Xtempora

A Scrapbook about Art, Design and Culture

Monday, June 23, 2008

Flowers

I've always been attracted by the beauty of flowers. This is one of the reason why couldn't miss Flowers, the latest art exhibition at Studio Forni in Milan. Since ancient times the giving of flowers were used to communicate passions and emotions to the ones who received it. The language of flowers — Florigraphy, or "flower writing" — has been used from the beginning of the human history and evolved through the centuries.

In England, during the victorian age, a coded language was created by Miss Corruthers. Nearly any flower were given a meaning and it was possible to secretly communicate human passions without using spoken or written words. Most of these hidden meanings are nowadays forgotten by the many, anyway flowers continue to represent human feelings such as passion and happines, life and death.

The same aforementioned human feelings are perceived by the occasional viewer who want to take her time to enjoy this art exhibition. Many italian artists were confronted with the same theme revealing their personalities, artistic styles and sensibilities. Specific techniques were used by each artist: from oil panting to drawing, from photography to mix technique and sculpture.

Gianluca Corona use lights dramatically. He treats flowers as human beings uncovering his intentions since the titles of his artworks. Carlo Ferrari's oil paintings constantly use black as a background color but surfaces are nicely cluttered with the saturated colors of beautiful flower close-ups. Vittorio Guy seems inspired by the ancient oriental art preferring to play with very large surfaces that resemble minimalistic japanese scrolls. His recurring subject — a white flower — could be thought of as an artistic obsession of beauty and purity.

Another artistic obsession could be the one of Doriano Scazzosi who like to depict delicated peonies immersed in romantic and decadent settings. One of his artworks, — Peonie in acqua — who depict four floating pink peonies partially dipped into water, is among the ones I prefer from the entire exhibition and I find it to be a very heartbreaking piece of art.

These were the artists I found more appealing to me, anyway there were a lot more presented in the exhibition and I want to list all of them for your convenience: Agostino Arrivabene, Andrea Barin, Andrea Boyer, Maurizio Bottoni, Paolo Campa, Gianluca Chiodi, Gianluca Corona, Carlo Ferrari, Massimo Gardone, Gigi Guadagnucci, Vittorio Guy, Mario Madiai, Paolo Mazzanti, Gabriele Mersile, Isabella Molard, Doriano Scazzosi, Eric Serafini, Giovanni Sesia, Luciano Ventrone.

The Exhibition is currently closed and was sheduled from 8 May to 15 June 2008 at Studio Forni, via Fatebenefratelli 13, 20100 Milano.

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Wednesday, January 02, 2008

The soul of New York

Alejandro Quincoces was born in 1951 in Bilbao, Spain where he still lives and works. During his youth he was attracted to both music and art. He studied violin but soon discovered himself in love with figurative art. During the early stage of his career he worked in commercial art for different advertising agencies. Later, at the age of 36, he decided to acquire more skills through a formal education and training in Fine Arts.

He has always had a great attraction to urban lanscape and architecture and his paintings reflect this uncompromised love. All of his painting's subjects, despite being made up of concrete and steel, are treated as living creatures. They all have a distinct personality.

De Nueva York y de su alma is the name of the latest Alejandro Quincoces' exhibition in Milan. The entire exhibition is composed approximately by no more than twenty oil on panel paintings, most of which are large sized.
The exhibition is entirely dedicated to New York City's urban landscape and all the paintings are based on photos personally taken by Quincoces during one of his last stay in New York.

The photos were completely reinterpreteted through the passional nature of the artist. Quincoces add a sense of drama to the lanscapes he portrays.
The colours used are the muted ones of the winter. The sky appears thick and bruised. NYC seems to be wrapped into a never ending misty twilight that reminds the viewer of the romantic sceneries depicted in Turner and Friederick's paintings.

The exhibition is sheduled to run from 8 November 2007 to 5 Junary 2008 at Studio Forni, via Fatebenefratelli 13, 20100 Milano.
The paintings are great and if you stay in Milan during the aforementioned period, it worth a visit!

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