M .A .D . G A L L E RY MODA
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CONTEMPORARY ART EXHIBITION January 2016 - Milano, Navigli
MAD GALLERY MILANO – Corso San Gottardo 18 | Milano Curators Alessandra Magni, Carlo Greco tel: +39 348.28.54.357 |+39 347.36.01.557 info&press office: madgallerymilano@gmail.com web: www.madgallerymilano.com
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14th to 28th January 2016
Selected Artists Alexander Paul Angelo Gaggero Anna Maria Castello Axel Hilger Burim Ajdini Charity Janisse Francesca Salis Gaston Abregu Geertje Eshuis Gihan Fawzy Gottfried Seigner Maria Rodrigues Memo Miftari Michelle Bro-Loungemart Nada Bittar Nicole Weaver Oscar B Pansy Tang Pascale Patissier Rafal Stepniak Regina Thyssen Tony Stuckens
Artworks on show
Dream or reality is the dilemma set by the artist. Alexander Paul’s works, with their smooth and warm colors, are mental creations, abstractions given by the instinct that hide the truth. We find comfort in identifying a shape or a figure that give the idea of representing some kind of certainty, but actually it is just a figment of the imagination. In Alexander’s work the reality is evanescent but the fantasy is eternal.
ALEXANDER PAUL ‘ Les plus grand jardin ’ oil on canvas 40 x 50 cm
In his artworks made of salt, Angelo Gaggero aims to a pure minimalism, where cleanliness and order of the shapes spread an unexpected calm. The elegant horizons blend like mirages in a desert of salt and what once looked like peace and lightness, now is revealed in all its dry and cold reality. These salt creations become lively and honest works, able to gracefully express the most intimate emotions of the artist.
ANGELO GAGGERO ‘ Salina 3 ’
salts on woods 53 x 63 cm
The artist fulfills a mental process of re-elaboration of concrete images that braverly and with impressive firmness translates into sensations that come life on the canvas. Warm shades and hefty brushstrokes allow the art work to look lively and vibrant.
ANNA MARIA CASTELLO ‘ New York C. ’
mixed technique on wood 118 x 59 cm
We need a few seconds to completely understand what we are facing when we first take a look at Axel Hilger’s images. Those elements that at a first sight look like aliens life forms, are actually the early stages of the metamorphosis of terrestrial insects. The great detail of these photographs immerses the viewer into a proper adventure towards a scary microcosm.
AXEL HILGER ‘ Metamorphosis ’ photography 2015
Evanescent and incorporeal, this is Burim Adjini’s artwork. With no contrast of colors but smooth and delicate combinations that instill harmony and balance. The figures in the background that fill up the imaginary landscape are not conscious protagonists, but waiting passengers. Especially the figure in the middle is firmly planted on the ground, solid but still painfully contemplative. Potentially a reminder of the uncertainty of the human being.
BURIM AJDINI ‘ Dawn ’
oil on canvas 60 x 80 cm
Charity Janisse is an artist who uses poetry, painting and photography to express the free flow of her emotions. Her paintings are sensations of a moment where the deep color flows almost uncontrolled into the canvas and creates unexpected and surprising forms.
CHARITY JANISSE ‘ Indigo Rising ’
acrylic on canvas 45 x 60cm
Mystery, depth and never-ending pursuit. These are the elements that distinguish Francesca Salis' painting. Sometimes violent, it is underlined by black and white contrasts and by the highly emphasized materiality. All these elements undermine the superficial perception, creating an imbalance which leads the observer in another dimension.
FRANCESCA SALIS ‘ Inquietudine che non si rassegna’ mixed technique on canvas 80 x 100 cm
Gaston Abregu's work is characterized by a clear contrast of lights and shadows. The dark toned background gets enlightened by white colored hints through the whole work. The final effect has a great impact, strength and energy.
GASTON ABREGU ‘ Borgoña ’ acrylic and sand on canvas 120 X 90 cm
The artist research conducted by Geertje can be noticed in a piece that stands out for its innovative and unique emotion given by the landscapes. Trought semplicity the author offers artworks in which the harmony of the mark with the colour reveal her true talent.
