Venezian was born of a desire to approach painting through repetition. It is a series of paintings of various dimensions, based on an original source image which is then freely replicated. This repetition assumes the central role in the artistic process and highlights the uniqueness of every reproduced ‘artefact’. This method allows the artist to free herself from preconceived concepts about painting and, at the same time, ties them to the repeated image, establishing a kind of fidelity to it.

 

To create these paintings, the author took the “source image” (Frank Duveneck, Venetian girl, 1880) with the intention of creating a copy and, during the execution phases, she transformed it into a new entity. Decisions about colour – whether to use an intense or attenuated palette – derived from the immediate emotional reaction that she had towards the painting at that specific moment.

 

In this series, the colours are quite monochromatic and low-key. The figure in the painting is almost hidden, the viewer has to make an effort to find her. What the artist is interested in portraying is an intimate aspect of this character, going beyond the purely figurative dimension and entering into a dynamic, elusive and lively atmosphere, and thanks to this we are able to understand the vulnerable, often melancholy, state of the subject. These images are like emotional figures, evoking particular moods that can only be experienced profoundly in solitude.

 

She adds:

"...when I think of the beginning and roots of the project, I think of the source image: Frank Duveneck’s Venetian Girl, which I saw for the first time live in the de Young

gallery in San Francisco in 2015. I took a picture of it and I continued my day and my travel. But later on, I kept going back to that portait mentally, especially

when I was in my studio, having a hard time deciding what to paint. In one of these situations I established a new ritual: Finding a photo of the painting in the cell

phone, starting painting it. It only served me as a pillar, to solve the dilemma of choice - the long-term problem I was constantly facing. I had chosen the easiest thing to do - copy the

image I liked - and the very act of doing it helped my creativity because at first I didn’t have to think about anything, then when my creative intuitive process slowly took charge and at

a certain moment I wanted to change something, I did it. Therefore I used the image as a crutch to support me until I was in a state of tranquility and ease, beeing able to create something new.

Sometimes the result was resembling more the original, sometimes not at all, evolving into abstract landscapes and vague figurative pieces. From the beginning the aim was not even expecting of creating a unique paintings, rather it was only important to continue painting, even the same thing over andover again."

 

Curated by Sergio Risaliti

Ph. Alessandro Fibbi, OKNO Studio, Tatiana Stropkaiová