanings that are always unprecedented.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Drowning Picture
Creation Myth
Drowning Picture
Old Place
Einav Canello "For 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)
Suffering, memories and past experiences
are what encourage Einav Canello to make art his medium par excellence. Through the collage technique, thoughts
and painful memories take shape and concretize an artistic imagination strongly
linked to the artist's past. The variety of colors, the nuances and their combination bring the observer closer to the artist's soul, a soul marked by difficult events which, through art, tries to escape and be reborn. The visual composition of the works expresses the convictions of Einav Canello, assimilates them to frame them and re-propose them in a new way, with a different vision. Thanks to art, any human soul, damaged by past events or heavy memories, can be healed. Every human soul can receive relief thanks to the harmonious vision of colors, which intertwine in an endless dance.
Art Curator Federica Schneck
Einav Canello
Colorful
Einav Canello
Let It Be
Einav Canello
Separation
Einav Canello
Sacrifice
Einav Canello
Nesting's Breeze
Elena Bernaldo de Quiros Spanish artist Elena Bernaldo de Quiros does not enclose herself within a stylistic category but lives the act of creation as pure and free from any pattern. When inspiration arrives, she is guided by emotions, dreams and feelings and creates works with the most suitable means for it. She often uses acrylics, alcohol-based inks, pigments and resin. The artist presents at the M.A.D.S. art gallery, on the occasion of the exhibition entitled “Sacrifice", the work entitled "My mind" made with pigments and inks based on alcohol. Elena says that the work recalls the right of freedom that women should have regarding the choice to abort. "Our feelings are surrounded by red, which makes us breathe danger and, at the same time, green with openness gives us a certain degree of freedom. Respect and accept." The feelings described by the artist are clear. On the one hand pain, danger and suffering are represented by red, placed in the center, but then everything is surrounded by green and other cheerful colors that give a positive aspect to the work, transmitting a message of hope. The U-shaped form that is recreated recalls the shape of the uterus and in general of the womb. The work presents different contrasts, both colour and style: on the left a spot encloses a geometric texture while everything else seems to be dictated by immediacy and randomness, thus creating a dualism between order and chaos, between security and uncertainty. What is certain is that the theme of sacrifice is dealt with by the artist in a complex way, with a delicate and very subjective theme, emphasizing however how important is the freedom of choice that every woman should have about her body and her life. From a stylistic point of view, the work is both conceptual and abstract and lends itself to environments that require a balance of colors and design.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Elena Bernaldo de Quiros
My Mind
Elisa Bosse
Berlin based artist and art student Elisa Bosse paints in this picture a scene of ordinary beauty. The mannerisms with the glass and the red liquid are described evoke an ideal sense of expected warmth. The waiting, the passing of time, the consolation and rest of the passer-by. However there is a feeling of something that should be hidden in this painting, lights are switched on something that must be kept in the dark. This sensation is immediate, an unpleasant place where painting finds a different collocation to liberate its natural power and strength. A swing between objective view, a glass of wine, a bottle, and a more subversive way of perceiving the image itself. Hell and paradise. the reality of the souls rather than the reality of the real, and here the object-subject back away. The configuration of the forms loses shape into the viewer’s eye, the glass of wine becomes the thirsty mouth looking for existential fluid. The colors of the fire, the transparency of the glass, this whole suggests a propitiatory event, a forecast of catastrophe and misery. A glass of wine. In total contrast to the dark flavor that this painting can generate is the convivial warmth of bodies smiling at each other, a party scene. Image of friendly construction and lightweight mold. The magic of the work of art, the simplicity of the imaginary image that takes its cue from reality. How this will strike minds in raptures in front of them is never clear and obvious, the primary meaning of the work and his intentions are often taken from the artist to begin the long journey into human memory.
“Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.” (Francisco de Goya) Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Elisa Bosse
Untitled
Emelly Velasco An idea, an emotion, a feeling come out of the artist's mind and heart and, passing through his hands, are imprinted on the material, taking shape in the colors and lines on a canvas. The artist is as if he takes a part of himself, if he deprives it, to pour it into the work of art and donate it to the world, to anyone who in turn donates time to the work of art to get in touch with it, and therefore with the artist himself. This is precisely the message that this exhibition wants to convey and the artist Emelly Velasco has given us here three works that unequivocally speak of her. For those who are familiar with Emelly's artistic work, this use of bright colors and gold immediately recognize her style, energy and communicativeness. For those who see her works for the first time, they are a real door to her world and her art. Gold is for Emelly an element that fully expresses her art and her expressive strength. An extraordinary example of the use that the artist makes of it is the work "Divine Femme": its shine, its vitality permeate the whole work and also pervade the atmosphere that is created around the work. Gold, as Emelly states in the title itself, unquestionably represents femininity, a femininity so powerful as to be divine. Emelly's works are always the representation of a strong femininity that explodes on the canvas, it is really tangible. As in the other work presented here, "Gold Licuor", gold is the undisputed protagonist. In this work, she shares the scene with the vitality of the pink color, in its various shades. The energy and intensity of this color explode on the canvas. The dynamism of the application of the color gives movement to the work and communicates all the vital energy of the artist herself. Finally, the vitality and intensity of color are also protagonists of the work "Alma Musica-Vitta". Here it is the blue color and its shades, par excellence the opposite of pink and representative, in Western culture, masculinity, to express itselves on the canvas. The real means of expression, however, is movement. The shades of color and the movement of the lines create a real symphony on the canvas, as the title itself suggests: it is as if the color danced on the canvas to the rhythm of the inner music, of the soul, of the artist. In these works we fully see Emelly, in all her expressive power!
Art Curator Silvia Grassi
Emelly Velasco
Alma Musica-Vitta
Emelly Velasco
Divine Femme
Emelly Velasco
Gold Licuor
Entela Sula
For Entela Sula, painting is a way of projecting herself into a fantastic parallel world where she can encounter forbidden or incomprehensible thoughts and bring everything she feels to reality. In the works she has chosen to present for this exhibition, she explores the complex nature of the feeling of love, which is necessity and life force, but at the same time instability and sacrifice. Red Bride investigates the ambivalent nature of marriage, the ultimate celebration of love but at the same time a compromise and sacrifice to achieve harmony with the other. The contrast is evident in the representation of a bride who, instead of wearing the traditional white dress, is depicted with the colours commonly associated with passion and sacrifice: the black with which her body is painted and the red used to represent the canonical symbols of marriage, the veil and the bouquet. The same concept is taken up in Hurt in which the red colour of the three human silhouettes is once again used to represent the ambivalence of a feeling that is intense and passionate but is also sacrifice and suffering and often ends up hurting those who give in to it. Finally, in the last of the three works presented, the artist represents one of the figures that best embodies the idea of sacrifice: the mother. The depiction is delicate and loving, as shown by the warm tones and the diffused colour in the form of filaments that envelop the two protagonists, suggesting the idea of an intense embrace. However, the variety of the colour palette also becomes a means to represent the complexity of the facets of the mother's role and to invite to reflect on the emotional and physical sacrifices she is forced to make in order to protect and provide for her children. In all three of Entela's works, the feeling that moves the characters is love. It drives them to face sacrifice and suffering with hopeful expectation. This way, the artist demonstrates that she has interpreted perfectly the concept of this exhibition, which sees hope as the origin of sacrifice and as the driving force that reveals the aspirations and ideals that lie in the soul of each of us.
Art Curator Marta Graziano
Entela Sula
Hurt
Entela Sula
Mother
Entela Sula
Red Bride
Erica Kitamura
“As a digital designer, my decision-making requires being logical and empathetic. As a painter, I have the freedom to release any constraints and choose my ways of expression”, Erica Kitamura says. She is a Japanese-American-Chilean artist whose artworks are influenced by the worlds of digital and analogue. Here, her profession as a digital designer and her passion for painting merge: two complementary worlds come together to create something unique. Erica constructs her pictorial languages free from aesthetic conventions and strict rules, mainly relying on abstractionism; she, in fact, tells that the process by which she creates her work is similar to abstract expressionism. In Erica’s peculiar abstractionism, no defined forms appear from which you can breathe a sense of freedom, self-awareness and self-connection. Here, the artist is left with her individuality. She places herself, her emotions and thoughts at the centre; personal thoughts which are inevitably influenced and affected by the world she lives in. "Dynamic Tranquillity” is a painting realised with acrylics in 2020. White, greens and blues brushstrokes create rounded movements on a black-coloured canvas. The effect is the same as the one created when diving underwater or when waves crash breaking on the rocks, where crystal clear water becomes chaotic, foaming, and different elements clash with each other. The painting appears dynamic and yet it is motionless like a captured snapshot. “How do you find peace in a world in which self-sacrifice is the expected norm?”, Erica asks. This work is her personal expression of the process of finding inner peace and tranquillity in a dynamic world that almost forces us to make sacrifices in order to live. We live walking on a slack-line, being in constant risk of falling and getting hurt, and this is why the artist invites us to find balance and tranquillity. Did you sacrifice something of yourself for living in this dynamic world?
Art Curator Martina Lattuca
Erica Kitamura
Dynamic Tranquillity
Erika Sorby “No matter how plain a woman may be, if truth and honesty are written across her face, she will be beautiful.” (Eleanor Roosevelt)
The eyes are the mirror of our soul; the mouth opens to give voice to deep thoughts, to express in words emotions that are sometimes indescribable. Every day we see many faces around us: what do we read among the wrinkles that furrow the skin of an elderly man? What do we read in the innocent smiles of a child? And amid the coarse laughter of a group of young friends? Contemporary artist Erika Sorby explores different genres of painting, among her favourites we find female portraiture. "After hiatus" was created in 2021 with the oil on board technique. The title of the work is very significant: following a long break from portraiture, Erika decided to pick up the brush again to paint a woman. Short hair, big eyes and a fleshy mouth characterize the face of the protagonist with a serious expression. Broad, instinctive, but at the same time accurate brush strokes color the protagonist, creating a pleasant contrast with the black background. Her gaze is turned towards us: what does she want to tell us? What message does she want to communicate to us? Each of us can give a free interpretation to the work: someone sees melancholy, someone suspicious, someone else sees only a stern look at the world around us. Erika through the faces she paints wants to tell a story, but at the same time invites the viewer to imagine himself a story in which he becomes the protagonist. Erika lives in her works and her works live in her.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Erika Sorby
After hiatus
Ernesto Fava “Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” (Italo Calvino)
Ernesto Fava is a contemporary Italian artist and architect whose artistic research has several different interests, including illustration and design. By fusing his different technical skills, he gives life to magnificent visual utopias, where the study of the city from a conceptual point of view is interesting. In fact, the artist-architect has launched an artistic project entitled "Digital Humanity", the aim of which is to describe the city of the future, starting from a socio-technological analysis of the present. This opens up shocking scenarios where agglomerations of buildings seem to float in the sky. In these works, the presence of man is incorporeal, we have the feeling that he is somewhere, but we do not see him, except through the billboards. The world has been transformed into a perfectly organized and majestic machine. It dominates the plain and the earth, and now the presence of man is marginal. In "La Ville Radieuse", an artwork part of the project, the prevailing golden colour communicates richness and astonishment, enchanting and attracting the eye of the observer. Exploiting the digital medium, Ernesto Fava creates a dystopian world, where the city becomes the greatest source of data collection. Suspended in the skies, it is now the Supreme Goddess who controls and manages everything. Smaller aggregations of darker hovels cling to wealth and like parasites feed on the energy of others. The virtual world concealed in The Matrix (1999), is revealed here in all its majesty and man has become an instrument from which to extract information, completely losing his identity. Ernesto Fava makes an intriguing and quite significant reading of a future where the man-machine relationship, however utopian, is not so impossible.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Ernesto Fava
La Ville Radieuse
Eva Pisana
Eva Pisana comes from a family of artists and her artistic forms of expression are an essential part of her life. The forms of her cultural reflection and work have always been very versatile, an exiting path in the course of which her artistic field of vision widened more and more as she brought together various art forms as music, theatre, and sculpture. In her sculptures made of clay and bronze, she processes the themes that characterize our human existence: the fragility and the beauty of life, and the dangers and risks that lie beneath the surface. At “SACRIFICE” exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Eva Pisana presents two of her sculptures.
Eva Pisana
“Fragilità” is a gilded bronze that portrays a naked woman without limbs. In some points of the work, the bronze seems almost corroded, removed, so much so as to deprive the woman of her arms and legs from the knee down, giving the whole a sense of fragility. What the artist wants to do with this expedient is to investigate the human condition, what lies behind our mask and what we want to show to the outside through the deconstruction of the common sculpture that is part of the collective imagination to create something again, unique and profound. The other work presented in the exhibition is "Trittico", a sculpture in ceramic and rust divided into three plates. In each of them, figures exalted in their movements and physicality intertwine, overlap, creating new, complex and sinuous shapes. Once again, Eva intends to investigate the complexity of the human being and in this case of human relationships: in fact, life is a succession of encounters from which we come out improved or worsened, some short, others lasting and in almost anthropological terms, Eva investigates the depth of the human being and his vulnerability and complex fragility.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Eva Pisana
Fragilità
Eva Pisana
Trittico
Fabien Durif "We don't live life. We consume it." (Vicki Robin)
Rebirth. this is what Fabien Durif tries to represent, and he does so by combining collage and other different pictorial techniques in a completely original and atypical way. Distorted faces, bodies and figures populate his artistic imagination, defined by a chosen palette of few but precise colors. One figure, more than the others, stands out within the work: an angel, who with his large wings manages to occupy a large part of the work. Angel as a fantastic projection of man, of a renewed and awaited consciousness no longer dedicated to appearance, to material belonging but to being, to living oneself far from our world, that concrete world based on consumerism and on a society that rewards appearance. But Durif perfectly manages to realize the idea of a new world, a world founded on the hope of an awareness, an awareness of who we are and what are the most important values.
Art Curator Federica Schneck
Fabien Durif
The End of Fucking World - CITY OF ANGELS #1
Fabrice Espiard
Fabrice Espiard is an introspective artist. Each appointment with his works is an opportunity to look inside his thoughts, his way of perceiving the world and himself. All the formal choices made by the artist Fabrice Espiard are all justified by a need, that is to semantically communicate a message. Therefore the lines are not conducted on the canvas to signal an emotional impulse, but correspond to a specific discourse that the artist wants to make to communicate with otherness on the other side of the canvas. And in fact, although the style used could refer to action painting, the intention that moves the composition is weighted and calibrated before its realization. Looking at the painting presented on the occasion of the Sacrifice international exhibition entitled Apparences, we can see how the work is layered into different parts. The first lines to emerge are the yellow ones, they create a grid by definition, to support another network of well-defined color, this time red. As a last layer the blue background. The order in which the stratification of these elements is composed corresponds to the artist's desire to talk about the process of human discovery. As if the human psyche were made up of various elements in which the appearance is only the initial image capable of concealing all the rest of the elements. In fact, the yellow net conceals the underlying one made up of the red lines and then the blue backdrop as if it were a veil. The observer is therefore invited to investigate the painting in its depth as if this were an invitation to be translated into human relationships. In fact, in the encounter with the other, the artist invites us to untie the knots of the yellow net created by appearances to discover new veins of color and shades, as if it were the most precious part, which one likes re in the eyes and creates the taste of the encounter.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Fabrice Espiard
Apparences
Faye Bostock (Sexy as Soup) “Vision, is the art of seeing things that are invisible.” (Jonathan Swift)
Faye Bostock (Sexy as Soup) exposes for the international exhibition “Sacrifice” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery two works (“Ethereal dodie” e “Soup trip”) through which fundamental aspects of her artistic practice emerge, such as the choice of bright colors and undulating geometric patterns. Thanks to the use of bright, contrasting and almost fluorescent nuances, her works can be included in the artistic genre defined as “psychedelic”. Developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this style converged with the rock music of the time, as well as with the design of certain graphics for concert posters, album covers, murals, comics and so on. All this strikes a chord with Faye's creative phase and aesthetic conception: every aspect is clearly visible in these two works.
Faye Bostock (Sexy as Soup)
In “Ethereal dodie”, the artist is inspired by the song “Air so sweet” composed by Dodie Clark: in fact, she depicts the silhouette of the musician intent on dancing, while her long hair and dress move rhythmically in the wind. While in “Soup trip”, one can witness the sudden change of mood or personality in the portrait of the young woman depicted: although her image is repeated five times, only two moods can be seen and her face changes radically from genuine happiness to dismay. In both artworks, the background plays a crucial role: through the repetition of patterns, colors and designs, the artist invites the viewer to immerse himself/herself completely in a surreal and metaphysical dimension composed of pure energy. The observer is involved on an emotional level, but above all in an opticalperceptual way: everything moves and evolves with strength and dynamism!
“I run barefoot, shoes at the door. The air so sweet, I gulp and gasp for more. A night so still, I dance, I soar. Oh, this is what I'm living for.” (Dodie Clark)
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Faye Bostock (Sexy as Soup)
Ethereal dodie
Faye Bostock (Sexy as Soup)
Soup trip
Filipe De Merisi “Color is a means of exerting a direct influence on the Soul. Color is the key. The eye is the hammer. The Soul is a piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that with this or that key brings the soul to vibrate." (Wassily Kandinsky)
Filipe De Merisi's works are distinguished by a strong chromatic impact and by the ability to create energetic, ambiguous and, at times, mysterious portraits. Observing the two works of the artist, the observer is tempted to ask himself about who he is observing, about his soul and past life experiences. Through a precise artistic poetics linked to a personal imagination and based on his own experiences, the artist creates unconventional narrative silhouettes that call for a reflection on issues such as loneliness, nostalgia and perseverance.
Filipe De Merisi
The artist's soul is clearly visible within his works, and this choice only enriches the meaning and value of the latter, which they aim to touch people, to evoke in them a sense of wondering, dream-like transformation. Art as the process of creating a personal world, far from any rational interpretation, an art that intends to reach people's hearts, to evoke in them wonder and dreamlike transformation.
Art Curator Federica Schneck
Filipe De Merisi
Corona
Filipe De Merisi
Sacrifice
Florencia van den Berg "I don't paint: I use objects that have the appearance of paintings, because chance has made this expressive form better suited to my senses." (René Magritte)
When digital developments began in the 1950s and 1960s, no one could have expected that within thirty years we would have reached sufficient digital maturity to produce true artistic masterpieces. With the advent of the 90s and the first also develope video games, the first short and long films in 3D. With the editing tools we have nowadays we are able to digitally create music, images, animations, sounds and colors. Digital art doesn't remain useful for informational or advertising purposes only, it also becomes a necessity for artists to discover new horizons of artistic production, artists such as the young Florencia van den Berg. Her enormous sensitivity and her artistic talent also manage to reach our sensitivity through the digital tools in her hands to become real visual stories. Florencia van den Berg's story develops accompanied by the sound reproduction that touches our inner chords and transports us to a dimension of inner peace in which we flow in time with the digital embrace of her dancing in the center of the surrealist scene in front of us. We are faced with progress and classicism at the same time. The real sacrifice is to stop admiring the dancing infinity.
Art Curator Letizia Perrieri
Florencia van den Berg
Illusion
Florian Casteran
The visual path created by the artist Florian Casteran presented on the occasion of the international exhibition Sacrifice, tells about different ways of looking at and understanding the female figure. The four paintings construct the story of a woman seen in four phases of her life. Starting from the first painting entitled Malice. The portrait retrieves a famous photo by Seve Mc Curry which portrays an Afghan woman with green eyes. Florian Caster, remaining faithful to the image of the photograph, brings back and accentuates some elements or nuances that he considers more significant also in reference to the series of other paintings. In fact, it is the woman in her youth who wants to be portrayed, the green eyes are highlighted, like being magnets intent on capturing the observer's gaze. The red cloth with which he covers his face is the legacy of a culture alien to the Western one in which youth is hidden almost hidden out of modesty. And in fact the figure who celebrates hiding in front of the camera now seems to reproduce the gesture for the observer's gaze. Youth, as well as female beauty, seems to want to hide to leave room for the imagination as if the woman's face would be completed with an image created by the viewer. The second painting seems to oppose the intentions of the first. In this case, the image of the woman is revealed to show itself in its entirety to the observer. The woman is portrayed in the act of laughing almost brazenly as if she didn't want to hide but show herself in her best years. It is no coincidence that the colors used for the woman's face are the same as those used for the face of Malice, the first figure. So the green eyes are toned, but also the bandana shows the red motifs as if it were the same image but seen through the filter of a culture but also a different representative intention.
Florian Casteran
The third image represents a woman in another phase of her life, a more adult phase. The veil insert is back to cover the face. However, this time its transparency reveals the facial expression of the woman. In fact, the title of the painting is Rèsignation, or resignation. This means that the artist in this case wants to represent the passing of the years and the consequent resignation to the passing of time. A resignation, however, not to be understood in a depressive form but a simple acceptance of the things of life, like the signs of time on the face. The last painting in the series entitled Nostalgies, depicts an elderly woman using a needle and thread. The woman in the portrait seems to be surprised the moment she carries out an action and for this reason she lets herself be portrayed in all her spontaneity as if she wanted to be looked at in a moment of daily spontaneity. Referring to the title of the painting, it is easy to understand the intention of this last piece of the series. In this case, femininity is seen through the filter of old age, the moment of memories. In fact, in this case the woman does not cover her face as before, but shows the signs of her life naturally, tacitly. In fact, the woman shows herself completely immersed in her thoughts, not caring about the observer, as if nothing good should happen to her anymore, as if the time of her life had already passed. In these four images the artist Florien, with a coherent artistic style, told us four ways of understanding the female instance, but above all the way in which he perceives the female image in all its forms. In this way, creating a game of reflections and correspondences, in which the observer can recognize himself in the nostalgia and resignation of time or only in the proud and bold gaze of a woman in the best years.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Florian Casteran
Malice
Florian Casteran
Insouciance
Florian Casteran
Résignation
Florian Casteran
Nostalgie
Francesca Damkar
“There needs to be a revolution every single day.” Rosy Keyser
Francesca Damkar is an American illustrator. She deals with comics and writing. Her art is typically didactic, the direct translation of thought and history into a two-dimensional image. In this digital painting she depicts the three sacrificial phases of the little mermaid, a very famous story born in Denmark and told all over the world. A young mermaid wishes to abandon marine life to embrace earthly existence, she thus sacrifices her own voice - sacrifice one - in order to replace her fishtail with human legs -sacrifice two. Subsequently she sacrifices her own life in place of the beloved’s one - number 3 which will drive her to transform and become foam of waves. The artist illustrates these three phases as a religious icon, a figurine, a holy card to be kept forever. In this case one wonders if the protagonist's voluntary sacrifice is also completely aware of the possibility of another way. The resulting celebration is unsuitable and inadequate, totally out of context and irrationally perceived as sanctifiable. The composition and technique of color and sign refer to a feeling of a super heroine, one and three, magical fighter whose sacrificed life has fulfilled her mission anyway. This work says a lot about the true condition of the idea of woman which still exists today. One and three, woman, mother and wife, naturally inclined to sacrifice. The infantilization of the feminine representation is also evident from the choices that led to the realization of this painting. Francesca Damkar therefore presents a work with a splendidly feminist and contemporary relevancy imprint.
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Francesca Damkar
The Three Faces of Sacrifice
Francesca Loi “Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present.” (Friedrich Nietzsche)
Today, thanks to the new digital tools, the art of collage is once again consulted and valued. As in traditional collage but with the help of photography and technology, the artist Francesca Loi creates photomontages modifying ulteriorly through the use of mobile phone and computer apps such as Picsart or Mextures that make the images uniform and detailed. Thus, with a unique and somewhat creepy style the artist is free to express herself without limits of materials or technique. In Santa Claus is coming, the artist has created an atypical Santa Claus: a smiling and bad skull appears at the viewer with a long white beard and red Christmas hat. Accompanied by a skeleton reindeer in the background, the grotesque character seems to refer to Jack Skeletron, the protagonist of the animated film "Nightmare Before Christmas" directed by Henry Selick, conceived and co-produced by Tim Burton in 1993. The image is uniformed by blood red spatter. Inspired by the horror novel The Dark Half by Stephen King published in 1989, the artist’s second artwork represents the conflicting cohesion with our alter ego: the other ego with hidden facets inhabiting within us. Through the representation of a sculptural head with a vitreous eye and its skeletal half, the conflict between the two personalities becomes lively and incisive. The black and white shades between the two parts converge in a bright red that colors the lips of the white statue. This one, looking at the viewer, smiles with its half arousing anxiety. In the last artwork, The portrait, the artist Francesca Loi superimposes the image of a skull on the photo of a female relief. Framed by an elegant oval decorated with flowers and leaves and characterized by small green grains, the subject represents the transience of life. In 1916, in a short essay entitled "On transience", Sigmund Freud argued that both fleeting and transient phenomena are indisputable, but all this cannot diminish the very value of beauty and lived moments.
Art Curator Marina Maggiore
Francesca Loi
Santa Claus is coming
Francesca Loi
The dark half
Francesca Loi
The portrait
Francis Robateau “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” (Nelson Mandela)
Core of a multicultural population, Belize is a small state in Central America that maintains strong connections with the United Kingdom. From the seventeenth century it was in fact colonized by the British monarchy which gave rise to a strong oppression against indigenous people and African slaves imported to increase the extraction of timber. Although Belize gained independence in 1981, Queen Elizabeth II of England is still formally the head of state. Even today, depicted smiling and proud of Belizean currency, the queen wears her luxurious crown and sumptuous necklace. Like a ready-made, the artist Francis Robateau deprives the banknote of its utilitarian function by transforming it into an interesting screen-print on canvas. The artwork is the result of a process in which the application of a set of materials such as ink, oil and pigments during rubbing and smoothing reveal to complex and layered compositions, almost as if to represent that multiculturalism of which the artist himself is a part. The colored background emphasizes the gloomy representation of the queen who in her skeletal and disturbing form symbolizes a strong rejection of the British monarchy colonization, a strengthening ties with African Nations but above all a clear denunciation of the sacrifice of slavery.
Art Curator Marina Maggiore
Francis Robateau
Subject to Interpretation
Franckie Chegrani
A sad yet danceable gipsy ballad is playing in the background, weed creatures are attacking a fertile prolific world, an astronomical landscape of a valuable mind setting. Franckie Ghegrani’s work shows the absolute peace of chaotic souls. Bloody scratches are hidden behind the well boring result of blue and yellow, green has always had this balancing function and the artist uses it very wisely. A more central figure can be a file rouge of the acrylic paintings the author produces himself, with a first look the said file rouge can be recognised as the human magenta shape, but with a closer look, it can be found in the more organic form with very bright pastel tones. A sad mouth with light blue teeth, a nucleo communicating with its pair, a winged chariot. Ghegrani’s work and research touches gives an inside look of his life and story, This works of art are the perfect example of what can be felt as unique but fits all at the same time. The artist’s story is not important for the viewer, although it’s a plus in a multitude of points of view, these paintings contain a secret to be unlocked like a pandora's box, the secret of each of us, the skeletons in the closet, the subtle joys and the healed wounds. Paintings composed like large miniatures to be admired and slowly discovered. Infinite numbers of scenes can be revealed looking at these abstract pictures, quoting one of the works’ titles, in front of these paintings the viewer has the incredible opportunity to navigate into the condition of the other.
“Energy and motion made visible – memories arrested in space” (Jackson Pollock)
Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Franckie Chegrani
AGITATION SANS PLAINTE
Franckie Chegrani
DETOURNEMENT DES LIMITES
Franckie Chegrani
MYSTERE SOURNOIS
Franco Smith
Franco Smith is an Italian-English photographer, for the first time a guest at an exhibition organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, on the occasion of "SACRIFCE" exhibits three works that are part of a photographic project aimed at telling places, stories and sensations. The three works on display are digital photographic collages that convey a unique and different atmosphere for each of them. The artist's ability to create surreal worlds starting from what he experiences is what makes these works incredibly impactful and powerful from an evocative point of view. "Room n. 3 - THE WAITING (Cornwall 2011) "heparin all the range of feelings related to waiting, calm and silence. As the artist explains “People seemed to float waiting for something to happen. It is a place where time seems to be insubstantial. "Room n. 9 - ARISE - (Berlin 2012) "expresses extremely contrasting emotions, the central element of the work is the Holocaust Memorial, it is evident that the artist wants to emphasize the importance of memory, approached to the child with a dark gaze, almost sad, expresses precisely this: everyone, even the new generations must be conscious and aware of what has happened: “Growing up forgetting what happened would be unforgivable.” Says Franco Smith.The resulting sensations are contrasting because the artist combines distressing elements with elements that represent the modernity of the city, such as the pink pipes, and the two boys laughing while photographing. Finally, “Room n. 12 - LA BALLATA DEL LAVELLO - (Pantelleria 2017) "expresses a different point of view on the world, Franco Smith masterfully tells how much beauty can have a dark side, and expresses it by telling the details of an Italian island of disconcerting beauty but very hard: “This piece is about unconventional perspective. Pantelleria is an island full of contrasts. It is known for its exclusive tourism and charming atmosphere. This work is focused on a hidden side of the island. A side where potable water does not exist in nature and it is brought home by tank truck. A side where all is in a very thin balance between beauty and hardness.” Illustrates the artist. Smith's works have the disruptive power of subversion of structures imposed and recognized as valid, the artist recounts his own vision of the world in his own way, eliminating superfluous details and highlighting the essence.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Franco Smith
Room n. 3 - THE WAITING - (Cornwall 2011)
Franco Smith
Room n. 9 - ARISE - (Berlin 2012)
Franco Smith
Room n. 12 - THE SINK BALLADE - (Pantelleria 2017)
Fritzi-Henrike Ernestine Fechner "The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Fritzi-Henrike Ernestine Fechner is a young and talented artist living in Germany. As a personality with precocious aptitudes, Fritzi has distinguished herself from childhood with remarkable artistic skills, which have been refined during the academic years and allowed her to participate in projects with important international artists. Her experimental and versatile nature has led her to explore numerous techniques, such as graphite and carbon, acrylic, spray paint. The works presented for "Sacrifice", in fact, fully show this technical variety, and demonstrate a great mastery in the creation of a unique and innovative style. Aching Heart is a splendid example of this. From a backdrop, painted with vigorous brushstrokes, a white, diaphanous figure emerges, which immediately strikes the eye and the interest of the beholder. It almost seems to float in the dark background, and holds the heart in the hand, which has left a dark chasm in the chest. The almost cartoon-like essentiality of the representation is lit in the red color of the upper part of the work, evoking the warm vermilion streams that pulsate inside a wounded heart. Flowing mind differs considerably from this genre, and represents an abstract work in shades of green, orange and yellow. The artist succeeds in giving color and dimension to the swirling flow of thoughts that stir in her mind, and from which the incorporeal silhouettes of flowers, butterflies, and skulls emerge, in a style that recalls the splendid decorations of the art of Islamic calligraphy. Finally Sacred Thoughts is configured as a work with an effectively expressed symbolic value. The whole, in fact, expresses an extraordinary visual but above all metaphysical strength. From the blinding golden glow in the center of the canvas, reminiscent of the powerful flash of fire, a snake stands out, wrapped around an undefined shape, barely visible but perceptible from the nuances of orange and the course of the coils. As the mythological narratives often speak of dragons placed as guardians of great riches, the snake represented here is the silent keeper of something equally precious, a shining thought hidden and guarded as the most priceless of treasures.
Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti
Fritzi-Henrike Ernestine Fechner
Aching Heart
Fritzi-Henrike Ernestine Fechner
Flowing mind
Fritzi-Henrike Ernestine Fechner
Sacred Thoughts
Fujimoto Chisato
Layers of color follow one another. Sunrise is a chromatic dance that permeates our sight, satisfying it with its expressive power. Brushstrokes and spatulae of pigment are spread with sudden speed on the support. There is no empty space, it is not possible to see the white of the canvas: the color has occupied all the available space to let itself be represented to the full of its needs. Fiery tongues peep out from the lower part of the work. Streaks of brownish red, then bright red and then again pinkish layered one on top of the other and know each other. It is an energetic dance nourished by the incendiary force of the burning flames. The atmosphere is warm, but not smoky. The air is clear and a sensation of freshness seems to resonate from those flashes of bluish pigment at the top of the work. Shy petrol-colored spots at first, then ultramarine blue follow one another and stick to the support, confident of their expressive power. Once upon a time, a few moments before the events narrated on the canvas, the pictorial atmosphere was characterized exclusively by these red brushstrokes; a red so deep as to be almost fiery. One could combine the voices, the sound of crickets on a particularly hot summer day, the streets full of cars rushing to get home. And so it is that Sunrise is the energetic pictorial representation of what happens cyclically in our sky, above our heads. Colors and representative vigor dance in unison to portray what happens every day but of which we often do not enjoy the nuances, its peculiar characteristics. Tired and fatigued or stopped in the traffic of our city we struggle to raise our eyes to the sky and we forget the wonder that daily shows above our lives. The wonder of the sunset takes the form of Chisato's work, dressing itself in its wonderful and garish colors. Looking at Sunrise, one has the sensation of perceiving the crisp and fresh evening breeze accompanied by the gradual darkening of the sky; one can feel the humidity of the night air that slowly intoxicates the earth and our limbs, preparing us for a deep sleep. The brightest star in our sky is, in this work, about to go to bed, all we have to do is follow his advice. Now silence reigns supreme, no shadow in the depths of the night, no sound in the oblivion of sleep. The blue, the black, the abyss of the calm and placid night will pour onto the canvas until a new dawn arrives.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Fujimoto Chisato
Sunset
Fumito Nukui
Water is in the origins. From mythological waters originated the universe, from oceanic waters emerged the land, in marine waters was formed life, in uterine waters develops the fetus, in broths of culture grow biological colonies. Heraclitus took the image of a river to express the universal flow of existence: panta rei, everything flows in life and in what is alive. Reality is in perpetual becoming: day follows night, birth follows death, satiety follows hunger and so on. This supreme principle regulates the world without producing contradictions, just as a river flows incessantly and receives ever new waters without ceasing to be a river. A stream of water falls docilely from the top of the representation. Reflecting and making visible the colors of the space in which it is immersed, the flow is light but extremely dense at the same time. We, the spectators, do not know its true nature: it may be water or some other element and yet it falls, it keeps falling from above without stopping, its motion is incessant. The perpetual flow is suddenly interrupted by something. The palm of a hand deflects the flow of water. With its presence, the water occupies a large part of the work. The water descends, rests on the skin - wetting it - and then falls back, enveloping the hand in its humid embrace. Yet, there are neither splashes nor drops that hover in the air due to the contact between the water and the hand. Everything is smooth and everything flows smoothly. In some ways it feels like that stream of liquid is literally entering the palm, gently digging its way in. The skin is pinkish, almost orangey in places. The chiaroscuro is decidedly powerful, so much so as to obscure the shadier parts of the limb and confuse them with the background. The light that floods the hand illuminates its structure and consistency, highlighting its unusual peculiarities. There are no pores, that hand does not seem to have the texture and structure of an ordinary hand. There is something that escapes our understanding, something that is hidden in that skin so smooth and at the same time so soft. The dark shadows and light spots enhance an almost wavy and threadlike structure that, modulating itself in the different declinations goes to form first the wrist, then the palm and finally the five tapered fingers. No pores, no veins, no stains. There is nothing to remind one of any hand, a hand that bears the signs of flowing life. That hand has the appearance of water, those fingers are as fluid as is that jet of water that rests gently on the palm. Is it the water that creates the hand, is it the hand that creates that jet of water? We cannot know. What Flowing certainly suggests is the union between these two elements. A bond so solid there is no doubt in our minds: the water is transformed into something solid; the hand takes on the appearance of a continuous flow that flows perpetually in the becoming.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Fumito Nukui
Flowing
Gabriele Monte Italian artist Gabriele Monte presents his second virtual work created to be seen through the virtual reality system. This time Gabriele creates a room with a futuristic look, using bright colors such as blue and pink, yellow and orange. He wants to represent the Jesus Christ Passion in a futuristic dystopian key, a parallelism of Jesus who died on the cross for his sins while, in the artwork, the modern man is crucified for his “modern” sins. Gabriele wants to convey in first person, the ascent into heaven of modern man through three subdivision floors by category: money, love and body image. In each floor nails are planted in correspondence with the limbs, every aspect of life previously mentioned needs a sacrifice, in this case physical and painful. In this artworks there are numerous references to Catholic symbolism the most important is certainly Matthew 27:42 that could be considered the main incipit of the artwork. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.” Gabriele wants to invite the viewer to find a meaning in this sentence, at the same time giving a way to understand the artwork without revealing its full meaning. On the roof of the dome there is the Alpha and Omega always visible above you, the cross passes like an elevator to the various floors. All this wants to represent God in a key concrete visible from the beginning to the end, without the possibility of salvation, as the narrator says in the artwork, you will have to do this again and again, representing the eternal suffering of man, from the beginning condemned to suffer for his own needs, assuming a God and a purpose that perhaps he will never reach. Once again Gabriele Monte offers spectators a raw experience, which aims at reflection through the upheaval.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Gabriele Monte
Casta meretrix
Gaëtan Desjardins Every artist through art builds the link between the real world and the world of the invisible. Thanks to the art it is made visible. In this sense, art is the only mode of expression with which to see and, at the same time, show what is not visible. Gaëtan Desjardins expresses through his work “Tournmentée” something that the woman portrayed feels and that it would not be possible to see so well with the eyes. The artist highlights the torment and the opposing emotions, represented by complementary colours that overlap and deform the features of the female face. The subject’s emotions create a sort of ethnic and colourful mask on her face and make her unrecognizable. The eyes of the woman are green and bright, illuminated and large, filled with that same emotion that colors her face, the coloured emotions and torments color only the face of the woman, while the rest of the body is represented with natural colours. The lady’s pose suggests that she is waiting, she is leaning toward something she is looking at with her eyes wide open. Gaëtan makes the woman’s emotions extremely perceptible, represents them in a very expressive and a little impressionist, and, through the mask of colored thoughts manages to unmask the true essence of the woman. The face of the woman in the real world would be different, and yet the artist, through his art, shows another reality, invisible on a physical level, yet extremely present in the life of every human creature.
“The magic of art for me is to give life to a blank canvas by depicting an imagined reality. Scrolling through my brushes and adding various colours to them allows me to create a world of possibility. I am inspired by my environment, my surroundings and my crazy ideas to create my works” (Gaëtan Desjardins)
Art Curator Sara Giannini
Gaëtan Desjardins
Tournmentée
Gerald Winkler "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child." (Pablo Picasso)
Gerald Winkler is an apparently simple and linear painter, but his personal artistic poetics reflects the vision of a world as fantastic and idealized as it is curious and mysterious, namely that of children. Simple faces with dreamy looks and simple but high-impact colors for the realization of a specific expression or mood. Through angular, decisive and marked lines in the wake of Ernst Kirchner, Gerald Winkler manages to create a strong connection with the observer, within which the eyes play a crucial role. The glances, between the observer and the protagonists of the work, almost becomes a dance that leads the observer to reflect on deep and intimate themes, linked to their past and their memories.
Art Curator Federica Schneck
Gerald Winkler
Two women
Giorgia Leva "It is delightful to be immersed in this kind of liquid light that makes us different and suspended beings" (Paul Claudel)
The work of the artist Giorgia presents two characterizing elements: dark and light, defined by dark colors such as black and brown and by brighter shades that move from yellow ocher to white. The bright colors break the darkness, the light pierces the darkness and becomes the protagonist and center of the work. The work "Anime" is the synthesis of opposites that coexist and create a perfect balance, where one cannot exist without the other. Colors play a fundamental role, intense and fluid, dark and light, they are the real subjects of the composition. Giorgia represents a moment, something magical and unique, in her work she condenses all the energy that she herself possesses. A totally abstract work, in which something mystical and spiritual lives, it is not possible to see or touch, yet the viewer is totally involved. The bright colors that dominate the upper part of the work somehow represent the energy that the artist is able to unleash. A force that guides emotions and feelings, which take the observer by the hand and put him in direct contact with the soul of the artist, in fact the work is like a bridge between us and Giorgia. The work of the young artist is clearly of abstractionist inspiration, color moves freely in space, there are no borders and signs that outline the figures, the strength of color finds extreme freedom and manages to express itself without doubts. The great value of the artist Giorgia consists precisely in the great expressive capacity only through the use of color. Getting in touch with Giorgia's artistic work means discovering and getting in touch with something transcendental and enchanted, the artist gives us the gift of the magic that lives in her art. Artists have always had the task of arousing emotions or making the observer reflect, this is the role that works of art possess, in fact Giorgia succeeds perfectly in this task. The viewer, in front of the artist's work, is captured by the abstract and the emotions connected to it, remaining suspended between magic and reality driven by a strong power that the work itself emanates. Definitely, Giorgia's work possesses a surprising energy that allows us to get in touch with the soul of the artist.
Art Curator Vanessa Viti
Giorgia Leva
Anime
Giorgio Bo “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” (Thomas Merton)
Painter. Barman. Writer. Singer. Charlatan. Son of art, Giorgio Bo was born in Milan where he lives and works. Growing up in an artistic environment, he immediately manifested his love for colors and art, in particular for black ink, which shepherd him from his first works to the most recent works. Since adolescence he has had the necessity to trace incomprehensible shapes in black ink that over time have evolved into more open spaces where you get lost and find yourself throughout the colors of fluid spaces and sinuous lines. Giorgio's path has evolved in the use of acrylics on canvas and oils, it has also been oriented towards the experimentation of industrial materials and has resulted, in the period of isolation from a pandemic, in attempts on photographic paper. These latest works focus on the process of creating vaguely anthropomorphic figures, perhaps archetypes of the collective unconscious. They make us feel tubes from which ink flows and gushes to flow into a sea of bright and brilliant colors, suggestive and intriguing. The artist's paintings express life and strength, transmit his passion and refer us to his origins. Looking at the mixture of lines and colors that interact with each other we move between the notes of his sax, we perceive the electricity of his bass, we feel the creativity of his writing. But above all we get lost in his imagination. From the soft lines we imagine the particular and unique flavors of the cocktails he invented, the result of a mixture of artistic experiences and decorations. We savor every sip, every brushstroke, we relish every flavor of the colors and we want more, we want to get drunk on Giorgio's paintings.