GEERTJE ESHUIS ‘ Dutch winter ’ acrylic on cotton 50 x 60 cm
Gihan Fawzy carries out a work of mediation between strong insecurities and pacific certainty, in which dark, precise and well defined marks try to define a certain kind of guideline on a complex surface with bright colors.
GIHAN FAWZY ‘ The black secret’ oil on canvas 120 x 100 cm
Gottfried uses colour as highest form of expression, moving from forms that seem born from his inner chaos. Firm yet delicate brushstrokes and chromatic combinations completely in line between them, create an art work from which the viewer can barely keep the eyes off.
GOTTFRIED SEIGNER ‘ Untitled ’
acrylic on paper 50 x 70 cm
The work of Maria Rodriguez reveals her personality, where the careful research for the colour, composed to the processing of female face produce a strong expressive value. The energic brushstrokes born from the interaction between operation and sensitivity, inport a clean and poetic overview.
MARIA RODRIGUES ‘ Punk ’
acrylic on canvas 50 x 70cm
The painting for Michelle Longuemart is the portrait of everyday life. Her artworks aims to express her life, joys and love. Experience and research, she resumes her gestures subjecting it, to the memory and instinct. The threshold between reality and finction is very thin, what appears is the inner realm of the artist.
MICHELLE LONGUEMART ‘ La Douce ’
acrylic on canvas 60 x 70cm
His work is a perfect picture of reality. Every detail is described with extreme analyticity. The protagonist of his work is nature, which is so perfect and fragile, therefore constantly threatened. This work represents all its beauty and perfection, catching elusive moments as the beat of wings of a butterfly.
MEMO MIFTARI ‘ Prepare for nesting ’ oil on canvas 40 x 60 cm
The use of bright tones expresses a powerful charge and at the same time it involves the observers, inviting them to sink in its world. The fairy-tale dimension and the magic of colors lean on the canvas, making dreams come back to life again through the states of mind of the artist.
NADA BITTAR ‘ Luminous Horizon ’
mixed technique on canvas 30 x 40 cm
Nicole Weaver outer her personal word translating it into emblema tic female figure. The introspective size takes shape in his works , the soul becomes matter. The faces painting in her works express feelings , observe and scrutinize the user creating an emotional involvement .
NICOLE WEAVER ‘ Untitled ’
mixed technique on canvas 30 x 38 cm
The artworks of Oscar B. are born from a process of dismemberment of mental images, which are then fixed on the canvas. They are deduced a research and study that generate stories . His works are presented to us are identifiable through forms that emanate feelings , whether they are pleasant or not.
OSCAR B. ‘ Vers le nouveaux matins’ acrylic on canvas 65 x 92 cm
It is difficult to define Tang's work within precise schemes of composition. Instinct is the only element that can lead the observer towards the understanding of the work. The subject comes from the world of media and television, brought on canvas in a funny and ironic way.
PANSY TANG ‘ Sky-Pilot ’
acrylic on canvas 30 x 30 cm
The strong and magnetic cromie, reveal theyself more efficent then the same words, with the intention to unveil and to show the deepest emotions and feelings that move the artist to show throught the colours., that are able tu trasform into interesting dialogs . Strong cromatic combination make immediate and precise effects.
PASCALE PATISSIER ‘ Elevation ’
mixed technique on canvas 30 x 90 cm
The fascinating work of Rafal Stepniak is part of the series “Musical impressions�. The colors are dark as the nocturne atmosphere, the brushstrokes are gentle and decisive as fingers on a piano keyboard. As a music that can't be explained, Rafal's art brings the spectator to a swirling rollercoaster of emotions.
RAFAL STEPNIAK ‘ Nocturn ’
oil on canvas 60 x 70 cm
Regina Thyssen's work appears at first sight as an abstract painting that, if deeply examined, reveals to be a study of the female body. Plastic and voluptuous shapes find a place amongst a totality of lively tones which appear to be outwardly casual. This work tells a story that takes place through the complexity of oil painting.
REGINA THYSSEN ‘ Waiting ’
oil on canvas 120 x 80 cm
In Tony Stucken's work the shapes are not shady and pointy but soft and embracing. They tangle and weave together. Other shapes are originated by this union, creating a vibrant wave of colors.