Art Curator Giulia Fontanesi
Giorgio Bo
Detachment
Gloria Keh “Colour is a power which directly influences the soul.” (Wassily Kandinsky)
The artworks of Gloria Keh, a contemporary Malaysian artist, condense deep meanings in order to tell the complexity of life in its eternal return. Strongly linked to abstract research, her aim is to investigate the intricate weave of the unconscious, through an in-depth study of symbols and colour. The latter becomes the artist's expressive medium par excellence, in an attempt to convey different meanings and emotions each time. In "Crucifixion", a work presented at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery for the exhibition SACRIFICE, the artist explores the theme, enveloping the whole vision in a bright red colour, emblem of passion, desire, energy and vital force. The main subject is a silhouette with female features accompanied by a series of symbols such as the cross, the circle and the lotus flower. She is shown to us with her arms raised, as if she were crucified. The reference to the Christian religion and the figure of Christ is very interesting here. The suffering and sacrifice that religious imagery brings with it, is emblematically used here to describe the female universe. The other symbols also contribute to intensify the meaning of the painting, as the circle, a symbol of cyclical time, of the spirit and of the immateriality of the soul, combined with the lotus flower, a symbol of purity and great inner beauty, become representative of the immense strength of woman as the personification of Nature. Mother Earth, Mother of all, who constantly sacrifices herself in order to spread her vital energy throughout the universe.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Gloria Keh
Crucifixion
Gorica "It's never too late for a new love - whether for someone, for something, for yourself or for art. Art finds you" Gorica
"Windows fascinate me. They make me take a closer look. And there is nothing more incredible to me than the universe. And yet we seldom take the time to look at and enjoy the most beautiful things nature has to offer with due respect. I would like to change this with my picture - let's sit back and look through the galactic windows into infinity and the beauty of the universe": at the international exhibition "SACRIFICE", hosted by the international art gallery M.A.D.S. Gorica Kiesshauer presents her Galactic windows. Gorica represents open windows on the universe. The atmosphere, the choice of the color palette, the wise and conscious use of the pictorial tools create a glimpse into a parallel universe which is the infinite but which is also the inner world of the artist. Likewise, the windows open onto the context created by the artist allow us to embark on a journey into nature, towards infinity and towards our interiority. A window is an opening to something. it is the connection with the outside world, it represents at the same time the freedom and the infinite possibilities of nature, man and his imagination. Gorica is a native Serb, but she has been living in Munich for 47 years. Her love for sport and her big heart for animals and animal welfare have always helped her to find a balance between working as an analyst and the sometimes-stressful everyday life. But it wasn't until not so long ago that she discovered her love for abstract acrylic painting by pure chance that she noticed how much pent-up creativity she had. Her head seems to be exploding with creativity. So she taught herself abstract painting and pouring as an autodidact. She’s so grateful to have found the “missing piece of the puzzle” in her life in painting. In fact, it reflects most of her personality. Since then she can finally express her love for colors, shapes, her ideas, feelings, and emotions of all kinds. Since then, the pictures have literally gushed onto the canvas. She does this for herself first and foremost. It fills her with so much joy and gratitude every time.
Art Curator Mara Cipriano
Gorica
Galactic windows
Gregory Logan Dunn "Abstract art does not exist. You always have to start with something. Afterwards you can remove all traces of reality" (Pablo Picasso)
"The starting point of Gregory Logan Dunn's art is to explore the intersection of spirituality and consciousness through layers of paint dragged across the surface creating different amounts of transparency and viscosity in the paint itself. Looking at Gregory's work, we sometimes get the impression that a work of art is silently observing the inside of ourselves, an intersection of spirituality and consciousness, perceiving this full energy through its chromatic reliefs, determined by the paint spread on the canvas, ... we then slowly discover the mystery in the artist's hand and in his rhythmic gestures. This process hides and reveals the artistic process itself, visions remembered and visions unseen. There is thus a search for truth in the form of vision that cannot be articulated in a definitive image, but in the very fabric and form of his works".
"A geometric point is an abstraction of the spirit". (Voltaire)
Gregory Logan Dunn
"Painting must grasp that relationship that includes the need to identify with things and the need for abstraction." (Carlo Carrà)
"Gregory Logan Dunn's creativity finds its ideal dimension in the in-depth study of the aspect of colour in its most hidden essences, as in "Absolute Nether Divining Infinty" and "I, Corona". In the first work, the artist constructs a composition with multi-layered blue colours: the superimpositions intersect each other, creating a design almost separate from the dense red network that branches out below. With this image, the artist tries, as in all his works, to explore the world through his layers of dense paint which at the same time remains light, like the eyes of the observer. The representation, however, is not only directed at the interiority, in "I, Corona", it is rather a double level of reading, in which Gregory's interest in having to express the desire for lust and attachment must be remembered. This implies a more "external" reflection in the vision of his art: the artist seems to imagine it as something in constant movement and development, capable of making us ask questions about ourselves".
"Concrete examples are the executioners of abstract ideas". (Nicolás Gómez Dávila).
Gregory Logan Dunn
"Music is the only passage that unites the abstract with the concrete". (Antonin Artaud)
"In " Constance Undawning " and " Gethesmane " Gregory explores the intersection of spirituality and science, trying to examine these complexities through bright and vibrant colours that create a sinuous weave of light. The constant in Gregory's work is the recurrence of ethereal "forms" that aim to relate to everyone, creating a unique accessibility that engages the viewer's sensibilities. In his latest work, "Halo and Nautilus", the viewer's eye focuses on the vigorous layers of greenish, yellow and red tones that seem to evoke evanescent images, ready to change with every glance, encapsulating the artist's personal concept of mysticism: something difficult to grasp fully at first glance, of a continuous and endless search for one's identity in the contemporary world".
"Pure coherence, is a delusion, is an abstract delusion". (Edgar Morin)
Art Curator Valentina Valentini
Gregory Logan Dunn
Absolute Nether Divining Infinty
Gregory Logan Dunn
Constance Undawning
Gregory Logan Dunn
Gethesmane
Gregory Logan Dunn
Halo and Nautilus
Gregory Logan Dunn
I, Corona
Gregory Menard
Spontaneous, dissolute, with no rules, pure and straight to the point. Gregory Menard’s work doesn’t follow any principle or norm. A love for the thoughtless can be felt and the interest in artists such as Jean Michel Basquiat can be easily perceived as well. Menard’s digital collage is a contemporary and reckless reworking of classic sacred paintings, Virgin Marys, Jesus and typical pyramidal composition of saints and angels on canvas. The sacred grail seems to be brought to the desecrated, the outcast. A reaction is expected, a blooming light is coming and it seems unstoppable. The artist’s collage is the result of an honest approach to art, mixed feelings to be unpredictably translated in images and sounds. This work has its own sound, it screams, it wows, it goes the wave. A solemn imagery. An intense blend of graffiti, abstract and pop art, this is Gregory Menard’s aesthetic and inspiration. Based in Providence, Rhode Island, he works with mixed media, spray paint, acrylics, markers and collage. He is a self taught artist, necessary condition to maintain his honesty and transparency approach to his research and work. There is something sensual in the author’s production, the color combination is orgasmic, the curved shapes and lines are close to a Spring of the senses. These works have the poster appeal, art that attracts the eye and delivers an effective message.
“I don't think about art when I'm working. I try to think about life. ” (Jean- Michel Basquiat)
Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Gregory Menard
Eulogy
Guadalupe Alderete “Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.” (Wassily Kandinsky)
In the early years of the twentieth century, in the wake of the European artistic avant-gardes, abstract and non-figurative trends became an integral part of the international art history. Wishing to move away from the concept of the artwork as a reality representation, the visual arts disrupted the principles of order, proportion and symmetry. After the Second World War, however, a strong distrust increased in the art world and its languages. The beauty of the form and the experiences of the avant-gardes seemed outdated and the artists began the search for new ways to express themselves. Thus, between the 1950s and 1960s, Informal Art developed which, in its various and sometimes opposing trends, saw matter as the absolute protagonist of the artwork. In the wake of abstract and informal art and through a varied game of contrasts and textures of colors, the artist Guadalupe Alderete creates in her artwork a clear contrast between form and matter. The curved and sinuous shapes created with a rope contrast with the overlapping materials, moving an abstract image that gives life to low reliefs that seem to reach the viewer. This energetic, spiritual and abstract world covers a large part of the canvas and overlooks small spaces where some eyes are visible. Mirror of our own gaze towards the real world, these eyes are surrounded by large scratches and traces of color that give life to the artist's creative energy and the reflection of contrasting emotional states.
Art Curator Marina Maggiore
Guadalupe Alderete
Miradas
Guilherme Baptista "Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can." (Martha Graham) Guilherme Baptista is an all-round artist, he has approached art since childhood, where he attended classical ballet lessons, and has always found in art his energy to overcome any obstacle that life presents. The artworks he created are unique pieces, both because the canvas are handcrafted by the artist himself, starting from choosing the pine wood, assembling the chassis and making the canvases in cotton, and in the act of painting, because in the gestural he employs his whole body, thanks to his training as a dancer, becoming a real Action Painting pieces. The piece exhibited in Sacrifice International Art Exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, "Inicio" is one of the results. Although the artist’s intent is to let each one to give their own personal interpretation of his creations, what surely comes out is an engaging energy and passion. A unique dynamism that, thanks to the strength of its body, can be brought to the canvas. Overall the work is hypnotic and exciting. The use of black and white colors, in the common knowledge represented at the opposite side, the whole and the nothing, to interact and create a depth and balance in the entire composition, light and shadow that blend as a result of the explosion occurred in the middle of the action. The love for life and for art is what Guilherme Baptista wants to declare in his works, who has found the way to interact the two disciplines, dance and painting, and thus create unique and powerful works.
Art Curator Alessia Procopio
Guilherme Baptista
Inicio
Haiting Tang “I don't describe nature, I want to take and absorb from nature. I don't want to paint what I see now, what I want to paint is what I have seen before” (Edvard Munch)
Artiste Haiting Tang is born in Inner Mongolia, China, where she spent her childhood. After completing her studies in Tianjin and Beijing, she became associate professor and master's supervisor at Tianjin University of Science and Technology. Today she works as a professional painter in Switzerland. Through the power of the colors that explode on the artworks, is perceived the artist's tireless curiosity not only for art but more deeply for life. The papers express the will and the continuous research towards new forms, new styles. The shapes become the result of the encounter between man and the world in a combination of reality and attraction. Styles change, mix, compare and reach each other. Like the colors, which blend but at the same time remain energetic and still in a combination that makes them stand out.
Haiting Tang
The lines are strong, firm, characterized by confident and vibrant brushstrokes of pigments. The artist is truly capable to trap the observer in a vortex of emotions that range from reality to imagination. But the most surprising result lies in perceiving the artist's personality, the will to break the chains towards a spiritual harmony. Haiting manages to escape the world and reconnect it through art in a continuous and perpetual research. What we perceive goes beyond abstractionism; as the world is infinitely changing, and has long surpassed concrete and abstract, intuition and reason, existence and extinction, finite and infinite.
Art Curator Giulia Fontanesi
Haiting Tang
Untitled
Haiting Tang
Untitled
Hamza Fiaz
Hamza Fiaz is a self-taught artist living and working in the United Kingdom. His medium of choice is graphite, which he uses to create striking hyper realistic artworks with honest photorealism in mind. He loves to create pieces of artwork that showcase the richness and depths of emotion in a human life, covering a wide spectrum of emotion based themes such as hope, suffering, isolation and empathy. At “SACRIFICE” exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Hamza presents two artworks. The first one, “Cripple”, portrays a back in dim light taken from behind, very thin, gathered on itself. The play of light and shadows further enhances the pronounced bones as well as the folded hands and arms suggest a painful state of mind both from a physical and emotional point of view. The result of the work, which acquires a clear photographic edge, is extremely dark and strong.
Hamza Fiaz
On the other hand, "Gaze" is of a completely different type, in which the subject portrayed is an eye looking upwards. Represented in hyper-realistic terms to the point that it almost seems like a photograph, the artist captures a precise moment: it is not known whose eye is, whether it is a man or a woman, an adult or a child, because the only foreign element to the immortalized physiognomic features are the details of a window reflected in the eye of the person portrayed, so our imagination is called to fantasize about who we are in front of. Hamza's is therefore an incredible ability to represent different themes and states of mind, calling the viewer to identify with and get lost in the beauty of his hyper-realistic works made with only graphite.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Hamza Fiaz
Cripple
Hamza Fiaz
Gaze
Heidi Koers
Heidi Koers (1976) lives in Haarlem NL. In 2010 she started P.M.K.D, Project With Small Wire, since embroidery art was always been a big passion: playing with lines, adding depth and shadow feels to her like drawing with needle and thread. At “SACRIFICE” exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, P.M.K.D. presents two artworks. "COVID 19”, the first one, is a reflection on the period of confinement caused by the pandemic that has affected the whole world: on the face of the young girl protagonist of the work - which is the face of the artist - the writing in orange "Gonna stay home” is in fact embroidered as a warning from which she, like no one else, can escape. The hanging wires, a constant in the artist's works, give it artwork its shape, the black line its frame, with the aim of playing with composition, combining different materials and colors without a preconceived plan but with fashion as the starting point.
Heidi Koers
"SACRIFICE", the other work by P.M.K.D. presented in the exhibition, it always has the artist herself as the protagonist, who here portrays herself in profile in a strong and confident attitude, expressing her love for herself so much that she hugs herself. To her left, almost invisible, there is another woman, embroidered in white as if she were a ghost, in a more intimate and thoughtful pose, gathered on herself, perhaps in a moment of sadness or worry. With this expedient, P.M.K.D. wants to represent the part of her that is often not seen by others, but rather is overshadowed and excluded. The work is therefore a hymn to the sacrifice that we make every day to highlight our best part, to shine despite our dark parts and the inevitable failures that life can sometimes give us. A sacrifice to beauty, joy and the ability to love ourselves and therefore others.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Heidi Koers
COVID 19
Heidi Koers
SACRIFICE
Helen Hitchens
"Our life is made by the death of others". Leonardo Da Vinci
Helen Hitchens converses with Freud, Aubrey Beardsley and Jan Pienkowski about death. The conversation to image takes place on paper and is moderated by black ink. The artist begins this exchange between herself and her pain after losing most of her loved ones. Art is life and as such, an artist's way to process pain is precisely to create and open a door towards an unknown other about which nothing is known except the irrepressible thrust of continuous exploration. Grieving does not exactly have a real place in our society, we have customs and traditions, rites, and a number of pre- established days dedicated to it but in all these passages the end is indicated and determined. We must go on, as a lifestyle, Authors like HItchens instead courageously decide to live their pain of death with respect, without the spasmodic expectation of the end of sorrow, which then the end is exactly the one thing that generated that pain. The desire of accelerating the process of grief is a death itself, it says death feelings and emotions must be done, effectively sacrificing any powerful message this peculiar and difficult state of the lonely soul can generate. A forest as a house of pain, of fear of the unknown, the abandoned finds refuge in the midst of these trees. An environmental embrace of feelings, without haste, in which to get lost. Helen has created a children's book dedicated to the place where those who die go and leave us temporarily.
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Helen Hitchens
The Forest 1
Helen Hitchens
The Forest 2
Helen Hitchens
The Forest 3
Helen Hitchens
The Forest 4
Helen Hitchens
The Forest 5
Helena Einhaus “To paint is like floating through twilight, observing what’s decide to stay or go” (Helena Einhaus) Helena Einhaus is born in Berlin in 1994, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Born into a social elation of departure, freedom and daring, these moods have become the basis of her attitude towards life. At “SACRIFICE” exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Helena presents two artworks. The first one, "Into the sun", is an explosion of shapes and colors that blend and mix together to create a chaos of images. All tending towards yellow, red and white, with some flashes of blue, the painting restores the idea of the sun in abstract terms, not seen from the outside according to the classical and canonical vision, but from inside, as the title suggests. In fact, it gives the sensation of being inside the burning lava, invaded by a heat that seems to feel on our skin.
Helena Einhaus
With a similar expedient but with a few more figurative elements, "Unnamed" features two profiles of women in the center of a large background made up of splashes of color ranging from purple to orange to blue. The two women, the leather outlines are defined with simple black lines, have clear Picassian echoes: in fact, since she moved to the south of France, Helena has been very affected by the French painting from which she took strong inspiration, from Cezanne, to Matisse, Chagall, Van Gogh and even Picasso. The chaos that dominates both works also respond to an artist's desire to investigate the unfinished and the imperfect. The becoming. The passing. Moments that are vague, that may never come true. Ideas that only live for a moment. She tries to sound out these moments and their conditions to order the invisible, to make the unknown recognizable and to investigate which fantasies develop the strength to live on and to spread.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Helena Einhaus
Into the sun
Helena Einhaus
Unnamed
Hiroaki Furukawa “A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.” (Paul Cézanne)
Simple moments of everyday come to life through color explored in every nuance. The characters of the works created by Japanese artist Hiroaki Furukawa tell their story, they share their personal experiences with us. In “Bird sang September” (2015) the protagonist is a child who observes small birds in the cages in front of him in an attentive and curious way. September has arrived, everything starts its course again, the birds sing the beginning of autumn. Warm and cold colors alternate creating a perfect chromatic balance. In “Conservator” (2021) we see two women during their working hours. A strong light illuminates the large table on which the protagonists is carefully restoring a precious piece of furniture. "Walking Yanaka Ginza" (2021) represents the shopping street from which the work takes its title: an area with a retro charm; here we find several independent shops where you can buy a bit of everything. The artist portrays from behind several people who are walking in the famous street. Hiroaki Furukawa wants to paint the truth, fragments of life in all their essence and power. Don't just represent the bright side or the dark side of things but give importance to every single facet. For the Japanese artist, art is the purest way to communicate what cannot be expressed in words. Paul Cézanne wrote that a work that does not begin with emotion is not art. During the creative process, Hiroaki Furukawa totally immerses himself in his works, becoming one with them: he paints what he sees, what he feels with all his senses.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Hiroaki Furukawa
Bird sang September
Hiroaki Furukawa
Conservator
Hiroaki Furukawa
Walking Yanaka Ginza
Housei
Art, in all its manifestations, is the highest human expression of creativity and imagination, and is the only time that allows man to externalize his inner life. The meaning of the word "art" is not definable in an unambiguous and absolute way. Its definition has varied in the transition from one historical period to another, and from one culture to another. The arts are generally considered too noble and high reality to enter and shape the lives of ordinary people, but in reality often happens the opposite. Art can help man to stop and observe, reflect and contemplate, to stop the flow and reflux of actions and passions, to immobilize the spiritual life and look at it. In this condition it is possible to understand oneself more deeply and to reach a full awareness of oneself, to stop in order to grasp the meaning of reality, to make conscious choices and plan one's life. But at the same time the work of art itself is a reflection of the ways of thinking, living, feeling of the artist who continuously corrects, replaces, remakes. In short, we can say that art makes man more of a man. There is a universal language of art, which all men know, which takes shape and visibility through artistic and spiritual research. This language binds past, present and future, through a feeling inherent in all men of all times of all places. The color, the chromatic variation as well as the stain and the graphic sign are the letters of an alphabet for images able to express what we have deep inside ourselves. Giving a part of himself to the outside world, the artist makes other human beings participate in his creative epiphany, giving the viewer the opportunity to formulate answers to his questions, solutions to existential questions. Housei's art flows like a river in flood from his creative flair, it is thrown on the canvas even with violence to be looked at by other people, to be observed and analyzed in its forms and its shades. The deep blue that characterizes the large patch of color in "10" carries, in its variations of transparencies, in its jagged edge and in its more opaque points, its own meaning. Yet, this meaning is not complete if no viewer looks at that work. In "11" the orange stain that seems to burn with flames is overlaid by a bluish stain speckled with drippings of red pigment. The edges are black and extremely thick, lending a certain heaviness to the depiction. The work already has a meaning, it was made with an intent, whether this be reflective or instinctive and this identifies it as something rich in meaning. Yet, its sense of being remains partial if the latter cannot be observed. The viewer is the keystone of the artist's work. Housei gives the viewer the opportunity to construct his own meaning, to ask himself doubts and questions, to dissect his inner self as the artist did when he created the work in question. Not surprisingly, the titles are neutral. Let's look at these works, let's let ourselves be carried away by the strength of the vivid color, by the heaviness of the graphic sign and by patches of dripping pigment and let's try to give our own interpretation.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Housei
10
Housei
11
Housei
13
Huniki De
Rain falling incessantly. Everything is silent, sounds are muffled and time seems to have stopped. Everything is still except for the sound of drops so heavy that they fall to the ground quickly and profusely. Some drops are whitish, others black, but all behave in the same way: they fall to the ground leaving behind a line. A graphic trail as a testimony of their passage, as a very thin thread connecting two diametrically opposed worlds. The rain falls, continues to fall inexorably and the worlds expand. The rain curtain is what is necessary to make visible what in reality is not. It makes tangible what, in everyday life, is not visible to our sight and is not perceptible to our senses. Rain as an element in the middle of two worlds, rain as a revealing substance of a world we have never observed. A tall light pole stands out in the middle of the work and takes all the space necessary to be represented. Its contours are extremely clear, it is possible to see and recognize the outline of the pole, the squat shape of the transformer and the dischargers that rise from the structure like the spires of a gothic cathedral. The vertical compositional momentum is balanced by the branches of the thin electrical cables that extend from the pole along the entire territory of the work parallel to the ground. Although this is an aerial photograph, the sensation is not one of hovering in the air free of any spatial impediment. Here one must constantly keep one's eyes open: the large pole and the power lines produce a dense web from which it is difficult to extricate oneself. And then there is the rain that still, constantly, falls undaunted towards the ground and hides the thinner wires, blurs them and camouflages them with the heavy atmospheric air that characterizes Utility Pole. In the work there are all the elements of our everyday life, it is a simple portrait of a quiet Japanese neighborhood. There are houses, gates, store signs and a street with crosswalks in the foreground. Yet, the feeling is that we are seeing something else, something we have literally never seen. Huniki De's is a vision of another world dressed in the clothes, silhouettes, and structures of the real world. It is the imperceptible that becomes perceptible by taking on the appearance of what our eyes are used to seeing. Only in this way is it possible to observe and enjoy the other side of reality, the one that is invisible every day. Suddenly all the elements that make up this city view take on a mysterious air and our mind induces us to think about the material that makes up what we see in the representation. Is what we see as asphalt? Is the light pole composed of concrete? Are those trees in the distance really arboreal elements or deflagrations of light? We do not know, we are not given to know. Utility Pole is the graphic representation of the exact moment in which reality is superimposed on another world, a world of unknown consistency that, in order to reveal itself, disguises itself as everyday life.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Huniki De
Utility Pole
Ian Bunch
The three pieces presented by the artist Ian Bunch on the occasion of the international art exhibition Sacrifice are taken from a book created by the artist titled Covid Frescoes – Siena. This work consists of a series of photos taken during the pandemic period around the city of Siena. The artist was fascinated by the aged Italian frescos buried or painted by new images. Watching the pieces chosen for this occasion, we can see an example of this interest. Starting from Siena#12, we can see the photo of a piece of one wall in which we can see the passage of time through the posters posted and then torn by the erosion of time. A disharmony emerges in the image of something that is not intact and homogeneous but has suffered over the years. Words and images appear truncated maimed. As if it was the memory of something that once had a fulfillment and now no longer. This kind of formal choice reminds me of the capital work of twentieth-century literature, the “passages” written or maybe composed by the writer and philosopher Walter Benjamin. This work is a collage of various quotes or phrases taken from urban reality. This process of collecting things from the city is a way that the author has to investigate his time and contemporaneity. In the same way the artist Ian Buch wants to investigate the effects of the pandemic period through the wall around this Tuscany city. In fact also the second work presented titled Siena#15, presents the same process. We can see posters and old cards issued on the wall to compose a fresco. The third image is a collage of few pieces taken by the book, in which it could be possible to focus the attention of each detail that composed the whole image, to enjoy the work made by the artist. For the viewers this book is also an occasion to feel the suggestions that come from this particular and unique period that we have all experienced. It could be also a pretext to walk around the city with the artist, see with his eyes, his peculiar filter to watch the reality to come back home with new images, and new thoughts. And in this way, discovering in the end to be changed.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Ian Bunch
Siena #12
Ian Bunch
Siena #15
Ian Bunch
Series Master
Impossible.realities “Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.” (John Fitzgerald Kennedy)
IThe digital artist Matthieu Martin – better known as “Impossible.realities” – finds his inspirations and his cues from all that surrounds him; focusing on his investigation, the artist is able to create infinitive ways to propose his own narration and what inspires him. The digital artist wishes to convey the power, the strong and the expressive impact of the technological tools – that is his favourite way to experience what gives life to the world and to the human imagination – that nowadays could be considered the basis of communication but also of life itself. Through the use of the technology and the multimedia experiments, “Impossible.realities” feels free to portray the vibrant and energetic world around us giving to it a futuristic touch, consistent with the cyberpunk universe - to which he feels bound. “Impossible.realities”, through his technological artworks, is able to materialise the power and the energy - that enliven every sector of human life, paying special attention to the 3D and digital fashion garments. In his digital works, the artist likes to mix and incorporate different kinds of technical resources - manipulating them with the traditional colours - to obtain and to give to the viewers an image full of symbolism, creating a bridge between visible and invisible, reality and imagination. In doing so, he can also discover a personal way to express himself and his own personality, as a unique individual and also as an artist.
Art Curator Manuela Fratar
Impossible.realities
The fallen
Ivy Yinshan Chee
For the international exhibition “Sacrifice” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Ivy Yinshan Chee exposes three works (“In Silence”, “Reaching Out” e “Who Am I”), which take the viewer into an adventurous narrative and a journey of introspection. Through a collection of memories, emotions and reflections, the artist transcribes her feelings about each work, bringing out her artistic and aesthetic conception. Exactly as in “In Silence” and “Reaching Out”, she expresses both a certain "transcendence of contemporary man" and his/her own subconscious. By doing so, Ivy expresses the essence of these works in space and time, with the aim of engaging the viewer in a perceptive way. There are two key elements: the labyrinth and the hands. In the labyrinth, there is a coincidence of opposite meanings: life and death, good and evil, up to the search for infinity. From the myth of Theseus who wins against the Minotaur thanks to Ariadne's rational will, one can get to the age of the Baroque which introduces the multicurve labyrinth (namely more than one road leading to the center), representing a symbol of human being capable of experimenting as well as of mastering its own destiny. Additionally, this aspect could represent a luminous and boundless well, which provokes astonishment, fear of falling or, on the contrary, a feeling of pleasure and relief. It is through art and imagination that the artist overcomes limits, breaking the constraints of normality. And while in the first work, the labyrinth/geometric well is rainbow-colored with splashes of paint reminiscent of Jackson Pollock's paintings, in the second one the use of pastel and extremely delicate tones gives the entire pictorial surface an unprecedented tranquility. The other key element is the left hand: a particular but above all decisive choice, as it is the “hand of the heart”, so its meaning is clearly very profound. In both works, the gestures made by the hands underline the importance of the title: in “In Silence”, the index finger is raised, and the other fingers are closed into a fist; while in “Reaching Out”, the open hand tries to grasp something (perhaps the viewer), in order to take him/her into the labyrinth/well. Finally, in “Who Am I”, Ivy asks herself an existential question: while searching for the correct answer, she portrays herself with her hand (always left) covering her face and wearing her blue doctor's coat. Immersed in a troubled play of wavy lines and colors, the artist retraces her life as well as her profession: between life and death, between despair and joy, she thinks she is losing her identity, which is why she wants to find a place of peace to regain all the energy she has lost and free herself from negativity. And, through this reflection, she invites the observer to stop for a moment and look for a peaceful oasis within her soul and heart.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Ivy Yinshan Chee
In Silence
Ivy Yinshan Chee
Reaching Out
Ivy Yinshan Chee
Who Am I
J Vega
J Vega (born Jason Crandell) is an American artist, musician and producer. which makes his art a means to transcend the physical world. It is an art that uses soundscapes and generative artificial intelligence to bring mystical experiences to life. His works are inspired by visionary art, born with the Viennese School of Fantastic Realism, in 1946. Art was considered superior by Aristotle, because it is able to ignore reality and introduce unrealistic and impossible events, making them plausible. The visionary artist is capable of seeing what is not there. According to Laurence Caruana's A Manifesto of Visionary Art, Art of the Visionary attempts to show what lies beyond the boundary of our view. Through dreaming, trance or other altered states. Vega experiments with new ways to influence the psyche through art and music, creating new audio coding techniques.
J Vega
This acoustic experimentation was followed by the ten-part avant-garde video series "Violet V". Watching the video "Violet V: Invitation", we are immediately catapulted into a surreal and dreamlike world. A hooded figure moves slowly, in search of the guardian tree, opening the passage inside. Violet V is invited to abandon comfort and control to give in to chaos. Audio is the essential element of this video, made with field recordings of voices and animals. It captures our mind and drags us into chaos. Vega recreates the logic of dreams, using experimental tools of artificial intelligence and audio, articulated through improbable sound sources and aggressive filtering techniques. In "Xiqual Udinbak", translated "manifesting Chaos, the sound accompanies the movement of the figures, increasing the psychedelic effect." Xiqual Udinbak "is the representation of our mind. Inside, images generated by an artificial intelligence, recreate thoughts that evolve to influence other minds and the world around us.
Art Curator Lucrezia Perropane
J Vega
Violet V: Invitation
J Vega
Xiqual Udinbak
Jackie Matthews
In the occasion of the international art exhibition Sacrifice the artist Jackie Matthews presents three artworks titled Strength, Home is Where the Foghorn Blows and Sisters. In each piece we can see different intentions and different images used to send a message to the viewers. Starting from the first titled Strength, we can see the image of an equilibrist on horseback in the moment of the performance. We can see these figures involved in an action at the same time she tries to fix her position and find stability on the backrest of the horse. This strange and difficult position reminds us of the idea of strength and perseverance. The image seems to invite the visitor to hold on even in uncomfortable and difficult situations to face. As the artist says: << This is my expression about the strength we have to rise to those challenges. We have the power to work hard, learn and grow>>. The observer finds himself attracted by this image but also can feel this strength and the desire to face new challenges with determination and strength. In the second painting presented titled Sisters, we can see two figures stretched out by the window while they keep company reading a book. The choice to not use the colors in this occasion reminds us of the idea of something that comes from the past of the artist, maybe a memory of a moment of her life. This painting seems to be the key to enter into the imagination of the artist and stay into an image that stands at the passage of time. This is a real gift that the artist wants to give us. As if, this composition was the story of a precious moment of peace and relaxing time. In fact as she says talking about this painting: << This painting intends to capture the feeling of peace and pride I felt as a mother in a moment that hap-pened in my home on a remote school day brought by the pandemic. It is a painting about love and gratitude, peace and home, connection and forgiveness>>. The third painting presents a vision of a foggy landscape in which we can see two figures at the center with an animal that seems to be a dog. In the distance we can also see a house near a building that reminds me of a tower. Also in this composition the vision is rarefied as if the artist wants to stay one more time in a childhood memory. Maybe the art for the artist Jackie Matthews is a pretext to talk about what is happening in her mind. Or also where her mind goes when she wants to express something precious that belongs to her life.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Jackie Matthews
Strength
Jackie Matthews
Sisters
Jackie Matthews
Home is Where the Foghorn Blows
Jacob Merl “Man is less himself when he speaks in the first person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth" Jacob Merl
Jacob Merl began his artistic career almost twenty years ago, first approaching music by playing different instruments, then photography, and then moving on to painting. A need for expression that grows more and more and then leads to abstract painting in 2020, which becomes its only form of art. His paintings want to retrace human emotions: from isolation, frustration, loneliness and fear to hope and reconciliation with oneself. To do this he uses colors and with them all the emotions that, looking at them, carry with them. A spontaneous and instinctive art without any kind of filter. Simple. Like the emotions that run through the soul of all of us every day. At the international exhibition "SACRIFICE", hosted by the international art gallery M.A.D.S. Jacob shows his Resistence. "When the winds blow strong in a person's life and problems beyond our control often rage, the only thing to do is to resist. Resist by staying still. Resisting is a form of sacrifice. You resist for your loved ones, for your loved ones and for yourself. In this painting I wanted to depict how despite the difficulties that we all may encounter, we always manage to move forward. The sharp strokes of cold colors represent the various forms of difficulties, anxieties and fears. The bright and vivid red that explodes and makes its way represents our inner strength. That strength that comes out even if we don't know we have it". The battle between warm colors and cold colors represents the struggle between man and the difficulties of life. Color and texture are the protagonists of the painting as well as man's deepest feelings and emotions, his inner strength deriving from an innate survival instinct. A gift that was given to us in the light of what life would have been like. The struggle between man and adverse circumstances is wisely represented by the use of color and the space it occupies on the canvas, the way it takes hold, the way it expands.
Art Curator Mara Cipriano
Jacob Merl
Resistence
Jady Bates "A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others." (Salvador Dali)
Jady Bates is an American artist with a multifaceted and versatile talent. In fact, art constitutes a fundamental part of her life, a real lifestyle that enriches every experience of a perspective aimed at a continuous search for new expressive potential. Her irrepressible creative verve explores music, painting and above all photography, and has been rewarded with the artist's inclusion in numerous publications and international events. The artwork IssaWorld - Musician presented for Sacrifice is a piece of mixed media, which combines the effectiveness of photography with the dynamism of video to create a multimedia set of great visual impact. The observer's eye is captured by the whirlwind of green and yellow waves, which fluctuate relentlessly in a mesmerizing vortex. This sinuous flow contrasts with the flat stillness of the vermilion background, which in turn enhances the upper part of the work to an even greater extent with a skilful chromatic complementarity. The work astounds the observer, leading him to focus at first on the direction of the incessant sulphurous movements. However, the attention soon falls also on the source of this eternal whirlpool, and focuses on the human bust in the right part of the composition. It is here that the work shows its strength, it is here that it reveals its profound meaning. The artist highlights the path that each artist goes through to live his own passions. It is a long and tortuous journey, in which willpower is constantly tested by the frustrated desires, the rending anguish and adverse assaults of fate. Leading an existence aimed at art means sacrificing oneself, becoming bold architects of a new vision of the world to elevate oneself and offer others the gift of seeing reality with different eyes. Jady Bates summarizes all this in a composition of great technical skill in digital tools, but above all he finds a language that is both personal and universal to outline the true essence of the artist, a symbol of self-denial and vision.
Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti
Jady Bates
IssaWorld - Musician
Jane Gottlieb "There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul." (Victor Hugo)
Unique and unforgettable scenery, outside of time and space, freeze at a specific moment, are the artworks created by Jane Gottlieb, permanent artist at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, that for Sacrifice, International Art Exhibition, she presented. The use of bright and contrasting colors give life to distant environments, bringing the viewer in a parallel universes, which seem unknown, but in reality are nothing more than places belonging to the creative world of the artist. These spaces are used to make us stop, to reflect and observe what is around us, all the wonders and magical that is present in the ordinary. Analyze those instant that we are underestimate, as part of everyday life, they are an invitation to honor the small moments of life, whether during a walk near a lake in the spring or contemplating the sky; appreciate the view of the mountains from a natural terrace or in the countryside with the light of sunset or in a temple or place of worship. The works of Jane Gottlieb are an offer to nature itself, each color used wants to accentuate the greatness and power, lead to an introspective journey between the tangible and the intangible world, that we face with ourselves in relation to the environments that surround us.
Art Curator Alessia Procopio
Jane Gottlieb
Jane Gottlieb
Jane Gottlieb
Jane Gottlieb
Jane Gottlieb
Jasmine Di Benedetto “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” (Helen Keller)
The artworks by Jasmine Di Benedetto, a contemporary Italian artist, are intense emotional journeys aimed at investigating the feeling in its most intimate meaning. Both the paintings exhibited at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery for the exhibition SACRIFICE are intended to be visualizations of an extremely powerful feeling: love. Love has always accompanied heroic deeds and sacrifices since the most ancient stories, transforming everything into harmony and wonder. Jasmine Di Benedetto tells us about it through an expressive language very close to that of the Informal art of the 40s, tackling this feeling from a more tragic point of view and trying to remind us of its importance and values. Dense colour occupies the space of her canvases, tracing deep furrows which, like cracks, run from one side to the other, enveloping us in a constant dynamism. In "Amore", reds, yellows and blacks seem to struggle on the canvas, wriggling between tortuous brushstrokes in search of an unreachable balance.
Jasmine Di Benedetto
Red, which has always been a symbol of power, ardor and passion, mixes here with yellow, the emblem of joy, intellect and energy. Everything is enveloped by black, the absence of light, darkness and mystery. The complexity of this feeling is also addressed by the artist in the work "Hell" as a condition of the absence of self-love. This piece is divided horizontally into two parts. In the upper part, a black cast descends towards a shapeless golden mass. A clash between light and darkness is here transformed into an evanescent struggle, leading the soul to a stale place. Hell exists in the absence of love, love exists fighting for their own values. Jasmine Di Benedetto wants to remind us to stay true to ourselves, letting our feelings flow and listening to our heart.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Jasmine Di Benedetto
Amore
Jasmine Di Benedetto
Hell
Jenny Meyers “Art is always more abstract than we fancy. Form and colour tell us of form and colour - that is all. It often seems to me that art conceals the artist far more completely than it ever reveals him" (Oscar Wild) Artist Jenny Meyers grew up in Northern Virginia and she is currently residing in Houston, Texas. From oil painting to drawing and photography, Jenny's works arise from the desire to escape and merge into abstract figures. Nature is the artist's great source of inspiration which allows her to expand her imagination and color her palette. But what most reflects the artist's idea of nature is the tree, trees are photographed and then modified through digital techniques. Trees become the spokespersons of an abstract, mysterious world, ad as a whole they make us feel in a fairytale and they take our imagination to a different time space. The intertwining of the branches, the length of the roots and the shapes of the leaves contribute to create a set of colors and shapes that embrace and immerse us in the artist’s world. Jenny's paintings are a narration of a flow, a movement, an expression of the changes of nature in its various forms. But there is a deeper memory beyond, the pieces describe known, dear, revisited places, at different times, eternalized through the lens of the artist's camera. The observer becomes a witness to the stories that the artist's paintings tell silently.
Art Curator Giulia Fontanesi
Jenny Meyers
Pareidolia
Jenny Meyers
Pareidolia
Jenny Meyers
The first touchi
Jess Boldt Artist Jess Boldt, American by birth but German by adoption, exhibits a selection of three works at M.A.D.S. art gallery, on the occasion of the exhibition "Sacrifice". The theme of the exhibition fits perfectly with one of the themes that are very dear to the artist, that of sacrifice and loss, so much so that it was selected in the top 10 for the Artx-Freedom contest in Los Angeles "bringing awareness to anti trafficking". From a stylistic point of view Jess Boldt prefers the purity of the line and lines. Human forms, the main subject of her works, is outlined by contour lines and shadows that give depth to the subjects. In a sense the effect is similar to that coming from the stencil technique used by street artist Banksy. Another interesting element is the use of collage, a technique inaugurated by the current of Synthetic Cubism. The three works that the artist exhibits are proof of her artistic sensitivity and her enormous talent. The first work analyzed here is entitled "CRYING OUT FOR FREEDOM" and depicts women and children behind bars. Bars are par excellence a symbol of a condition of imprisonment, of denial of individual freedom and therefore, since the first approach to the work, the viewer is invaded by a sense of closure and impotence. Jess Boldt’s ability lies in the fact that she does not represent faces with precision or realism but nevertheless the feeling of pain is clearly perceptible. The work refers to the sad moment when American troops leave Afghanistan, leaving the population at the mercy of the invasion of the Taliban, condemning them to the loss of freedom and, in the worst cases, to death.The artist realizes this work with the intention of donating the proceeds of the sale in charity, specifically to the company VictorMarx ministry that helps the people involved in the matter. The second work, “HOME OF THE FREE, BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE”, is closely related to the first, is made in the same period and is extremely stylistically consistent. This time Jess Boldt wants to honor the broken lives of the American military, who have sacrificed their lives for the freedom of their nation. Jess says "It’s because of them, that we are free.". Freedom is the theme of the work and is celebrated and represented for its American symbol par excellence: the Statue of Freedom. It is represented in two perspectives, the close and halfbust face, giving particular space and focus to the Declaration of Independence that it holds in the left hand, on which the date of the issue is read. The last work, “I STILL HAVE MY DREAMS”, differs from the previous ones stylistically. Black and white is replaced by warmer colors. The details are more marked and there is a light-dark marker. The work depicts a woman with a veil, her gaze is melancholy and in a certain sense yielding. Her face represents the awareness that her dreams have been taken away from her, but at the same time it contains the hope that perhaps, sooner or later, she will have the opportunity to follow them. With these three works Jess Boldt gives viewers the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of freedom, which is very often taken for granted and is not fully appreciated by that part of the population who has it as a birthright, did not have to earn it, didn’t have to demand it.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Jess Boldt
CRYING OUT FOR FREEDOM
Jess Boldt
HOME OF THE FREE, BACAUSE OF THE BRAVE
Jess Boldt
I STILL HAVE MY DREAMS
Jessica Stranger
With Australia, Jessica Stranger reveals to her audience another part of her personal identity, linked once again to her family but above all to her origins and her land. The work is a tribute to the sacrifice of her grandfather Joe (Giuseppe) who, like many of his generation, was forced to leave his homeland, Italy, in search of fortune. He came to Australia with the hope of building a better future for himself, his wife and their four children, and worked tirelessly until his death a few years ago, fulfilling his dream of giving his family the life they deserved. In this work, the theme of sacrifice is closely linked to those of love and hope, seen as driving forces capable of overcoming any kind of obstacle. The colours, applied with quick touches, are warm and intense to convey the idea of hard work and sacrifice on the one hand, and the sense of unity, warmth and comfort provided by family on the other. The firmly interwoven brushstrokes reinforce the idea of the indissolubility of family ties but at the same time refer to the wild and lush vegetation typical of Australia, making clear the choice of the title which is intended to celebrate both the natural beauty and the history of the artist's home country. By choosing to tell a story that constitutes her family identity, Jessica wishes to honour the memory of her grandfather and his profound devotion to the family, but above all she wishes to express her gratitude towards his sacrifice that has enabled her and her family to live a free and full life today.
Art Curator Marta Graziano
Jessica Stranger
Australia
Jo Lenz "For me, art is an ongoing adventure. When I write, paint or doodle, I go on a journey that I don't know will end." (Jo Lenz)
Jo Lenz is a multi-talented artist living in Berlin. Passionate about photography and poetry, Jo also explored the fascination of watercolor painting during isolation due to the pandemic. The delicacy of the colors immediately ignited her imagination, leading her to the creation of poetic and dreamy works.The artist, in fact, approaches the creative process with the curious and amazed gaze of a child, and makes his imagination shine in a unique way. Colors are my clouds, the series of 15 works presented for "Sacrifice", perfectly embodies this ideal, and allows you to better explore the multiple facets of the artist's universe, full of small wonders. The fantastic representations thus become a metaphor for reflecting on universal issues, such as fear, love, loneliness, distance, sadness, to which the artist has given her own personal interpretation. The artist's light and refined style doesn't prevent her from tackling even more sinister themes, as happens in the first (Head full of thoughts), eighth (Nightmares by day) and fourteenth work (Unicorn got lost), in which the cold tones of purple, blue and green monstrous creatures come to life, symbolic representations of the deepest anguish that stir in the human soul. The careful choice of the chromatic apparatus immediately suggests the sensation that the artist wishes to arouse, as happens for the warm shades of We stay happy (15), Thing on thing (7) and Me, myself and I (10), which transport the observer into an atmosphere reassuring, just like the paternal embrace of Be my hero (3). The fluidity of Jo Lenz's brushes slips with ease from a curious and imaginative world view (2. Invisible Light, 5. World's vesuv, 6. Giants, 11. Without roots), to a more intimate one (4. In- or outside the circle?, 9. Thanks giving, 13. We're come together) up to a darker and more meditative parenthesis (12. End of a nightmare). Approaching the works of Jo Lenz means abandoning all preconceptions, and completely embracing a new vision of the world, which comes to our eyes through the subtle strokes and enchanting figures created by the artist.
Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti
Jo Lenz
Colors are my clouds
Joanna Wietrzycka “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” (Edgar Degas)
How does it come that we often tend to forget how much art tells about us, about our inner selves and about what surrounds us? In Joanna Wietrzycka’s works, everything and nothing is said at the same time. For her, art is a tool through which she expresses herself, her experiences and her views of the world; it is “a form of mediation and an energy transfer”, the artist says. Inspired by nature, thoughts, dreams and architecture, Joanna uses media such as alcohol ink, acrylics, pencils and crayons to “reach into the recesses of the human subconscious” and to open a window to the viewers. The act of painting results in beautiful abstract works where colours change composition and combinations, take different shapes and meanings. Joanna’s paintings live a life of their own, with their own soul and body; a life which has no imposed meaning until the viewers give one. The artist, in fact, wants to “suggest and give freedom of interpretation”. Black and white is what you see when looking at it: an abstract work made with collage and acrylic paints. Layers and layers of paint and glued paper elements on the canvas give a threedimensional effect that seems to come close to you, so close that you can feel it, touch its rough surface and unfold its folds. It is like it is moved by the wind, and you can feel that wind. It is called “Let go of the past”.“Leave behind what is in the past, what is no longer relevant, start being here and now …”, Joanna says about this painting. Being ‘here’ and ‘now’ is not an easy thing to do. The constant ruminating on the past takes time away from the contingent reality and prevents us from living what is happening ‘here’ and ‘now’. With this painting, Joanna invites us to leave what is no longer relevant for us and to start living ‘here’ and ‘now’. Can you feel the wind that sweeps away the past and the irrelevant? In the end, art tells about us more than we would imagine.
Art Curator Martina Lattuca
Joanna Wietrzycka
Let go of the past
Joe Stublick Joe Stublick is an American artist, based in New York. He has always been fascinated by the unknown, by existence, by conscience and by resolutions. He states: "Where we came from, why we are here, Whom we are, and where we are going both as individuals and as a society are just some of the topics I try to express through my work." Probably for this reason the artist experimented with fluid art. A particular pictorial technique realized through the casting of acrylic and resin on the support. The latter is then rotated, tilted and maneuvered, allowing the color to flow, move and self-actualize under the guidance of the artist. The result is a series of color spots, abstract shapes that stimulate the imagination of the spectators. Joe Stublick wants precisely this: to trigger in him and in his audience questions about existence. The two works that he presents at M.A.D.S. art gallery during the exhibition "Sacrifice" summarize all this. The first work analyzed here is entitled "Before the Architect" and follows a reasoning of the artist himself according to which "Before this... Before us... There was only The Architect. Before the architect was us, and so forth. At the end of time we will be The Architect. All of our experiences, victories, failures, joys, sorrows, loves and losses will be one. We will have returned to the sea of universal consciousness taking with us all we have learned once again unifying as The Architect." - the concept is very close to the Hindu religious concept that everything is destined to return to origin and to unite into a single entity, Nirvana.
Joe Stublick Stylistically, Joe Stublick represents the concept with a work of dark colors, with prevalence of red burgundy and brown, in strong contrast with the background white. Even more significant is the fact that the support is actually constituted and formed by six square canvases joined together, as to emphasize that the entity, the mass that constitutes this "architect" is formed by the union of individuals. Also the second work, "Finding purpose", actually presents the same scheme, but it has a horizontal course. From a chromatic point of view it is much more cheerful than the previous one, red, yellow and blue dominate the composition even if their brightness is dampened by the black that threatens between them. From a content point of view, the artist states: "Finding purpose is an exhilarating experience. No matter how or where it’s found. It gives a reason to why things must happen. Finding purpose however, whether in one’s self, an endeavor, or a cause; requires commitment and dedication. And with those things, come sacrifice. The individual places purpose before their own immediate desires, there own peace, and sometimes their own well-being or even their own life. But it is only through sacrifice, the individual can see purpose through to Fruition...". Joe Stublick through these two works clearly expresses his propensity for fate, as well as his canvases and his colors that are guided by the randomness that is always under the protection of the artist and his guidance.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Joe Stublick
Before the Architect
Joe Stublick
Finding Purpose
Johann Neumayer
Permanent artist Johann Neumayer participates in his latest exhibition at M.A.D.S. art gallery with a selection of five works that serve as the emblem of the two series entitled "Play demo transparent" and "Space ball". Johann Neumayer during 2021 gave evidence of his artistic evolution and maturity. From the study of the human figure, especially the female one, to the study of forms. Johann Neumayer studies the spaces and space that objects occupy within it; he studies the lines, the points and their connections. His apparently extravagant works approach reality in an unexpected way, studying its characteristics and questioning its reasons. These two series are emblematic. The first series, "Play demo transparent", analyzes the human figure using screen printing. The same human figure is repeated countless times inside the space and captured by Johann in perspective. The second series, "Space ball", analyzes the housing architecture and places this universe within a half-sphere, visually reminding the Christmas spheres. Johann Neumayer creates different realities, digital realities that allow viewers to experience another universe, to look at it and compare it with their own, asking questions and at the same time distancing oneself from it and offering oneself a moment of evasion.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Johann Naumayer
Play Demo Transparent 021
Johann Naumayer
Play Demo Transparent 022
Johann Naumayer
Space Ball 001
Johann Naumayer
Space Ball 002
Johann Naumayer
Space Ball 008
Johannah Bird
“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” Andy Warhol
Australian artist Johannah Bird has had a difficult and complicated life. A childhood marked by pain and abandonment that she expresses in her digital paintings. Screaming portraits of a child, a multitude of faces and profiles that hint at different ages and different stages of pain. Art as a necessary process of healing, daily ritual of care. The artist's work as a committed practice for the care of countless wounds. Art to break the chains that trap people in their own history that continues to last, repeat and block dreams, remove the self from one's nature and loose the will to protect oneself. The digital painting is liberating from a completely different point of view compared to classical painting with tools we could say, analog.
Johannah Bird
Computers, tablets determine an infinite and changing freedom of expression, the enormous capacity of the digital device to contain allows the needy to express themselves, to produce and create freely. The shock of the blank sheet is over, the panic of performance is forgotten. Working digitally unites body and soul in an absolute and concentrated way, without dividing itself with the action and mechanics of work. In these body of works Bird choses to pair the subject giving it a different color combination that reminds of famous Andy Warhol’s Pop Art works about the idea of mindlessness and passivity, a wise way to depower the image and empower the thought.
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Johannah Bird
Scream Navy
Johannah Bird
Scream
Jonathan Gutierrez
Jonathan Gutierrez is a self taught artist, his love for art started at a very young age and never stopped. His pieces are inspired by his own life experiences and the encounter with nature. The digital painting technique allows Gutierrez to elaborate the very much needed emotional separation from the material and gives more freedom to a superior reflection. A planet made of thoughts is floating in this light blue, the colors are far from the classic earth image, bright pastels and even fluos have been used to strengthen this idea of nature as a human experience. Pop art patterns and composition choices can be easily found in this work, the movement’s result is the static fly leavening. Multiple shapes can be seen in this painting, scissors, an apple, an eye but none of them seem to be as important as the powerful overview. Nature as a spirit, the elements are signs, lines and patterns. Gutierrez can show a conversation of the contemporary image of nature, an intricate tangle of trees and lakes and mountains and flowers that keep growing with buildings, concrete, super cars, planes, digital datas flying around and again aerials, electronic devices and noises. The multitude of what surrounds the animals is nature, nowadays a complex match the human race is trying to survive. The artist’s invitation is to enjoy what is left and stare at that beauty.
“Choose only one master—nature” (Rembrandt)
Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Jonathan Gutierrez
Summer
Junija Galejeva "I feel you are wondering: what does it mean to be a color? Color is the tone of the eye, the music of the deaf, a cry in the dark" (Orhan Panuk)
Junija's artistic work is a complete immersion in a sea of vibrant colors, the viewer is completely transported by the current of them, as in a shipwreck one is catapulted into a whirlwind of emotions. Fullbodied brushstrokes, pasty and vivid colors play the role of protagonists on the stage of the canvas, light tones that contrast with dark and gloomy brushstrokes, contrasts of tones, light and shadow, are characteristics that make Junija's works strongly evocative and suggestive. Like Friedrich's "The wanderer on the sea of fog", so the viewer feels in front of Junija's works: overwhelmed by the sublime. In fact, the artist's work could be defined as a "romantic abstract", there is no presence of real forms, only colors disconnected from any constraint, therefore abstract, and it is at the same time romantic because it arouses deep feelings.
Junija Galejeva
Brushstroke on brushstroke, layers and layers of color, as if to condense in them all the passion that the artist possesses and that he wants to convey, Junija's artistic work is born from instinct, from impulse and the creative act is clearly visible . Her works are ardor, they are so intense as to overwhelm and start the mind of the beholder. Colors and shades that come into contact and contrast with each other, but which create a balance. Brushstrokes, marks and dots imbued with color that run one after the other and create works of intense vivacity. The artist lets herself be guided by her personal instinct and pure creativity, walking on the road that leads to the discovery of the most intimate self. Junija, through her artistic work, expresses herself and more, through her art she also manages to bring out her abilities and above all her emotions. Without fear she expresses her being. Junija's artistic work becomes a path through which it is possible to get in touch with the soul of the artist and with his own. Junija's art is the meeting point between emotions, feelings and soul of the artist and also that of the observer.
Art Curator Vanessa Viti
Junija Galejeva
Triumphal arch
Junija Galejeva
Winter
Kaat Boey “Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter's soul.” (Vincent van Gogh)
It is not the final result but the act of making art that matters to artist and psychologist Kaat Boey. Her works are the results of her body movements while painting; nothing is already planned or pre-established: Kaat follows her instincts as “in dance the body follows the impulses”, she says. Neither thinking nor over-thinking, neither concepts nor stories, just her in front of a canvas with brushes, paints and her body in a specific lapse of time. She, in fact, connects “as closely as possible to the now-moment, which is different every moment”. In this way, art becomes an extension of the artist and making art the expression of her life. The act of painting becomes, for Kaat, a complete knowledge, a revelation; it is a deep listening of herself, what moves her and moves in her, a touching experience; it is an inner movement revealed on canvas, able to make her feel good physically, psychologically and spiritually. Everything is left in the making and becoming. This aesthetic experience gives free rein to the artist’s inner world and body movements which are made tangible on canvas through pastel-like colours and abstract shapes. “Without title” is one of Kaat’s outward movements. Acrylic, oil pastel, watercolour, marker, varnish of pink and orange tones dance together on a white canvas by creating childish-like shapes. You can see the artist’s movements while making these lines of colours linked to and overlapped on each other. As in all her works, clarity does not figure in this painting: there are no familiar shapes, no objects to cling to. Here, the artist does what she feels like a therapeutic act and lets the viewers experience it as they feel it. She does not create only for her, she also creates for you wondering “what dances in you when you look”.
Art Curator Martina Lattuca
Kaat Boey
Without title
Kalena Leigh
American artist Kalena Leigh presents two works on the occasion of the exhibition "Sacrifice" held by M.A.D.S. art gallery, based in Milan and Fuerteventura. Once again the artist shows to the public two works with female subject, the signature of her works, made in mixed media. The first work analyzed here is entitled "Be You" and is a clear tribute to the freedom of women. The artist launches a message of positivity, remembering to be always themselves. Various elements are present in the work: the use of stencils in the realization of butterflies for example, small hidden writings, graffiti that adorn the background as well as drops of color that slide along the canvas. All this is enriched by the bright and fluorescent colors that Kalena decides to use and that nevertheless, lead viewers to focus on the eyes of the woman that become the focal point of the work. Kalena Leigh’s incredible talent for making certain facial features, such as the eyes, becomes magnetic. The magic surrealism that her canvases contain is disarming.
Kalena Leigh
The same magic is perceptible in the second exposed work: "Count the stars". Here blue and purple dominate the canvas. The female subject is placed on the right and is accompanied by the face in a lion. From a technical point of view, the work is less complex than the previous one. Stars illuminate the composition and transport viewers into the universe. The lion becomes a sort of animal guide for the woman or perhaps in some way is her impersonification. The subject could refer to the constellation of Leo and thus be a celebration of this sign of the Zodiac. What is certain is that the style of Kalena Leigh is unmistakable. The artist has created a signature that distinguishes her from anyone else. Magic is undoubtedly the main element.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Kalena Leigh
Be You
Kalena Leigh
Count the Stars
Kambrya Bailey "What I'm looking for is neither reality nor unreality, but the unconscious, the mystery of instinct in the human race." (Amedeo Modigliani)
As an artist, Kambrya Bailey believes her purpose is to use her art to engage the language of the mind, heart and spirit and translate it into images. Her art is
based on the concept of "visual syntax" coined by the artist herself and aims to
create a philosophical relationship between artistic creation and her own subconscious. In support of this concept, soft lines and bold colors play a fundamental role, acting as a vehicle for the realization of one's own interiority on the canvas. An internalization process that aims, through an intimate dialogue with the deepest corners of one's soul, to explode on the canvas. "The Empress" plays with the shapes and lines of a female body, exploring beauty and femininity with a clear reference to the style of Jazz and Afro-beat music. Painting beauty, harmony and intimacy becomes, for Kambrya Bailey, one of the primary purposes of making art.
Art Curator Federica Schneck
Kambrya Bailey
The Empress
Kana Hawa
"Our life is made by the death of others". Leonardo Da Vinci
Helen Hitchens converses with Freud, Aubrey Beardsley and Jan Pienkowski about death. The conversation to image takes place on paper and is moderated by black ink. The artist begins this exchange between herself and her pain after losing most of her loved ones. Art is life and as such, an artist's way to process pain is precisely to create and open a door towards an unknown other about which nothing is known except the irrepressible thrust of continuous exploration. Grieving does not exactly have a real place in our society, we have customs and traditions, rites, and a number of pre- established days dedicated to it but in all these passages the end is indicated and determined. We must go on, as a lifestyle, Authors like HItchens instead courageously decide to live their pain of death with respect, without the spasmodic expectation of the end of sorrow, which then the end is exactly the one thing that generated that pain. The desire of accelerating the process of grief is a death itself, it says death feelings and emotions must be done, effectively sacrificing any powerful message this peculiar and difficult state of the lonely soul can generate. A forest as a house of pain, of fear of the unknown, the abandoned finds refuge in the midst of these trees. An environmental embrace of feelings, without haste, in which to get lost. Helen has created a children's book dedicated to the place where those who die go and leave us temporarily.
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Kana Hawa
Singularity No.1
Kana Hawa
Singularity No.2
Kana Hawa
Singularity No.3
Kana Hawa
Humanism
Kana Hawa
Bloc Economy
Kari Veastad
"Creativity has always been part of my life and has given me a lot of energy," says talented Norwegian artist Kari Veastad. Although her working career has been focused on another area, yet art has always been part of her, and in fact she has been painting for 12 years, focusing for the past 5 years on acrylic painting. The art of Kari Veastad is an intuitive, abstract and figurative art at the same time; it is an art that analyzes the interiority of people and that makes you reflect. In the works under examination, she focused on the themes of wisdom and growth: the first is what man tries to achieve throughout life, the second is an inevitable process for people, both physically and also, and perhaps most importantly, on a mental level. As we can see, Kari Veastad deals with complex themes in her works; she is an artist who does not fear confrontation with the intangible, but on the contrary, just when the linguistic expression is not enough, she manages to express it perfectly on the canvas.
Kari Veastad
In both works we can admire bright colors laid out in such a way as to allow us to recognize the gesture of the hand and the bristle of the brush. In "The art of wisdom", through three anthropomorphic figures positioned to form a triangle, Kari Veastad shows us how wise words continue to live from generation to generation. In "The Growth", on the other hand, the composition is more articulate: it resembles cubist works because of its flat, geometric painting and the tendency to deform the subjects. The artist used this pictorial motif to better represent the different possible paths of development in the human psyche. These works are fascinating both at the "figurative" and at the coloristic level. The strong colors, in fact, capture the attention of the spectators and the intrigues of the forms envelop him. Kari Veastad surprises us every time with her ability to mix colors and images with soul and spirit.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Kari Veastad
The art of wisdom
Kari Veastad
The Growth
Karina Yacoubian
Karina Yacoubian is a contemporary artist whose abstract work is characterized by the predominance of color, movement and interlocking shapes, in close relationship with an imaginary and surreal world. For her, painting means creating, building, expressing thoughts, feelings and imagination. Her art is spontaneous and very personal. In her latest works, K. Yacoubian has embraced freedom and lightness in the forms existing in her paintings, discarding any rigid rules. The artist creates a playful interaction between the canvas, the pigments and her interpretation of her, generating a link between the work and her feelings. K. Yacoubian participates for the first time in an exhibition of the M.A.D.S. on the occasion of the December exhibition "Sacrifice". She decides to exhibit three works from the "Pure white" series created during 2021. The three works are made with different materials such as oil, acrylic, plaster, putty, paper and rice paper on canvas. "Descontructivism, Pure White A series" is a work in which the triangles have different dimensions and develop following a movement from left to right, from bottom to top. The triangles represent the opposing forces in tension between them. Strong fragmentation is opposed to controlled chaos. "East and west, Pure White B series" is a canvas worked in plaster and putty. The two volumes in the center are separate but at the same time in connection with each other. The composition appears in movement: the volumes seem to want to leave the canvas. "Sun, Pure White C series" is a work in which the Sun is the protagonist. The sun's rays break down and recompose, vanish and materialize, in a dynamic and continuous movement. In all the works there is a multifocal perspective, in fact the canvases can be appreciated from different points of view. There is no single focal point, there is a false symmetry, matter tries to escape control as if it had no substance but only spirit.
Art Curator Martina Bassi
Karina Yacoubian
Descontructivism, Pure White A serie
Karina Yacoubian
East and west, Pure White B serie
Karina Yacoubian
Sun, Pure White C serie
Karoline Winter
Karoline Winter is a German artist and mentor for people on their own personal soul path. Philosophical and spiritual forces flow together in her works, thanks to her gift of non-material seeing and perception of deep soul impulses. Therefore, she can be called a mediator between worlds: the light-filled spiritual world of angels and our level of consciousness, so that she coined the term "contemplation art" as a reference to this power of cognition. In the exhibition "SACRIFICE" hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Karoline presents two works of art. The first work, "Awakening," depicts a woman's face against a bright background from which colorful flowers and birds emerge, resulting in an extremely serene and peaceful outcome. The work, which seems to be a representation of spring, is a profound reflection on nature and life: when Karoline wondered who she is when everything collapses, she understood in deep contemplation that we are not separate. That everything is alive. All dramas, all fears are illusions that Vertand creates, because in nature there is always peace. When we create peace within ourselves, it brightens this beautiful world.
Karoline Winter
Deep love and the realization of who you really are bring out all the beauty of your self. In peace with everything, healing and deep bliss is possible. It is said that the hummingbird that appears in several points of the painting is like an angel of the heart, it brings healing to the hearts of people. "Awakening" is therefore an invitation to wake up and understand who we really are in our deep essence. "Compass of the Heart" is indeed a true explosion of light: for Karoline, this work is a true statement about life. As she wondered how to be completely free and independent, she realized that we all possess a deep wisdom, that the heart shows us our own individual path. Hence, the title of the work. The heart space is the source of our inspiration, a source connected to our soul, to our higher knowledge, to the divine origin. The multidimensional space of the heart guides us with our feeling, our intuition, with our wisdom and truth in our life. We are guided.We are not victims of circumstances, but are able to powerfully recognize our path.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Karoline Winter
Awakening
Karoline Winter
Compass of the Heart
Kasia Muzyka
Vibrant and explosive colors often carry a natural energy from within. What happens if this energy is meant to be portrayed as a possibility and not as an end result? How would you portray something uncertain and eager to become real? Diverse results are expected. Sacrifice your knowledge to make it evolve into a hopeful reality. Kasia Muzyka presents “Inner Alchemy” and “Sunrise Butterfly” for the “Sacrifice” Art exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art gallery. Pursue wildness as the rightful way, dare to let go of yourself and achieve “impossible” results. The forms, chosen by the artist, fly due to its innate freedom, which is the way they were perceived. The choice of colors are vibrant to be aware of burnt ideas, whose authors are still waiting for answers.
Kasia Muzyka
Alchemy and nature are managed in a similar way and “If all time is eternally present all time is unredeemable. What might have been is an abstraction. Remaining a perpetual possibility only in a world of speculation” - T.S. Eliot, where time past and time future are not diverse, in a world where creativity is always present to remember us to capture our memories. We need yellow to conceal our dream, we need green to remember nature, both are predominant colors on “Inner Alchemy” in order to convey how easily reality can shift. “Sunrise Butterfly” , a poised butterfly reminder with purple tones which bring royal awareness of surroundings waiting to witness an explosion of ideas and sacrifice them into the evolution of one’s self.
Art Curator Karla Peralta Málaga
Kasia Muzyka
Inner Alchemy
Kasia Muzyka
Sunrise Butterfly
Kate Rossini
For the international exhibition “Sacrifice” at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Kate Rossini exposes three works from the series “Landscapes of the Mind” (“Then”, “Now” and “After”), through which her artistic research explores every aspect of her identity up to reach the human existence on a universal level. By delving into her own subconscious to extract all that remains deep and hidden, the artist also focuses on a spiritual and reflective process, accompanied using music as an integral part of her meditative analysis. Kate has an interest and a desire to renew painting by utilizing materials such as plaster, caulk and aluminum to create compositions that help her to emphasize the importance of the pictorial matter, and its ability to adapt to the subject represented. Thanks to all these elements, which are fundamental to her stylistic and aesthetic conception, the artist wishes to discover unknown limits and the great beauty of the environment around her, extracting what strikes her the most, both perceptually and sensorially. Every gift that nature offers brings positive energy, lifeblood that irradiates the surrounding atmosphere. As far as her choice of colors is concerned, the theme of travel has had an impact on her work: she has been fascinated by how colors are used differently in each culture. With this knowledge, she immersed herself in the freshness and delicacy of her palette, highlighting the rendering of the luminous and expressive effects depicted. The realistic representation of light, the solid plastic construction and the authenticity of the composition reflect the artist's intention to express what she feels, giving voice to her feelings through a personal aesthetic to be shared with those who admire her works. Through the geometric and linear scansion of these paintings, one can notice a transformation within these works: this mystical and surreal style creates a connection between the earthly and heavenly spheres. The viewer is immersed in a reflective state that brings himself/herself back to his/her own introspection: through a slight dynamism, matter emerges from the surface, inviting the viewer to glimpse parallel universes, between the physical and the spiritual, between darkness and light, with the aim of exploring the infinite.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Kate Rossini
Landscapes of the Mind - Then
Kate Rossini
Landscapes of the Mind - Now
Kate Rossini
Landscapes of the Mind - After
Kaylin Skye “Art is a manifestation of emotion, and emotion speaks a language that all may understand.” (W. Somerset Maugham)
What are emotions? Are they thoughts, physiological reflexes or behavioural impulses? Emotional experiences are all these aspects together and do not need big words to be told; sometimes an image, a sound or an action is enough. In Kaylin’s case, colours and a canvas are the tools to tell what is deep in her heart, to open her most intimate feelings and emotions to the unknown public. “The art I create is as much theirs to feel as it is mine to create”, Kaylin says. Sacrifice is the second M.A.D.S. exhibition where Kaylin participates. The body of work that she presents is deeply personal, visceral and painful; it is like she is talking to you, communicating and sharing her memories with you. What Kaylin tells is the end of a strong and powerful relationship with all the emotions, fears and pains that it entails. The story starts with “Mania” where glitchy greens, reds and yellows try to fit together like pieces of a puzzle: they are aware they have to be apart but animosity is still strong in them to leave. Colours and shapes become softer in “Better Tomorrow”, as if she is thinking of all the things discussed yesterday, trying to acknowledge and accept them with despair and resignation. “April 13, 2019 And On” has a vortex of blues and pinks, everything is hazy and confusing and reminds the butterflies in your stomach when you meet the one you still love. Who knows what they said to each other, who knows what happened that day of Spring, their last meeting. They went on separate ways and “The Imitation of Intimacy” becomes a memory of what they once were and can never be again. The loose brushstrokes, the pinky tones tell the intimacy and connection between the two; that type of intimacy which cannot be translated into words because you feel it in your bones. This memory of powerful love translates into war with “Sexual Warfare”: red and white shades intertwined with force like tree’s roots. “The mistakes that were made after the conversation of subtracting them from their daily life. Only now leaving the two of them with the desire to be with anyone who was not them.”, Kaylin tells. Jealousy takes over everything, turns love pains into a bold distraction to living with others.
Art Curator Martina Lattuca
Kaylin Skye
Mania
Kaylin Skye
Better Tomorrow
Kaylin Skye
April 13, 2019 And On
Kaylin Skye
The Imitation of Intimacy
Kaylin Skye
Sexual Warfare
Kifan Alkarjousli "Art exists to record the memories, art is created by the living and persists beyond death” (Kifan Alkarjousli)
Kifan Alkarjousli is a Syrian Artist now living in Germany who mainly works on paintings with oil paint on canvas and wood and works with limestone, from which he makes sculptures. Kifan deals with figures, history and memories and everyday life: trying to bring the memories that are anchored in his memory to life through symbols that are part of his experience on his pictures, he mainly focuses on details to awaken them in the viewers and to help them to discover what they experienced ten, twenty or more years ago, finding the parts they had lost. At “SACRIFICE” exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Kifan presents two oils on canvas. The first one, “Embrace and the Crow”, represents a mother and her child embracing under a large and bright moon, under the watchful gaze of a crow to their left. The women have the typical clothes of Syria, full of colors, shapes and particular fantasies, belonging to the memory of the artist, to his experience and to his childhood: despite many years have passed, it is difficult to forget them and therefore Kifan brings them back to this painting loading it with memories, scents and events. In fact, if we look carefully at his clothes, we can observe dense details of images belonging to his experience that the artist expertly reports as if to tell his story.
Kifan Alkarjousli
In "The family", on the other hand, the protagonists are a father, a mother and their child, each hugging each other against a background of the city that blends perfectly with the surrounding nature. Once again, we find the densely decorated garments, full of ornamental shapes and motifs that refer us to oriental and precious civilizations. The union that binds the three characters is very strong, so much so that it is almost sealed by the white dove that the child holds in his hands: a symbol of peace and hope, it almost seems to counterbalance the black crow in the first picture, darker and more gloomy, even if the union of the characters of both works dominates any symbolism embodied by animals. Looking at Kifan's paintings, therefore, we perceive an intense experience, an important story made of love and strength, but also of a shred of nostalgia that rests like a light veil over the canvases: an insight into a past life of which the artist it only reveals quick images that, due to their beauty, lead us to want to know more.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Kifan Alkarjousli
Embrace and the Crow
Kifan Alkarjousli
The family
Kirsten Holly
Empathy plays a pivotal role in Kirsten Holly’s art and her paintings encapsulate how empathy is the fulcrum of making art and the experience of looking at art. Suffering from a debilitating chronic pain disease since youth, art has been for Holly the safe harbour where to land; “my chronic pain are the greatest locomotive for my creativity”, she says. The experience of living with a chronic pain leads Holly to an introspective journey through which she develops a great inner strength that feeds and enforces her creativity and art-making. Her art involves what is known to be a ‘self-empathy’: a sensory awareness of her inner feelings and emotional state where she listens to her body, mind and subconscious and facilitates an inner dialogue by transmitting her awareness on canvas. There is no more satisfying achievement for Holly than making art. Turning her attention inwards, Holly creates what she calls “intensely textured visceral pieces”. Visceral is what characterises Holly’s paintings, emphasising the immediacy of their impact on the viewers and “Sunset Solarium” is one of these visceral paintings. The cotton canvas becomes black-coloured on one side, while golden brushstrokes turn in what looks like a round or spiral game alternated by blue, purple and greenish paint on the background. The texture of the painting is rough and lumpy as if you can see and touch the gesso underneath the paint. Holly smartly uses black to contrast the rest of the canvas so that the bright and vivid colours pop up even more. Here, colours are at Holly’s services to convey her internal whirlwind: the blackness of her thoughts and pain is almost swept away by the sunset solarium, which releases beautiful and shining golden rays. “I only hope viewers, from this, can mould their own personal reflections and individual truths”, says the artist. “Sunset Solarium” is a personal painting which becomes of whoever is looking at it; it challenges the viewers emphatically and viscerally, reflecting their emotions, feelings and experiences.
Art Curator Martina Lattuca
Kirsten Holly
Sunset Solarium
Kris Wachtl
Kris Wachtl is an artist who studied as an engineer and his career has always been focused on data processing, but art and painting have always played an important role in his life, since childhood. Thanks to them he found a way to express his passions and desires in freedom. He chose as the subject of the artwork exhibited in Sacrifice International Art Exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, the heart. The vital motor for every living being, the symbol of emotions and feelings, whether of joy or pain, love or hatred, is that organ that governs and controls our functions, the center of our life. In fact, it’s the part that we try to protect most strongly from the threats of the outside world. In "Etiam viviens", what the artist does is to open his heart, inserts it on a homogeneous black background, and occupies much of the canvas in its entirety, using neutral and earthy colors: gray, light brown, black and gold, the latter to emphasize its preciousness. What captures the attention is the hole formed at the center of the composition, the artists is offering his own soul, making it become visible an invisible part of himself. It also adds an extra feature in that, creates with resin—a mirror—in which anyone can reflect, it is as if the artist asked everyone to do the same, to strip off their convictions to get naked in front of the art.
"Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter's soul." (Vincent Van Gogh)
Art Curator Alessia Procopio
Kris Wachtl
Etiam viviens
Kyoko Saito
An incredible explosion of color stands out before our eyes. The view travels to every point of the composition attracted by the flashy and eccentric elements. The feeling is that of being in front of a wonderful summer fireworks display. The chaotic wonder of Start shines in the composition and by reflection, in our eyes. We let go of our imagination and look closely at what treasures the work holds for us. A thick blanket of palm leaves peeps out from the dark backdrop. The bright green and spread in heterogeneous touches stands out and pulsates in contrast to the darkness of the background. Next to them, other vegetal elements such as stems and flowers with petals that look like large volutes of an Ionic capital. Secure in their visual autonomy, they occupy the space they need to be represented and infuse a sinuous, soft rhythm into the composition. Circular orange elements host purple and reddish petals that roll up on themselves forming a multicolored crown, another flower hosts a fleshy mouth painted red, a leitmotif that will run through the entire work far and wide. The sinuosity and sensuality of these vegetal elements is then diluted by peculiar geometric elements that pour into the different planes of representation, forming a sort of curtain that separates the elements from the background. Quadrangular silhouettes stand before our eyes, they are multicolored and multilayered. First a yellow layer, then a green one. Then orange, yellow, blue and green again. A kaleidoscope of colors that confuses our sight at first glance: there are too many visual inputs that our brain must process at the sight of Start. So let's place our gaze on an element in the foreground characterized by an extremely recognizable shape. It's an apple, a splendid glittering red apple. The pictorial rendering is emphasized by the use of small pieces of shiny and thin material that, laying one on top of the other, produce the apple skin. It's a perfect fruit, free from dents and defects; it's a juicy apple that swims in the heterogeneous sea of shapes that constitute Kyoko Saito's vision. Moving our gaze we find the outline of another apple, this time smaller and pinkish; we find the outline of feathers that hover gently in space and tentacle-like elements that substantially frame the entire representation. Yet, let's stop and observe the elements represented and try to relate them to our reality. They are not found on this planet. Start is not the representation of something terrestrial. The elements seem to float in space, small satellites crammed into a single space of the universe. The black backdrop, first mentioned, is a nice warning of the extraterrestrial nature of the elements depicted. Whether they are floating in the vacuum of the universe or in another unknown and remote place, we are not given to know. What we can perceive is that Start is the transposition of something exotic, something that is not possible to see and touch on this earth. Kyoko proposing a visual representation of this paradise of lines and colors gives us a taste of this wonder.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Kyoko Saito
Start
Laura Koller “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” (Picasso)
Art is something you do not choose willingly. The need to tell something is innate as the need to drink and eat; it is not acquired over time but has always been present in us. You do not choose to make art, it is art the comes to you by your hand. It was art that came to Laura Koller when she was a child who just started to draw small worlds with black ink liner, and it was art that led Laura Koller to paint. “Art tells what I can’t express with words. Art speaks in another way to you”, the artist says. Her works constantly evolve over time, differentiating in styles, shapes and composition, inspired by everything that Laura sees and feels. Each painting has a life of its own that comes from the artist’s experiences and journeys, feelings and emotions, and speaks to the viewers with a silent and powerful voice. Laura’s art gives you hope, makes you think and come into contact with something new, encourages you to grow, stimulates your emotions; it connects with you and does you good in someway. Since her art education in Florence, her way of making art became more colourful and she “has became much more involved with my works and with myself as an artist”, Laura explains. “Love connection”, “this fire in my heart” and “influence of an evening in the big city” are her new painting series started this year in October. Laura has been living on a Greek island for the last few months. Getting involved in a new country, exploring its culture and habits is as a tangible and long process as connecting with her inner self, where she is allowed to grow and put things in order, “to let go of the old and to receive and create the new”. In these paintings, bold, bright and intense colours unfold in beautiful abstract shapes creating soft and tender movements. The pinky tones perfectly pair with the greens, blues and reds; layers of colours overlap in what seems a romantic dance or a tight and powerful hug. Here, Laura takes us on a journey with no imposed destination; it is up to us to decide where to go and what to explore. In the end, it seems to be true that “art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life”.
Art Curator Martina Lattuca
Laura Koller
love connection
Laura Koller
this fire in my heart
Laura Koller
influence of an evening in the big city
Lena Rising “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for.” (Georgia O’Keeffe)
The artworks by Lena Rising, a Swedish contemporary artist, are magical visions of unexplored worlds, which only she can reach. Luminescent colours give life to scenarios surrounded by nature, where the floral element accompanies the vision of each piece. The link with nature plays an important role in Lena Rising's work. Ever since she was a child surrounded by intense vegetation, she lets these childhood memories emerge in her artistic research, characterizing each element. Her artworks are the result of digital photographic processing, which, starting from an image of reality, transforms the subjects into dreamy fairy worlds. Worlds inhabited by female figures always surrounded by delicately described flowers and leaves. In "Oneness", a beautiful young woman stands on her tiptoes, intent on welcoming a butterfly in flight. All around, wrapped in green, we see leaves suspended in an indefinite time and huge drops of water floating in the air. A purple halo envelops the young woman's face, joining the butterfly. The whole thing is meant to be completely dissociated from reality, to lead the observer far away, towards a silent mysticism, where the charm of the female figure takes the lead. With her works, Lena Rising reveals a new perspective on the relationship that has always been closely intertwined between the figure of the woman and that of Nature. She deepens the link to the point of analyzing its chemistry, transporting us directly into the matter that distinguishes it. We find ourselves walking following the rhythm of its pulsations, so deep that we can see every cell within it. As if in a spell, we feel Mother Nature's hand holding us as she accompanies our steps towards a new journey.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Lena Rising
Oneness
Lena Rising
The Imitation Game
Lena Rising
With or Without You
Leo Kang Leo Kang is an innovative artist with an intriguing and evocative artistic language. He explores different artistic processes, aiming to highlight the multidimensionality and interactive dimension of art. His artworks are able to create a strong impact on the viewer, who immediately feels involved. His aim is to create something that has an impact on the public, to overwhelm them and make them think through communicative and creative stimuli. Leo creates dynamic compositions, often monochrome to give greater relevance to the subject. He creates three-dimensional images, restoring them to the two-dimensionality of the pictorial support he uses. He inserts symbolic and emblematic figures that enter the subconscious mind of the viewer and remain there impressed and trapped. His creations have a strong visual impact thanks to his ability to create artworks that are never banal but always original. In the work "Book2 #79" his original and unprecedented concept is evident. Leo composes the artwork by putting at the centre a fantastic being with dreamlike and disturbing implications. A figure with mythological features from which a pyramidal structure creates the composition. The classical setting clashes with the innovation and modernity of the subject. The atmosphere is surreal, sometimes disturbing but extremely overwhelming. The mysterious figure has its face covered and no limbs or any other physical characterisation is visible. An indefinite number of hands and feet are clinging to it, trying to get closer, to hold on to it as if the figure were a metaphor. The iconography chosen by Leo is very evocative and interesting. The dark tones tending towards brown-grey increase the temporal suspension of the scene. The metaphysical character is suggested by the sea of almost grotesque hands and feet, some of which are deformed, sketched, deformed. The composition is a crescendo of emotions that unsettle the spectator's mind, projecting him into an atmosphere outside reality. The painting technique chosen by Leo is reminiscent of the engravings in medieval books, reminiscent of antiquity. The colour is applied densely, creating incrustations and making the painting rough, giving it a feeling of "unfinished", of indefinite. The purely material texture contributes to the suggestion of the image. The feeling that pervades the work is one of despair but also of hope: the hands try to cling with all their might to salvation and only a few succeed. Leo proves to be an extraordinary artist, both in his use of painting technique and in the manipulation of intrinsic messages in his evocative creations. The reference, albeit partial, to a tangible and real world, increases the impact of the work on the viewer and leads him to identify with one of those thousand hands seeking salvation. Leo's works turn out to be evocative, mysterious and deep, able to trigger strong reactions in the public.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Leo Kang
Book2 #79
Liis Danielsson
Estonian artist Liis Danielsson has been experiencing art as a form of living. She found in dance, tango in particular, an incredible discovery to be in touch with hidden and pure feelings, but it is with painting that the artist can find her soul. Painting as an unpretentious liberating activity, she starts working freely never knowing what the outcome will be. It is not unusual to find joy and energy that can be absorbed from her work which is guided by a sense of collectivity and unity. Community as a feeling, living in a group, being part of different ones during a lifetime. Childhood is a theme that is investigated by the author, what influences childhood and what signs are the results of this impact. The sun, as a big collective hug that Danielsson invites to not take for granted and to take a moment, maybe in front of her painting, to be grateful for that and think about how equal we all are under its rays. The people, human figures are always present in these works, walking, feeding babies, chatting, it all seems like a very normal day on earth, a kind of impressionist way to photograph the moment and flatten the differences with colors. As the artist says herself all her pieces are intuitively made and this can be seen and very much loved with the great range of signs and lines she uses. These paintings can be very different from one other yet have the same energy and intention, to give the audience a sense of gratefulness and grace, the feeling of being part of something bigger and to perfectly fit.
"Impressionism is the newspaper of the soul." (Henri Matisse)
Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Liis Danielsson
Reflextion
Liis Danielsson
Hope
Liis Danielsson
The Journey of life
Lika Ramati "Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them." (Hermann Hesse) Sacrifice, an action always linked to rituals to worship and venerate the divinity, practiced by all cultures in the world in a different way but similar. Lika Ramati, permanent artist at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, offered her works on the sacrificial altar in honor of Art. She created digital artworks that reflect on the action of sacrifice within religious rituals, both ancient and current. In ancient times people offered goods of different types, such as libations, money, animal sacrifices, to request help and protection for harvests and hunting, with "Abundance", the artist recreated an altar in honor of Artemis, Goddess of the hunt, represented in the foreground, her followers are represented by the two women, symmetrical, positioned in the upper section. The wine is a recurring symbol in rituals, known also as 'blood of the earth', is a drink that strengthens both men and gods. Used in the feasts in honor of the god Bacchus, the Bacchanals, then its identification as blood of Christ, in the Christian Mass, the work "Bacchus Twins" emphasizes the importance of wine, element that with water, were used to purify the bodies during rituals. But the act of sacrifice is not always meant as the donation of objects or food, very often it can also be considered in the form of requests and prayers addressed to the divine, as depicted in "Santa Maria", with three Madonnas, surrounded by veils and flowers, intent on praying and releasing sins for absolution, and in "Weeping Wall Jerusalem", where the picture shows a detail of the Wailing Wall, the most sacred place in Jerusalem. The faithful leave prayers, thoughts or requests written on sheets within the spaces of the Wall. In the sacrificial rites there has always been a reference figure, recognized in the role of the priest, in "The Priestess" the female figure is blurred, is absorbed by what surrounds it, because it is the symbol that stands as an intermediary between the divine and the earthly, communicates with it and consequently with the faithful, fulfills the will and satisfies the requests of the gods, in the form of veneration and worship.
Art Curator Alessia Procopio
Lika Ramati
Abundance
Lika Ramati
Bacchus Twins
Lika Ramati
Santa Maria
Lika Ramati
The Priestess
Lika Ramati
Weeping Wall Jerusalem
Lise Breistein "Teach self-denial and make its practice pleasure, and you can create for the world a destiny more sublime that ever issued from the brain of the wildest dreamer." (Sir Walter Scott)
Lise Breistein is a Norwegian resident artist. The first approach to her art took place when she was a child, inspired by her father, also an artist. Art has become Lise's privileged means of expression, which she re-elaborates in the form of poetic pictorial representations the intricate universe of emotions, thoughts, sensations that agitate her inner world. The artist continuously experiments with new techniques and new styles, on the one hand to adapt artistic creations to his own personality and on the other to create ever new ways of communication with the observer. This variety of styles, contents and techniques can also be appreciated in the works presented by the artist for "Sacrifice". Memento Mori is an admirable and delicate example of a pencil drawing that portrays a beautiful young woman surrounded by flowers. It is the symbolic reworking of a concept known since ancient times, that of the awareness of one's own mortality, which is realized on paper with the physiognomy of the skull, which can be glimpsed at the cheek. Lise, however, shows her originality by deviating from the canonical meaning of the expression "memento mori" ("remember that you will have to die") and gives the famous Latin phrase a more allegorical accent, a warning to act correctly in view of the afterlife. Tears - also made with the pencil and eraser technique - is inspired by more optimistic thinking. The female figure, often at the center of Lise's creations, becomes the emblem of an inner strength that originates from fragility and vulnerability, visually summed up by the tears that run down her face. From loving pain-bearers, they turn into light feathers, scattered in the wind, and become the expression of a renewed inner awareness. Angel on Earth differs from the two previous works for the use of ballpointpens, which makes the whole composition less suffused and delicate, and immediately captures the viewer's attention for its remarkable visual impact. The gaze falls on the superb figure of an angel, from behind, with his head bowed forward. In the composition - focused on the contrast between black and white - the notes of red dotted on the back of the angel stand out, suggesting a process of contamination between the celestial element (the angel) and the terrestrial one. The creature, which has come down to earth - is as if infected by staying in another world, exhibiting its signs. However, one can guess an implicit question, which leads us to ask ourselves how much the earth has been marked by the passage of the divine being. Lise Breistein demonstrates an uncommon ability to create works of layered and never banal meaning, but in any case easy to understand thanks to a particular sensitivity that dialogues with the viewer.
Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti
Lise Breistein
Angel on Earth
Lise Breistein
Memento Mori
Lise Breistein
Tears
Liso Cassano Liso Cassano is a young, multifaceted and talented French artist. Graduated in film arts in Paris, she also started to explore the world of visual arts, painting and poetry. Her strong personality and knowledge in different artistic fields lead her to create deep, disruptive works that explore the essence of the human being. She often puts art, poetry and cinema together, creating a harmonious and balanced tangle. The result is surprising. Her video artworks are true visual and sensory experiences, touching the soul of the viewer, which is laid bare. Everyone, in front of Liso's creations, is stripped of all superficiality and confronted with his true being. The artist loves to explore and create new artistic processes, she is always looking for an effective way to express what she feels. Colours, lights and contrasts are typical features of his work and contribute to an atmosphere suspended in time, ethereal and intriguing. In the "Sacrifice" exhibition, Liso decided to participate with her video-work "Mad About You", a deep, touching, extremely delicate but at the same time disruptive story. In just a few minutes of film,she combines several elements that together give a harmonious result, maintaining a common thread in the story. The beginning is characterised by a play of reflections, the light is cold and in the background a poem is recited in an enveloping and involving way. The blue light contrasts with the gold leaf, one of the main elements of the artwork. The gentle colour contrast takes the viewer on a mental journey. Nature is often recalled by various elements within the video that bring to mind the complicated but overwhelming relationship of the individual with nature. Interesting is not only the chromatic contrast but also the contrast of textures. The fragrance and fragility of gold leaf contrasts with the lightness of feathers. A play of textures, lights and shadows animate the immersive atmosphere of the video. The background is soft, lulling the viewer and guiding him through the hidden meanings of the work. At a certain point, the image of a girl who seems to be reflected in a mirror appears. The spectator is invited to identify with her and relive the memories of her mind that flow alternately through the gold leaf. It is as if the girl, alone in front of the mirror, is thinking back to past moments. The image of a boy lying down often appears fragmented by other elements and the colour of the light caressing him varies. It goes from a light as red as passion, to green hope, to deep, immersive, mysterious blue. A journey through sweet memories and moments of happiness that draw wide, sincere smiles on the protagonist's face. The gold leaf as a precious element, a metaphor for human relationships. In the final part, the image of the boy who emerges in the memories of the young girl is superimposed on the gentle swaying of the sea in which the moon is reflected, creating the typical shimmering of the water. Finally, the music stops to give space to the poetry, as if to close a cycle begun at the beginning of the video. All the viewer's five senses are involved. Liso guides us on an emotional and sensory journey that turns from subjective to objective. Liso is an extraordinary artist, capable of entering people's hearts and minds. She brings back memories, emotions and feelings. Her art is involving, sensitive and touching.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Liso Cassano
Mad about you
Liso Cassano
Mad about you
Liso Cassano
Mad about you
Lucas Lamenha
The art of Lucas Lamenha is a hymn to the lust for life, music and love, is a pop journey to discover fragments of memories, turned into sci-fi stories with a vintage flavor, told through the use of sprays and acrylic inks. Holding a felt-tip pen, used as a tongue to express himself and speak, the Brazilian artist invents an idyllic narrative universe, a vocabulary open to anyone: in this galaxy coexist a myriad of heterogeneous elements immersed in a graphic flow, which flood our gaze and invite the viewer to immerse themselves in the ludic core and in the vibrant imagistic world of the artist. The exceptional uniqueness of its stylistic imprint and the singular originality of its deliberately imperfect stroke, reflect and abstractly translate the urban chaos, exploring the vortex of information of the modern world.
Lucas Lamenha
The overlapping and instinctual fusion of inspiring phrases, bright and contrasting colors, musical texts, lettering, numbers, symbols and signs derived from street-urban culture, makes us reflect on the aesthetics of writing, which is no longer just meaning but also harmony of sound and form. Through the spontaneity of language and the aid of repeated stylized figures, Lamenha gives us expressive forms in charge of spreading a message of overwhelming explosive joy. Lucas Lamenha condenses an effervescent positivity in his canvases and outlines a terrific world, above which the viewer seems to sail moved by the ancestral dream of flying on a hot-air balloon.
Art Curator Maria Teresa Cafarelli
Lucas Lamenha
Great Place to Work
Lucas Lamenha
Lucky Man
Lucia Ganassin
The artist asks herself: Do you have the courage to change yourself like leaves in the fall? Courage for the unknown. What would you sacrifice for a better self? Lucia Ganassin presents “Fall Foliage” for the “Sacrifice” Art exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art gallery. She reminds us of Robert Delaunay’s color harmonies and the futuristic aesthetic of Umberto Boccioni. Lucia Ganassin relies on dynamic forms to portray a result, which is calmness. The calmness to discover what you have sacrificed to evolve into a better self. Nature evolves as we do, holding us tight on every hour. We do not know how it happens, but we usually get over something dangerous and stand up after turmoil, waiting for a chance of salvation. Boccioni’s aesthetic comes with the price of outstanding dynamism but Lucia carries this characteristic as an interlude before she portrays tranquility with the rhythms created by colors. It is a symphony with dynamic forms and harmony created by the tones of a season, which represents the beginning of a new phase in our present. Take nature’s courage to evolve and make it your path to follow.
Art Curator Karla Peralta Málaga
Lucia Ganassin
Fall Foliage
Lucrezia Giacometti “Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change – it can not only move us, it makes us move.” (Ossie Davis)
There are some people whose life always revolves around art, thus becoming an essential part of their life, a passion that accompanies them in every moment of their life and Lucrezia Giacometti is one of these people. “Art is something innate”, Lucrezia says; it is a means of expression that has always helped her to face her emotions and particular situations of her life. Working with ink, she is in constant research of introspection. Through her paintings, the artist becomes an attentive observer of her inner life who analyses and conveys her thoughts, feelings, desires and stimuli. At the same time, her artistic research goes beyond herself to embrace what might be sensations, feelings and emotions experienced by others. In this way, Lucrezia’s art becomes the communication bridge between her and the viewers, where her feelings and experiences are shared. “Ethereal Transition” is the title of three paintings that Lucrezia presents in the Sacrifice exhibition. Here, each painting represents a human figure without identity; no eyes, no mouth, no expressions that we can draw from these figures. The three paintings tell the internal process caused by a situation prevailing over everything and affecting our lives, such as those relationships that, although strong and firm in the past, begin to deteriorate until they lead to a liberating act where the subject reaches a new dimension of balance and inner peace. This transition is communicated through Lucrezia’s smart use of colours. Surrounded by quick brushstrokes of white and red, in the first painting, the figure stands motionless on a black background. This static feeling is opposed to a strong, powerful and silent vortex of emotions represented by red brushstrokes on the chest of the figure of the second painting. Here, the inner discomfort and the conflicting emotions take over everything. Reddish and black shades leave the space to blue and greenish colours in the third painting, as symbolising that inner peace and balance are finally found. Despite the figures having no identity, Lucrezia helps us imagine what these figures are feeling and how they are behaving, thanks to the right choice of colours and the ways of depicting them. True, they have no identity; it is also true that we can find ourselves in each one of them.
Art Curator Martina Lattuca
Lucrezia Giacometti
Ethereal Transition
Lucrezia Giacometti
Ethereal Transition
Lucrezia Giacometti
Ethereal Transition
Ludmila Vorotnikova “True beauty in an individual is reflected in their soul.” (Audrey Hepburn)
The interest in a symbolic and idealized language is always present in the works of Ludmila Vorotnikova. However, it finds innovative and unexpected ways of expression each time, as we can admire starting from the work Girl with a scythe. The protagonist of the work is a girl of rare beauty, whose face is slightly leaning forward. The curvature of her neck creates a single line with the arched shape of a scythe, whose white background brings out the delicacy of the complexion and the sumptuous shades of red and pink lying on the edge of the scythe and on the young woman's head. Ludmila's virtuosity induces her to linger - as often happens in her works - on the dualism between the simplicity of the somatic features and the incredible detail of the geometric decorative apparatus, which runs through the entire hair of the figure, following the soft movement of the long braid. The whiteness of the whole seems to allude to the purity of the lunar surface, and is enhanced by the luxuriance of floral motifs that also surround the woman's head, a tacit symbol of an interior sweetness that also radiates outward.
Ludmila Vorotnikova
Christmas people belongs to a different genre, but no less fascinating. The work depicts a series of elongated faces, suspended in an indefinite dimension. The geometries and bright colors that distinguish the faces make the whole look like a crowd of colorful masks, reaching out towards the viewer. It is interesting to note how the artist has chosen to represent different expressions on each face, as well as the chromatic choice for each person. If the whole might seem joyful and cheerful at first - also thanks to the decorations with trees and golden snowflakes, painted on the faces - on a closer look it can be seen that the sensations aroused by each figure could not be more varied. The feeling of joy, of course, is present, but so are impatience, indifference, sadness, despair, which culminates in the face in the lower left corner. The diversity proposed by the artist seems to allude to the different perspective that the Christmas period projects on each individuality, carrying out an original reflection that diverts from the canonical representations.
Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti
Ludmila Vorotnikova
Christmas people
Ludmila Vorotnikova
Girl with a scythe
Ludwig Yzer
Who more than nature gives gifts to her children? Nobody! Nature every day gives us its beauty, its magnificence, its fruits. Nature sacrifices itself every day for us, it deprives itself of a part of itself to give it to us. In the same way, when artists create a work of art, they pour their deepest emotions onto the canvas, it is as if they deprive themselves of a part of themselves to give it to the world, to those who observe their works. This parallelism is clearly visible in the work "Beauty of Nature" by the artist Ludwig Yzer. Here the artist in fact represents the beauty of nature and its link with man. The closest relationship between man and nature can be found today especially in African culture. Ludwig uses a particular symbolism to represent this link: that of the drum. In fact, the artist explains to us that the drum, in African culture, is a symbol of communication. It is used, for example, to communicate the most extraordinary magic of nature: the birth of a child. The woman, like the one pictured here, represents, thanks to her gift that she is able to make with her body, fertility. That fertility that unites men and nature. Even the leaves depicted have a symbolic meaning: they all represent types of leaves used to heal the body. In fact, nature provides us with everything we need every day. Nature dialogues with man through the gifts she gives him. We should simply learn to be truly grateful for these gifts and reciprocate.
Art Curator Silvia Grassi
Ludwig Yzer
Beauty of Nature
Luis Silva (Gija)
Luis Silva (Gija) is a Portugal based painter, he started studying music at a young age and art as a selftaught. He strongly advocates for abstract painting, he truly believe that abstract art comes directly from the soul, the absence of defined shapes and gestures, the uncontrollable flow of feelings that goes directly from heart to hand is absolutely incomparable and peerless. Silva’s work and thought can be related to expressionist Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Clyfford Still. They created simple compositions with large areas of colour intended to produce a contemplative or meditational response in the viewer. Wether this artists are flattering colours painting large areas. Known as colour field painting, Luis Silva (Gija) has a wide range of shades on his canvas. The acrylic colours respect the presence of each tone and the brushes can be material and soft only guided bu the author’s gut which gives this painting the unsettling honesty any art conversation is looking for and investigating. There is a botanical suggestion in the picture, the greens, the pinks, can remind to a bloomed rose, is it still alive surviving the cold or is it the first one blooming is not for us to know. Another important element in the work is the signature, the artist confirms his willing to not follow constructed rules and superstructures. The signature is there and it is part of the entire image, it says it is made by me, it is my soul, my heart and it has to be clear.
"Instead of making cathedrals out of Christ, man, or ‘'life'’, we are making it out of ourselves, out of our own feelings." (Barnett Newmann) Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Luis Silva (Gija)
Cores Mágicas
Luisa Barba "The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience." (Emily Dickinson) Each artworks encloses the personality of the artist, who through the use of the brush, brings out on the canvas a creation, that becomes the message for the outside world and is then defined as art. The act of sacrifice that the artist makes to her audience. In the portrait of Luisa Barba, permanent artist at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, "A Friend", the audience is led to observe a woman, placed on her back, who turns towards us, with a movement that starts from the bottom, her shoulders, covered by a semi-transparent fabric, colored blue, passing through smooth brown hair and ends in the look of the protagonist, which is sensual, provocative, full of energy, powerful. The attention is captured almost immediately by the magnetic blue eyes of the subject, it's through them that the painter wants to pay homage to the art. Communicate her thanks to the discipline, for having opened the doors to her and being able to transmit to others her feelings and sensation, through her own creations. That look, from which it is difficult to divert attention, is the key to the creativity of the artist, in every observation seems that there is more to discover, that adds to the meaning understood previously. The use of expressive eyes is a characteristic of the portraits of Luisa Barba, in each of them the viewer is invited to delve into and deepen the knowledge of the protagonist and consequently of the artist, to know the most hidden and significant sides.
Art Curator Alessia Procopio
Luisa Barba
A Firend
Luz Sánchez "With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things." (William Wordsworth) The bright and vibrant colors used in the artworks by Luz Sánchez, permanent artist at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, give a singular energy and narrative strength to the composition. In "Momento de creation" the artist is portraying herself, while she is painting, her face looks at peace and happy, it is the moment of maximum realization. The colors she uses give light to the whole structure and underline the importance of the represented moment. The artist is completely immersed in her work and is ready to give her creation to her audience. The story of "Despues" starred a boy dressed in fabrics and clothing with different colors and patterns, as if it were a living palette. It plays the role of childlike innocence and encloses the infinite possibilities that youth reserves for all of us, which the artist must draw, to be able to create new works, rediscover the fun and joy of her creativity every single time she’s painting. "La obra creada" has as its subject a naked woman lying horizontally, is surrounded, in certain points of contact, by bright red flames, the painting seems to want to tell of a suffering that the artist wants to share with the public, who empathized with the protagonist, tries to alleviate the pain but at the same time is allowed to get rid of his own. The canvases that Luz Sánchez exhibited in Sacrifice International Art Exhibition, at first seem to tell episodes of everyday life, but a more careful observation leads to reflect on the artistic path of the artist.
Art Curator Alessia Procopio
Luz Sánchez
Despues
Luz Sánchez
La obra creada
Luz Sánchez
Momento de creatión
Maco Hattori
The art of Maco Hattori is the perfect dinemism between abstract and digital art. Using fluid art, photography and digital collage techniques, she is the spokesperson for a new art, which blends tradition and innovation, uprooting traditional canons. Her art finds reference in astrology, in stones, in nature. She lets herself be inspired by fauna and landscapes to create works that put the viewer in contact with the earth and humanity, helping him to understand even the unknown. In “Swaying Moon” the main element to understand the artwork is the photograph of the sea cave illuminated by the moonbeam that the artist uses as a background. The sky is clear, the sea is calm. Everything conveys serenity. The artist, inspired by this blue cave, paints the two works placed at the center. They portray the abstract version of the grotto. The blue and green reflect the color of the sea and the orange that of the light that filters on the rock walls. The brush strokes recreate the movement of the waves. Around this two paintings, the artist creates a collage by inserting elements of nature. Plants and crystals, of the same colors of the two paintings, are references to the earth. Fish, shells and starfish are symbols of the strength of the sea. The artist plays with different elements. She is not satisfied with making a painting, she tells a story. She wants to show us what inspired her:the beauty of the silent and calm cave. She wants to make the viewer feel the same emotions she felt. This is the only way to understand the two abstract paintings. The reason for the choice of colors. The joy of the artist in the sinuous brushstrokes. The beauty of nature is accentuated by the collage of plants, crystals and marine subjects. The main goal of Maco's art is to give the viewer spiritual comfort, emotional healing, to help him open up to love and beauty.
Art Curato Lucrezia Perropane
Maco Hattori
Swaying Moon
Mahima Chaudhury
The artist Mahima Chadhury decides to join the last International Exhibition of 2021 organized by the M.A.D.S. project and entitled "Sacrifice", with a selection of digital works in full coherence with the previous participation. This shows that her artistic path has truly found a fixed point, namely that of digital painting. Contrary to the last exhibition, this time Mahima with the two works “Absent” and “Escape”, faces the dark color, proposing a particularly strong contrast with the yellow of the light. Both share the theme of space, emptiness and illusion. They seem to be the continuum of each other: while "Escape" presents two impersonal human figures who come out of their metaphorized reality through a room made up of white and aseptic walls, "Absent" describes the protagonists as they set themselves in space, letting themselves be transported from a thousand thoughts of earthly life.
Mahima Chaudhury
Their positions and small iconographic details such as that of the cigarette she holds between her fingers, makes one think of the universe as a place of peaceful refuge. A corner of the universe where you can enjoy tranquility and where you can abandon your problems, leaving them gradually crumbling into the air. In reading the two works, two salient moments in the history of art can come back to mind: in the asepticity of the subjects and in their impersonality, we recognize the metaphysical concept of De Chirico, that avant-garde pictorial current of the twentieth century that arose in the context of Italian culture, which intends to represent objects in a clear and static way but going beyond their realistic appearance, in order to grasp the essence located beyond the physical appearance of reality. It also prevails dreamlike atmospheres from which, for example, surrealism drew inspiration. And it is precisely the surrealist principle of dreams and illusion that surrounds everything else.
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Mahima Chaudhury
Absent
Mahima Chaudhury
Escape
Maiju-Alina Hannula "When I know your soul, I'll paint your eyes" (Amedeo Modigliani)
Each work of art is first of all a work of introspection and deep knowledge of one's own abilities and executive techniques. Introspective art is a real psychological process in which the artist gets to know himself through the artistic process. In introspective execution it is quite common for the artist to rereproduce himself in a subjective version of his self, but even more often it happens that the artist represents himself in the worst version that he can see from the outside and as a self-critic. In the history of contemporary art we have many examples of introspective art and the most striking is the work of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama who brought her particular artistic execution to the West and becomes an icon in the world of graphic novels.
Maiju-Alina Hannula
She is joined by the artist Maiju-Alina Hannula who in her introspective representation of the female subject brings references and symbolisms from the history of the avant-gardes. The female subjects with closed eyes recall the faces of women by Amedeo Modigliani. He painted them without eyes, because he said that the human soul resides in her eyes and that he was unable to paint her. The soul of these two subjects presented by Hannula emerges directly from the canvas and melts like a caress on the viewer who feels deep empathy towards the female figures. In her art resides the very soul of the artist and her sacrifice is to detach herself from her to donate her art to the world.
Art Curator Letizia Perrieri
Maiju-Alina Hannula
Vilutar
Maiju-Alina Hannula
Elma
Maiko
Looking up to the sky is an atavistic, instinctive gesture for most of us. Closed in our lives, busy with daily chores and spectators of a life that always passes too quickly, we human beings look at the sky and its infinity and we feel good. Our vision encounters no obstacles, our sight can rest by going to observe undefined points of that great space above our heads. It's nice to look at the sky, it makes us calm and helps us to reset all the emotions that drown our soul on a daily basis. We raise our eyes to the sky and we feel small, tiny beings compared to a universe that is probably endless. Our existences are insignificant compared to the distances and the age of what is above us. We can consider ourselves as a small opaque atom within the universe and yet, this condition is fine with us. To us humans, the knowledge that we are an insignificant part of something so large that we cannot even imagine, is fine. We feel part of something immense, ancient and infinite, we feel included in a design so big that it is not possible to explain in words. The gesture of looking up to the sky is therefore something that has lived inside us since time immemorial. The blue of the day, the darkness of the night; the brilliant light of the sun and the milky glow of the moon have assisted humanity since the dawn of time. The sun, what warms our earth and makes life possible on this planet; the moon, a small stone in the sky that, reflecting the sunlight, seems to shine with its own light.
Maiko
The dichotomy between these two elements is to be considered as something complementary and Maiko with Moon and Sun I and Moon and Sun II wants to suggest us just this kind of relationship. Two circular supports host inside them a heterogeneous set of elements. The shape of the two works certainly recalls that of the star and the satellite so dear to us. Let's go into the represented to discover what is hidden beyond the surface, let's discover the core of these two works. Small touches of material color are applied on the support. The chromatic spots are layered one on top of the other causing curves, reliefs, hollows of color engraved on every inch of surface. Uncertain and transparent pieces of plastic are placed inside the representative space emphasizing the heterogeneity of the stellar ground. The layering of pigment and the use of plexiglass shards is mimesis of the surface of the two celestial bodies. Touching Maiko's works we can imagine touching the Sun and the Moon: we burn ourselves with the fiery heat of the sun and heal our wounds by resting our fingers on the cold moon. We rejoice in the sounds made by our star, we stretch our ears to the noise of the booms echoing in the core of the Sun and then we seek quiet and silence sitting on the surface of the moon.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Maiko
Moon and Sun I
Maiko
Moon and Sun II
Maïra Maravillosa
For the international exhibition “Sacrifice” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Maïra Maravillosa exposes two works (“Door of Impossibilities” e “La Metusa”) through which she best reflects the theme of the exhibition. Indeed, the allegory of sacrifice and suffering is visible in "Door of Impossibilities": the artist depicts a three-headed figure with six arms while fire unravels from its feet. The three faces could celebrate Heaven, Earth and the Underworld, which govern and protect the three kingdoms. This character and the door mentioned by Maïra in the title are also reminiscent of the dog Cerberus in Dante Alighieri's “Divine Comedy”, as its task was to protect a specific entrance (in that case the Underworld). Another key element is the fire placed at the bottom of the multiform figure: it represents the profound force that allows the union of opposites and the ascension to sublimation, it is the engine of the periodic regeneration of Nature. The spirit, the inner fire of every human being, is at the same time the penetrating knowledge of the individual intellect. However, this meaning also encompasses its instinctive and destructive value.
Maïra Maravillosa
The latter aspect can also be seen in the other work presented, as in “La Metusa”, where the artist represents one of the three Gorgons, the daughter of the marine gods Forco and Ceto. According to mythology, they had the power to petrify anyone who met their gaze and, among three, Medusa was the only one who was not immortal. She was originally a sweet and pure girl, and her beauty attracted the attention of Poseidon, God of the sea, who craved for her. This aroused the anger of Athena: the goddess found revenge by turning Medusa's hair into snakes and her white appearance into a monstrosity, so that anyone who looked directly at her would turn into a stone. Despite her appearance, her alludes to the duality between life and death, wishing a sense of everlasting freedom. This symbolism can be seen in the work: in fact, thanks to a strong chromatic contrast, Maïra highlights Medusa's slender silhouette with earthy colors, while around her the atmosphere is heavenly, with a pastel sky composed by white and golden clouds. In her hands she tightens a heart, probably to underline her love for Poseidon. Through these works, Maïra Maravillosa expresses all her creativity and her artistic conception, highlighting a strong union between art and literature.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Maïra Maravillosa
Door of Impossibilities
Maïra Maravillosa
La Metusa
MAJA “Don´t sacrifice your dreams for your goals, achieve them living your life in the best way!" (MAJA)
MAJA, alias Mario Stroitz, is a Carinthian artist who focuses his production on cartoons: always fascinated by the world of Disney, Marvel and DC with which he began his first drawings as a child, he decided to start a training course to consolidate his skills in painting and researching new techniques that have led him over time to develop the style on which he focuses most today: the world of cartoons. Based on the style of great American modern artists with astute phrases and subtle remarks in the style of 60s pop art, his characters, part of the collective imagination, are each time individually reinterpreted and charged with personal memories and current events. In a multi-stage creation process, the artist “builds” the scenery using different techniques, layer by layer and making his figures look like moving prints. At "SACRIFICE" exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, MAJA presents two works.
MAJA
In “DREAM IT. BELIEVE IT” the protagonists are the Duck, Bugs Bunny and the Skunk who, dressed in skimpy clothes, look directly at the viewer with an air of satisfaction and superiority - even the Skunk sits on a chair made only of banknotes. Very different from how we know them, the pomp of the three characters is immediately made clear by the writing inserted in large characters by the artist in the center of the work: "Dream it, Believe it. Make it real!". In fact, firmly believing in what we dream of and only considering ourselves capable and able to achieve our goals, what we wish for has a better chance of coming true! In "LIFE'S A BEACH ...", the second painting presented by the artist at the exhibition, Snoopy and Woodstock ride a big wave on a Louis Vuitton surfboard. The light colors and the natural landscape in the background give the picture an overall sense of serenity and happiness. As MAJA often does, he inserts a maxim of wisdom into the framework that gives meaning to the whole: "If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you". By encouraging the viewer to see the waves not as an insuperable obstacle but rather as an opportunity to push and swim even harder on the surfboard, the artist invites them to enjoy the waves, the ups and downs of life, because that's the only way we understand to be human, alive! Because as MAJA says: "Don´t sacrifice your dreams for your goals, achieve them living your life in the best way!"
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
MAJA
DREAM IT. BELIEVE IT
MAJA
LIFE'S A BEACH...
Malin Olsen
On the occasion of the international art exhibition Sacrifice the artist Malin Olsen presents three artworks titled Blue Ballerina, Lille nøkken and Løvetann. The three works present different artistic language. We can see something more near at the abstract technique and something else that wants to be more representative as in the case of landscapes. If we start from the first painting presented titled Blue Ballerina, we can see on a blue background the image of a stylized dancer in movement. The action of the figure is expressed with the arm raised and in a position almost back to the observer. This painting uses abstract nuances and the will to give shape and representation to something, also animating it by putting it into action in the space of the drawing. The second painting titled Løvetann, goes towards abstract intention but also we can talk on this occasion about action painting. Although the desiring instance of the painting is a precise kind of flower the action beyond the canvas that creates the composition reminds the action painting intention. This also justifies the artist's desire not to use the brush. This kind of formal choice reminds me of an idea of artistic construction that is immediate and violent, capable of expressing the feelings and emotions of the artist in their immediacy. This is a freedom desire, in which the art is used to express all the emotions of the moment. The third painting presented titled Lille nøkken wants to tell us another way to use the art from the artist. In fact in this occasion the artist wants to be more representative in fact the vision in front of us is a landscape. As if it was a special place in which the artist has felt something deepest and wants to tell us about this story and this vision. For the viewer it is like to stay in her company and feel the same emotion of the artist. Maybe calm and peaceful. In this way the artist Malin Olsen is capable of showing us different ways not just to create the art but also enjoy it.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Malin Olsen
Blue Ballerina
Malin Olsen
Løvetann
Malin Olsen
Lille nøkken
Manuela Eibensteiner All our interior world is reality, and that, perhaps, more so than our apparent world.” (Marc Chagall)
The artworks by Manuela Eibensteiner, a contemporary Austrian artist, show a strong link with expressionist art, where the subject is led to an almost total abstraction and where the spatiality is twisted, until the atmospheres become as wonderful as they are alienating. The resulting expressive drama, especially in 'Golden stripes' - the painting exhibited at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery for the SACRIFICE exhibition - accompanies the entire vision. A series of strange and frightened eyes observe us as they float in the space in the grip of turbulent colours, which envelop them and drag them away. Reds, oranges and yellows spread across the canvas in the form of fiery tongues, creating an intense sense of movement and creating an overwhelming blaze. In the foreground, golden bands cut the work into several parts, creating a sense of separation between us and what we see. We feel part of the tragedy and at the same time unable to act. Manuela Eibensteiner poses an interesting question: who is really locked up in this golden cage? Us or these alienated eyes? Perhaps the artist puts us in front of a mirror in order to show us the reality. That reality for which we are dazzled by the beauty of a burning fire, forgetting who we really are. The artist tells us about an often unconscious perdition that is filled with futility, showing us empty eyes bewitched by the glitter of gold. However, the choice of allowing a glimpse of the underlying white of the canvas, gives importance to light, leaving room for both the hope and the strength to react.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Manuela Eibensteiner
Golden stripes
Marguerite Rahal
The art made by the artist Marguerite Rahal is a set of different styles and artistic languages. We can see the use of the abstract technique with a language more representative. This mixture produces a suggestive effect in which the observer can lose his feelings and thoughts towards the using colors and also the images represented. In this international art exhibition Sacrifice, she presents the painting titled “It is so blind”. On the bottom of the composition, in a central position we can see two female faces arranged one above the other. The first face on the bottom presents just one eye closed and the other one have two eyes that stare at the observer. From the two faces different colored lines start that seem to create a crown around the head of the double-faced woman. We can say that this is the abstract part of the painting. At the same time the most important and meaningful part of the composition is created by the image of this double-face woman. The way she opens and closes the eyes on the bottom seems to create movements that talk about blindness. Something painful but also close to the concept of art. Although the idea of blindness is associated with a physical dysfunction at the same time, the inability to look can be a pretext for sharpening the power of the imagination. In this way new colors and shapes can be born, radiate reality and look at the world through real eyes, those of art.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Marguerite Rahal
It is so blind
Maria Evseeva “Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.” (John Ruskin)
Maria Evseeva is a creative artist, sinuous in her movements, instinctive and spontaneous. Her art, strongly influenced by the
search for spirituality, releases a feeling of quietness and inner peace. Her canvases are often coloured with cold tones such as blue
and light blue, interspersed with warmer tones such as red, orange and yellow. Light is a fundamental element in her creative
process. It draws boundaries, traces, creates dynamism and gives intensity to the colours. Maria moves across the canvas in a soft and delicate way, letting the colours mix and creating a gentle and
harmonious rhythm. The viewer is enchanted by the sinuous shapes of her artworks and gets lost in the coloured labyrinths. The messages and food for thought that the artist puts into her creations are also very deep and intrinsic. In "Asking the Universe" the intricate tangle of brushstrokes gives a dancing rhythm to the painting. On the left is the profile of a little girl with the pure, enchanted gaze typical of youth and childhood. The little protagonist turns her gaze to the sky, in the top right-hand corner of the work, as if addressing an unknown entity. Her curious, eagerly awaiting gaze is bathed in a dazzling light which draws a soft, gentle profile. A blue aura emphasises her facial features even more intensely. The encounter between the figurative and the abstract achieves a successful and intriguing result here. The choice of blue is not accidental; it is the colour of spirituality, depth and mystery. It is the colour of the immense, of life and of the universe. The atmosphere of the painting is indeed mystical, the elegant, gentle rhythm of the girl's face contrasting with the more chaotic, energetic and rapid brushstrokes that characterise the universe. A dance of lights and colours gives dynamism and rhythm to the painting. It is impossible not to identify with the little girl, the painting's real key to interpretation. What the artist is telling us is to look at the world with the pure, enchanted eyes of children. The universe sends us messages every day but we are often too busy with work and matters that do not allow us to investigate ourselves and think about our well-being. Maria makes a return to a primordial atmosphere, where man must be able to find balance and irony. Despite the prevalence of cold tones, the artwork exudes a very intense warmth and life force. The artist's style is varied, but all her paintings are linked by a common thread consisting of the characteristic sinuous, soft lines and choice of colours. There are clear references to abstractionism, both in terms of colour and light, but also in the resumption of musical and melodic rhythm. Maria invites the viewer to enter into a direct and intense relationship with the artwork. Their mind and heart must unite and be completely absorbed by the visual experience that the artist proposes. One is immediately pervaded by the strength, purity and spiritual intensity of Maria's paintings.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Maria Evseeva
Asking the Universse
Maria Faltis "Some say that the body is the "tomb" of the soul, their notion being that the soul is buried in the present life." (Plato)
Love and self-denial. These are the two pillars of sacrifice, the components of an equation that transcends logic to embrace a nobler end. Maria Faltis lives this dualism to the full, and art itself becomes an act of faith, which leads to self-sacrifice. It is no coincidence, in fact, that the artist's works are deeply inspired by a metaphysical and spiritual approach, as we can see in the works presented for the "Sacrifice" exhibition. The Offering - which already from the title projects the observer into an intangible dimension - represents the Mandala of water. Water, a metaphor for life, is celebrated with a sacred geometry that develops symmetrically in four sections. The composition - based on shades of blue and light blue - is a kaleidoscopic universe of minute details, all the more surprising as the gaze lingers on them. The artist creates a hypnotic ensemble that "updates" a traditional motif with original solutions, such as the metallic notes that give brightness and three-dimensionality to the entire artwork. With The Sacrificial Flame, Maria transports the viewer into a very different dimension from the serene contemplation of The Offering.
Maria Faltis
The work strikes with the intensity of a protest cry, and it is possible to perceive the impetuousness of the creative moment, guided by an irrepressible force. The brushstrokes of red and purple are material, powerful heralds of a tearing feeling that has been repressed for too long. The artwork develops vertically, following the swirling trend of the flame, which releases blinding beams of light, rendered by the precious shine of the golden pigments. Behind the almost aggressive vehemence of the composition lies the supreme ideal of the artist's sacrifice. The person who creates, in fact, on the one hand has suffered the repercussions of judgments and discouragement, but on the other hand she manages to find the motivation to go beyond what is superficial. As Plato recounts when he tells of the immortality of the soul, imprisoned in the body, Maria Faltis encourages herself to go beyond even the limitation of materiality, moved by an interior vocation as by a burning incessant fire. In this way, the artist becomes aware of the urgency to create art, which allows not only to express herself, but above all to overcome one's difficulties in order to give others something meaningful, the most beautiful and true part of herself.
Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti
Maria Faltis
The Offering
Maria Faltis
The sacrificial flame
María José Aloy
Spanish artist María José Aloy presents at M.A.D.S. art gallery two works on the occasion of the exhibition entitled "Sacrifice". Her interpretation is quite positive. The first work is in fact entitled "Esperanza" and the second "Texturas III Tierra". Both have a square composition and are made of acrylic on canvas. Maria’s style differs from the stroke of the brush stroke: small, almost pointy, following in some way the style of the artists of French Pointillism. The work "Esperanza" - literally "Hope" - has green as the dominant color. It is the color of hope, and it goes back to nature, to leaves in particular. The message of hope that the artist wants to give in this exhibition, that has ”sacrifice" as the main subject, is like a lighthouse in the night.
María José Aloy
The second work "Texturas III Tierra" has a desert color, here nature is perceptible and is evident the masterful use of the color palette in all its shades. The same concept is also present in the first work that uses all the shades of green. The works of Maria José Aloy are related to nature and its elements, in this case vegetation and land. An interesting element is the shading that creates a play of lights and shadows that animate the canvas, adding to the chromatic range of reference. Maria celebrates nature and her nuances. She brings the viewers closer to her, leading them to reflect on the true sacrifice, on the highest sacrifice: the nature that sacrifices herself for humans and for their lives. Nature is suffocated by the development of technology, by industrial development and dies slowly. Like a mother, she sacrifices herself for her children.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
María José Aloy
Esperanza
María José Aloy
Texturas III Tierra
Marion Sacrifice was born as a ritual to create a connection between humans and gods. In our day the gods have changed, they have changed shape and they are now revered as ideals. In this sense art gives humanity the possibility of coming into contact with the supernatural, with something that exists and that we do not perceive. Marion, an artist of French origins, makes us discover hidden details through the lens of her camera. The aim of the artist is to illuminate what everyday life makes banal in the eyes of ordinary people. " Latence" is a work that tells the story of a thoughtful observer whose sensitive eye is able to grasp the importance and the meaning of moments of daily life full of love and life. The photo is dark, made with the effect of the film in negative, the details of this are outlined only by a white line and thin that creates delicate contours of everything. This particular effect makes you think of a deep and personal reflection, similar to the night thoughts that you do when you cannot sleep because you feel the lack or torment for something. The observer observes the life that flows, looks so intensely and attentively that he can almost smell the vaults of others. He looks at them, silently observes the life that flows, and he desires it, appreciates it and seeks it. He captures the beauty and value of the moments and of the scenes he is witnessing and does this from afar. Marion with her photography tells us about the sensitivity of simple desires.
“The main objective of my art is to illuminate what we end up finding banal. Sight is a gift; we tend to forget it. The next time you walk around, make your senses work too." (Marion)
Art Curator Sara Giannini
Marion
Latence
María García "Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul." (Democritus)
María García is an emerging artist residing in Mexico. Despite her young age, María has shown since childhood a great aptitude for art, later distinguishing herself for a remarkable technical and expressive ability, recognized by two international publications. Her precocious talent is distinguished by a particularly refined conception of art, especially from the compositional point of view. The artist, in fact, favors symbolic representations, which reveal an uncommon sensitivity and capacity for introspection. María's creative flair unfolds on the canvas in the form of surreal and imaginative worlds, which thus become a visible expression of the artist's fascinating inner world. UNHABITABLE, the work presented on the occasion of the Sacrifice exhibition, perfectly embodies the symbolic vocation of Mary's art, and projects the observer into an imaginary and desolate place, beyond any logic. The composition is characterized by an accurate chromatic choice, which oscillates between the tones of ocher, brown and black and seems to accentuate the deep feeling of solitude that embraces the female figure in the foreground, depicted lying down. Far from proposing a literal interpretation of the work, María gives shape and color to the metaphysical theme of the sacrifice of the soul. The woman thus becomes a metaphor for a tortuous and difficult inner journey, which required the immolation of her eyes and her heart, which she holds in her hand. Her supreme sacrifice led to the renunciation of his own soul, which is represented as a lonely figure, illuminated by a soft golden glow, wandering as if lost in the dark land. The artist shows the deep desolation of a familiar place that has become alien and hostile, and the melancholy of a house that has become an empty set of a few abandoned objects. María García succeeds in the extraordinary aim of expressing a plurality of reflections in a harmonic work with fantastic and allegorical accents, demonstrating an artistic maturity of surprising depth.
Art Curator Chiara Rizzatti
María García
INHABITABLE
Mark Feddersen ”Life is a game, play it. Life is too precious, don't destroy it" (Mother Teresa of Calcutta) Mark Feddersen, Rio de Janeiro 1974, is an artist and designer. With transdisciplinary work, Mark explores various possibilities of techniques and media, such as videos, photographs, installations, sculptures, and paintings, defined for each project in a conceptual way whose main themes are time and space. In his research, he created two lines of work that he named Obvious Code - controversial typography that explores an inversion of the counter-space and aperture of the letter with the reading happening in the empty area - and AGORAs (NOWs) - a system where four dices define the shape of the artwork, expressing the choices we have to make at each and every moment in time. "Within Chaos", the artwork presented by Mark at "SACRIFICE" exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, is a short video in which different natural elements alternate: from water, to earth, to air, to the fire. Small clips that force us to look at natural scenarios, so ancient and obvious yet increasingly distant from us due to the society in which we live that alienates us from our natural habitat, enhancing it less and less. "Within Chaos" therefore wants to shed light on the issue of respect for the environment, making us reflect on how much it is losing value for us: the ego bottles up consciousness, greed ravages the planet, but there are some precious few souls who turn theirs the unknown problems of the unknown. The earthly divine is present where no one sees it, with a clear attitude focused on the unclear future of the human being. Mark therefore wants to give a new shape and value to Nature by highlighting some of its details and colors: let's never forget where we come from and bring respect and honor to those who created us, Mother Nature.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Mark Feddersen
Within Chaos
Mark Preston Mark Preston is an artist whose creative language is emblematic, mysterious and extremely captivating and intriguing. The references he uses in his artwork are based on the divine and on dreamlike, surreal atmospheres that immediately capture the viewer's attention, overwhelmed by the colours, shapes and elements that chase each other in a well-studied composition. Mark is an artist who has developed different themes and styles throughout his career, all of which are united by a common thread - his personal imprint on his mastery of technique. Each work tells of a world of its own, tells of spiritual journeys, brings out wisdom, takes the viewer back to hidden situations in his soul. Meditation has played a fundamental role in the artist's artistic process. The belief that our life is made up of our choices and the order of the universe are concepts that are reflected in his art. His aim is to investigate beyond tangible reality, to reveal what lies behind the divine, and he does this with his extremely creative personal style. He searches for a link between the subconscious and the conscious through his compositions, studying every detail so that the final result of the work indicates a precise message to the viewer. In "Our Inner Universe" he opens up a kind of deep cavern of experience. It confronts man with the deepest part of his being and the reality that surrounds us. Mark focuses on who we are, on our inner universe full of contradictions and mixtures of transparent emotions and moods. This variegated chaos is represented by the bright colours the artist decides to use. The canvas, divided into two parts, is energetic and symbolic. The silhouette of a man is repeated in different positions which are skilfully arranged. There is an interesting division between the white of the lower part of the background and the upper part, which seems almost to represent a landscape of our mind that is as surreal and fairytale-like as it is real, with fluorescent and captivating colours.
Mark Preston This contrast between emptiness and fullness, between abundance of colour and total absence, is evocative and metaphorical of the dimensional space we hold within us. The four human figures are experiencing a different inner experience in which the subconscious is always in close contact with reality. the canvas speaks of experiences, of infinity, of emotional worlds and universes, of reconciliation between the divine universe and our inner selves. in "Love.Lust.Death" what immediately strikes us, in addition to the bright, contrasting colours, is the surrealism of the characters. the sense of anguish and anxiety accompanies the vision of the canvas, which is full of suggestions and thought-provoking stimuli. A mixture of symbols, demonic close encounters, modern reality, life and death. A painting that encloses a path that has a beginning and an end, with disturbing but inevitable implications. The demonic figure of the man with a flame on his head is repeated in a crescendo of anguish. The colours contribute to creating an atmosphere suspended in time, like a dreamlike vision. There are references to man's vices, to lust represented by the woman with open legs, to destiny, to death represented by the skeleton, to the passing of time and to contemporaneity with the shot of the centre of a metropolis. The two dark masked figures at the sides of the painting are emblematic. In "Human Suffering | sea of souls" Mark varies his technique, demonstrating his great skill as an artist in using several media and materials. Charcoal is well suited to the choice of subject matter and the rendering of an evanescent atmosphere.
Mark Preston The theme of sacrifice and the emptiness created by inner suffering is central to the painting. The artist's gestures become faster, more chaotic and more animated. Everything is colourless, essential but at the same time complex. The traces left on the canvas reveal a continuous and unstoppable motion. Suffering is part of every human experience and it is up to each person to exorcise it as he or she sees fit. Art is a great way to do this. The artist gives the viewer keys to interpret the work according to his subjectivity, seeing what he wants to see. Mark approaches art in a variety of ways, exploring a wide range of painting styles and taking from them just a few elements that he is then able to rework according to his subjectivity. Art is the answer to everything. It enables us to find answers to our existential doubts and to reconcile with the spiritual world. Particularly influenced by the forms of expressionism and elements of symbolism, his artworks offer an experience that goes beyond reality and is not limited to the mere vision of a coloured canvas. They delve deep into the human soul, completely involving the viewer who feels absorbed into the dynamic and equivocal world that is art.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Mark Preston
Our Inner Universe
Mark Preston
Love.Lust.Death
Mark Preston
Human Suffering | Sea of Souls
Martin Hildesheim “Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is a daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” (Mahatma Gandhi) Martin Hildesheim is a German artist with whom I have had the pleasure of working for three months. He has a sensitive soul and he really appreciates the delicate theme of 'Sacrifice'. He is taking part in the last exhibition of the year organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery with two works created in two different eras, we might say. The first, entitled "The Prayer Solveig'', is very recent: the artist created it in 2021. The second work, entitled "Railroad compartment - Sleep, Wait, Hope" dates from 1980. Looking at both works, we can immediately see the difference in the technique he used. He draws a girl with clasped hands, in the act of praying, using pastel pencils on cardboard. "The prayer Solveig" is a hymn to life: the silhouette of a young girl praying, hoping for the impossible. Youth brings with it many dreams. When we are young, we feel invincible; we are ready to fight for what we most desire. We are ready to sacrifice night and rest, to continue dancing under the stars and dreaming of being free. We spend a lot of time studying, hoping for a successful career. We devote a lot of time to love, because we believe it is the greatest source of happiness. Adolescence is the most delicate period of human existence. It is the foundation on which the years to come rest.
Martin Hildesheim
That is why the sacrifice is arduous, and often difficult to accept. However, in some cases, sacrificing what matters the most to us leads to the achievement of great goals. The second work, entitled “Railroad compartment - Sleep, Wait, Hope” was created using different pencil thicknesses on canvas cardboard. Martin Hildesheim depicts a group of children of different ages, probably brothers and sisters, sitting in a train compartment. For the artist, the world is like a train compartment. They all hope to reach their destination, but on the face of each of them you can read a different feeling. There are those who are super excited, those who are hopeful, those who are happy, those who sleep, those who stay awake to check, those who are afraid, those who suffer and those who are doubtful. In the journey of life, everyone goes their own way with different moods, but all are united by the same strong and daring feeling: hope. Hope is the driving force behind sacrifice: hope that life will improve, that great goals will be achieved, that there will be happiness and well-being. Life is a big question mark and this forces man to sacrifice himself every day. The unknown is frightening: no one knows where the journey we are on will take us, but we are all motivated by the desire to make it. Through this work, the artist offers us a splendid metaphor.
“Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.” (Robert Frost)
Art Curator Alessia Ventola
Martin Hildesheim
The Prayer Solveig
Martin Hildesheim
Railroad compartment - Sleep, Wait, Hope
Martin Schöckl
Although at first the art of the Austrian artist Martin Schöckl may seem Surrealist, in reality it is not so, or rather, Surrealism, as well as Symbolism and Psychedelic art, are in a sense the precursors of Visionary art, the one that includes the works of Martin Schöckl. Visionary art was born in 1946 with the Viennese School of Fantastic Realism and its aims, as well as that of Martin Schöckl’art, is to transcend the physical world and provide a broader vision of consciousness, through mystical or spiritual themes. The Austrian artist, more precisely, is fascinated by other worlds and tries to convey them in art. He tries to show what lies beyond the boundaries of our sight; he tries to see what is not visible and then transform it into a form recognizable by normal perception. As a result, the protagonists of his works are abstract concepts such as the soul, life and death, and subjects typical of the sci-fi world such as travels between dimensions and aliens. In doing this, he is never repetitive, but on the contrary, he loves to try new techniques and new materials; to the classic acrylic, in fact, he prefers the tempera grassa, Flemish tempera, powdered graphite and casein. The vision of the works of Martin Schöckl leaves us surprised because they completely contradict our certainties. Since the shapes of his figures are always recognizable, we think we know what we are looking at, however they do not belong to the rational sphere, to the known world, and therefore, in reality, we are groping in the dark. Martin Schöckl proves to be able to express himself through different styles, all equally noteworthy, and therefore shows an exceptional artistic talent capable of giving the works a sense of irremediable loneliness and alienation, and leave us breathless. He encourages us to look at our soul with new eyes, and to leave it free to explore the infinite.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Martin Schöckl
Alien
Martin Schöckl
Between live and death
Martin Schöckl
Dimension traveler
Martin Schöckl
Soul hike
Martin Schöckl
Soul portrait
Masaki Hirokawa
Masaki Hirokawa is a Japanese artist whose wide range of activities includes graphic design, smartphone app development, interactive movie production and website development. At “SACRIFICE” exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Masaki presents three photo collages. “Archetypus” replicates a woman wearing a bird mask to convey the theme, “repetition and a return to archetypes”, capturing the essence of humans living in society. Humans form orderly societies, as controlling chaos using law and order is a prerequisite for human civilization. The work depicts how the coexistence of chaos and order creates repetitions like those found in opposing mirrors. The mask represents a sociable personality and shows how human coexistence results in endless repetitions like those found in opposing mirrors. “Avatar” shows two mirror-like women with dark skin covered in gold paint. With this work, Masaki wants to tell us that before we are born into this world, all of our lives are determined by our soul's life path. Every being is an incarnation of God, a separate Spirit, and all life is equal. In truth, we are omniscient beings. But we have to live by the rules of this 3D world for the sake of our soul practice. If you are faced with a challenge, remember this, you are precious and irreplaceable. Lastly, “Bodhisattvas of the Earth” represents a woman completely covered in gold, wrapped in three pairs of hands that increase her mystery and royalty. Also in this case, the artist Masaki brings forward a reflection: when the world entered the Corona disaster, all sorts of sad thoughts poured in from all over the city, ladles disappeared from shrines and supermarket shelves were emptied. The world was about to be reborn. How could art help overcome this situation and what was its role in this kind of new world? The artist began to project all these thoughts into his work, charging it with power and energy, until he came to the conclusion that the last thing that remained was prayer - da qui, il riferimento alle celebri figure buddiste. And his beautiful works.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Masaki Hirokawa
Archetypus
Masaki Hirokawa
Avatar
Masaki Hirokawa
Bodhisattvas of the Earth
Matteo Masini “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” (Eleanor Roosevelt)
What is the maximum limit that we are willing to exceed to achieve your ambitions? Each goal is preceded by a long and arduous process – full of sacrifices: it is the path of life. The Italian photographer Matteo Masini focuses his artistic research on a few common situations which are shared by all humankind. He is able to transform into digital artworks what he really knows and what he has full knowledge of. The photographer Matteo Masini evolves and transforms his ideas into images full of power, strength and deep energies - as the final result of his investigation.
Matteo Masini
To express and convey this sense of dualism, conflict and contrast, Matteo Masini makes use of a variety of technological tools - brightness, contrast and stability - giving to the photos endless shades using light and all its shadows. The personal, artistic and creative process of Matteo Masini is focused on creating theatrical effects and sets, characterized by an extensive use of total darkness till obtaining a maze of forms, reliefs and contour lines. The final result is given by the long exposures, combined with particular lights – that break down the body's shape – giving back an unedited and true representation of the images that live in his mind.
"We aim above the mark to hit the mark." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Art Curator Manuela Fratar
Matteo Masini
dream1#
Matteo Masini
dream2#
Mcfritz “As different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.” (Emily Brontë)
The artworks by Mcfritz, a young contemporary Norwegian artist, are extravagant tales of an impossible reality, where man is lost in completely surreal settings. They are visions in which the colour is a fundamental part of the story. Becoming the main emotional channel, it allows the subject to emerge in all its strength, without any fear. The energy emanating from her canvases involves the observer to the point of making the vision almost alienating. In "Add", a painting exhibited at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery on the occasion of the SACRIFICE exhibition, we notice that the main element is colour, which immediately projects the observer into another universe. Reds, blues and greens occupy the space, alternating between fields of paint and more elaborate details. Influenced by the Surrealist art movement, the painting is rich in apparently contrasting details, like a dream whose pieces are difficult to fit together. The entire piece is built on juxtapositions in terms of both colour and form. First sharp and then sinuous lines alternate with light tones that suddenly turn dark. Only one element remains constant: the spiral, a symbol of death and rebirth, expansion and development. Representing the movement of energy, it recalls the flow of events, in a continuous motion of creation and destruction. With this work, Mcfritz wants to deepen the subtle link between opposites, trying to put the unconscious in communication with the rational ego. She wants to leave art with the task of conveying that intense emotion resulting from the antithetical relationship between two elements that are only apparently so distant.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Mcfritz
Add
Mehak Mittal “The artist striving for truth or sincerity had to guard his spontaneous vision against distortion or alteration by aesthetic conventions or preconceptions.” Linda Nochlin
Mehak Mittal is a painting artist. Her subjects can be both naturalistic and drawing on the basin of Indian religious and cultural iconography. The image of a woman, Agni, surrounded by fire, in an assertive
position, seems to accept her own destiny. The outstretched wings tell of the actual possibility of escape
as a deliberately not pursued option. A woman, dressed in white, at the stake. This typically patriarchal
who finds her own fulfillment in the sacrifice of imagery describes the woman as a pure and good soul
flames do not scare the female being who knows herself. Daughter, wife and then mother to give life. The exactly her own function decided by the man. Small flowers that seem to come from a naive hand come to life and fly upwards. It could be the ashes of a partially burned body, it could be the romantic reaction of flames in contact with the skin. The artist thus elaborates an image which is nevertheless serene, which becomes at the same time terrifying.
Mehak Mittal The figure of the woman is the first to be able to reconnect with the earth, maybe due to the shared definition of mother, perhaps due to a sensitive closeness to the idea of nature stolen. Mittal portrays this reconnection with a beginning of transformation from human to animal, in a slow merging of the elements that characterize the two species. Nature robbed, used, usurped, nature kidnapped. Man disposes of the land for his own use and consumption, and as with the female figure, she has already decreed its inevitable sacrifice.
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Mehak Mittal
Weave
Mehak Mittal
Agni - Fire
Merete Steinvik Haugen “I do not want to make a painting; I want to open up space, create a new dimension, tie in the cosmos, as it endlessly expands beyond the confining plane of the picture.” (Lucio Fontana)
The artworks by Merete Steinvik Haugen are about encounters and unknown people, like books in which each page reveals something new. The artist's aim is to narrate feelings, emotions and states of mind, involving the observer in an in-depth reading of every detail that distinguishes them. The desire to envelop the viewer in a whirlwind of sensations, resulting from exploration and interaction with the painting, is intended to be a way of creating a universal connection. Her paintings are characterized by a deep intensity of colour, which melts in the form of stains on the canvas, alternating between glazing and denser materiality. Each work is a world to be discovered, rich in details and small protagonists hidden between layers of paint. In "I wanna sink to the bottom with you", an anthropomorphic figure is diving towards the bottom. It seems to emerge from one sea of colour to plunge into another, while all around it magical clouds rise into the air, from which dancing women, small animals and other images unexpectedly emerge. Intense chiaroscuro outlines certain shapes, giving the surface a deeply dynamic three-dimensional effect. Merete Steinvik Haugen tells us about a journey into a secret world, a world that is actually inherent in all of us. She invites us to discover ourselves and to deepen our relationships with other people, because we never stop getting to know each other. There is always something new hiding from the attentive eye of the heart and it is up to us to be curious about it. Merete Steinvik Haugen's artworks are dives into an ocean of dreams and new experiences, underwater journeys in seas that have never been sailed, full of beauty and wonder.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Merete Steinvik Haugen
By the sea
Merete Steinvik Haugen
Every morning a new arrival
Merete Steinvik Haugen
I wanna sink to the bottom with you
Meri Aisala
For the international exhibition “Sacrifice” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Meri Aisala exposes the work “Observer”, with the aim of creating an indissoluble bond between the two observers: the standing viewer looks at the artwork, while he/she receives back the gaze from the character portraited. Her profound artistic research manages to balance the juxtaposition of figures with bold colors in a surprising way, going beyond the mere representation of reality.The depiction of the woman's face seems to proceed towards an investigation of the subconscious: by studying the deepest and even darkest feelings, Meri is capable to bring out the most intrinsic aspect present in every individual. Each sensation is conveyed through two crucial elements: the eyes and the hands. The immobility of the visible part of the face and those eyes so intense and full of passion highlight a pragmatic trait of the young woman: she observes the viewer attentively, but no vibration is discernible, as if she was able to capture the attention, bewitching the viewer. Anyone can be fascinated and petrified at the same time by the aura of the iris and the luminous pupil. The only way to better understand the girl's intention is to analyze her hands: by clinging to a grid, she is probably asking for help or looking for a way out of the dark forest. The artist brings a pure aesthetic passion to this work: her sensual but troubled character is in harmony both with her surroundings in the painting and with the current unstable real world. Moreover, her personal stylistic concept is perfectly in line with and evolves with the viewer's interpretation. The artist also wishes to stage disturbances, melancholy, those depths of the human psyche studied by numerous philosophers and psychologists such as Sigmund Freud. Going beyond the limits of the pictorial surface, it is possible to note the multidisciplinary nature of Meri Aisala, who places the juxtaposition of the viewer's controversial feelings at the center of her artwork.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Meri Aisala
Observer
Metalxart Have we ever really wondered what drives artists to create a work of art and give it to the world? Perhaps those who observe a work simply let themselves be overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment, without thinking about everything that could hide from the artist who created it. Instead, the artist Metalxart really questioned what drives her to make art, what attracts her so much to this medium. Her most intimate and profound purpose is to send the message to the world that beauty is in the simplest things. In fact, art is the most powerful means of expression and communication that exists. The artist pours her deepest emotions into her work of art, what she wants to express and communicate and the work of art becomes a means through which to bring this message to the world. Observing the work we are in fact pervaded and often overwhelmed by this emotion. The message that Metalxart wants to communicate to us through the work presented here, "The heart sees what the heart wants", is crystal clear at first glance and is underlined by the title of the work itself. As they say in fact, the heart is not controlled, the heart, seat of our deepest and most sincere emotions, follows its own path. When faced with an emotion, one does not look with the mind but one looks with the heart. In fact, acting with the heart means acting without thinking too much, putting instinct and emotions before rationality. Red, the color of blood, which makes the heart beat with its passage, has in fact always been the color that symbolizes love and passion. That same passion that drives the artist to pour herself into her works of art and which is also permeated by this work.
Art Curator Silvia Grassi
Metalxart
The heart sees what the heart wants
Mickaël Deshayes “As for the work of clown, the painting, in my opinion, needs to let go so that the work is interesting, while respecting certain techniques” Mickaël Deshayes
Mickaël Deshayes lives in Normandy, France, in the Manche. He has studied graphic communication (printing). Since childhood, he loved art in all its forms and he really like photography, he practices theatre. He started training to become a professional clown actor in 2018. He really likes abstract painting and he decided to take the brushes in 2017. It allows him to relax and escape. He’s a self-taught and he paints on weekends and during vacations. Before painting, he thinks a little about the choice of colours, he does a little meditation, relaxation with music. He looks at photos of nature, planet seen from space. He makes his paintings by listening to music from film soundtracks. He has a lot of ideas in mind, but not enough time to realize them. He likes to paint on large formats. At the international exhibition "SACRIFICE", hosted by the international art gallery M.A.D.S, he exposes Mastermind 2. About it he says "I started with the centre of the painting, then the two circles, the movement effect with the white traces... I ended with the white outline, and the black projection (with a toothbrush). I wanted to give movement with the two circles. I like red, black, white, and gold. I find there is an Asian vibe in the painting. I did not like this painting when finished. I appreciate it more over time. I am too much of a perfectionist, I need a little perspective before appreciating my work". Layering of color and movement are the protagonists of Mickaël's work. A movement given by the shapes, by the brushstroke. The artist's gesture, here, becomes of fundamental importance. The pictorial act, the moment in which the artist transmits his energy from the body to the canvas. Nothing is destroyed, everything is transformed, the artist's movement is forever imprinted in the warm colors of the canvas and in the forms it takes.
Art Curator Mara Cipriano
Mickaël Deshayes
Mastermind 2
Micky Bozzani "Music turns even the hardest life into poetry." (Võ Nguyên Giáp)
Micky Bozzani, visual artist from Argentina, has entrusted art with the difficult but, at the same time, honorable task of accompanying and supporting her during the most difficult moments of her life. Bozzani's art is based on a personal and profound artistic poetics, in reference to the numerous emotions that accompanied her throughout her life and, in particular, to music. The music is transferred by the artist inside the work as an element of union, the link between the artist's starting ideology and his concrete realization on the canvas.
Micky Bozzani
The music inspires and accompanies Micky Bozzani in the creation of the work, characterized by the use of different techniques and a very lively chromatic palette. Indefinite spaces and a dreamy atmosphere, this is what characterizes his works, which lead the observer to investigate his own soul, his own interior and to seek contact with his own emotions and memories. Make memories resurface and establish a connection with the poetic and dreamy world of the artist.
Art Curator Federica Schneck
Micky Bozzani
Music
Micky Bozzani
Healing Heart
Mihaela Cismigiu “I have always been attracted to everything that is considered "incomprehensible". Because there is always more than you can see”Mihaela Cismigiu
Mihaela was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1994. She’s a self-taught artist who is driven only by passion and emotions. She likes to paint in acrylics and experiment with various abstract art techniques. At the international exhibition "SACRIFICE", hosted by the international art gallery M.A.D.S. she shows her Iris. She says "I have always been attracted to everything that is considered incomprehensible. Because there is always more than you can see. That is why abstract art defines me. I want to convey the freedom that I feel every time I create and when I put small pieces of myself on the canvas in various shapes, techniques and colors. Every person should feel the freedom of the spirit at least once. I feel it every time I am in the studio. Iris was inspired by the colors of the blue iris flower. I wanted to create a piece that is a perfect mix of contrasts and lights, tenderness and power. A piece with fluidity and translucent movements. Elements that seem to blend perfectly and still retain their uniqueness. Fused duality is a sacrifice through which none of the elements lose their value and beauty but together creates something greater" The artist, Mihaela, is inspired by the Iris flower in colors and shapes. But on the canvas, apart from the flower, she represents a part of herself. The artistic action, the expression of the artist remains forever imprinted on the canvas. Here we have the inspiration deriving from nature that becomes action and stops, the action is captured forever, a part of the artist that comes from the depths of his soul is there and we can use it to recognize part of us in it.
Art Curator Mara Cipriano
Mihaela Cismigiu
Iris
Milush “I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine.” (Emily Dickinson)
Milush, aka Mili Gal, is a contemporary Israeli artist whose artworks are the result of a long process of elaboration. She likes to define her style as abstractype, given its link not only with abstract art but also with typography and the world of letters and shapes that characterizes it. Words are, therefore, an integral part of her artistic research, where they blend with materials and colours in a continuous stratification, until they achieve a perfect balance. In fact, her works constantly evolve before meeting the needs of the artist, who often lingers to observe them for long moments, leaving time and external agents an important role in their construction. She likes to consider the work as an object charged with experience, imbued with energy and knowledge. For example, "Bat-Yam_Milan", a work presented at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery for the exhibition SACRIFICE, reaches its final stage only after an intense process, where the piece was also literally planted in the shoreline and left to interact with the waves of the sea, while the artist contemplated the scene. The words appear and then disappear, leaving room for the most important word, "heart". The heart is an organ that we cannot see with the naked eye, because it is hidden inside us, yet it plays an important role in managing our emotions. It is associated with the feeling of love and loving also means sacrificing and offering oneself. This involves overcoming a path and being part of a process, just like Milush's work. The artist sacrifices herself by leaving part of her own self in each of her paintings, letting it grow and evolve over time with her and then handing it over to us full of love and experience.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Milush
Bat-Yam_Milan
Minco "With just one polka dot, nothing can be achieved". Yayoy Kusama
Minco is a Japanese artist who lets her art, and the decisions made about it, be guided by the search for
well-being. She feels good when she draws circles and that's what she does. This body of work considers
sacrifice as a completely avoidable matter and not within her competence. The search for the pleasure of
gesture, order and balance generated by the reckless repetition of shapes and signs. Art as a thing to do.
The artist's description of the flash moment of inspiration is fascinating: a moment with closed eyes that can happen anywhere and at any time. A moment that is welcomed and encouraged by its management of the context as ready for it. Yayoy Kusama, the great Japanese artist is perhaps the most immediate reference that Minco's work can evoke. The obsessive repetition of a shape, the choice to work with two colors, the unbridled desire not to lose focus and not even a moment of pleasure by letting oneself be distracted by shades and choices of color combinations.
Minco Perhaps sacrifice an unexplored part of oneself to perpetuate a safe comfort zone, from which one cannot leave without feeling imprisoned. For Kusama, the choice to give in to one's obsession and immerse oneself completely in one's ideal world was and is a very precious shelter. Our artist, on the other hand, seems to turn this reflection outwards, through these works she seems to ask the viewer what needs to be done, how to unravel the problem. The most evocative works of art are those that leave hanging, that open a window on a different and unknown world, through a question: what, now?
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Minco
Weave
Minco
Doze - off
Miyu Ai
Chromatic compositions rise from the white of the representative space. A riot of colors, energetic but at the same time sweet, stands out in front of our eyes. The chromatic epiphany surrounds our gaze in a tight embrace. It wants to tell us more about itself, it wants us to observe its most minute details to understand its essence and its representative nature. "Winter is coming quietly" is a delicate composition that is structured through the use of an extremely cold color palette. The water green, cerulean, midnight blue as well as the beyond sea and lilac contribute to the creation of a work that smells of winter. A small female face, with sweet and soft features peeps out from the representative space. As an almost completely invisible spirit, she reveals herself to our vision wearing glacial colors. Above her, delicate excerpts of branches dressed in small leaves wind all around the composition. "Gaze into the distance" is all played on chromatic tones peculiar to a spring dawn. Touches of blue are interspersed with greenish streaks juxtaposed in turn by shades of purple scattered all around the composition. It is possible to perceive the light and crisp morning air coming from those spots of color, it is possible to see the clarity of the blue-purple sky that characterizes the moments before sunrise. The aurora is a moment of everyday life that is in some ways magical, a moment in which the darkness has not yet dissipated and the sun has not yet risen on the horizon. The earth is still cold, the frost is still on the stems of the flowers and the birds have not yet begun their morning song. It is a completely silent moment that of the dawn, a moment in which to savor every little change in color, temperature and feeling before the sun rises. "Gaze into the distance" portrays flowers still wet from the humidity of the night, buds and vegetal elements that are waking up just in that moment opening their petals to the world and to our eyes. Purple berries, almost vitrified, peep out from the top of the composition: all around, small white dots, silvery glows that announce the imminent return of our star to the sky. The sunrise is about to arrive, we stay to admire the spectacle by joining the woman portrayed in the work. A delicate female profile rises from the floral composition. The self-confident woman rests her head on the back of her hand and gazes at an unspecified point in her vision. Her irises are the color of the sky, the iridescent hue makes her gaze as transparent as two pools of water. She is placidly observing the dawn of a new day with the certainty that the sun will rise.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Miyu Ai
Gaze into the distance
Miyu Ai
The scenery inside me
Miyu Ai
Winter is coming quietly
Monica Aguilar
Monica Aguilar is an extremely talented and creative audiovisual artist, director and producer. Her artworks are complex, original and intriguing. What immediately strikes the viewer is the music she creates and the atmosphere she is able to create through the editing of her video-work. Monica explores the languages of technology, juggling cinema and audiovisuals, creating captivating musical tracks that blend harmoniously with the visual image. The result is a work that establishes a direct link with the viewer, who is captivated and stunned by the images on the screen. The elements that Monica juxtaposes have a strong attractive power that involves the human being and puts him at the centre of innovative and intriguing hyperreal dimensions. It is impossible to detach your attention and your gaze from her video-works. For the "Sacrifice" exhibition, the artist has decided to bring the artwork "DIMENSIONES", which she has entirely created and edited in every aspect, stylistic and formal choice, content and subject, sound track. A complex and creative work that highlights the artist's enormous communicative capacity and her aesthetic taste. In a progression of elements, the artwork explores the evolution of the dimensions in which man is immersed on a daily basis. The geometric shapes become three-dimensional, rotate and move through space, creating interactions with the viewer. The figure of the circle and the torus is fundamental, re-proposed in different ways and articulated throughout the video. Energy, vibrations and movement give life to these geometric compositions that range between different visual planes, through dimensions that are sometimes superimposed and sometimes complementary. Opposites come together and merge, creating a harmonious balance. Monica invites the viewer to look beyond reality, making him understand that we are surrounded by dimensions, by electromagnetic fields. The artist places a stylised human figure that d toes and moves, always remaining within its circle, at the centre of the composition, in an atmosphere suspended in time and indefinite in space. The composition revolves around the figure of the torus, a rotating surface obtained by the revolution of a circumference in three-dimensional space around an axis coplanar to it. It is the metaphorical representation of continuous energy renewal, synonymous with movement, revolution and unstoppable evolution. Monica uses this geometric figure as a model of our universe to create an interactive experience that spans visual art, sculpture, photography, video and sound. A complete and rich experience that releases important and profound values such as personal growth and healing. The balance and harmony that this audiovisual and interactive work communicates is inexplicable. Just as it cannot be explained how the human being is completely absorbed by this fascinating environment. Monica is a daring artist, exploring the different layers of the human soul through innovative artworks that combine technology, geometry and art. The audio tracks she composed set the pace of the montage and contribute to an even more immersive work.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Monica Aguilar
DIMENSIONES
Monica Aguilar
DIMENSIONES
Monica Aguilar
DIMENSIONES
Monika Japiassu
A closer look into nature, the largest zoom in, vital liquids, blooming bulbs, lymph and again connection, rise and fall, love and hate.This painting by artist Monika Japiassu is inspired by the duality of things, everything can be paired in life. Communication and sharing of fluids, spectacular exchange of the untold. Souls and inner landscapes, unattainable deep singular meaning that goes from one to another. Dramatic and romantic as life is. The powerful use of gouache and a stunning white in the background. Light, curtain. This abstract painting can tell many stories with its own simplicity and clearness, the green line in the middle, a flora touch, a dividing element that is nourished by the living liquid movement of the reds. Embryos, heterozygotes twins surviving through a sacrifice. Japiassu’s relationship with painting and its material is a dance, well planned steps, majestically choreographed and performed. The importance of the empty space as white light, a deafening silence, in music, a break, emotional and difficult part that usually anticipates a dramatic part. The artist’s aim is to reach the viewer’s heart and as many hearts as possible with a spectacular and raw work. Where Marlene Dumas, contemporary south african artist, is painting the juvenile face of puberty, Monika Japiassu is showing the puberty of mature feelings and its harsh truth.
"There is no beauty, if it doesn't show some of the terribleness of life." (Marlene Dumas)
Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Monika Japiassu
Steak
Montse Oliver “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” (Confucio)
Montse Oliver, a Spanish artist, finds in her own roots - the different places she has called home and personal experiences the main subjects to transform into artworks on her canvas. The events she lived, the people she met and what she experienced in first person, have characterized the painter Montse Oliver as human being and - therefore – as the artist that she’s now. Everything surrounding her is perceived as an individual way of interpreting a visual stimulation; nature is the greatest source from which to draw and take inspiration from it. The artist Montse Oliver lets herself be inspired by the boundless puzzle of feelings that can find their apex in colors, lights, shadows and nuances of her artworks. The process of growing – personal and cultural as well - has its climax in the discovery of new perspectives; the artist finds in colors, elements, shapes, media or texture the tools to explore it. The main aim of the painter Montse Oliver is to give a universal image that can take different meanings depending on who is looking at the paintings. At the same time her artworks are able to create connection between the viewers and the paintings and the people themselves - a once-in-a-lifetime bond.
Art Curator Manuela Fratar
Montse Oliver
Confused in Tokyo
Mr. Bromista
Sacrifice and search for hope are the two goals of Matthias’ - in art Mr. Bromista - photos. The artist tries to express himself especially through the representation of staircases and stairwells which - with their perspectives - offer different possibilities and the limitless of options. “Happy Staircase is Happy” is what we can call a ‘bird’s eye’ view of a colorful space that, with its three black spots, seems to represent a happy face smiling at the viewer. It is an attractive photo that highlights, in some way the dynamicity of the photos and that pushes the viewers to reach the underground and so, the happiness is researched. Almost like Escher’s artworks the photos of Mr. Bromista seems to capture the viewer into them, and to put him at the center of a magical scene in which every single element fluctuates around. ‘Morning Glory’, from a different and opposite point of view, focuses its attention on the sky and so, on the meaning of it. Always looking for himself, the artist looks up with the aim to join the freedom but always anchored to reality. The edifice that surrounds the viewer’s and so the artist’s point of view, is the architectural element that keeps them in the condition of vigilance. Reading the last photo as the ‘final passage’ of the human walk ‘Crossing’ shows a woman that seems to pass by, following the light coming from the exterior of what seems to be a church. The ray of sunshine entering the edifice gives a sensation of hope that perfectly underlines the silhouette of the walking woman. The attention of the artist himself is focused here to the main character of the piece and his behavior, almost a personification of himself, looking for this limit to overcome.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
Mr. Bromista
Happy Staircase is Happy
Mr. Bromista
Morning Glory
Mr. Bromista
Crossing
Nandan He
Nandan He is a multimedia artist whose artistic production mainly swing between interactive sculpture and mix-media installation. For the first time guest at an exhibition organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, on the occasion of "SACRIFICE" she exhibits a 3d model video installation, entitled "Roads Towards Void”, an extremely ironic work with a surreal aesthetic. Nandan He turns out to be a subversive artist and teacher in the creation of works that draw inspiration directly from the unconscious and the world of imagination. The artist tells of herself and her vision of the world in an ironic, self-deprecating and sarcastic way, she develops a journey within her own intimate reality and expresses it to the world through iconic creations. "Roads Towards Void" tells the path towards oneself, the so-called void is the very interiority of the individual who in the work can travel two ways: to undertake the journey as an obligation, or to do it with enthusiasm, dancing and enjoying every moment. Emblematic is the attitude with which the artist expresses such a profound message, that of self-knowledge, which takes place by entering inside oneself through the nostrils, the intentionality is to convey an extremely visceral and intimate message in a a way disconnected from seriousness, instead of trivializing it with rhetoric, Nandan He exalts it and makes it iconic.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Nandan He
Roads Towards Void
Naoko Nina Forrest
A painting that speaks directly to our soul, making the energy that resides in the deepest and most hidden place of ourselves vibrate. An extremely material brushstroke and a chromatic palette of vibrant and guttural colors contribute to the creation of a work that, like a sweet spell, escorts us to the discovery of those sides of our essence yet to be discovered and enjoyed. Like a gothic cathedral, the composition develops vertically, the momentum towards the sky - both metaphorical and represented - is decidedly vigorous and induces the creation of a spiritual, almost mystical atmosphere. Here are emerging from the ultramarine blue background of the figures with human features. They swim in the depths of the sea accompanied by a school of fish, they hover in the air at the same time, in the clear night sky accompanied by a slice of moonlight. The satellite, curious, turns its gaze to the graceful female figure that occupies the highest part of the entire composition. The woman shines with her own light, she has the appearance of a star, of a sweet and warm fire released in the darkness. She, returning, looks indulgently at the moon, confident of the positive energy emanating from her heart. The calm and docile attitude, the delicate face turned upwards and the position of the woman's limbs remind us for a moment of the classical iconography of the Assumption of Mary, a dogma of faith of the Catholic Church, according to which Mary, mother of Jesus, at the end of her earthly life, went to heaven in body and soul. Watching The Promise, one feels the same mystical and mysterious sensation that accompanies the iconography of the Assumption and yet, one does not perceive anything religious in the strictest sense of the word. There is no reference to any creator, to any mother, to any religious faith. In The Promise there is the power of love produced by the union of two energies, there is the fusion of two elements coming from two different heavens to form something new: pure and unconditional love. Moving our gaze further down, we come across a male figure who, full of hope, presents the woman with the brightest star in the entire composition as a gift. A gift, metaphor of energy, of the love that inflames his soul; a promise, symbol of eternity; a wish to reach the completeness of oneself and the interpenetration of one energy in the other. The mysticism and spirituality present in this work do not therefore derive from an external source, from a creator extraneous to the facts narrated, but spring directly from the deepest place of the soul of the two individuals. The result is a chromatic dance that hovers before our eyes, where the spirituality of the bluish tones is inextricably linked to the guttural, energetic and expressive force of the brickcolored pigment stains. A metaphorical and spiritual dance that unites two souls inextricably.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Naoko Nina Forrest
The Promise
Natalia Rose Natalia Rose is a Danish artist capable of creating semi-abstract and symbolic artworks with a strong visual impact. She is able to empathise with the viewer, giving them not only a visual experience but also a journey into their own spirituality. With a few essential elements, quick touches and bright, vivid colours, Natalia creates artworks in which the graphic sign of pictograms is combined with the creative debauchery of abstractionism. The elements mix like a dance, finding harmony and balance. The synthesis and essentiality that underlies her artistic process is important. With colours and shapes Natalia opens up a wide-ranging discourse on the power of communication, especially visual communication, which takes place between artist-work-spectator. In "Russian Easter" the three primary colours share the space of the canvas suggesting a strong essential balance. The choice of colour tones is not accidental as it creates a symbolic contrast with the dissoluteness and energy of the title. The colours are bright, extremely luminous, reflecting the light of the environment in which they are displayed. The application of the pigment is not flat, quite the contrary. Natalia creates a refined texture by mixing the colours with a variegated background, full of small gestural and rapid signs. In this way, the red, cockerel and blue emerge from the background, dominating the scene. The painting expresses a sense of joy, a colourful explosion of confetti and festoons. The signs on the canvas are characteristic of the artist who expresses herself, even in the case of monochrome surfaces, with calligraphic and iconographic gestures. The painting "The Offer" is emblematic and mysterious. The composition of the artwork is influenced by Oriental and Russian art, as is the choice of strong contrasting colours and vivid decorativism. Against a dark, black background, yellow and red symbols emerge that give dynamism to the work, create shapes and give movement. At the bottom, pigments form round geometric elements. Each mark left on the canvas is arranged as if to form an emblematic drawing, hidden between shapes and colour. In fact, we seem to glimpse the figure of a man, outlined by a red contour line. The details of the face are rendered through the contrast between the black background and the bright yellow. Everything in the work follows a precise structure, a composition studied in terms of its symbols and meaning, which at times takes on disturbing overtones. In "Silence" Natalia shows the viewer another side of her complex and intriguing personality as an artist. The figurative canvas is very close to the suspended metaphysical atmospheres and subjects of Surrealism with a return to the theme of the painter's studio, initiated by Matisse. The background is divided into two flat backgrounds of black and red. The light in the painting is provided by the suspended light bulb. In the foreground are three elements in front of an easel on which a canvas is resting. The composition is also well thought out here, the colours are few, essential and striking. Mystery envelops the three figures in the foreground, a metaphor for the human condition as they gaze at the horizon. Art representing art. A paradox that Natalia resolves through contrasting colours and an unreal suspended environment. The artist once again proves to be extremely multifaceted, creative and original. Her ability to pass from one style to another while maintaining the same expressive depth and the same characteristics that are common to all her artworks is surprising: colours, iconographic signs and energy.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Natalia Rose
Russian Easter
Natalia Rose
Silence
Natalia Rose
The Offer
Natalie Kato “If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.” (Charles Bukowski)
The revelation to someone of what we are, of our intimacy, our being, our time, turns out to be an act of sacrifice. How sacrificed are the tears we shed and the pain we feel at the lack of that same person to whom we have given part of our existence. Can we repent of the past? Can love, so vital, reveal itself only when two people meet? There are moments in life when everything changes. Moments in which something happens that radically changes everything that existed up to the moment that preceded them. What if love was first of all the acceptance of ourselves? And here we are in a new vision of life. Thus, the sensual and candid woman represented by the artist Natalie Kato seems to release new moments, new awareness, new realities that are transformed into straight, curved, broken and closed lines. Wrapped in the primary colors of red, yellow and blue, the figure spreads a black trail from the long dark and smooth hair in which small white dots are visible that seem to form the constellation of Cassiopeia recognizable by the shape of the bright stars that compose it arranged to form a "W"or an "M" depending on the point of view. In the upper part, a further black spot also seems to indicate a constellation: is it perhaps Berenice's hair? A group of stars physically bonded together, an open cluster in the process of dissolution. With a revealing pose and naked curves the figure accepts this new reality by letting herself enveloped by external situations and new loves. But, she remains forever a revelation of herself.
Art Curator Marina Maggiore
Natalie Kato
Revelation
Nibline Studio “I paint flowers so they will not die.” (Frida Kahlo)
Flowers are delicate and precious souls. If a small seed is watered, it blooms; you must take care of it so that it does not die. Frida Kahlo wrote that she painted flowers so that they would never die. Myriam Bertil alias Nibline Studio follows the example of the famous Mexican artist: immortalizes nature in the moment of its greatest splendour when its colors give off light and when its aromas perfume the air. "Hortensia" was created in 2021 with the technique of acrylic on cotton canvas. Pink, purple, and blue petals alternate creating a balanced and pleasant chromatic effect. Each flower conceals a profound meaning and that of hydrangea refers to the purest feeling: the birth of a sincere and pure love, the same that Myriam feels towards the nature that surrounds her. Sensations and emotions come into circulation when the artist paints: she lets herself be completely overwhelmed by what her heart and thoughts suggest to her at that moment. When we look at Myriam's works, we see flowers that are not just flowers. They can be identified with the metaphor of the life of each of us: we are born, we grow only if we feed our mind with knowledge and our heart with emotions. We grow old, but our spirits don't die if we live fully without remorse. Okakura Kakuzō wrote that in joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends. What better words than those of the Japanese writer describe the relationship that binds Myriam to flowers: they are part of her, they are her confidants, they are her joy.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Nibline Studio
Hortensia
Nicholas P. Kozis
Nicholas P. Kozis exposes six artworks (“Botany 2”, “Halloween Haley”, “Pose 1”, “Tempest 4”, “Untitled Artwork 23 copy”, “Wendigo”) for the “Sacrifice” exhibition at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, through which he emphasizes and connect numerous elements such as form, light, color contrasts and energy. In his visual and artistic language, the artist extrapolates both his own feelings and those arising from the characters or places represented, with the aim of making everything available to the world and managing to create an emotional vortex inside the observer. As for example in “Halloween Haley”, it seems to recall the myth of Daphne and Apollo: the latter declared his love to the girl, who rejected him. The god was chasing the girl who had to run away in fear. While he was about to catch her, Dafne invoked the help of Mother Earth, turning herself into a laurel tree. From that moment onwards, this became the Apollo's favorite tree, wearing its branches like a crown. Nicholas transforms this in a contemporary key, highlighting the figure of the woman completely enveloped by the tree, while nature evolves and merges completely with her. While in “Pose 1”, the artist emphasizes the woman's silhouette and sensuality by creating a resemblance to a black panther thanks to the play of light and shadow; in “Tempest 4”, the young woman's face is barely visible, allowing only a part of her face to shine through, while the presence of a flock of birds joins the surrounding environment creating a paranormal atmosphere.
Nicholas P. Kozis
In “Wendigo”, instead, Nicholas tells the viewer another compelling legend: this is about a nocturnal hunter creature, which thanks to its acute and incredibly developed senses is able to capture its prey with unprecedented speed and strength. In spite of its wild and dangerous nature, the artist depicts it as if it was one of the Olympian gods: its statuesque body is as clearly defined as if carved in marble, its mutation is imminent, so its head has already become that of a splendid stag with horns, which are so majestic and soaring towards the sky. All around, the shadowy forest recalls a typical fairytale setting. Finally, in “Botany 2” and “Untitled Artwork 23 copy”, Nicholas offers the viewer two forms of unspoilt nature: in the first, a flower or probably a sunflower seems to move like a pinwheel in the wind, gathering all the undulating lines and colors of the canvas among its petals, thus creating a hypnotic dynamism. In the second work, the artist represents the viewer's point of view, as if he/she was running through a magical forest: in fact, everything is moving, fast, every shade blends with the surrounding atmosphere, and a glow of light illuminates the path to follow. In both scenes, one can capture the electrifying energy, the sense of meditation and contemplation of the place. Those who admire these works can let themselves go completely, joining the emotional flow released by all these color contrasts, immersing themselves in a new dimensional reality, absorbing all the imagination and fantasy of the place.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Nicholas P. Kozis
Botany 2
Nicholas P. Kozis
Halloween Haley
Nicholas P. Kozis
Pose 1
Nicholas P. Kozis
Tempest 4
Nicholas P. Kozis
Untitled Artwork 23 copy
Nicholas P. Kozis
Wendigo
Nicole Dimt "The soul without imagination is like an observatory without a telescope." (Henry Ward Beecher)
In stark contrast between the real, rational world, and the inner and irrational one, Nicole Dimt's art is first and foremost a joy for the eyes: the use of a very varied and saturated color palette that recalls the mind the infatile world, a distant and, in some ways, nostalgic world. Utopian, dreamy and, above all, personal worlds: this is what Nicole Dimt manages to bring out through her artistic poetics, a poetics of self-analysis to be able to get in touch with the most marginal and repressed emotions and thoughts. With a soft and fluid brushstroke, in clear reference to Van Gogh's atmospheres, the artist aims to create imaginary, distorted and psychedelic worlds within which she can take refuge to escape the monotony of everyday life.
Art Curator Federica Schneck
Nicole Dimt
Chlorophyll Dreams
Nina Baldo “The emotions are sometimes so strong that I work without knowing it. The strokes come like speech.” (Vincent van Gogh)
Abraham Maslow believed that by creating art, artists give shape to their experiences and that this is the profound purpose of creating. In this sense, artistic expression is the result of intrinsic motivation: the artists must do nothing but listen and create, transforming their experiences in tangible objects and visuals. In Nina Baldo’s paintings, reality appears to lose its logical and rational properties, or at least to have been suspended between time and space. This state of uncertainty is the result of the artist’s use of painting as a way to turn her feelings and emotions into colourful and dreamlike images. Art has in Nina a cathartic effect, it is the liberating purification from her passions, emotions, feelings and experiences which are anesthetised and materialised. Through her art, Nina seeks the empathy of the viewers; “I love conveying emotions through my paintings and touching people with it”, she says. In this way, she invites the viewers to have an affective participation when looking at her works so that they can identify their emotions, feelings, experiences in her works. With a bold and intense red as background, “Lonely word” is a painting where sacred and profane are blended. A sitting woman cries black tears; her dark and long hair becomes her mantle with fearless and open eyes on it, while a purple aureola surrounds her head. She holds a profane Sacred Heart on her hands, lined in a purple-coloured bubble. On the top, the same Sacred Heart cries a tear. This religious iconography is contrasted by profane images like a black-coloured face with a heart on its forehead, hand bones, cigarettes and a lighter. “When some of your emotions start to slowly consume you, then you know it's time to let them go for good … this is why I did this painting, it was a personal sacrifice”, Nina says. Here, the profane Mary cries for her own heart; she has been hurt, she has ugly and bad feelings. Her emotions are consuming her so much that she has to sacrifice and replace them with something brighter and more positive.
Art Curator Martina Lattuca
Nina Baldo
Lonely world
Olga Abolmasova
The two paintings with which Olga Abolmasova joins the ‘Sacrifice’ exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, are the representation of her style: the ‘Mind Game’, the result of a chaotic scene composed by lines representing a figure. Both sinuous and who give to the scene a harmonious atmosphere is “The Young Lady” and “Windy Blue Bird”. Softer in its colours and on a monochromatic background, the first scene shows an elegant lady who seems to fluctuate into the scene. The details of the face, with no facial elements is important because it pushes the viewers to look and to focus their attention on the detailed dress, composed by the big hat too.
Olga Abolmasova
A sort of reading into the lady’s unconscious is also the explanation of these missing elements who are an invitation to look over and beyond the appearances and to be transported by the feelings around what they say. The same concept can be also seen in “Windy Blue Bird” which title describes the main subjects of the scene. It seems as if the bird feels comfortable with itself, acting and performing in a delimited but wide space. The open window through which it is possible to see the blue and pink sky, confers to the painting an open space, that according to the concept of the exhibition, confers to the whole scene a sensation of hope and sacrifice for life.
Art Curator Martina Stagi
Olga Abolmasova
The Young Lady
Olga Abolmasova
Windy Blue Bird
Paal Bugen
Paal Bugen exhibits at M.A.D.S. art gallery two works on the occasion of the exhibition "Sacrifice", entitled "Ancestors" and "The Genesis". Paal Bugen’s style is unique and easily recognizable. From an iconographic point of view, the artist creates works that hide social messages, sometimes provocative. In the case of "Ancestors" the artist depicts a series of characters at times visible and others instead more hidden, a sort of overlap that creates mystery. In the upper part of the work viewers can read the quotations of the stock exchange followed from the written"covid rally". The movement that the work creates with this multitude of characters seems somehow to be connected to the stock exchange and to the influence that politics, society and all its factors have on it.
Paal Bugen
The second work also contains a strong social message. In this case Paal Bugen takes up the work of Michelangelo “Creation of Adam” in the Sistine Chapel, depicting the encounter between Adam and God, replacing man with the screen of a phone: the applications have now replaced our brain, becoming a kind of memory, of information that the humans don’t assimilate because they take for granted. The rest of the work is surrounded by characters in the typical Paal style. Hidden characters such as screaming faces, reminiscent of the scream of Munch, already proposed in one of his works entitled "Hysterica", a triton and pac-man for example. Paal Bugen therefore aims to upset his audience and make him think about society and its problems. The theme of sacrifice is understood by Paal as a due act, a necessity to sacrifice our well-being for others, to realize the world in which we live and to make a turning point for the collective good.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Paal Bugen
Ancestors
Paal Bugen
The Genesis
Pamela Dunton “If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.” (Marc Chagall)
Pamela Dunton is a young and talented artist living in the UK. The abstract images she creates are symbols of her spiritual soul, visual representations of something that is impossible to express in words and that can only be defined
through art. Pamela promotes different artistic processes where she feels the influence of different techniques and styles
from which she draws information that she reworks and makes her own. She has a unique and unconventional style, proving to be multifaceted and multi-material. She loves to use different materials and artistic media, acrylic, resin, photography, manipulation of images. Pamela sees art as a means of getting rid of what we have inside to heal and establish a more direct relationship with the world around us. It is in this direction that she has created the three artworks she has decided to exhibit at the "Sacrifice" exhibition, the "Outpour 1,2,3" series. They all have the same elements in common: a white background and a subject in the centre. The protagonists are spots of variegated colour that capture the viewer's interest. In all the paintings she uses blue pigment, which is mixed with black and white. The artist allows the colour to expand freely in space without boundaries or limits, so that it can find its own balance. The technique used is interesting: it allows her to create a play of superimpositions, stratifications, reflections and transparencies that give movement and dynamism to the spot of colour. The use of a neutral white support is also fundamental if we consider the creative perspective in which the artist conceives her artwork. The artistic process encourages a therapeutic catharsis where the search for fullness and emptiness, light and darkness is fundamental. Colours blend together creating a harmony and balance that reflects the desirable result of healing through art. Mind and body come together in a chromatic and luminous melody. The three works may look the same, but in reality they are similar, not identical compositions. Each has its own peculiarities and the colour is distributed differently. It is as if the pigments symbolically represented the different psychological characters contained in each of us. So different but at the same time complementary. The coloured hues create unusual and spontaneous combinations, a natural result of pigment mixing. Pamela's art is meditative and healing, it manages to strike the viewer deep inside, establishing an indissoluble relationship between heart and mind. Her art frees our minds from superficial things, negative emotions, pain and leads us to rediscover happiness and joy through the search for balance and spiritual harmony.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Pamela Dunton
Outpour 1
Pamela Dunton
Outpour 2
Pamela Dunton
Outpour 3
Paola Semilia
The Italian artist Paola Semilia participates for the first time in an exhibition organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, on the occasion of “SACRIFICE” during which she exhibits “Melodia tra cielo e mare”. The painting, made with vitrifying acrylic and resin on canvas, seems almost a synesthesia: the visual perception, in fact, recalls a harmonious melody to which the title already refers. This feeling that concerns the view of the sky and the sea (always a mirror and shadow of the other) was probably the one that the artist herself felt, who explained that - after carefully observing the sea and trying to perceive its perpetual sways and changes she had the desire not only to make a visual account of her feelings, but to make her soul emerge. Quoting Piero Guccione, one of the major Italian exponents of the second half of the twentieth century, "I am attracted by the absolute immobility of the sea, which however is constantly in motion". The bright blue protagonist of the painting is dominated by white brushstrokes that look like parts of broken circles and that recall both the clouds and the foam of the sea. In her works, Paola Semilia tries to create a thickness with the paints and materials used, in such a way as to trigger different perceptions, making the observer want to almost touch it, to fully appreciate its characteristics. It’s important to point out that the artist stated that, in her paintings, the materials are used roughly, spread with spatulas, toothbrushes, with hands or feet, and brushes are used in a very limited way.
“My desire was to capture what is in constant motion and reproduce it in something static.” (Paola Semilia)
Art Curator Sara Grasso
Paola Semilia
Melodia tra cielo e mare
Pato Reichler “Colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.” (Claude Monet)
Pato Reichler is an original and creative Argentinian artist. Spontaneous strokes, contrasting colours, light and fantastic, mystical
subjects are traits that characterise her. Her art lies somewhere between surrealism, abstractionism and expressionism. It is
interesting that she places her subjects in mystical environments, pervaded by atmospheres suspended in time and space. Many times she prefers to use neutral backgrounds instead, so that the subject can be enhanced to the fullest. Pato has extraordinary drawing skills. With just a few strokes, she creates complicated and
fascinating interweaving of lines. She loves to experiment, not
limiting herself to using only acrylics and brushes, but exploring different techniques to achieve unexpected and interesting results. In "The sadness of the angel" the contrast between the delicacy of the background and the choice of the protagonist contrasts with the colour of the hair and wings, a dark and intense black. The lines fit together, finding a perfect, harmonious rhythm. The rendering of every detail is incredible. Pato succeeds in rendering the softness of the feathers and the intensity of the angel even though it is not possible to see his face. The protagonist is huddled in on himself, hopeless, sad and bewildered. He does not turn his gaze to the viewer; yet he is of great emotional power. The characteristics of the physique, the pose and the rendering of colour bring him close to Egon Schiele's dramatic and profound subjects. A thin, sinuous line outlines the edges. It is no coincidence that the subject is a child, a characteristic that is often repeated in the artist's paintings. The aim is to awaken the childlike side hidden in all of us. Pato's atmospheres are always immersed in an aura of mystery, fairytale-like and timeless. The soft blue colours contrast perfectly with the darkness of black. The brushstrokes are varied, more jagged and broad in the background, more detailed on the feathers and more intense and precise in the hair and wings. The composition and geometric structure are very studied. This rigour clashes with the painting technique, free of boundaries and intuitive. The angel's sadness reflects an existential situation, a human condition. Pato wants to guide the viewer into her artwork, inviting him to open his heart and mind. She confronts him with a situation of sadness, despondency and anguish. But at the same time it gives him hope through the use of chromatic and luminous colours. The greys blending with the blues give movement and create interesting threedimensional masses for the environmental rendering. The psychological and profound aura that characterises the canvas is perceptible. Pato proves to be an original and daring artist who, through myths, fables and fantastic subjects, rekindles childhood memories in the heart and mind of the spectator. She brings everything back to a familiar, fabulous and primordial environment. She removes from reality everything that prevents us from establishing a relationship with our inner self and rekindles the sensitivity hidden in every human being. The artist, with her incredible gestures, creates unique and unexplored visual experiences, inviting the artist to search for his own key to the story.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Pato Reichler
The sadness of the angel
Patricia Giovanzani “Art washed away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” (Pablo Picasso)
Patricia Giovanzani is a plastic artist and architect born in Argentina. Her passion for art, colours and shapes began when she was very young and developed later when she started to share her personal vision of the world with her family and friends. In her art, characterised by an original style, she mixes references to the real world and visual experiences, references to a subjective, creative and fantastic universe. Patrica is a multifaceted and multi-material artist who loves to experiment, research and condense different stimuli into her artworks, which together manage to create a harmonious and balanced result. Her skills as an architect and her attention to the complex structures of buildings and cities have a strong influence on her art. The interpenetration of the two disciplines, architecture and visual art, allows her to create extremely interesting, sophisticated and never banal compositions through the combination of geometric elements and vertical and horizontal lines. Patricia encloses city views, geometries and compositions of lines in colourful, bold and lively canvases. In her painting "Ventana al puerto" she structures the canvas as a grid through which the artist sees the world beyond. Interesting is the contrast between the dark tone of the grid, oppressive and gloomy, and the vivid colours representing the outside world. This juxtaposition is based on Patricia's emotional state, which in this artwork speaks of a feeling of oppression. Although she represents a negative situation, the artist gives hope and joy through the reproduction of what awaits her once she has passed through the bars of her imprisonment. These bars are impassable at that particular moment in Patricia's life, but they allow a glimpse of freedom and hope. The technique used is a combination of palette knife, brush, ink and acrylic. The choice of these materials is also deliberate. The brilliance and energy of the acrylic colours contrast with the hardness and rigidity of the ink. Patricia alternates strong, decisive strokes with more harmonious, soft and sinuous brushstrokes. A dance of contrasting emotions that expresses hope for the future. Patricia makes her composition dynamic and intriguing by depicting varied and different landscapes in each rectangle. What these views have in common, however, is the brilliance of the colours, the joy, the passion, the strength that the reds, greens and blues express. Each element works together to create a balanced overall feeling. The viewer is invited to go beyond the bars, to have hope and to believe in their dreams. The most important thing in life is to be tenacious, determined, to pursue a goal and a desire with all your strength. Only through constant effort and self-confidence will life change for the better. Patricia thus creates a highly personal composition, encapsulating emotions and moods that she herself has experienced. In doing so, she brings the viewer into the situation, which is typical of the human experience, and invites them to make it their own. The artist captures life experiences that translate into universal visions, capable of capturing the viewer's attention. Every touch of colour, every trace of brushstroke, contributes to creating something unique and original, a personal vision of the world that becomes a symbol of something subjective and universal.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Patricia Giovanzani
VENTANA AL PUERTO
Paul Hartel
The works of art exhibited by Paul Hartel on the occasion of "SACRIFICE", the new exhibition organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, have an obvious reference to artistic techniques relating to Action Painting, especially in relation to the works of artists such as Hans Hoffmann, William de Kooning and Asger Jorn. Emblematic is the expressionistic use of color and the progressive abstraction of forms, the artist's impulsiveness and emotionality remain etched on the canvas, creating unique works with an important communicative and evocative impact. The abstract and figurative aspect of the works is mixed, the human subject is represented with a hallucinated vision, expressionistically deformed, the artistic production of Paul Hartel, therefore, creates form from deformation, gives free rein to spontaneity.
Paul Hartel
In this way the figuration is not canceled, but in fact, deformed in an expressive way. The simplification of forms and the use of strong and contrasting colors make concrete the artist’s reflection on the primitive and archetypal character of human being. The face is the true protagonist of the works: the somatic traits seem to be distributed according to a plurality of points of view that would bring the works closer to the artistic maturity of Picasso. The lines are almost absent, the definable figurative elements develop in the paintings through the color, the true protagonist of these works of art which is deeply worked, and an intimate expression of the artist's emotions that through his works of art expresses himself and his worldview.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Paul Hartel
Can You be Right
Paul Hartel
Conflict of Voyeur
Paul Hartel
Domestic 1
Paul Hartel
In Your Head
Pep Jaumandreu "I do not consider myself a painter, but a creator of suggestive worlds” (Pep Jaumandreu) Pep Jaumandreu is an artist based in Spain whose art explores the themes of nature, the cosmos, the ancestral and esotericism, reflecting an aura of mystery. Having experimented with various techniques and disciplines over the years, Jaumandreu now creates "fluid art”, painting with acrylics, watercolors, pigments, and resin on canvas in all kinds of formats. At “SACRIFICE” exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Pep Jaumandreu presents two artworks works of art resulting from his continuous experimentation. "ABYSSAL FISH", as the title suggests, represents a marine animal of the abyss in yellow and white colors that floats on a black background: made according to the style of Fluidart, the animal is rendered in a perfectly harmonious and sinuous way, so much so that it seems dance in the deep waters, like a mermaid swimming. The technique enhances its movement and the dark background increases its three-dimensionality so much so that it looks like a celestial constellation.
Pep Jaumandreu
The second artwork presented by Pep titled ”WORK IN PROGRESS 53” is a video in which the artist resumes his own work starting from a detail up to frame it completely. Always made according to the Fluidart technique, the work moves looking like a volcano from the center of which incandescent lava emerges, which slowly expands until it materializes into an infinite galaxy. The images to which these works seem to give life are many and can be read in different ways and points of view: the technique of Fluidart, in fact, restores movement and grace to the works of Pep that are in continuous evolution and transformation into something unexpected and never default.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Pep Jaumandreu
ABYSSAL FISH
Pep Jaumandreu
WORK IN PROGRESS 53
Peter Bobbet
Peter Bobbet’s paintings are sensual and charming. The use of the human figure together with the bright colours is fascinating. The images he produces are powerful and intense. A man seems to be rising up from the deepest waters, it’s the idea of a statuary man, a grand and massive torso that reminds of a more classical view on the human figure. A contemporary god who was called to intervene, to fix the hierarchy of power and restore the supreme order. He is ready to fight his own battle, it is not said if it’s an inner battle or a civil war, but what can be seen through these paintings is the absolute willingness to re-emerge. Going against the blinding light, moved by deep strength and feeling of pride, these men are all men brave to dig deep and follow their own path with inborn elation.
Peter Bobbet
The author’s works of art can have a David LaChapelle’s influence, looking at his religious, divine and earthly imaginary. Instinctively close to Behold, 2015 work by the photographer, a human figure, probably a man, coloured with blue, closed eyes and a crown of light behind the head in a natural landscape. This renaissance feeling together with a more evident pop art ascendancy can be associated with Bobbet's paintings. Avoiding the blasphemous part , the religious iconic construction of the picture and the use of pop bright colours can be also seen in these two works shown at MADS Gallery. A powerful visual impact to let oneself be engulfed.
I wanted it to provide an escape route, I wanted to make pictures that were fantastic and took you into another world, one that was brighter. I started off with this idea. (David LaChapelle) Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Peter Bobbet
Poseidon
Peter Bobbet
Warrior Within
Petra Zaremba "True artists are almost the only men who do their work for the pleasure of doing it" (Auguste Rodin)
The artist Petra possesses the great ability to express herself freely through her works. Her artistic work is always an expression of thoughts, ideas and feelings that have the purpose, in some way, to raise doubts and make the observer reflect. Petra, with her work "The unseen struggle" gives us a moment of reflection on life and on the world of art and artists. Often it is a world put in shadow, many times the artist's profession is underestimated and for these reasons the artists live also and above all with intense emotions. Mixed feelings ranging from pure joy to sadness are the ingredients of a life devoted to art. Petra's work describes this world well and the constant alternation of ups and downs, of positivity and negativity. A gray background from which red and white colored spots emerge, spots that not only emerge but pulsate like the heartbeat, the beat that is the engine of life and that pushes the artist to produce. In front of Petra's work, the observer is pervaded by an imaginary wind, he can hear the rustle of emotions and the passion that the artist possesses in producing art. A rustle that creeps between the colors and escapes from the work and pervades the soul of the viewer. Petra is able, not only to tell but also to transmit emotions, the artist has the great gift of being empathetic with the surrounding world and of knowing how to tell the sensations she absorbs. A mostly abstract work, the real protagonists are the colors, they have life and are a living soul. A work of intense aesthetic and moral value, the artist as always surprises us with her sensitive soul and great artistic skills. Petra allows us to get in touch with her world and her soul, from now on the viewer is able to perceive the breath of emotions produced by art.
Art Curator Vanessa Viti
Petra Zaremba
The unseen struggle
Philip Repp “Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.” (Andy Warhol)
Widely developed in the Art History, the concept of beauty has been the engine of reflections and creations of masterpieces by many artists. Although it is a different canon over the centuries, the cult of beauty has been for the man-artist premise of the study of nature, his similars and himself. Like the great artists Michelangelo, Manet, Degas, Rodin, Klimt and Schiele and others over the centuries, the artist Philip Repp seeks beauty creating a poignant and elegant caryatid that in the manner of the ancient figures-female columns sculpted to support the overlying members architectural, she seems to want exit from the sheet in which she is represented. The classic "chiasmo" pose creates a sinuous and attractive effect giving the feeling that the standing figure is going to move and come to life. In addition, the tangled arms around the head give the feeling of an unfinished sculptural work in the manner of Michelangelo’s "Prisons" preserved in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence. The artist Repp manages to convey the same immense weight of the material from which, in vain, the "Prisons" try to free themselves. The body writhes vigorously but the movement remains contained as it is overwhelmed by greater forces. The use of traditional materials such as pastels, charcoal and torn paper allows the creation of shades that give the figure the opportunity to stand out from the two-dimensional sheet to create a voluminous build that marks a definitive break with the idyllic beauty.
Art Curator Marina Maggiore
Philip Repp
Figure Forfeiture
Pierrette Clément "When I walk the wind blows away my negative thoughts and makes the positive ones bloom" (Rosa Ramirez).
Pierrette's artistic work is a concentrate of colors that chase each other within the works and create great dynamism. Colors that come into contact and contrast with each other but at the same time give life to a great balance. Brushstrokes and lines that run one behind the other create lively and fleeting works. The artist lets herself be guided by her personal instinct and creativity, along the path that leads to the discovery of her own self and of the most intimate feelings. Pierrette, through her artistic work, expresses herself, her inner world, she manages to bring out feelings and emotions. Pierrette's art is strong, well-defined and anchored to vivid thoughts, courage and fortitude are evident from her work. The choice of colors makes the works of great impact, both visual and emotional, in fact the observer is pervaded by strong emotions. Pierrette's art appears as an explosion of colors, shades and brushstrokes. The observer's gaze is totally captured and travels along those paths made of colors, hues and emotions. In a continuous succession of sensations, sometimes calm and balance, other times of trepidation and restlessness, the observer is able to experience new emotions. Pierrette wants to pay homage to all those people who throughout history have been discriminated against, for ignorance and stupidity, and at the same time she pays homage to the courage of people who never gave up, who sacrificed themselves for their ideas and for the just causes. Pierrette's artistic work is purely abstract, in the center appears only a figure that can be traced back to the human figure, behind and around it there are only free and unrestrained color and brushstrokes, there are no obstacles. The artist's works are imbued with passion and feeling, it is evident that she, through art, follows inspiration, she listens to her spirit and gives vent to her emotions in total freedom. For the observer, meeting Pierrette's work means traveling on a journey, it becomes a path to discover the soul of the artist and also his own. Pierrette's art becomes a bridge, it is the bond that unites the observer to the artist, it is the way to meet the thoughts and feelings of the artist and at the same time it is the way that the observer has to know himself , to ask questions and to try to understand their feelings.
Art Curator Vanessa Viti
Pierrette Clément
From darkness to light
Quynh Klaus
Impermanent self. Ephemeral memories help the embedded ones to pursue an evolving continuum. The artist Quynh Klaus presents “Ohne Titel I”, “Ohne Titel II”, “Ohne Titel III”, “Ohne Titel IV” and “Ohne Titel V” for the “Sacrifice” Art exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art gallery. The first artwork depicts an unknown environment using cool tones to delimit a space of tranquility, followed by “Ohne Titel II”, which exists as an interlude of the third artwork. This sequence of art pieces is imperative to comprehend the process to portray truth from our surroundings. “Ohne Titel III”, due to the bold choice of colors, brings us the strength to undertake any task with bold decisions and a bright future, able to take away our self and evolve into a non self being. Such term, “non self”, is a Buddhist strategy for non attachment and to recognize life as impermanent, as an eternal evolving continuum. The fourth artwork takes the “Green spirit” as its muse, if you listen carefully you can witness how the highest tones are being depicted with bright ones in the middle of the art piece. “Ohne Titel V” states with royal purple, the end of a season with memories of nature, of the beyond, unrestrained memories, which reveal us the final Sacrifice: evolution. A non self role is needed as a strategy to be always aware of constant change and to let go what is not needed. Release the colors to showcase the exact moment when transformation occurs.
Art Curator Karla Peralta Málaga
Quynh Klaus
Ohne Titel I
Quynh Klaus
Ohne Titel II
Quynh Klaus
Ohne Titel III
Quynh Klaus
Ohne Titel IV
Quynh Klaus
Ohne Titel V
RaccoonDesign “Man is mortal because of his fears and immortal because of his desires." (Pitagora)
RaccoonDesign is a self-taught artist, specialized in 3D and concept art. He is participating in the last art exhibition of the year, entitled "Sacrifice", organized by the digital gallery M.A.D.S. As an art curator I have always found his modus operandi very interesting, the meaning that his works conceal and the depth of the arguments the artist uses to explain his artistic choices. Although he is a young artist, RaccoonDesign has already demonstrated his skill and ability to create NFT artworks with Cinema 4D and Adobe Photoshop. His skill is evident in the work, created in November 2021, for the Sacrifice exhibition titled "Transcendence of the Mortality". The title suggests the artist's idea of death: "...it is an inevitable condition from which no one can truly escape." From this bitter awareness RaccoonDesign begins his tale concerning sacrifice. Man is terrified by the mortality of his human nature, he would like to transcend it. He knows his limits well and, during his existence, he incessantly tries to overcome it, falling into an evil deception. Man would be willing to sacrifice anything in exchange for his immortality. He does not know that the very desire to reach the transcendence of mortality is itself one more step towards the death of soul and body. When he will believe to have reached a fictitious immortality, he will realize that he has sacrificed what is most dear to him. In this regard, the artist offers a thought we should all reflect on, "Immortality is mistakenly conceived in the eternity of life's pleasure, but is realized in the drama of eternal pain." Man hopes to extend his pleasures on earth forever. He wants to enjoy his possessions and powers as much as possible, driven by a desire to achieve something unreachable. Hope is the driving force behind sacrifice. Man, in fact, hopes to find in the Transcendence the answer to his most complex questions. However, this impulse leads him to a certain death: he is literally submerged by a wave of insecurity and dissatisfaction that will take him to the most remote abysses of existence. Why? Because the only certainty we have in the World is the existence of Death. A place where everything is still and lifeless. A place where our existential problems cease to exist; a place where there are no more fears and fragilities. Death is a place where peace reigns, a safe place where our minds stop asking questions. Therefore, if Death were no longer a certainty, what would we be left with? Man would be trapped in his infinite existence. He would remain wrapped in the skein of questions to which he often cannot find an answer, he would be tormented by insecurity, by existential dilemmas, by pains and fears forever. The dilemma of immortality requires a huge sacrifice in return: losing peace forever.
Art Curator Alessia Ventola
RaccoonDesign
Transcendence of the Mortality
Rafaella Rougier
Rafaella Rougier is a French-American non-binary artist. Their abstract art is strongly influenced by their experience of synesthesia, a neurological condition that causes a person to "hear colours" and "see sounds". Each of their paintings is composed of a layering of lines and shapes that, mixed with countless layers of coloured pigment, create vibrant compositions. Event Horizon: When Heaven Laughs is the title of the work Rafaella is presenting for this exhibition. In astrophysics, an "event horizon" is the line where light ends and a black hole begins. But this term is also used to indicate the boundary beyond which events have no impact on the observer. In this work, they create a parallel between the idea of sacrifice, which often carries a negative connotation, something we have to give up, and that of the event horizon, often identified as a force of destruction, a place where darkness is so powerful that not even light can escape. But they overturn the negative view of both concepts by proposing a different and more encouraging truth: what if sacrifice is just a way to create a space for light and beauty to enter our lives? The title's reference to the smiling sky is an allusion to a divine protection of human beings, whose possibility of happiness lies, according to the artist, precisely in that borderline between life and death, between sacrifice and satisfaction. It is there that the positive energy and the possibility of a radiant life is concentrated. Rafaella's work expresses this idea of opportunity through a palette of warm, intense colours and an interplay of shapes that call into question the astronomy evoked in the title. Indeed, the round and sinuous shapes suggest the idea of constellations and black holes, while their swirling movement seems to recall the vital energy to which Rafaella alludes. Taking up the words of the concept to describe their work, we could say that their canvas stands before the observer as a "delicate fiber between the dimension of the real and that of the sacred; builder of a prosperous bond between man and hope".
Art Curator Marta Graziano
Rafaella Rougier
Event Horizon: When Heaven Laughs
Ragini Gupta
How would you describe the sacrifices of evolution in order to create infinity? Is evolution a sacrifice waiting to be witnessed? Ragini Gupta presents “Phoenix”, “Infinity” and “Rune of creation” for the “Sacrifice” Art exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art gallery. On the first artwork we can see an explosion of harmonies around a human figure to depict a cyclical force, which creates itself. Blue tones are contained by geometrical forms distributed all over the human figure, which is presented with bright orange tones, announcing itself as how lava would. The figure is surrounded by small sinuous lines, which resemble flowing lava, taking its place throughout infinity. Orange tones are feeding the figure to evolve. “Infinity” portrays the completion of the present evolution. We are witnessing the tranquility that comes from it. The figure is contemplating the vast infinity, surrounded by nature in the form of blue tones, reminding us of the power of water. The third artwork “Rune of creation”, presents foreground symbols to achieve tranquility. The central composition makes us focus on what is relevant, and that would be nature itself, with the truth that brings with it. The background of the artwork is presented with warm tones depicting details of nature embedded in ourselves. We are the constant witnesses of evolution.
Art Curator Karla Peralta Málaga
Ragini Gupta
Phoenix
Ragini Gupta
Infinity
Ragini Gupta
Rune of creation
Rebecca Volkmann “Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” (Pablo Picasso)
Rebecca Volkmann is an extremely talented artist with a broad stylistic vision whose compositions, which are halfway between
expressionism and abstractionism, contain messages and reflections directed at the viewer. Her favourite subjects are women, symbols of
self-determination, courageous, autonomous and independent. Rebecca is able to enhance their sinuous forms and create female figures with an intrinsic vital force. They become symbols of the contemporary woman who is forced to overcome insurmountable challenges in her life but who, in the end, emerges victorious from every inner conflict. Rebecca pours her subjectivity into the protagonists of the artworks, restoring the breath of life through tenacious lines, energetic brushstrokes and brilliant colours. In "Diaphanous", what strikes one at first glance is the strong chromatic contrast between the energetic red hues of the subject and the dark, intense and mysterious background. It is very interesting how the artist combines the figurative with the abstract in one canvas, recalling imaginative and visionary atmospheres where the oneiric and creative components mingle in a sinuous tangle. Rebecca's gestural expressiveness is evident: a skilful combination of sinuous black and white brushstrokes delimit and spontaneously draw the shapes and contours that overlap the background forms. The protagonist is a woman with an intriguing expression, lost in the void, looking at and judging the spectator. The artist thus creates a close relationship between the painting and the viewer, who immediately feels involved in the suspended atmosphere. The woman's body is made with strong chromatic and luminous contrasts that alternate with areas where the acrylic is coloured with variegated and lively hues. This choice was probably made to indicate the vastness and the enormous amount of emotions and feelings that each of us contains within us. There are colourful, contrasting worlds within us that we do not let everyone see because they are so intimate and personal. This is our intricate and interesting personality. The same variegated motif is reflected in the face of the mannequin behind the woman, brightly coloured with touches of yellow, green, blue and pink. The artwork emphasises the ambiguity of the human being, the knowledge in our being of several personalities that coexist harmoniously together, as happens with the different stimuli that become part of the creative process to create a work of art. Rebecca is evidently inspired by the literary world, by poetry, drawing on 20th century avant-garde art, techniques, materials and compositions. The lines interlock sinuously, the colours seem to chase each other in a dance cadenced by the rhythm of whites and blacks. The acrylics create games of reflections, stratifications and superimpositions, giving dynamism, movement and rhythm to the structure of the canvas. Rebecca moves from the two-dimensional to the three-dimensional, halfway between reality and dream. The woman's gaze is penetrating, the position she assumes is unnatural and at the same time functional for the story of the artwork. The result is a harmonious tangle of elements, an ordered and explanatory chaos that makes the viewer ask himself deep questions and look inside himself. Rebecca creates a mirror of the soul. The artist is extremely talented, not only in her use of techniques and artistic gestures, but also in the skilful combination of forms and meanings.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Rebecca Volkmann
Diaphanous
Rebekka Sigg
What would we do if we had the opportunity to enter other dimensions? we would live multiple lives at once, we would discover new relationships, we would meet new people. We would also have the opportunity to start over. A dimension is how we explain the ability to move through space: left and right, up and down and back and forth. The world is defined by three spatial dimensions, in addition to the fourth dimension refers to time. Many theories predict the existence of further dimensions besides time and the three spatial ones, but none have been proven. In “Spaco”, Space in Esperanto, the artist is be able to go beyond the three dimensions, by putting one layers on top of the other, cleverly combining complementary colors. Spaces that intersect, come togheter, transporting us to a new reality. The formation of these new dimensions does not create chaos. It is a painting that conveys calm, in its simplicity and in its clear lines, thanks also to the wise use of vertical hatching placed in sequence, that give a sense of stillness. Unlike many abstract paintings, the colors are not instinctively placed, but are inserted into geometric figures, without leaving the edges. This technique makes the picture more static and helps stimulate the sense of quiet. The vibrant colors reflect the artist's personality: positive and joyful. An artist inspired by the small joys of life and who gives her art the goal of capturing this happiness to transmit it to the viewer. Rebekka plays with different techniques and media, to stimulate the imagination. It's a painting that makes us daydream, which breaks down the skepticism of us adults and turns us into curious children who come back to believe.
Art Curator Lucrezia Perropane
Rebekka Sigg
Spaco
Rhianna Parker Rhianna Parker exposes the work “Offering” for the international exhibition “Sacrifice” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery. Through this digital collage, the artist wishes to emphasize several crucial aspects. First and foremost, there is the theme of the bow, which is linked to the inscription “Smite” placed at the top right of it: this is very common to be found in every mythological tradition as the supreme weapon of kings and knights, from archaic times to the Egyptians and the Middle Ages. Conversely, in ancient Hindu traditions, the bow is the very symbol of royalty and power conferred from above. This aspect can also be spotted in the god Apollo, who controlled the other gods and his own loyal fellows. Moreover, it is once again present in the Egyptian god Anubis, who is often depicted as shooting arrows and thus determining the fate of mortals. From the psychoanalytical side, Carl Gustav Jung pointed out that at the base of this symbology, it lies the concept of vital force, conceived both under the material and spiritual views. For this reason, the arrow represents the thought that introduces light, the creative organ that gives life, which doubles to allow synthesis; it is the radiant trait that illuminates the closed space. She is the messenger of destiny and supreme power, as the intermediary between heaven and earth. In all of this, Rhianna links the figure of the archer with that of Eros/Cupid: thus, her bow has a further significance, namely it is a symbol of love from which the desires linked to the unconscious branch out. The tension of the instrument highlights the sculptural body of the young man, who is probably about to strike a young girl, recognizable by the legs and boots in the background. As far as the color selection is concerned, the artist mainly uses primary colors (blue, yellow, magenta red) and white, playing with contrasts and highlighting all the energy and passion between the two protagonists. These sentimental, mythological and mystical elements are skillfully combined by Rihanna Parker, helping the viewer to investigate an even deeper meaning: the bow and arrow as a sign of evolution and revolution.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Rhianna Parker
Offering
Ric Conn
Ric Conn is an American artist whose works of art tell stories and journeys within the world of inequalities and struggles, especially feminists. For the artist, the female condition is central, his works of art have the ability to transmit extremely profound and current messages with a unique and impacting communicative power. From a technical point of view, the use of color brings to mind the artistic experiences of the early twentieth century, in particular the movement of the Fauves, whose conception of the pictorial language was based on the rejection of drawing and on the use of color as a fundamental element. of the composition, applied through dense and structurally evident brushstrokes. Ric Conn's works are not disconnected from surrealism, especially as regards the use of color in the representation of human figures, in "No Means No" the complexion is represented with yellow and teal, while in "When?" Blue remains in the male representation while women see a soft red and ocher yellow.
Ric Conn
From the point of view of meaning, "No Means No" tells the engraving of the meaning that the word "No" should suppose, Ric explains "The word tells you exactly what is intended and yet some men seem to have a real problem understanding and accepting it. Some men cannot comprehend the meaning and when they hear it they ignore it and they keep going and it turns into harassment making the situation intolerable, dangerous and totally demeaning to the woman." This is, therefore, the caliber of the message expressed by the artist through his works of art. "When?" Instead it represents a metaphor, a scale in which man and woman have the same weight, in which they are judged and considered equal, with a blindfolded justice. Regarding the work, the artist expresses an extremely profound concept "Men have always assumed superiority over women. This is decidedly unequal, unfair and degrading. Society needs to change this paradigm. This painting asks when will women get the equality they deserve?"
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Ric Conn
No Means No
Ric Conn
When?
Richard Janne Haubold “Only when the form has an effect on the soul can we understand and appreciate a work; and only through the form can we understand the content and appreciate a work". (Kandinsky) Artist, painter, accelerator of creative processes. This is how Richard Janne Haubold defines himself, a young art lover born and raised in Germany. With a pencil in his hand he becomes a skilled draftsman, with a brush, a researcher of reality. He expresses his personality in the abstract forms he creates, he plays with colors and invents new motifs. His imagination goes beyond what he paints, beyond the lines, beyond the sketches and the artistic motifs. His works are the result of a mixture of techniques that make us perceive his desire to create his own new way of making art to express himself at his best. Richard Janne Haubold's paintings have a new, almost ecstatic strength, they are characterized by strokes of black ink placed on a shaded surface with different shades of colors. Janne makes art a companion to him, a means of expressing his feelings, which is why he creates her own special techniques. What there is to perceive immediately catches the eye. What our eye sees and transmits to the brain makes us perfect in the artist's figures. We perceive a strong personality, which through the brush expresses all his strength, his thoughts and his will to create something new and different for the world.
Art Curator Giulia Fontanesi
Richard Janne Haubold
Beside Yoz 24/7
Robert Takacs "I believe in the future solution of those two states, apparently so contradictory, which are the dream and the reality, in a kind of absolute reality, of surreality." (André Breton)
Robert Takacs' love for art manifests itself from an early age, but slowly materializes over time. The passion for
music and for horror and fantasy
artist to the creation of a personal filmography has consciously guided the
artistic imagination populated by abstract, disturbing and surreal figures, spokespersons of a boundless, free, unrestricted freedom of expression. The contrast between the depth of the message conveyed and the vivacity of the colors used makes the art of Robert Takacs very electrifying and fascinating, an art that strikes, involves and captivates. An art populated by deformed beings capable of projecting the observer's thought into the world of the artist, a roller coaster of colors, emotions and cryptic messages.
Art Curator Federica Schneck
Robert Takacs
Love Trust Music
Robert Takacs
Social Anxiety
Robert Takacs
Incommunicado
Romana Meissner
German artist Romana Meissner presents at M.A.D.S. art gallery two abstract works on the occasion of the exhibition "Sacrifice" organized in December 2021. The artist has always used abstract art as an expression medium. Her main influence comes from the Informal movement, in particular from Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, so much so that she pays homage to the two artists with a work entitled "Jackson and Lee". The work has a square composition and is composed of layers. The first layer is composed of spatulates that blend the colors, mainly red, yellow and white that create a sort of peach pink that illuminates the composition. The second layer consists of white and green sketches, which follow the technique of action painting. The whole is then dampened by darker spatula that balance the harmony of the canvas.
Romana Meissner
The second work is titled "So what" and follows the same pattern as the previous one, despite being apparently more orderly with regard to the separation of colors that are less nuanced between them. With these two works, Romana Meissner talks about sacrifice in relation to the story of the artist couple Pollock and Krasner. Both belonging to the same movement and both talented, so much so that in reality she was the real pioneer of the abstract movement, but she was always seen as "the wife of Jackson Pollock" and only today we talk about her attributing the importance that actually had. This is why the two works by Romana Meissner make a stratification: the first layer is the layer that comes close to the style of Lee Kranser and above, as if to overpower it, the "action" style of Jackson Pollock. Here is clearly expressed the sacrifice that women of important figures had to suffer in history, simply bound as a man’s accessory, without ever talking about their importance and relevance.
Art Curator Giorgia Massari
Romana Meissner
Jackson and Lee
Romana Meissner
So what
Ronnie Jiang
Ronnie Jiang is a former fashion designer, who combines this background with art by taking different aspects from both disciplines. Jiang is a guest, for the first time, at an exhibition organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery on the occasion of "SACRIFICE" exhibits "Forward Backward" a work of art created with Acrylic on Canvas, part of the "Déstructuralisme Figuratif" series which is inspired by the reconstruction of forms. In the work there are numerous anatomical parts of the face: human, animal, cartoons and paintings, which are disassembled and assembled again creating something completely different from what we are used to seeing, the work of art expresses a physicality and a completely surreal and imaginary, a physiognomy that allows the observer to imagine and travel with the mind in new, parallel, different worlds. In "Forward Backward" the central element is the eye, there are 12 different eyes that look in all directions, from Betty Boop to the "Girl with a Pearl Earring", the observer is intrigued by the mystery that the work carries with it, moreover Jiang demonstrates the full mastery of the artistic act, combining figurative and abstract representation. Figurative Deconstructivism finds great expression in artists such as Picasso, and in the current of Cubism, from which architectural deconstructivism will later spring. The transfiguration of forms allows the elimination of superfluous elements to maintain the essence of what you want to represent, the various overlaps allow the creation of something that is disconnected from reality and leads to a completely subjective interpretation.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Ronnie Jiang
Forwad backward
Rosana Kossatz
For the exhibition “Sacrifice” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery Rosana Kossatz exposes six works (“Angel’s voice”, “Cathedral bells”, “Faith”, “Resilience”, “Sentinel” e “Trust of the leaves”) through which the artist's imagination clearly emerges, bringing light to different versions of sacrifice. Touching on fundamental aspects as faith, spirituality, protection and resilience, Rosana highlights feelings and moods and expresses her introspection through these canvases. Exploring the movements of the universe and the spirit of every human being, the artist structures the works on a multidimensionality between the earthly and the otherworldly, helping the viewer to feel their presence within each painting and to feel the strength and vitality that comes from it. Everything blends into a single dynamic interconnection that Rosana skillfully emphasizes through the use of material or immaterial attributes, which take the subject represented in the forefront: whether it is the figure of an angel, the sound of a bell, religion, tenacity, the caretaker or the leaves, each element becomes that "keystone", that is, a point of reference that manages to involve the observer personally.
Rosana Kossatz
As if an intrinsic bond is created, the heart of a work and the soul of the viewer are united, and the latter becomes part of a game of cross-references between the real and the ancestral dimension. With reference to the choice of colors, Rosana utilizes both extremely delicate pastel shades, highlighting the purity of the pictorial surface, and very bright tones, such as orange, giving a great luminosity as well as a sense of harmony and serenity in the soul of the viewer. The artist stimulates the viewer’s consciousness by putting him/her in direct contact with the desire for infinity and eternity: this leads to a new way of understanding and feeling art as an opportunity to investigate the complex relationship between man and the universe. The observer is invited to merge with his/her own soul, through a path of spiritual elevation based on a profound mind’s quietness: these works help to observe and discover the true nature of human existence.
“Color is a means of exerting a direct influence on the soul. Color is a key, the eye and the hammer that strikes it, while the soul is the means with a thousand strings.” (Vasilij Kandinskij)
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Rosana Kossatz
Angel's voice
Rosana Kossatz
Cathedral bells
Rosana Kossatz
Faith
Rosana Kossatz
Resilience
Rosana Kossatz
Sentinel
Rosana Kossatz
Trust of the leaves
Ross Fuel
For the international exhibition “Sacrifice” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Ross Fuel exposes the artwork “Golden Mines”: in a style that veers towards Abstractionism and Pop-Art, the artist uses different means, from acrylic to spray paint, from books to torn fabrics, in order to express his artistic and aesthetic conception. Inspired by what surrounds him, from nature to African cultures, Ross incorporates great energy and spontaneity into his work, expressing deep emotions that involve the viewer directly in the artwork. This can be divided into three main parts: on the left, there is a green background, composed by colors that drip onto the surface from the top to the bottom of the scene. This technique is certainly reminiscent of Jackson Pollock's dripping works. Moreover, the artist's signature is an integral part of the painting, and its reddish hue is linked to the X mark, which can be spotted on the woman's mouth who lies at the center of the work. In this section, dripping is visible together with another key element: Ross highlights a strong color contrast by depicting the young woman in black and white and, by doing this, he emphasizes the symbol on her lips. This aspect is intended to highlight a very sensitive issue today: the impossibility of women to express their opinions freely. To accompany it, the artist has placed a collage of different fabrics and textures: with the aim to recall the classic African headgear, giving to the work an unprecedented originality and veracity! The viewer is therefore invited to grasp the young woman's torment, understanding her emotions and freeing her from daily abuse. Ross Fuel goes beyond the limits of the pictorial surface to represent and bring out an in-depth analysis of the female gender, without forgetting the great attention paid to figurative art and the creative process. This is how the observer can take a journey into his/her introspection with the aim of including his/her most intrinsic feelings and boundless energy within the artwork.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Ross Fuel
Golden Mines
Roussa Neonaki “A world that continues to grow and evolve and somewhere in there I am endeavouring to understand it together with myself, creating my art” Roussa Neonaki
SACRIFICE is the second exhibition for Roussa Neonaki at the international art gallery M.A.D.S. This time she shows to the public her Invisible idol "Art reflects the truth inside you..who you are..awakes your feelings, your thoughts and your ideas. Its like a mirror...everybody look in the same mirror but they can see different things. The artist is trapped in there. Imagine the magic mirror and the invisible idol. Look and See...or just feel!". Wonderful are the words she expresses for her work. Roussa Neonaki is a visual artist from Greece. The stories Roussa tells us are about female odd figures with bizarre forms and shapes. Full of curiosity they travel through the pictures of her city, Athens. She enjoys blending her works with naïf painting, photographs, antique vintage items and her stories. The blend of all these elements portrays the way she perceives the world around her, a world full of contradictions, feelings, colours and stories. Invisible idol is the story about our reelationship with us and with art. Art is a mirror, it tells us about us. this is a work of art that speaks of works of art but which also speaks about us. Art in art, like Shakespearean theater. The masterpiece lends itself to multiple interpretations, one deeper than the other. The protagonist represents us who look at ourselves while we observe a work of art, which we find in art something that belongs to our person. All this in the wonderful setting of the Roussa universe. We are now fond of his characters and his surreal settings.
Art Curator Mara Cipriano
Roussa Neonaki
Invisible idol
Russell Vanecek
In Russell Vanecek's works nature is the real protagonist, according to a tradition that finds its bridgehead in nineteenth century realism, which results in France into the current animated by Corot, Manet, Rousseau that would later evolve into the Impressionist movement, in England in the artworks of Constable and Turner, and in Italy in the Macchiaioli painters. The works reproduce a natural settings, enjoyed en-plein-air. The atmosphere and colors are not elements that aim to put the landscape in the "right light", but rather have a life of their own. Central aspect of Russell Vanecek's works is the presence of different patterns and textures, the circle and its repetition is something that occurs in every piece of art by the artist, recalling the waves of Van Gogh, these circles are disconnected from that sense of anguish that one of the cornerstones of impressionism, he transmitted, on the contrary, the works of Russel Vanecek express a sense and a feeling of relaxation and calm. Birds are protagonists of Vanecek's artistic production, a symbol of freedom, they are represented in a calm and light atmosphere, illuminated by the bright rays of the sun. From a certain point of view it almost seems that the artist represents a reflection, as if what we are looking at is a natural situation reflected on the water, this sensation is given by the technique with which Vanecek works: the use of the spatula, and the movement provided by the different textures.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Russell Vanecek
Birds in Flight
Russell Vanecek
Gems in Brazil
Russell Vanecek
Oriole III
Sabine Windischbauer
The painting presented on the occasion of the international art exhibition Sacrifice, by the artist Sabine Windischbauer, titled Strong enough, is another piece that represents her way to intend the artistic language. We can see a female figure facing the observer. She seems to be animated and we can see that the figure wants to be looked at. His gaze is proud and focuses on the observer to attract the attention of him. She seems to say: <<I’m here look at me!>>. This is the artistic style of the artist Sabine Windischbauer. She used to put figures and characters into her work, figures and characters that seemed to come from another reality, and stay on the canvas to transmit a message to the viewers. A message that belongs from the deepest part of the soul of the artist. The way Sabine uses these characters is a pretext to say something important about her way to live life. On this occasion, the figure wants to talk about the importance of being yourself in every situation without any masks or breaks. This is the real way to feel strong and self-confident. As she says: << With COURAGE..with WILDNESS..with INITIATIVE and AUTONOMIE. So love yourself and respect yourself. Keep your heart open.So you can hear the voice of this wonderful ARCHETYP. Take a look in the mirror and embrace yourself. To be beautiful means to be YOURSELF >>. Looking at the art of Sabine, is ever an occasion to understand and discover something new. As we are reading a book in which each page tells us a new message that we can store and use in everyday life. This is the real way to intend art, not just a contemplative occasion but also a pretext to investigate into our life and understand something new, something special.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Sabine Windischbauer
Strong enough
Sabrina Del Valle
On the occasion of the international art exhibition Gaia the origin, the artist Sabrina Del Valle presented three artworks called In the depths of my soul, Deep soul #5 and Blue inspiration. Staring from In the depths of my soul. The painting presents an homogeneous background in which in the center of the composition we can see a shape that reminds the idea of a wound. As if the artist wants to tell us about something deepest and secret that belongs to her and her life. Also Deep soul #5 wants to tell us about this dual way to see reality, the conflicts that emerge from the chair background and the blue of the spots put in the center of the canvas. The language used by Sabrina is more fascinating to explore this particular concept, because this dual face of decisive colors and light, belongs to all the things of nature and to the flow of life. It’s like a filter to see the world around us. Another element that emerges from the work more important is the elements of the spots that want to demonstrate the instinctive gesture that accompanies the artist's creativity. As if the moment in which she was painting is not a lucid moment, but the artist was immersed in the colors to talk about the suggestions and the feelings that come from something belonging to reality. The same technique is used for the painting Blue inspiration in which the artwork is divided in two parts from a blue line. Starting from the first on the top: it’s clear and homogeneous, the second one on the bottom is light blue. We can also see a black stain that disharmonises and breaks the order of this duality. As she wants to tell us about the way the order and the harmony of the colors can be interrupted by the chaos. This confusion and chaos is told also with the choice not to use homogeneous colors but to dirty the canvas even in the parts in which it is divided, to create invasions of the field. This technique returns to the viewers the freedom that maybe the artist is in that moment in which she is alone, and she decides to paint something to explore in herself and talk about what she really feels.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Sabrina Del Valle
Blue inspiration
Sabrina Del Valle
Deep soul #5
Sabrina Del Valle
In the dephts of my soul
Safak Eyuboglu "No fear is more stupid than that which makes us fear to leave the art we practice. There is no painting, no sculpture, no music, no poetry, there is only creation!" (Umberto Boccioni)
The irrational and artistic world of Safak Eyuboglu is populated by unreal
figures and bodies disconnected from any form of anatomical harmony. Distorted bodies, characterized by a physical disharmony that makes them, however, curious and, at times, grotesque. This is his artistic grammar, relating to an imaginary world that tends to generate the most disparate sensations and emotions in the soul of people. A new path of investigation of reality, a path based on the idea of disagreement and stalemate. What is beautiful and harmonious and what is not. Almost prey to a flow of artistic consciousness, the artist frees himself from any artistic and aesthetic canon and lets himself go to the creation of human figures, without however seeking a visual sense of the whole composition.
Art Curator Federica Schneck
Safak Eyuboglu
Untitled
Sai
The strong attraction that man has for water, and for the sea in particular, has always been a mysterious fact that fascinates specialists of the mind. Certainly, we are more than 90 percent made of water. From water, more than three billion years ago, life was born, and since then the same miracle is repeated identically every time a child is born. Can this be enough to explain why some men decide to defy the laws of nature, immersing themselves in the dark and silent depths? On a symbolic level, diving can be seen as a return to the maternal womb, a symbiotic moment in which the diver is reunited with the sea which has always represented the "great mother" for art and psychoanalysis. The first experience of human beings in the womb is also our first diving experience in which we first experienced that sense of bliss through merging with the amniotic fluid. In adulthood, we can relive the experience of immersion as underwater also understood as an activity of research and discovery of the unconscious dimension of the mind. The only way we have to repeat as adults the first immersion in amnios is the experience of a second birth through scuba diving. And that's how Play with bubbles takes shape. A whirlwind of lively bubbles comes to life before the viewer's eyes. Colorful whirlwinds of greenish and blue tones take possession of the entire space of the work to be represented at their best and, with gracefulness, they hover in the water following a diagonal motion that loses the entire work. Observing the work we find ourselves catapulted into a sparkling marine current that, warm and perpetual, transports us to new shores. We cannot see what is out of the water, we are under the surface: all we can admire is the incredible variety of landscapes that are hidden underwater. The shades and touches of color that form a spur of rock to the left of the work, the bubbles that resemble buds with their circular shape and that shade of diagonal movement that invades the entire work. The light penetrates below the water creating wonderful games of reflections and transforming the transparent water into an infinite mass of shades and luminous flashes. Everything is muffled, you can only hear the gurgling of the bubbles and some soft noise in the distance. Under the water we are far away from our daily lives, from the myriad of commitments of our lives. Under the water we forget to walk, to need to keep our feet anchored to the ground in order to move in space. Underwater we can fly: we can swim left and right, descend to the bottom and then rise to the surface without feeling the weight of gravity, without feeling oppressed by our heavy daily lives. Diving as a cathartic moment, as an innate primordial instinct that pushes us to penetrate the depths of the sea. A silent and light world, with a sweet and muffled sound, Play with bubbles is its pictorial transposition.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Sai
Play with bubbles
Salvatore Bonanno
Salvatore Bonanno, born in Geneva, Switzerland, began his artistic career after years as an employee, making art his life path. His art is free, energetic and wild. An art created right away without going through the intellect, that brings out emotions explored only by the unconscious. The viewer is enchanted by the complementary colors, wisely used, which combine to find a unity. Transported on a journey into the mood of the artist at the moment of the creation of the work. Nature is one of the protagonists of his paintings.“Ouranos” represents the struggle of the elements. blue represents the air, yellow the earth, red the fire. The energy of the fight causes bursts of color, created by splashes thrown onto the canvas. the artist freezes the climax of the battle, leaving the viewer with the task of imagining the sequel.“Frost” represents the forest taken by the first frost. The warm autumn leaves refuse to yield to the weight of the snow. The time stops before the forest is completely covered with snow, making us admire the beauty of the contrast between the cold colors of the tree trunks and the warm colors of the leaves."Root" evokes the warmth of African landscapes. The artist plays with the colors yellow, orange and red, to convey feelings of passion and warmth. Lush roots rise from the yellow sun-filled earth, symbolizing the roots of our humanity. The artist manages to represent a fleeting moment of eternity, where everything stops and true beauty can be admired.
Art Curator Lucrezia Perropane
Salvatore Bonanno
Ouranos
Salvatore Bonanno
Frost
Salvatore Bonanno
Root
Sanda Berar
Sanda Berar, Romanian artist currently living in USA, participates for the first time in an exhibition organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, on the occasion of “SACRIFICE” during which she exhibits her “Self-portrait”. Her painting, as the title states, is a selfportrait with opaque tones. The hair, green with shades, frame the painting and look like weeping willows embracing the carved and distorted face that occupies the entire painting, covering the right side of the face. The undisputed protagonist of the painting is the eye, drawn with rough brushstrokes and at the same time very delicate: extremely expressive and evidently tired, her gaze turns straight to us observers, as if it demanded our attention and our absolute respect. The irregular traits delineate in particular the nose and the mouth, characterized by light and dark reds. A clear line, aimed at highlighting the damaged cheek in particular, gives greater three-dimensionality to the painting and emphasizes the drama previously suggested by the upper part of the artwork. White brushstrokes paint the tears that twist the face and that, descending, seem to become red splashes that recall bloodstains. Although the atmosphere is sad and melancholic, the colors recall different elements of nature (blue as the sky and the sea, green as the forest, yellow as the sun, brown as the earth) and make you think of a rebirth, perhaps still in the making. The woman in the painting is not only Sanda Berar, but probably represents the Earth and the silent nature - subjects to which the artist is dedicated also thanks to the years lived in Finland - and in general the spirit of every woman, always quintessence of all things.
“I invite you to discover for yourself how art can be therapeutic, how it can help you free your emotions and heal.” (Sanda Berar) Art Curator Sara Grasso
Sanda Berar
Self-portrait
Sanja Raonic "Simple outward emancipation has made the modern woman an artificial being. Today, women are faced with the need to emancipate themselves from emancipation if they really want to be free." (Emma Goldman)
On the border between painting and drawing, Sanja Raonic expresses her own
being, her own inner self through the concretization of female figures, setting a
deep and intimate research on the figure
of the woman, of her existence as a
of consumerist exploitation, violence central motif. The modern woman, victim
and social oppression, in the works of Sanja Raonic literally strips herself of any prejudice sewn on her to emerge as a new entity, worthy of living her own existence far from the conventions that often limit her existence. . The women of Sanja Raonic are free, perfect in their imperfection and show themselves in all their essence. The various shades of pink and purple invade his works and accompany the artist in his personal mission to show the emancipation of women in the 21st century.
Art Curator Federica Schneck
Sanja Raonic
21ST CENTERY
Sanja Raonic
MARRY ME
Sanja Raonic
LOVE STORY
Santi Pina With his oil on board, whose title is “Portrait in green”, the Spanish artist Santi Pina joins the exhibition “Sacrifice”, for his very first participation at M.A.D.S. art gallery. Passionate about art since his childhood, the artist has completed his studies in drawing and painting in record time, and despite the young age he already boasts important achievements in his artistic career. The artwork presented for this exhibition shows great technical and drawing skills, the realistic and almost photographic representation of the subject expresses the will to surrender the truth, always aiming at a creative re-elaboration though. Showing us the secrets of his artistic creation process thanks to a video shoot, the artist confides us to have realized a personal and subjective version of a photographic portrait, where the dominant color is precisely the green that we have in the background. A young girl is looking in the direction of the observer, her gaze is thoughtful, melancholic, it immediately captures the attention of the onlooker. She is portrayed from in a three-quarter position, with her hand covering part of her face. The brush strokes are more instinctive and rougher in the background but very precise and meticulous in the anatomical details of the face; the subject seems to be sucked by the various shades of green or to emerge from these. There is no clue that allows us to hypothesize who the represented figure may actually be, and that’s probably what makes the painting so mysterious and appealing. The artist intentionally plays on the light points, retouching them to give the right final rendering to the picture. “Portrait in green” is not only a portrait, it is a vision, a journey into the gaze of the portrayed subject, it is an example of how the technique perfectly marries the inspiration. The young Santi Pina already displays the ability of the great portraitists of the past, he shows a certain familiarity in the use of color and in the details of the drawing, and, most importantly, he seems to have something to tell - or, in fact, to sacrifice - through his art.
Art Curator Viola Provenzano
Santi Pina
Portrait in green
Sarah Darke
Experimentation is at the centre of Sarah Darke’s artistic-photographic practice. Thanks to her passion for photography and her incessant desire to obtain new results, always different from each other, she has come to the development of her current series of prints through the "Lumen" technique. This technique provides for the placement of a subject directly on the photographic paper, covered by a glass plate and then exposed to atmospheric agents for a variable period of time. The image that comes out is then scanned and digitalized. The favourite subjects of the English artist Sarah Darke are flowers, with particular reference to tulips and chrysanthemums. The former are a symbol of strength and they come directly from her lovely garden, while the latter represent joy and optimism, and they are connected to the artist’s memories. In the work "Chrysanthemum's", in addition to flowers, she also used herbs to add depth and texture to the composition, while in the two works with tulips she added lemon juice and salt. The results are wonderful; the works look like jewels that shine with their own light. It’s as if the artist could trap the light of the Sun in all its beauty. Although these works may appear at first glance as strictly technical, in reality they are the product of Sarah Darke’s passion for plants and photography, but above all they are the product of Sarah Darke’s personal experiences. Behind these works there is the artist’s past, there is her strength and there is her joy in remembering the good times despite all the difficulties that life has placed before her. Just in the darkest moments she began to use this technique and to improve it more and more; it is for her a therapeutic process that allows her to get out of the darkness. Moreover, through the "Lumen", she manages to unite the natural world with the digital and therefore contemporary world, and also for this reason her art is unique and gorgeous.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Sarah Darke
Chrysanthemum's
Sarah Darke
Tulip
Sarah Darke
Two Tulips
Sarah Lovato Wolfe Bailey “No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit." (Ansel Adams) Sarah Lovato Wolfe Bailey is an artist form Santa Cruz, California, who is now living in Bangkok. She mainly expresses herself through paint and mixed media, but she is also keen to a variety of art forms, such as dance, video and sculpture. For Wolfe, the artistic sacrifice is born from the desire to find the truth and to express one’s own interiority. According to her, art has also the power to improve people, make them more open, understanding and compassionate towards the world that hosts and welcomes them. For these reasons creativity should be honored and cultivated at all times and in all its forms. In addition, art, in all its interdisciplinary connections, is a way to find the personal balance between mind, body and spirituality. The research and the artistic process therefore become two means of achieving well-being. Sarah’s style and subjects are a cohesive set of internal influences, such as emotions and sensations and external influences, such as sounds, lights and shadows. A series of elements rendered in an abstract, intuitive, fast and highly expressive way, that have the ability to represent the speed of the outside world, as well as our feelings about it. For Sacrifice Sarah Lovato Wolfe Bailey exhibits a Mixed Media work on watercolor paper titled Songs of Birds in the City. The work was born during a period spent in the solitude of quarantine after a trip to California, where she had the awareness of seeing his father alive for the last time. For her to live the quarantine on the thirtieth floor of a building in the center of Bangkok was like living in a space halfway between her family of origin in California and her family in Thailand. A moment of tranquility and deep reflection, where art has been a focal point for expressing what she felt inside and perceived from the outside. The work resumes patterns of birds heard from the window, combined with the sound impulses of the city. A series of abstract lines which describes both external and internal reality, joining and forging them in the colours and in the forms of an artistic sacrifice, linked to the desire for balance, love and company.
Art Curator Sofia Ronzi
Sarah Lovato Wolfe Bailey
Songs of Birds in the City
Sayaka Hirano “We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence and its only end.” (Benjamin Disraeli)
Art is a great form of love. The artist moves the brush following her instinct and giving shape and color to what her heart suggests. After a long experimentation and careful research which began in 2020, alcoholic ink has been transformed into the Japanese artist Sayaka Hirano’s favourite technique. Her works identify with the mirror of her original personality: they release energy and a feeling of lightness and harmony. "Shape of love" was created in 2021 with the alcoholic ink technique. Different shades of pink alternate creating a pleasant chromatic effect and small hints of gold give elegance and brightness. The title is very evocative: how many nuances can a feeling as complex as love hide? Through this work Sayaka tried to give her own personal interpretation: love is born, grows and expands; love travels in the air and overwhelms everything it finds along its way; love is powerful and can bring about a revolution. The bond that unites Sayaka to art is undoubtedly a form of love: for her, painting means expressing herself, giving shape to what she cannot express in words. Benjamin Disraeli wrote that love is the beginning of existence and its only end. Sayaka fully shares the British politician and writer’s words: love is the engine of her life; love is an integral part of everything she does.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Sayaka Hirano
Shape of love
Selçuk Artut “The best road to progress is freedom’s road.” (John Fitzgerald Kennedy)
Where does an artist’s inspiration come from? This can be a lot of things, as in the case of Selçuk Artut. Different artistic fields – such as digital art, writing, editor, music, and design – contribute equally to the personal and artistic process and investigation of Selçuk Artut. From each facet of what constitutes the cultural background of the artist, emerges a combination of different elements that find strength and power in their uniqueness. This strong curiosity in exploring the multiplicity of different languages of art, allows the artist to be free in exploring and discovering a new personal way to express himself - without the reason limitations stimulating his awareness as a contemporary artist.
Selçuk Artut
He finds in the moving digital art the authentic materialization of his visual thinking. The artist relies on the use of computational tools the responsibility to express his interpretations and to convey his own perspective. Through the digital art and the new technologies - in a constantly changing - Selçuk Artut feels free to portray all that enlivens his own world – changeable and never still too. This is made possible using the extensive implementation of the creative coding technique. Selcuk Artist, while fusing tradition with the contemporary, wants to invoke the audience with his authentic creative aspect.
"True progress quietly and persistently moves along without notice." (Francesco di Sales)
Art Curator Manuela Fratar
Selçuk Artut
geomart-ut1
Selçuk Artut
geomart-ut2
Shannon Dekker “There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun.” (Pablo Picasso)
Curious color combinations, use of different materials and unique protagonists: women. Contemporary artist Shannon Dekker’s works stand out for their originality and for the depth of the stories that each of them tells us. Women are strong, but also fragile at times. Women change, grow up and learn the secrets of life. Shannon through her paintings explores the female figure in all its facets giving equal importance to each of them. “Shine” was made in 2021 with mixed media on canvas. In the centre we see the face of a woman in all its beauty: the large and expressive eyes turn their gaze towards us, the full lips and perfectly made up make her sensual. The background is created through the combination of large brush strokes of different colours in which we find pink in multiple shades, symbol of femininity. The title is very evocative and reveals the meaning of the painting: who shines? The source from which the light comes is undoubtedly the woman: vulnerability makes her great; sensitivity makes her special; determination makes her invincible. Shannon moves the brush following the flow of her emotions, which suggest the way to go. Her art is the result of a process in which sensations and instinct are combined with precious pictorial skills. Shannon lives in her works and her works live in her.
Art Curator Camilla Gilardi
Shannon Dekker
Shine
Shiona Kasim
A self-taught artist with undoubted talent, Shiona Kasim has understood that her passion has been art since she was 12 years old, and she has followed it and will continue to do so also because, through artistic creation, she is able to express the feelings that she cannot express in words. We have a perfect example of this in the work under examination: "Inner Longing". Here, in fact, the artist has represented herself, or rather, she represents how she sees herself in this period, how she feels. The work can therefore be considered a self-portrait, but the artist living in the Netherlands does not use this pictorial genre as a mean of self-celebrating, but on the contrary, she uses it as a mirror to externalize her interiority. She represents herself in deep waters, and to testify her momentary loss of orientation, she uses swirling brushstrokes. The artist feels overwhelmed and so the painting is made only of various shades of blue, but precisely this gives strength to the work because this color evokes the idea of infinity and emanates a feeling of spirituality that brings the viewer to the canvas. She and the water become one, her hair becomes algae that sways between the streams while Beta Fish swim quietly around her. In this way Shiona Kasim reminds herself to be brave and strong, just like these small but invincible fish are; in fact, they are able to fight and face incredibly difficult situations. The artist demonstrates an incredible technical skill in the realization of the figures. The face is represented exactly at the center of the composition, as fulcrum of the whole canvas, the eyes are closed as in meditation and the face looks serene; Shiona Kasim shows depth and mastery in capturing the essence of the soul. Even the two small fishes are impeccably represented: the brushstrokes are meticulous, wisely chosen and matched. The result is a work in motion. We can see the fins of the fish dancing to the rhythm with Shiona Kasim’s hair. Everything sways before our eyes, it is like a dance, a dance of rebirth.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Shiona Kasim
Inner Longing
Shirley Asano Guldimann Shirley Asano Guldimann is an artist who creates visual poems. The sinuous and delicate character of the chromatic hues, the arrangement of the subjects in space and the original stroke make Shirley's paintings extremely unique. The artist traps in her creation, the fleeting moments, the ephemeral emotions that are lost in time. She gives the viewer a visual experience full of vital energy and food for thought. Art is able to immortalise what man cannot. It is a means of reliving strong emotions from the past, joy and happiness that by the time human beings realise they have experienced them, it is already too late. The aesthetic Shirley uses is Japanese, simple and essential but symbolic and impactful. She lets herself be guided by her body, which in turn is moved by emotions and sensations hidden inside her. She masters the stroke divinely, moving swiftly and softly on paper wet with water and pigment. In "Angel Crossing" the elusive and ephemeral atmosphere is palpable. A few essential colours on brown paint the complexion of the subject in a half-length shot. The colour, directed by the movement of Shirley's hand, is left free to roam the canvas. The play of reflections, transparencies and overlaps created by the pigment in contact with the water and paper is very curious and interesting. The painting technique of watercolour is the one that best lends itself to obtaining the final result desired by the artist. With a few soft but at the same time rapid strokes, she outlines the extremely intense face. In "Evocation" she takes up the suspended atmosphere typical of her previous artwork. Shirley increases the intensity and drama of her characters by representing them in part. Small fragments that tell a different story in each painting. The painted fragment emerges solitary like a memory, like a poem of which not all the verses that compose it are remembered. The face evoked is thoughtful, not looking at the viewer but at an undefined point. The image is evanescent, without clearly defined outlines and deliberately left incomplete. The watercolour, although light, gives three-dimensionality, movement and allows the drawing to come alive. The white paper that occupies a large part of the work is itself an integral part of Shirley's creation. White is not synonymous with emptiness, but a metaphor for the whole. In "Memory's Garden", the subject matter is more complete, the colours more vibrant and varied and the composition more constructed. Halfway between abstract and figurative, a little girl with the innocent look typical of that age seems to be riding a butterfly coloured in a wide range of colours from green to blue to purple. Lacking sharp contours and always characterised by an evanescent atmosphere, the painting is pervaded by a magical feeling of fantasy and dreaminess. The warm colours of the background contrast with the green of the butterfly, but the transition is tenuous, blurred, not sharp. The hues blend into each other making the result harmonious. Shirley evokes the childlike side in all of us, inviting the viewer to look inside and relive memories. The different watercolours, left free to create abstract compositions, are mixed together in a random way, enriching every single centimetre of the work with details and particulars. Shirley is endowed with extraordinary manual dexterity and communication skills. Her artworks are like poems. Every gesture that her hand makes, even sometimes unconsciously, acquires meaning when it reaches the final result. The viewer comes into contact with her creations thanks to the lightness and timelessness of her work.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Shirley Asano Guldimann
Evocation
Shirley Asano Guldimann
Angel Crossing
Shirley Asano Guldimann
Memory's Garden
Siegmund Angyal "A painting is not an image of an experience; it is an experience." (Mark Rothko)
A particular and very fascinating aspect of abstract expressionism is its subjective peculiarity which makes it fickle and changeable against the objectivity of reality. With Expressionism we know a new generation of artists that develops a totally revolutionary way that provides for the total absence of canons to be respected in their works. This movement soon favored the contextual birth of abstractionism which differs in the total absence of geometric shapes and precise subjects. Color in this case is fundamental and we see an absolutely masterful use of it in the works of the artist Siegmund Angyal. The prevalence of a single color is characteristic in Angyal's works in this triptych and we see how each of them represents one in particular, in order black, blue and red. In the "color fields" painting technique the form of things reaches its supremacy only through colors and it is in this way that by "sacrificing" some shades, the painter manages to externalize the essence of his works. It is not so much the subjects, but the way in which they are represented that brings to life the hidden intentions of the artist who gives his most precious asset through the act of painting: his talent.
Art Curator Letizia Perrieri
Siegmund Angyal
Brenzlig
Siegmund Angyal
Improvisation in Blue
Siegmund Angyal
Untitled 39:1
Sofia Kastrinaki
Sofia Kastrinaki is a contemporary Greek Expressionist whose everyday life is dedicated to art and painting. She works with an impressive combination of layers that do not lose the primal intentions of the artist’s subjects. Kastrinaki paints castles and cities inspired by her roots, she lives in an area full of castles that fascinated and inspired her visual research over the years. The artist strongly believes in the healing power of art and the possibility to reach an illuminated self closer to the sky. Her works are magical, the spirals and circular forms present in the paintings give a magical feeling that can somehow change the way these apparently naive images give. The layers in this case are removed through adding a fascinating oxymoron that empowers the viewer, leaving enough freedom to absorb the inner light of this painting, This image warms souls and sends love, it is dreamy and bubbling with the romance of a medieval castle, a tale. Expressionism works with the subjective perspective, it exists for the aim of making the user live with certain feelings and emotions, a world of experiences through images is the perfect world for these poets, painters and sculptors. Franz Marc as one the of the most important expressionists was working with the dreamy image of the surrounded nature, lighter layers and shades can be noticed but the intention can easily be perceived as equal, to reach the sky.
"Today we are searching for things in nature that are hidden behind the veil of appearance... We look for and paint this inner, spiritual side of nature." (Franz Marc ) Art Curator Federica d'Avanzo
Sofia Kastrinaki
The Labyrinth of Life
Sofya Danilova
Sofya Danilova is an artist with fifteen years of experience in photography and picture editing. Danilova's artistic production is surreal and transcendental, she creates unique atmospheres and worlds thanks to digital manipulation she is able to create universes within a single photograph. Sofya Danilova is again the guest of an exhibition organized by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, on the occasion of “SACRIFCE” she exhibits three photographic works that subvert the photographic tradition and digital manipulation itself. Emblematic of Danilova's works is the different interpretation that can arise depending on who observes the piece of art. "Ashes" is a work in which shadows and lights create unique details, create movement and provide the work with a real aura of mystery and secret. The lines and shapes follow one another, creating a deep black ellipse in the center that comes to represent a real black hole within which the light disappears. "Contemplation" is a work in which time seems to have crystallized, it remains motionless in the act of observation, a second that fills the work with different realities, the same image reflected four times as if it were the access to four worlds different, four parallel realities. Finally, "In or Out?" It has a geometric predisposition of space, the work is extremely bright, and is rich in lines, shapes you can see some original elements reminiscent of a hospital space, hence a vague anguish pervades the observer. Photographic mastery and digital manipulation of the image allow the artist to go beyond reality as we know it.
Art Curator Martina Viesti
Sofya Danilova
Ashes
Sofya Danilova
Contemplation
Sofya Danilova
In or Out?
Stefanie Hofmann
It is on the occasion of the last International Exhibition of the year 2021, organized by the M.A.D.S. and entitled "Sacrifice", which the German artist Stefanie Hofmann presents an abstract work in cold tones, entitled "Feelings". Always in the marketing world, she discovered her passion for artistic expression only a few years ago, finding a safe place to take refuge and be lulled by the poetics of colors and untouched canvases. In expressing her emotions above them, Stefanie gives us shareable moments that each of us is able to reflect on their own personal experience and on their own experiences. In this specific case, the colors in acrylic and oil on canvas mix in a dance of happiness, emotion and joy. A riot of energy which, depending on our aesthetic tastes and our life references, can vary tone, impression and reaction. Certainly with a feminine touch, the sweet use of pink and blue in contrast with white, gives a glimpse of the experience of a romantic situation. The moment when a woman sees her soulmate, the side game that our stomach triggers at that precise moment and the shyness of a flushed but happy face. The beauty that characterizes this kind of work is not only the aesthetic impact given by the contrast between the colors, the balance of the material and energetic brushstrokes with the emptiness of the solid color, but also and above all the play that our brain unconsciously creates in the scan of shapes.
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Stefanie Hofmann
Feelings
Sukey Chamaco
It is on the occasion of the last International Exhibition of the year 2021, organized by the M.A.D.S. project and entitled "Sacrifice", which the self-taught artist of Mexican origin Sukey Chamaco, aka Sukey C. in art, will exhibit two works of significant visual impact, each of which represents a distinct face. In the first case, the acrylic painting entitled "The last Egyptian", shows particularly characteristic somatic features: the fleshy mouth and the bulky nose, deviate us from the standard image of ancient Egypt. Yet, the iconography refers directly to that world, even before reading its title. This is possible thanks to the ability to use very precise and specific details, accompanied by an unusual painting technique. The two-dimensionality of the work, the rigor of the thick-outlined lines, the primary colors of blue and red, coming from the natural pigmentations of the ancient palettes and some iconographic characteristics such as in the headdress, are able to create an automatic connection of our brain, towards that cognitive sphere.
Sukey Chamaco
This masterful mastery of the artistic project gives space to the creativity and style of Sukey herself, who decides to combine everything with an apparently rigorous style. As for the second case, in the permanent markers ink colors on paper Bristol titled "The secret Kiss!", the artist experiences a further degree of her art: she softens the rigidity with little controlled curves, leaving us stunned as much as the rigidity thick lines, have suddenly turned into something psychedelic, extremely complex and twisted. The design hides some mysterious sides, such as the kiss itself, the undisputed protagonist of the work. It occurs as such only later, when our eye begins to separate the lines and find two distinct bodies intertwined with each other. This illusionistic game, which can be traced back to the 1960s, leaves us with that desire for discovery, knowledge and amazement that only contemporary Art is capable of giving us.
Art Curator Carola Antonioli
Sukey Chamaco
The last Egyptian!
Sukey Chamaco
The secret kiss!
Susan Woodford For the international exhibition “Sacrifice” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Susan Woodford exposes three extraordinary works (“Momentum”, “Pieces of Me” and “Vishuddha”): using such a special material as copper, the artist skillfully succeeds in extrapolating pleasant feelings and limitless freedom. This reddish metal guarantees a good flow of energy and flexibility, and it is curious that it is represented by the planet Venus, as it embodies the feminine aspect of the human being. Venus and the metal are often associated with love and lust, but also they symbolize virtues such as charisma, beauty, creativity, affection and balance; they promote healing and invite one to live a fulfilling life. Each aspect can be seen in “Momentum” and “Pieces of Me”: they are part of a series in which Susan uses this material in small pieces of a puzzle in order to create a female bust. The artist concentrates above all on the upper part of a woman's body, where it is possible to see the perfection and sinuous line given by the shoulders, the breasts, and the back. One particular choice that Susan makes is not to use a single sheet of copper, but numerous pieces merged together: and it is at this point that the element of connection, the indissoluble bond between the artist and the work itself, comes into play. Conceiving and building these sculptures piece by piece as if they were a puzzle has a fundamental symbolic meaning: it invites the viewer to carefully observe and analyze the whole composition and the different chromatic shades of each joint. Moreover, it captures the viewer's attention, helping him/her to carry out a meditative and therefore reflective practice: the artist wants the observer to put back together the pieces of his/her own soul, shattered by the negative aspects of life, because only by uniting the whole can one have the strength and resilience to go further. Such robustness but also sinuosity is reminiscent of classical Greco-Roman statuary, and in this it seems that Susan really wants to portray the goddess Venus/Aphrodite, her sculptural silhouette and delicate forms. This can also be seen in the third work exhibited, namely “Vishuddha”: the fifth chakra, also known as the 'throat chakra', governs all the organs around her. Her Sanskrit name means “pure”, as the body's energy flows upwards from below, purifying herself and taking shape through listening and communication. Representing the bursting vitality of her nature, as she is awakening from a deep sleep or emerging from a cage, Susan emphasizes aspects which are both divine (again reminiscent of Venus) and sensual, suspended between the sensitive and the hypersensitive, in which the observer can admire the profound ecstasy caused by that energetic tension that affects the whole body. Like a lioness, she represents all the determination and tenacity of every woman: for these reasons, the artist aims to make the character emerge and free her into the universe.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Susan Woodford
Momentum
Susan Woodford
Pieces of Me
Susan Woodford
Vishuddha
Susanne Herbold
Susanne Herbold is a German abstract artist. Her career as an artist has been influenced by contamination with the business world, which has allowed her to get to know different countries and cultures, enriching her artistic vision. It is based on the belief that colours have a different vibrational frequency and a different wavelength and energy, which allows them to express feelings and sensations. For this reason, colours are able to positively influence the viewer by offering him a new perspective. The two works Susanne is presenting for this exhibition belong to the Leaving Standards series. They develop from a dominant colour (pink in Freak Out! 1.0 and blue in Freak Out! 2.0) that pervades the entire pictorial surface, enveloping and enhancing the vivid colour combinations that occupy the centre of the composition. Both canvases suggest vitality, freedom and slight unruliness, all sensations suitable for conveying Susanne's interpretation of the exhibition's theme.
Susanne Herbold
Indeed, through these dynamic compositions, she reinterprets the concept of sacrifice, highlighting not the sense of loss usually associated with it, but its ability to stimulate change. For her, sacrifice means accepting what has already been done and questioning our beliefs in order to adapt to the next level. Her works celebrate sacrifice as a prelude to innovation, making us reflect on how abandoning the known to take new paths does not mean sacrificing and denying what we have already done and experienced. Demonstrating that she has interpreted the theme of this exhibition perfectly, Susanne conceives these works as a gift for her audience. It is a symbolic offer to the viewer, through which she grants access to a limitless dimension in which everything becomes possible.
Art Curator Marta Graziano
Susanne Herbold
Freak Out! 1.0
Susanne Herbold
Freak Out! 2.0
Susanne Walser
The artist Susanne Walser is capable in every work she creates, to make formal choices that are more meaningful, as if the canvas was the paper to write her feelings and thoughts about the reality. In this occasion with the artwork titled resilience, she wants to talk about the choice to be resilient in various situations of life. We can see a female figure that tries to break a wall. Her hand seems to want to reach and make contact with the observer. It is as if this gesture of the figure of the painting were the reflection of the artist's intention to reach the observer. To get in contact with him and tell him something deepest that belongs to the soul of the artist. And in fact this suggestive action made by the figure of the artwork, is capable of attracting all our attention, to listen to what she wants to say to us. The message is that mentioned above. The artist with this composition wants to underline the importance of being resilient in life but also and mostly in the relationship with the other person. As she says: << Listen to each other and accept each other as we are. Resilient people are better able to deal with adversity and rebuild their lives after a struggle. We need resilient people to reach out to each other. Be resilient and do not close yourself off, do not let a curtain of misunderstanding fall in front of your fellow human beings.>> The artwork created by the artist Susanne Walser, is an occasion to feel new sensations, listen to something new and discover to be enriched ones you look away.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Susanne Walser
Resilience
Svein Ivar Ulrichsen "The modern artist, it seems to me, works to express an inner world, in other words he expresses movement, energy and other inner forces" Jackson Pollock
Where can we place the boundary between dream and reality, between conscious and unconscious? On that thin line that separates us from the dream world, Svein's works are placed. The artist Svein transports the viewer into a dimension made of magic and energy, he shows us something intangible and unattainable, the figures can be glimpsed, the living presence is perceived but we are not allowed to reach them. Figures that insinuate themselves into each other, like an interlocking of shapes and colors, the artist creates harmonious and balanced works. He follows his instinct and his emotions, you can perceive the brushstrokes that come to life and body through Svein's hand. Sometimes the colors are fluid and well spread, other times the brushstrokes appear full-bodied, it seems to see and perceive the materiality of the colors, the colors expand and take the form of rounded figures that give harmony to the works. The observer is trapped inside the vortices that Svein creates, color after color, stroke after stroke, the viewer's gaze is totally captured.
Svein Ivar Ulrichsen
Through his work, the artist demonstrates great character, the colors are given with decision, there is no afterthought, he is fast and of great impact. What the viewer perceives is precisely this strength and courage that Svein possesses in expressing himself, creating works of great visual and emotional impact. Whirlpools, like small tornadoes, mix colors, like a stone thrown into water creates textures and ripples, this is how Svein's works appear: the gathering of energies. The viewer feels submerged, if on the one hand those colors wrapped around themselves create a moment of disturbance and gasp, on the other hand the tones that the artist uses are reassuring and whoever finds himself in front of the work feels protected. Svein's artistic work is an opportunity for the user to get lost in the maze of memories, dreams and to be amazed and welcome the twists and turns in life. In fact there is something mystical and unique in his works, Svein gives us a moment of energy and magic. Feelings that become tangible, live inside the works and come out, the artist gives us a true sensorial experience.
Art Curator Vanessa Viti
Svein Ivar Ulrichsen
No.1 Harmony/Balance
Svein Ivar Ulrichsen
No.4 Hope
Svein Ivar Ulrichsen
No.5 Feeling of chaos
Svein Ivar Ulrichsen
No.8 Unconditional love
Svein Ivar Ulrichsen
No.11 Embrace body and soul with awareness and spirit
Svein Ivar Ulrichsen
No.3 The big sorrow
Svein Ivar Ulrichsen
No.4 The big fight
Svein Ivar Ulrichsen
No.6 Charizmat
Svein Ivar Ulrichsen
No.5 Belive in the dream until you can walk on it
Svein Ivar Ulrichsen
No.7 Love
Svein Ivar Ulrichsen
No.X The great self-examination
Svein Ivar Ulrichsen
No.X The thought of the thought
Svetlana Evdokimova “Yin and yang, male and female, strong and weak, rigid and tender, heaven and earth, light and darkness, thunder and lightning, cold and warmth, good and evil…the interplay of opposite principles constitutes the universe." (Confucius) Svetlana Evdokimova is an artist from Moscow. For a long time, during and after her studies at the British High School of Design, class of contemporary ceramics, she looked for the material that matches perfectly with the metal, completing it and enriching it, in such a way as to make her sculptures harmonious. Her artistic sacrifice is connected to the search for completeness and precision between the parts that make up a work. For this reason, after several attempts to combine tempered metal wires with other materials, such as porcelain, Svetlana managed to find the perfect element. The Murano glass. For the artist, metal and glass are complementary to each other, like Yin and Yang. Metal is the masculine element, strong, massive and dark. It is at the same time graceful and thin. In fact, in the form of tempered wire, has a graphic and light component that gives it a feminine note. On the other hand, Murano glass, feminine by its nature, with its transparency, brightness and grace, becomes solid after being cast. A femininity that is at the same time imbued with a masculine element. For Sacrifice Svetlana Evdokimova exhibits a Murano glass and tempered metal sculpture titled I’ve only got myself to blame, a reminiscence of a heart of red glass surrounded and wrapped with metal wires. For her inevitably, sacrifice leads to a pain which strapped the loving heart.
Art Curator Sofia Ronzi
Svetlana Evdokimova
I’ve only got myself to blame
Sylvia Martina Malikova
Sylvia Martina Malikova, artist of Slovak origins, currently resident in the Czech Republic, has been painting for 20 years with inspiration and tireless passion. Her works, moreover, are always realized with attention, in such a way as to emanate in the surrounding environment, and therefore in the people who look at them, feelings of peace and harmony. Throughout her artistic career, Sylvia Martina Malikova has experimented with different painting techniques, preferring, however, fluid painting. It is a particular technique that allows to obtain really attractive results from the aesthetic point of view, but requires a lot of imagination and ability to properly mix colors to form striking contrasts. The artist, however, proves to be capable of all this. We have an example in “Valley of the Dragons”. The black surface of the canvas is mainly covered by a wide sinuous silver spot, while in the upper part, on the left, there is a golden spot that slowly advances towards the center of the composition, mixing with silver.
Sylvia Martina Malikova
The artist then chooses, demonstrating an innate eye for the combinations of colors, to add here and there a bit of blue; these small circular spots appear as small lakes scattered in the valley, ready to quench thirsty dragons. The work emanates strength, courage, determination, but at the same time it is a harmonious work without any doubt. "The Parrot" is, instead, a more classical work for the choice of the technique used, but equally innovative for its realization. Works with exotic animals were already made in ancient times, however Sylvia Martina Malikova does not realize a mechanical reproduction of this tropical bird, but it is as if she wanted to capture its essence. The artist represents the parrot as a child would, with a levity and lightness that only they possess, but that gives the image simplicity and elegance. Sylvia Martina Malikova is an artist who leaves nothing to chance, she carefully places each element on the canvas thus demonstrating all her artistic talent.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Sylvia Martina Malikova
The Parrot
Sylvia Martina Malikova
Valley of the Dragons
Sylvia Rossouw
The works presented by Sylvia Rossouw in the Sacrifice exhibition, her third collaboration with M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, are the result of her journey started seven years ago “in a heartbroken state of despair”. For seven years, video footages and more than 1500 performance photographs were Sylvia’s archive telling her past and her past emotional state. This archive becomes ‘embodied’ performances in “Wind”, “Nice day for a white wedding” and “Breath”. In these painterly works, the space is pivotal: the terrain, the land and the air become her home, a safe place to which she often returns. The artist deliberately chooses her space to act: Elandsvlei, her family’s farm for “Wind” and “Breath”, and Matjiesfontein, a living museum, for “Nice day for a white wedding”. Here, found objects become her tend, her studio, her wedding dress. All materials are used in their found state, nothing is altered as “the found object has a story to tell”, Sylvia explains. At the same time, the immobility and staticity of found materials oppose the dynamicity and movement that Sylvia offers them through different uses and meanings, giving them a new life. With these works, the permanent and static feature of video footage and photographs become a lively repertoire that links past and present, become a means of transmitting knowledge and emotions through space and found objects. The traces of the past are back in the present and Sylvia uses them to start a process of self-understanding, of intersubjectivity between herself and ourselves. Sylvia is visible with her wedding dress and invisible with her tend floating in the wind and becoming her safe tend. These visible and invisible performances represent the artist’s domain of experience, of being ‘there’ and ‘here’. These works are performances that combine her personal story with our stories, making visible the links between our past and present and our role in these different spatio-temporal domains; they are hers as well as ours, representing her story as much as ours. These conjunctions are emphasised by the music composition of drum and base musician and video editor Justin Scholtemeyer. With videos and music, therefore, Sylvia’s pain from the past is turned into something new and beautiful, a message of hope where “the outcome is a celebration of life and what it means to be HUMAN, on a collective level”.
Art Curator Martina Lattuca
Sylvia Rossouw
Wind
Sylvia Rossouw
Nice day for a white wedding
Sylvia Rossouw
Breath
Taro Mukai “The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke.” (Jerzy Kosinski)
Taro Mukai is a skilled photographer who is able to enclose, with his photographic lens, true works of art rich in stimuli for the viewer. He does not just represent reality but goes beyond it, trying to go beyond and describe it through objective and reflective
eyes. He takes images out of their original context, leading the viewer to a state of estrangement and amazement. Taro gives vital
creates otherworldly dimensions even though the subjects he importance to colours and the light-dark contrast in his works. He immortalises are real and tangible. The evocative and mysterious aura he presents in his works is able to project the viewer into imaginary parallel worlds where he is forced into deep reflections that have to do with human nature. The contrasting theme of life and death is often recurrent in his art. A combination that lies at the basis of existence to which philosophers, artists and scholars have tried to attribute a meaning. Taro proposes his personal vision of this emblematic relationship also in the work "Fleeting". A bird lies lifeless on the ground. Its twisted position and the perspective in which it is immortalised contribute to a sense of unease. A metaphor for life, the bird is on the ground exhausted, ignored by the world that continues to live an unstoppable rhythm around it. Death is surrounded by life that shows no sign of stopping. The wings are now closed, the small body curled up on itself and the position of the legs tells us that it has died without needing any further details. It has completed its flight. With this photo, Taro leaves tangible proof of a natural experience, proof that this living being existed, flew and then crashed, falling to the ground. A harsh concept, but one that is part of nature and shares everyone's fate. The bird becomes a metaphor and spokesman for the human experience. Each of us is born, tries to live life to the fullest and then one day is destined to die. Although death causes pain to those who remain, it too is destined to be forgotten. Undoubtedly, it is an experience that marks those who remain on earth but life goes on and cannot stop or be limited by a single event which, although tragic, is part of the rules of nature. The context in which he captures his subjects is also of vital importance, nothing is left to chance. In "Fleeting", the choice of capturing even the geometric floor and the bright orange angle has meaning. It thus brings back a moment that seems to belong to a parallel universe, to the real world, creating a jarring contrast between life and death. Taro is an artist of priceless expressive power. He captures seemingly banal, everyday elements which, thanks to his perspective and compositional vision, take on transversal and unambiguous meanings. He is the spokesperson for crude truths that people often tend to conceal, to hide so as not to have to deal with them. Taro, on the other hand, confronts the spectator with everyday life, with all its joys and sorrows. His objective and detached vision allows a deep immersion in his artworks, which are full of stimuli.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Taro Mukai
Fleeting
Tiziana Riesen
On the occasion of the international art exhibition Sacrifice the artist Tiziana Riesen presents two works of art, in two different artistic languages. In the first painting titled colorful jumble the technique used is that of the abstract but also action painting. The way the composition is created reminds me of Pollock language. To understand the painting presented by the artist Tiziana, it could be useful to refer to a consideration about the art of Jackson Pollock. As he says: << «My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.>> This means that the composition created by the artist is a way to stay inside the painting. As if he wants to sacrifice his mind to give himself to the art.
Tiziana Riesen
Also the artist Tiziana Riesen seems to take this intention for the painting Colors Jumble. We can see different lines that intertwine with each other in a free and unrestrained way. As if the artist is presented in this action and movement created by these lines. The second painting presented has a different artistic language used. In fact we can see in the center of the artwork a tree that seems to be the protagonist of the painting. The abstract of the colors used contrasts the representative language used for the representation of the landscape. As if the artist wants to tell us about another face of her art, another way to intend the artistic representation, not just the sacrifice of herself but also the pace, and the moment of relaxing in which she used the colors and the shapes to tell something or maybe just to pass the time.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Tiziana Riesen
colorful jumble
Tiziana Riesen
The four seasons
Togiwa
On the occasion of the international art exhibition Sacrifice the artist Togiwa presented the artwork titled Mother and child. The technique used is pointillism. From the background, we can see a series of dots tending towards a homogeneity. This kind of technique corresponds to the philosophical idea of the artist in which as she says : << Small grains of time become vast amounts of time and evolve. >> This means that using the dots is a way to tell us about something that is in movement that is changing in front of us, in the moment of watching. In this way, we can see this movement of the composition that slowly seems to concentrate in the central part of the painting. In fact in the center we can see two figures surprised in their embrace. The outline of their bodies remind the image of a mother and child. In fact the baby seems to be almost an extension of the mother's body. In this way, we can say that as in the technique used that of the pointillism and the way the artist represents the two images, the element that emerges is the idea of the evolution of the time, something that is changing. Something that comes out from the past to make way for the present. As she says :<< All the past is for the present. That is my idea of "SACRIFICE".>>.
Art Curator Elisabetta Eliotropio
Togiwa
Mother and child
Toni Ibañez “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” (Aristotle)
Toni Ibañez is an artist of Bolivian origins. By profession he is an industrial engineer, but his artistic vocation leads him to create unique pieces that are a source of inspiration for anyone who observes them. In an increasingly digitalized world, Toni's art fits perfectly: his creations, exhibited here for M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, are in fact works made digitally and with great skill. The precise soul of him and at the same time perhaps messy, is clearly visible in the works by him exhibited here, which clearly represent human figures, with sometimes poorly defined features and contours. Antoinette a olio digitale, as well as Il mio Rembrandt, in fact present respectively the transfiguration of a very young-looking woman and a man almost middle age (indeed, the painter Rembrandt according to Ibañez), with a very serious and almost authoritative appearance, whose features almost merge with the background. Every detail in Antoinette a olio digitale gives a sort of dynamism to the figure: Toni's incoherent digital "brush strokes" seem almost to be able to animate it, despite the woman being represented in a seated position, enjoying a glass of wine, almost intent on to think about her life. Il mio Rembrandt, in the same way, almost comes alive, making the viewer an accomplice and a participant in the thoughts of this painter, who has his gaze turned to the side, as if he had been surprised in a moment of intimate reflection: the observer could almost feel himself too much. Il sacro cuore di Gesù is instead the representation of Toni's will to deviate as much as possible from the reality that surrounds us every day and to give vent to the imaginative side that each of us possesses: bright, unusual colors, a Jesus Christ that hardly it is part of the iconography that we are used to see, at least as regards the chromatic aspect. A Jesus with almost modern features, up to date, but who in fact remains an eternal and unchangeable figure for every generation. The art of Toni Ibañez is certainly a world to discover, to observe in every detail and to interpret by listening to oneself: Toni is an artist who can undoubtedly stand out for his talent and singularity.
Art Curator Chiara Isella
Toni Ibañez
Antoinette a olio digitale
Toni Ibañez
Il mio Rembrandt
Toni Ibañez
Il sacro cuore di Gesù
TORIAM “I wanted to paint nothing. I was looking for the essence of nothingness, and there it was. A nothing that, in reality, was always full of content. Because it reflected a society of fast consumption, immediate enjoyment, banality and passion.” TORIAM
The international exhibition SACRIFICE, hosted by the international art gallery M.A.D.S is happy to welcome again, for the third exhibition, TORIAM. She spent her first years in the Real City. Where she develops a realistic style of lighting under the influence of the great Michelangelo Buonarroti. When she was 10 years old, she moved to Madrid, where she got to know both ancient painting as well as what was done in her time and other styles. They were determining influences to evolve to a style of great luminosity, with quick and loose brushstrokes. M.A.D.S. audience is fond of the artist and was waiting to find out what would be her works like for the current exhibition. La chica de enfrente is a girl illuminated by a pink and blue light. This work is the emblem of the representation of light through the use of color. The woman looks out the window and has a very concentrated gaze. she is as if she is looking at what is outside but with an intropective eye. it is a moment of reflection for women. her expression suggests that there is a movement of the soul within the woman and the use of colors confirms this. This is absolutely in line with the artist's style.
TORIAM
The work slightly recalls the traits of pop painting but has its own originality and a strong communicative charge. Looking at the work, the observer perceives the sensations of the woman in front of him. TORIAM reveals, more and more, a marked sensitivity towards the female figure, digs into the soul of women and represents their interiority in expressions, through light and through colors. In the second work at MADS, TORIAM continues on the feminine vein, this time with the stylistic alter ego that the MADS audience already knows. If the first trend is the one that follows in the footsteps of pop art, the second follows in the footsteps of Picasso. Los colores del alma is the representation of a woman who has been beaten. Once again the color is the master of the scene. The shapes are vaguely reminiscent of Picasso's paintings. A picture that we can define as a glimpse of society. The strongly abstract face does not hide the marks on the face the shining in her colors blends with the glance and the glassy expressions in contrast: with a strong impact. Once again TORIAM's style proves to have a strong emotional impact,
"The essence of the people their lives. What surrounds us on a day-to-day basis. Any material serves for inspiration and creation.” TORIAM
Art Curator Mara Cipriano
TORIAM
La chica de enfrente
TORIAM
Los colores del alma
Twelvnd “That is beautiful which is produced by the inner need, which springs from the soul.” Wassily Kandinsky
Uk digital artist Twelvnd works with a wide range of techniques and materials. His active interest shifts from music to design, contributing to the contemporary cultural landscape with an art form that aims to
provide an experience of wonder and absolute enjoyment of the resulting emotion. Two videos with a very fine aesthetic matrix, music composed by the author himself, numbers as intellectual protagonists of the work, nineteen and twelve, that seem to disappear and implode, generating new forms that belong to fluid and mutant identities. The work’s flavor is like an introduction to a didactic moment, a delicate vortex that transforms two colors into one like a chemical experiment that can bring back to life some childhood memory to get the viewer emotionally connected to the piece. A stargate, a time traveling door, a supernatural place to reach, a reassuring invitation with a magic formula, a ritual to welcome the desire of thoughts beyond things.
Twelvnd The geometric shapes that deface their own spiritual function of triangle and square are melt in the sun of the expected and inevitable revelation of the new world. A prelude to a new history of man, perfectly documented by those beyond the cone where digital algorithms follow the mysterious laws of nature. Kandinsky with his Point, Line and Surface and again with The Spiritual in Art, draws attention to shapes and colors, to an order and criterion in the choice of elements. Twelvnd's practice finds itself spontaneously and naturally following these masterful ideas, finding itself in an enlightened dimension waiting to be discovered.
Art Curator Erika Gravante
Twelvnd
#Twelve
Twelvnd
#Nineteen
Vaida Kacergiene
Vaida Kacergiene exposes the work “TEARS OF HEAVEN” for the international exhibition “Sacrifice” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery. Through this painting, the artist wishes to emphasize the great sacrifice of made nature for all human beings. In a background that turns from orange to golden yellow, a beautiful flower is blossoming from the earth, while twelve eyes give their tears so that the plant can continue to grow. One can notice several elements that are crucial to the wider understanding of this work. First of all, the eyes: it is probably the most important sensory organ and represents clairvoyance, omniscience as well as is meant to be the door of the soul of each individual. It also symbolizes the act of seeing and the light, hence consciousness itself. The eye is the part of our being that sees the universe and our place in it. It captures the pure energy of the infinite and presents it to the spirit; thus, it is exactly that union between our soul and the cosmos. Twelve is associated with the eyes: a sign of growth, inspiration, independence, this number is made up of the one, which alludes to positive attitudes towards life, and the two, a symbol of trust and faith, as well as connected to its inherent duality and sacrifice. Linked to these aspects, which perfectly embody the theme of the exhibition, is the presence of this plant, which could be reminiscent of a carnation, the “flower of God”: in fact, generally the predominant color is red, which represents love, admiration and good fortune par excellence. These three elements are linked together to create a work of profound symbolic meaning and careful stylistic composition on the canvas. Everything conveys harmony, a desire for change, evolution but above all improvement. Vaida Kacergiene's key message is clear and decisive: just as nature, gentle and pure, which gives us precious gifts with all its strength and tears, so must man strive to preserve it and contemplate it in its beauty and fragility.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Vaida Kacergiene
TEARS OF HEAVEN
Valeri Cranston
For the “Sacrifice” exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Valeri Cranston exposes the work “Reborn”, where he carefully chooses light effects and colors to create a bond among the artist, the viewer and the painting itself. Valeri immediately emphasizes the immensity of this work: a strong dynamism becomes an expression of moods and emotions, as well as a crucial theme for shaping a new artistic sensibility. The contrast between the cold and warm shades, together with that luminous glow in the middle, provides the viewer with an extremely pleasant escape route, like a ray of hope or a rainbow after a storm. While the intense yellow and dark green make appear a marked chromatic tension, there is a strong luminescence emanating from every corner of the canvas, providing a great source of energy that reaches the viewer. This symbolizes the birth of a new day and a new beginning, accentuating the multiple gradations of such a mysterious universe, linking fantasy and imagination to the artistic creative process. Moreover, what emerges is a mystical sense of infinity, capable of making the observer participate in that dreamlike metaphor that marks such a magical moment as rebirth! On the other hand, red immediately calls to mind deep stimuli, active creativity, introducing a surreal vision of the surrounding environment. As a symbol of dynamic feelings, this nuance brings out a lively fusion with the other shades, giving the viewer a sense of warmth. The artist skillfully distributes this union over the entire painting surface, giving to the work a feeling of expansion and aspiration to an otherworldly dimension. Valeri also offers the opportunity to immerse oneself completely within that colored vortex, to the point of contemplating one's own soul and facilitating the union between mind and body.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Valeri Cranston
Reborn
Valerie Feo
The real protagonists of Valerie Feo’s works are the emotions and not the people represented, as might be supposed at first. The American artist, in fact, carries on canvas the emotions that she is feeling, and through art she is able to better analyze them and understand where they originate. Painting, therefore, allows the artist to be honest with herself; it is a way to authenticity and consequently her works are true and pure. Whoever looks at the artworks of Valerie Feo is first of all captured by the penetrating gazes of the faces depicted, and immediately afterwards perceives that they emanate strength, self-confidence and a sense of security. We are faced with powerful works created by an artist who, aware of her abilities, emerges more and more internationally. Although Valerie Feo’s works present some of the characteristic features of Cubism - flatness of the volumes, absence of chiaroscuro, asymmetry of the faces - they cannot be assimilated to this artistic movement because the American artist does not share its aims.
Valerie Feo
Valerie Feo does not try to represent a face from multiple points of view and then in subsequent moments in time. She wants to represent emotions, as I said before, and for this reason her art is unique in every sense. Another important element in her compositions is color; it, in fact, allows the artist to better render moods. In "Bright Side of the Moon" the colors are flat and uniform, but the bright tones emanate an intense emotional force; there is therefore a clash between static and dynamic. In "Blurred Vision", instead, the sense of insecurity prevails; it is rendered perfectly thanks to the brushstrokes that appear uncertain and that overlap with each other.During the quarantine period due to the Covid-19, Valerie Feo focused exclusively on art, day and night, improving more and more, thus managing to create wonderful artworks able to deeply touch the viewers.
Art Curator Francesca Catarinicchia
Valerie Feo
Blurred Vision
Valerie Feo
Bright Side of the Moon
Vanessa Wenwieser
German artist Vanessa Wenwieser’s work is based on dialogues between photography and painting. The precise sign a photo can return to its author collides with the very unpredictable sum of painted lines brushes can give. A surreal image that digs into the deep reality of self. Surreal paintings have always done that, investigating and showing complexity with a very simple and linear imaginary that uses fantastic compositions in order to meet the artist’s truth. Feelings are exhibited naked and vulnerable, emotions take form in a fantastic and beautiful way, a work of art. Human figures, especially the woman image, have been used to start conversations on emotional topics forever but in classical art, renaissance and even impressionism it can be said that feelings have been displayed in a very light way. A little facial expression such as a smile or sad eye, the position of body, hands, head, even ornaments, clothes, hats. Hard to be seen, a woman thinking and actually showing directly her thoughts and feelings. Wenwieser does it unfiltered. Her work feels hurt by the flowered branches in her back, it is not know if the branches were born from the subject and hardly break the skin to reveal the true nature or if they came from something or someone else’s choice to manipulate her body and soul. A woman finally ready to be herself.
“I want to be inside your darkest everything” (Frida Kahlo)
Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Vanessa Wenwieser
Tower of strength
Vânia Quintão “ I don’t say everything, but I paint everything.” (Vincent Van Gogh)
Vânia Quintão is a Brazilian artist with a pronounced taste for juxtaposing shapes and colours that offer the viewer a unique visual
experience. It is impossible not to be enchanted and establish a close relationship with her canvases, which release a disruptive of vital energy. Influenced by her surroundings, the colourful Brazilian culture, traditions and various artistic influences, Vânia is able to create harmonious compositions that radiate positive emotions. Art, music, poetry and Brazilian culture in general inspire her to create bright, colourful canvases, built to a joyful, dancing rhythm. Through canvas and brushes, Vânia questions the human essence, creating a connection between the outer and inner worlds. Many of her artworks dialogue with the inner spirit of the viewer, creating a close and profound bond. Her art is a continuous research, a creative process that never ends but is enriched with stimuli alongigli along the way. In "AFTER RAIN" a tangle of shapes and colours dominates the canvas. The elements are arranged like a dance. The rhythm is overwhelming, full of verve and joie de vivre. The artist depicts a whirlwind of emotions that gives hope and strength to the viewer. The abstract and conceptual structure is dynamic, animated. The forms are spontaneous, intuitive. Vânia lets herself be guided by her feelings, she sets no limits. She wanders creatively on the canvas. Her gestural expressiveness is as extraordinary as the rhythm that sweeps the viewer into contact with the canvas. The range of colours is vast, the hues are vivid and spread with light, diluted glazes. In this way, it is up to the artist to decide where to intensify the colour and where to leave it softer. Between the passionate reds and the melancholic blues, the element that stands out is certainly the intense black. Vânia inserts it into his palette but in a discreet way, giving it the right meaning and value but in a way that does not cover the brilliance of the other colours. The acrylic is free to roam the canvas, it searches for its own space, it expands, creating games of transparencies, reflections, stratifications. The chosen painting technique is interesting, as it brings out the luministic qualities of each colour to the full. This chromatic tangle reflects an inner feeling. Vânia represents joy after the storm, life after the rain. Metaphorically, the artwork takes on a universal meaning of a message of hope. In life we will encounter many storms, unexpected events, difficulties. But in the end the sun comes back to shine and the world shines again with its colours. The artist is very skilled both in the use of technique, which he masters with complete control, and in the combination of elements. Through art she explores the hidden worlds of existence and the human condition, transposing a subjective emotion into a universal message that anyone can understand. Each small part of the artwork is rich in detail, waiting to be discovered. It is impossible not to be enchanted by this composition.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Vânia Quintão
AFTER RAIN
Veronika Slívová “If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.” (Edward Hopper)
The artworks by Veronika Slívová, a contemporary artist from the Czech Republic, open up to the eye of the observer like magnificent controversial horizons that, like mirrors of water, reflect the sky, altering space and time. Her language immediately shows itself to be connected to the research of the masters of American Abstract Expressionism and the fundamental need to involve the movement of the body during the creative process. In fact, most of her canvases develop horizontally with an explosion of colours that cuts through the centre, separating the lower from the upper part. These pulsating central arteries, places where the swirling movement condenses with particular intensity, are the focus of her works, the point of first contact with the viewer's gaze. In 'Emotional storm', magenta, blue and white form a long central wave, merging into each other and creating an infinity of grey streaks. All around, the colour is dragged along the canvas, creating vertical shades that lead the mind to a lake landscape, illuminated by the lights of a winter sunset. It is like witnessing an inner whirlwind, reflected on a calm surface, finally finding a balance. For Veronika Slívová, the canvas becomes a meeting place with her deepest self, a place where she can condense feelings and emotions, which can only find form through the language of art. The act of mirroring becomes an encounter with the truth, a way of recognizing ourselves by looking into our eyes and letting what we feel emerge.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Veronika Slívová
Emotional storm
Veronika Sekotová "The world always seems brighter when you've just made something that wasn't there before." (Neil Gaiman)
Veronika Sekotová is an artist who since childhood has always found in drawing and in painting the medium to express her feelings, it gives her joy and a specific purpose, it set her free to be herself. Initially she practiced the activity as a hobby, while pursuing her working career, she studied tourism to adding it at her love for fine art, but recently she decided to make her return to the art as a major part of her life. The inspiration for her canvases is given by what surrounds her and wants to promote creativity as an entire way of her thinking. Exhibited in Sacrifice International Art Exhibition at M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, "City" is a painting that sees in the subject an explosion of colors, yellow, red, green, black, gray, white, trying to expand into the surrounding space, the section that still remained white inside the canvas. Below the scratches create grooves that highlight the texture of the colors, emphasize the vibration of the movement that is happening. What may seem chaos, is nothing more than the representation of the vivacity and vitality that surrounds the composition, each color intertwines and mixes with each other, becoming an indomitable fire, a flame that continues to burn with creativity, that goes on without a defined path that grows continuously, wants to get out of its edges and invade reality.
Art Curator Alessia Procopio
Veronika Sekotová
City
Viveca Berg “…Layer on layer, time flies…when mixing the media, I use with colors I feel free and unstoppable. A complete canvas makes me happy!” Viveca Berg
Deep, Rust and Tango are the three works of Viveca Berg at the international exhibition "SACRIFICE", hosted by the international art gallery M.A.D.S. Viveca Berg has, since her first art-class, lived with painting…This class in 1996 connected her to people with interest in painting and soon she was a part of a painting-community. Now she started to experiment…In 2016 she took a year off from work, she got a mentor in painting and started to explore a new technic – acrylic! From then and on she sticks to acrylic, still she tries new things all the time. Pandemic started, she couldn’t go to her shared studio, stuck back home she joined an ‘online-class’ with Creative Business Academy in Norway…She loved the technique, they use products made to create clay figures on the canvas to the first layer. On top she uses fluid acrylic, cold wax, sand etc. She lives in Stockholm, Sweden, have had 13 exhibitions with her painting group and two by herself. Deep, Rust and Tango are the perfect representation of Viveca art, made of matter and action. Like Pollock, Viveca transforms artistic action into art itself. The artist touches the works, the vibrations, the energies of his being are transferred in the most direct way possible on the canvas. Her palette has cold tones and the signs of the material are clearly visible. Her works, although abstract, could not be closer than this to reality, as they live on the energy of action and matter, they are physical, concrete. “I work in an intuitive way, never have a plan when I start painting. The nature around me as well as music inspire. I do love to use my hands instead of brushes, the smooth feeling to move around the fluid colors is amazing. Mostly I handle 3-4 canvases at the same time, the base of structure takes time to dry and the creative person in me can’t wait – I move on to the next one of course…Layer on layer, time flies…when mixing the media, I use with colors I feel free and unstoppable. A complete canvas makes me happy!”
Art Curator Mara Cipriano
Viveca Berg
Deep
Viveca Berg
Rust
Viveca Berg
Tango
Wesley Hunt "Spirituality is recognizing the divine light that is within us. It does not belong to any particular religion, but it belongs to everyone." (Muhammad Ali)
Between the abstract and the figurative, Wesley Hunt's art is therapy, it is the desire to transport the observer into an irrational, sincere and profound spiritual journey. Like a sort of roller coaster, the emotions that the artist intends to evoke through his works are the most diverse and embrace every side of the human being. Every sensation, emotion is conceived, accepted and impressed on the canvas, which is a window on the artist's soul.
Wesley Hunt
The faces that populate his works observe, are observed in a continuous game of glances and the re-proposition of the element of the eye suggests an intimate and close participation of the artist in the interiority of the observers. Eyes as an instrument of revelation of the soul, of one's own spirituality which, at times, just needs to be channeled and released thanks to a particular energy.
Art Curator Federica Schneck
Wesley Hunt
I see, I see
Wesley Hunt
Shamanic Journey
Whoddat “The job of the artisti is always to deepen the mystery.” (Francesco Bacone)
Whoddat is nobody. A statement that encapsulates all the artist's creative and visual work, as emblematic as it is intriguing and curious. Her artworks are created with the technique of computer graphics through the combination of colours, films, figures,
audiovisual elements and audio tracks. Technology merges with design and art to create something unique and inimitable, totally abstract but at the same time realistic. The artist plays on paradox and contrast. Fundamental to understanding the concept of this enigmatic artist is the poem: 'I'm Nobody! Who are you?' by Emily Dickinson. A poem that tells of fatherhood and the existential condition with a stimulating approach. Whoddat is everything and nothing, a creative and original language that exploits anonymity to increase the sense of curiosity that attracts the viewer and keeps him glued to the screen with his works. Technology is the beating heart of the artist, who explores kinetic and internet language in a poetic and artistic key, giving the public a set of images interspersed with technological interference. In the multimedia work "Proxy Promise", which the artist presents at the "Sacrifice" exhibition, there is an agglomeration of references to virtual reality with the presence of kinetic elements and distorted images. A strong reference is to today's society where the algorithms of social networks, the internet and video games manipulate our beliefs and unconsciously guide our existence. We are guided daily by these mystical and virtual presences that impose beliefs on us, distorting our perspective of reality. Whoddat's artwork is innovative, effervescent, full of energy and movement. He creates a game of overlapping, interference and cultural references that are part of the experience of every human being and that everyone is led to recognise. The artist highlights the mechanism by which we daily identify with non-human bodies, escaping from realistic perception through a non-real perception of ourselves. The images are distorted, guided by an algorithm produced by the collection of images and data from the artist's Twitter account. Impressive is the effect it has on the viewer, who is led to reflect on these mechanisms that unconsciously manoeuvre our actions and play on our consumption. The data collected was then reduced to noise using computerised processes, giving rise to this interactive project. Whoddat's work opens our eyes and stimulates deep reflection with disturbing but true implications. Computerized art is an end in itself, unmasking a mechanism that is right in front of everyone's eyes. Whoddat proves to be a bold and intriguing artist. Her artistic approach excites the viewer who is enraptured by the vision of these images with a strong impact on his psyche.
Art Curator Ilaria Falchetti
Whoddat
Proxy Promise
Whoddat
Proxy Promise
Whoddat
Proxy Promise
Wootfan “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” (Thomas Merton)
Landscapes and lines, architectural structures and human figures accompany the viewers into static spaces where air is rarified and densified by the flow of time. The same rarefaction and thickening effect when photos are extracted from a dynamic video; these are Wootfan’s digital artworks. Wootfan had never tried making art and in school, he did not like art classes. In need of finding a world to escape, his interest in art sprouts suddenly, and becomes tangible while watching painter Bob Ross and his ‘The Joy of Painting’ series in 2019. The same year he discovered digital art and has been working with it since. He explores all different forms of digital art and his art's main characteristic lays in his heterogeneity of styles, colours, shapes, subjects and lines. What recalls an impressionist feature becomes a realistic one, which obtains a video-game aesthetic first and a minimalistic aesthetic after. Wootfan, then, appropriates a multi-visual language that is in constant exploration of novelty and experimentation. This style complexity is contrasted by the ‘simplicity’ of his subjects. The artist, in fact, uses digital art to tell stories and to depict scenes of ordinary life and places. “Thoughts on Show” is the work Wootfan presents in the Sacrifice exhibition. The colours choice divides the work into two parts: red for the bottom and green for the top. A giant man emerges from the red floor with a surprised expression holding a small human figure in his hand. A bright sunny light comes out from the small figure illuminating a canvas on the edge of the work. “The artist illuminates their thoughts, leaving them on show for the world”, Wootfan explains. Why is the giant man holding the artist? What does he represent? Through this work, the artist seems to engage the viewer with a metaphorical challenge in researching the deep, placing the role of art at the centre through which we can find and lose ourselves.
Art Curator Martina Lattuca
Wootfan
Thoughts on Show
Wu Tungyang
Wu Tungyang, 37, was born at Taipei city, Taiwan. He loves painting, drawing and discovering. Wu started drawing as a child and then from 2017 embarked on a professional career as a painter when he was back home from Camino de Santiago which inspired him deeply. At “SACRIFICE” exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Wu presents two artworks. “Alone Together” is a mural panting in which there is a Sofa side by the window at the dark attic. The dim light is so strong that we feel like we have to squint to be able to focus on the subject and the environment. Regarding the title of it, “Alone” and “Together” have oppose meaning: when these two words comes side by side, then it became the new meaning. Certainly it is not being alone and being together, it’s about the changing moment between alone and together. It could be anything for this moment. Like this mural shows, the breaking moment is the window light. You have to seek in the dark room: like this broken Sofa, we need to seek the light from anytime at this quiet room.
Wu Tungyang
“Summer wheat field”, the second work presented in the exhibition by Wu, depicts a natural countryside landscape, with hayballs taking center stage on a windy day and with clouds that run fast in the sky. The result is so real and realistic that it seems to smell the fields and feel the wind caressing our skin even if the smell is unique with the only experience. Wu's works therefore catapult us into them, so much so that the impression of being able to interact with them and feel the smells and scents of the subjects they represent is very strong.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Wu Tungyang
Alone Together
Wu Tungyang
Summer wheat field
Yngvil Birkeland “If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream.” (René Magritte)
The artworks by Yngvil Birkeland, a contemporary Norwegian artist, are journeys into worlds of surreal landscapes, where the subjects fade into each other in a slow and quiet flow. Time is suspended in a mystical and, at the same time, magical state of consciousness. The soft colours contribute to an almost impalpable atmosphere. The nuances enveloping the subjects annul the depths, which are absorbed as if by a dense fog, making everything silent. The silhouettes of the people become almost unrecognizable, turning into heaps of hemispherical stones resting one on top of the other. A feeling of pleasant harmony involves the observer, accompanying him in a slow dance, as if he were suddenly walking along a seabed, where the water accompanies his movements. In "Lightworker", we see a dancer who seems to emerge from the sea, in a mist of coloured vapours in which the light shines, spreading magically. The elegance of the gesture leaves behind a luminous trail, which gradually conquers the visual space, diffusing into the blue. A sort of discontinuous frame surrounds the dancer, like an open window to a new world, in a dream whose dynamics are always undefined. Yngvil Birkeland, influenced by Surrealist thought and research, orients her artistic investigation towards the study of dreams, so that what we see are nothing more than landscapes of the unconscious. She develops a language in which soft nuances alternate with more material moments, giving life to dreamlike settings where colours glide softly. The artist wants to open our gaze to the obscurity, bringing light into the darkest places of the mind and illuminating the mists of unpredictable colours.
Art Curator Francesca Brunello
Yngvil Birkeland
Lightworker
Yoshie "Ninny" Honda
Serpentiform elements wind their way through the entire space of representation. Multiform amoebae, single-celled beings invisible to the naked eye take possession of all the space given to them to be represented. They crawl, slowly, in the pink fluid in which they are immersed, invisible ecosystem full of life. Entirely played on the tones of pink, the work evokes the microcosm impossible to see if not through optical magnification instruments that have the ability to make us see, scrutinize and discover the living beings that populate our world. Accustomed to reckoning with a world on a human scale, human beings are unaware of what goes on beyond their perception. He does not know for certain how many stars, how many planets and how many asteroids there are in the universe just as he is unaware of the microscopic beings that inhabit this planet, ourselves and within our bodies. Although we identify our earth as our home, there are beings that have developed and evolved in such a way that they dwell in our guts, on our skin, in our hair and live with us, every day of our lives. Silently, microscopic animals, single-celled beings and bacteria accompany our daily lives. We are unaware of them, even if we know it we forget about them and yet, in their eyes - if they had eyes - we are their home, their warm and quiet dwelling within which they begin and end their lives. And so it is that Yoshi takes us on a journey into that forgotten microcosm, into that small silent universe within ourselves. A bright pink backdrop welcomes multiform beings that crawl and cluster together, occupying the entire representative space. Violet and snake-like elements peep out from the sides of the work and then unravel, tangle and bend with every movement. They stretch and retract, sensing their surroundings and crawling, amassing among themselves and creating wonderful swirls of life. "Passion" is a hymn to life in the purest sense of its totality. It is a reminder to look beyond our perception, not to be obtuse and think that everything visible is real and everything invisible is fiction. Let's get off the pedestal of the human being to go, with curiosity, to discover the unthinkable, the unseen, what we never expected. The universe is far away, its distances are measured in light years; the microcosm, on the other hand, is right here, on this planet; even inside ourselves. We intercept and feel amazement at the sight of those almost transparent purple beings moving slowly in aqueous substances. We observe their behaviors, the closeness between them and their almost gelatinous bodies. After all, in a remote time, life developed in the socalled primordial soup, a humid environment populated by the first unicellular living beings. Let's observe Yoshie's work and go back in time.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Yoshie "Ninny" Honda
Passion
Yu Uchida
The representation of another world. The graphic representation of a space hidden from the daily reality of things and that is revealed, slowly, work by work, to the gaze of the viewer. Yu Uchida's is a true narration, a story through images of distant and sometimes fantastic worlds. With "The fairy tale forest lurks in everyday life" begins our journey into the imagination of the artist. Two bright-eyed and shiny frogs introduce us to the portal at the beginning of our journey: a dense forest with trees rising upwards. The air is compact, the branches, many and sinuous, occupy much of the backdrop of the work. Between the small frogs in the foreground and the mysterious forest, however, there is something new. Small round lanterns hover towards each other, forming a veritable curtain of light. They are ethereal, their appearance resembling jellyfish suspended by the sea current. Yet their presence is so strong as to make uncertain the outline of the trees in the distance, so vigorous as to change the chromatic tones of the work by making the greens and blues shine with a precious golden hue. This is our portal, the curtain of lights and lanterns is what stands between the real world and the other world, it is the last bulwark of the reality we know. With an uncertain step we cross the golden barrier letting ourselves be transported by the magic of these new worlds. Now we find ourselves in another world, what we see may escape the strict rules of biology and physics. And so it is that a graceful fish swims in the night sky. As if in its natural habitat, the animal hovers moving its fins and opening its gills. It's headed who knows where, we don't know.
Yu Uchida
Its elegance and vaporousness make it look like a cloud in the night sky illuminated by our Milky Way. Below it, an aquatic panorama: what if this were the sky? Other fish, other aquatic animals peep out along our path through these fantastic worlds. A school of goldfish swim undisturbed in what appear to be dark depths of the sea. Above them, a jellyfish with long tentacles and almost iridescent hues. It is certainly a marine world that of "Aim". Yet, there is a snake in the water. We recognize the scales, the glassy eyes with the elongated pupil, the snout and its body that sinuously rolls up on itself. Are we still sure that this is the ocean? All of a sudden, a strange device, a rusty machine wakes up from the seabed. We hardly recognize the silhouette of a handlebar and a valve, a tag and pipes rising upwards. Where are we? Moving on, we have arrived at the deepest point of Yu Uchida's imagination. "Cyber Gate" is the epilogue of this journey and at the same time, the pure graphic transposition of the artist's will. Jellyfish still hovering in the sky, a turtle swimming gracefully and a black crow resting its feet on a lamppost to rest. A lamppost? That's right. Behind it is a backdrop characterized by grids, neon and technological elements, a cyberpunk universe that hosts the aforementioned animals. The union between the different worlds, the real world with the fantastic one, the natural one with the artificial one, has here reached a conclusion. The digital image is, for Yu Uchida, an indispensable tool and means to tell stories that transport us, with their flow of colors and shapes, to other worlds, other realities.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Yu Uchida
The fairy tale forest lurks in everyday life
Yu Uchida
Gekkō
Yu Uchida
Aim
Yu Uchida
Cyber Gate
Yuka Ohara
Vivid and brilliant color tones ignite our eyes at the sight of Dahlia. Like a firework on a summer evening, the composition literally explodes in front of us, flooding us with the most beautiful colors that nature is proud to create. Dahlia is the daughter of the earth, heir to that vegetable world which, in our day and age, is reduced to a state of exhaustion. Our eyes are no longer used to observing the wonders of nature. Around us only asphalt and cement. The grey sky has lost that intensity that made it shine with its own light and the woods and the streams of water appear devoid of vigor, dull in their vital force. Human beings are destroying our planet, Mother Earth, she who gave us life and who created everything our eyes are privileged to see. Yet, blinded by supremacy, we have lost the link with nature, with the slow and perpetual rhythms of the plant and animal world. We have lost attunement with the seasons, with the cycle of day and night, and we remain impassive and heedless of the changes that happen before our eyes every day. Yet, nature is resilient. Nature bends to human will but does not break its spark of life. A dandelion may bloom between the cracks of the hot asphalt in July, uninhabited buildings are swallowed entirely by dense vegetation in a very short time. Nature is thirsty for life, hungry to develop at will and show itself in its wonderful and varied nature. Yuka Ohara in her works illustrates how wonderful nature can be, how its colors, shapes and shades can enchant our eyes and our senses. And so it is that, observing Dahlia, it is possible to feel the sweet and delicate scent of a flower that has blossomed on a spring morning. It is possible to perceive the velvety texture of the petals still wet from the dew, it is possible to hear the soft rustle of the stems moved by the breeze. A large dahlia flower looms large in the composition. The flashy, blinding colors contrast perfectly with the dark background that characterizes the work. A firework that glows in the night, the flower is characterized by multicolored, almost iridescent petals. Their structure is essentially firm and, the sweet and smoky chiaroscuro highlights the intrinsic softness of these petals, making us savor for a moment the sensation of touching them. Violet, orange, blue and red hues combine and get to know each other to create an extremely harmonious, sensual and intoxicating result that pervades our sight, bewitching us with its peculiarities. Yuka Ohara shows us nature in its best dress, the one that would dress if the human being was just a little less selfish. Dhalia is the work that transports us into the heart of the forest, into the most hidden and alive meanders of our land. We close our eyes and imagine standing still. Sitting on a chair in our concrete boxes.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Yuka Ohara
Dahlia
Yuto.the_familiar_ocean
The Universe is the whole, it is an immense work of art, it is pure and continuous wonder, it is mystery, knowledge, hope and memory. The Universe is enormity and littleness, a level that cancels all rankings and disparities. The Universe is simplicity and complexity, repetition and fantasy. The Universe is a gift. The Universe is infinite, but it is also full of many hedges that are impassable to our senses, but not to reason. If it were, we would be excluded from it and instead we are an integral part of it. The Universe is what we can see, but also what we cannot see, it is immense but it is dominated by the smallest thing that exists, the atom. Looking above our heads we can admire the "depth" of the sky. It is precisely this, the depth of the sky, that generates great emotion. It is the practical experience that brings us closest, and does so in an instant, to the concept of infinity. The mental challenge of imagining distances that our common sense cannot comprehend, of weighing the cosmic void with the distribution of matter and light, the difficulty of confronting the unknown. Observing a star and thinking that we are seeing its light emitted 1600 years ago, imagining other stars producing dawns and sunsets with different colors from those we are used to, on the horizons of other planets. Imagine, not "understand." Imagine - as a palliative of understanding - the extreme situations common in the universe, densities such as to make a spoonful of matter a billion tons heavy, temperatures of millions of degrees, speeds close to the speed of light, with the consequent and unintuitive relativistic effects. Yuto, with Hope in the Hearth illustrates with colors and shapes the answer to these questions that, to all intents and purposes, have yet to be folded. On a dark backdrop unfolds a strip of pigment that violently occupies the entire space of the composition. The blue stain that characterizes this patch has evanescent characteristics, it almost looks like stellar dust traveling with circular motion to the outermost, coldest corners of a galaxy. The blue cloud is ethereal, so transparent that the bright stars behind it are evident. The closer you get to the inner part of the color snake, the more intense, opaque and textured the colors become. Violet clusters contrast with areas characterized by a whitish color, sometimes yellowish. This is where the galaxy's matter is concentrated, where supernova explosions occur and where new stars are generated. Like furnaces of space, these bright spots are heavy and boiling perpetually in the silence of space. The light is as strong as the electromagnetic radiation and the transformations of the most elementary chemical elements. After all, everything starts from these interstellar furnaces. The stars of billions of years ago have produced the atoms that still make up the solar system, our earth and even ourselves. We are composed of stardust, of atoms that were produced billions of years ago. Hope in the Heart, like a reminder, reminds us of this origin common to us all.
Art Curator Lisa Galletti
Yuto.the_familiar_ocean
Hope in the Heart
Zarga Martini
Abstract digital paintings to be admired and offered by and to the illuminated souls. These works of art by Zarga Martini are made of points, lines and surfaces, following the well known Wassily Kandinsky’s theory and aim. The dramas of broken lines with the quiet of blue and the earth feeling of yellow. A point starts it all, the paint brush that touches the empty surface, then movements and a story. At the end he created man, the noblest fruit of his project, to which he subjected the visible world, as an immense field in which to express his inventive capacity. God therefore called man into existence by transmitting to him the task of being the architect. In the artistic creation man reveals himself more than ever "image of God", and fulfills this task first of all by shaping the stupendous matter of his own humanity and then also by exercising a creative dominion over the universe that surrounds him.
Zarga Martini
The divine Artist, with loving condescension, transmits a spark of his transcendent wisdom to the human artist, calling him to share his creative power. And obviously a participation, which leaves intact the infinite distance between the Creator and the creature. Martini’s work and research doesn’t talk about God or any other spiritual personification but it is about the rising, the sacred, the movement and strength of the spirit. What is the artist called to do in this world? Why is it still relevant? We now let the works speak themselves.
” Beauty is to excite at work, work is to resurrect” (Cyprian Norwid)
Art Curator Federica D'Avanzo
Zarga Martini
Suspended Colors
Zarga Martini
Abstract Painting
Zazu Rodriguez
Zazu Rodríguez is a Spanish contemporary artist based in Madrid, Spain. Her creations speak about reflection and introspection following a poetic minimalist flow which ends up creating something great out of things that form part of every-day life. To her, the interaction of objects is the perfect language through which she can create - in a deeply personal way - her particular creative world. A mixture between photography, placement, objects and custom typography with a message that can - and does - take over multiple senses. She belongs to that new batch of contemporary visual artists whose work shows the way to beyond the aesthetic sense. At “SACRIFICE” exhibition hosted by M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Zazu presents two artworks. "I don't understand it either" consists of a golden nail to which the artist applies wings, making it become an arrow. Reporting a particular episode in which Ricardo Rousselot used a wooden stick to “write” on the ground without actually knowing how to write and when he was told that those words meant nothing, he nervously replied: "I've written this message, so it has to mean something”, Zazu wants to invite the viewer to always express their person openly and fearlessly.
Zazu Rodriguez
When you feel you want to say something, knowing that your language (whichever it is) contemplates it, just explain it, don't ask. Don’t be afraid to explain yourself, remember that you are the arrow, and there is nothing that others have to necessarily understand. The arrow which wants to send a message that never truly arrives. The “I don ́t understand” hits you so accurately that you could melt with it. Zazu then understood how the risk of no longer being an arrow is just getting in the way of the nail. "Make some time: The resistance" is instead made up of small springs that create the series then capable of creating all the numerical combinations. In fact, the work is intended to be a reflection on time: why do we call it "to build time" when in reality it means getting busy wasting it? Putting up resistance so we don’t feel the existence of a space we don’t want, precisely when we need it most, a bit like just the springs that make a resistance. That’s the mother of all paradoxes. The resistance, an intangible and opposed force which is put on an object simply due to its natural tendency to move forward, distinguishes time, the construction of which is precisely a resistance.
Art Curator Matilde Della Pina
Zazu Rodriguez
I don't understand it either
Zazu Rodriguez
Make some time: The resistance
Zlatan Woszerow For the international exhibition “Sacrifice” at the M.A.D.S. Art Gallery, Zlatan Woszerow exposes seven works (“Bang and roar”, “Brightness in the dark”, “Calm”, “Immersed in abstraction”, “Points of view”, “Sepia Hi-Tech”, “Very purple haze”) through which a compelling and enveloping energy immediately emerges. By letting himself be carried away by his emotions and the creative act, Zlatan emphasizes the play of light and shadow that captures the viewer's attention, taking himself into a perceptive and sensorial journey with the aim to explore his own soul. The final effect is that of a kaleidoscope that conveys innovation and great temperament in the use of such vibrant and bright tones. The fusion of light and color gives rise to a powerful dynamism, emphasizing the multiple forms of each image as well as an intense chromatic contrast. This movement is constantly evolving and unstoppable: you can contemplate it as it happens, or you can break it down into a series of moments and figures, yet it remains an immutable principle that defines the essence of the reality in which every human being lives. The artist contributes precisely to this process, encouraging the viewer to be dynamic, full of life, joyful and electrifying! Indeed, in “Bang and roar”, one can witness an explosion of numerous elements, like a Big Bang: everything moves, multiplies, and creates new connections. Or in “Brightness in the dark”, the energy emanating from the combination of all the shades is so powerful that it enlivens the viewer's eye. While in “Calm”, the use of purple combined with yellow/orange and red create a fusion that relaxes any soul which lies in negativity. In “Immersed in abstraction”, one can see the silhouette of a woman completely immersed in an abstract ocean of pure color! On the one hand, it is with “Points of view” that there seems to be a more geometric scansion like in Piet Mondrian's paintings. In “Sepia Hi-Tech”, on the other hand, it is as if everything were part of a surreal dimension in which a vintage photo (given by the sepia color placed in the background) merges with technology. Finally, in “Very purple haze” two figures seem to be united in a strong embrace while the surrounding atmosphere is decidedly dynamic! These artworks are modern and revolutionary, leaving plenty of room for imagination, from which both the active spirit of the artist and the observer come together. Thanks to the vigor and luminosity radiating from the works, the artist succeeds in transforming everything into a mystical vision that takes the viewer into a parallel universe where everything becomes more captivating and suggestive, succeeding in overturning what is perceptible to the human eye, upsetting the ordinary and promoting a new and unique way of perceiving reality. Zlatan Woszerow creates such imaginative structures that merge with the viewer’s deepest emotions.
Art Curator Alessia Perone
Zlatan Woszerow
Bang and roar
Zlatan Woszerow
Brightness in the dark
Zlatan Woszerow
Calm
Zlatan Woszerow
Immersed in abstraction
Zlatan Woszerow
Points of view
Zlatan Woszerow
Sepia Hi-Tech
Zlatan Woszerow
Very purple haze