TONY STUCKENS ‘ Meeting ’
oil on canvas 100 x 100 cm
Critical analysis by Elisa Domenichetti
“And all the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasure, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events, the music of life.�
Hermann Hesse
What’s actually the real value of a collective art exhibition, if not the act of sharing one’s personal emotion in a great moment of synergy? In the “Contemporary Art Exhibition” organized by M.A.D. Gallery (14-28 January 2016) and located in an exhibition area that is an authentic and antique historical courtyard on the Naviglio Pavese in Milan, every new artist is able to express his personality through every sort of image. A small but consistent part of their inner being shines through and is offered to everyone’s eye, from casual viewers to art lovers. Like for every proper trip, you need a guide or, referring to the classics, something like Theseus’s thread in the famous labyrinth. Our first thread starts from Francesca Salis’s creations. In her dark and blood-tempered artpiece the author wants to point out the fact that life phases are not preventable but at least a bit more bearable and manageable, by finding the strength into powerful connections, into the experience of the past, by tying up the energies and by establishing new relationships like Maria Lai, fellow citizen and personal guide, did. Reflections on darkness emerge also in Gaston Abregu’s artworks, waves of soppy anxiety, a dark look even with the bright choice of the tints. Indecisiveness and fears can be noticed also in the creations of Charity Janisse. Waves and speculates of color cut through the canvas creating a picture that looks cryptic to the viewer, unable to distinguish the magmatic movements of the artistic consciousness of this all-round creator. The same, abstract whirlwind, catalyst for the energies of Life, deep abyss of a lively creativity that Gottfried Seigner draws with whirling circular marks. An empty, unstable and pointless world reported by Burin Ajdini in his extremely delicate sky blue watercolor.
However, in a silent, impersonal, insignificant and greenish background can appear a bizarre, smiley, tiny figurine that looks surrealist. Pansy Tang irreverent smiles at life, with the idea that obstacles can be overcome with the right amount of audacity and “unbearable lightness”. The awkward, bizarre and multicolored characters are caught in a playful moment of the existence, with a light and plastic consistence, born from Tony Stuckens’s dreams. Maybe the bright shades, maybe the funny shake reminding of a child play, or maybe the unorthodox attitude give a little hope in a world of artistic production that today mostly tends towards heavy and oppressive thoughts. An unsettling, enigmatic element is deduced in Memo Miftari’s creations. Lonely animals, realized by paying particular attention to reality, stand out against abandoned landscapes or leaning on dangerous instruments. An hook can seem dangerous to a little bird; his fear is big since he’s a tiny, vulnerable animal, metaphor of the “social animal” that has to deal and face the clearing of the earth. An extremely bright, yellow ace tears the dark background of the canvas. Pascale Patissier must strongly believe in a social redemption, not only thanks to the human hand, but also thanks to the complicity of a divine intercession. A peeled eye, gracious and reassured by a protected name. A big entity that is able to show the course, to protect with a look, to allow and give the right gratification. This is possibly the spiritual meaning hidden behind the eyeball marked by Nada Bittar on the surface. Maybe an echo of the faith she must have had in someone during her struggle as a migrant. Anna Maria Castello contributes in giving order and a some kind of boundaries by focusing on the concreteness of the present time. Aided by a remarkable confidence with the use of ceramic, the skyscrapers of an urban skyline are placed with concrete tactility on the working surface.
Oscar B., french painter, has clearly in mind the reality and the dynamics of a landscape altered by the human being, but still prefers to break them apart and then reconstruct them with a poetic inspiration. In this way the author gives the idea of the “invisible cities” inspired by the writer Italo Calvino. Gihan Fawzy carries out a work of mediation between strong insecurites and pacific certainty, in which dark, precise and well defined marks try to define a certain kind of guideline on a complex surface with bright colours. Back to the concrete and the essential elements of nature for Angelo Gaggero, which influenced the lucidity of Manzoni’s achrome modulates canvas with his tools of a craftsman: wood and salt. Land and water. Body and soul. Tangible action for a humanity that discovers his matrix. Nature, life, woman. Three concepts inextricably linked to the precondition of humanity on Earth. Carnality women stigmatized by Michelle Longuemart in foreshortened view of a young, smug of her charm, sure of her generative power, once safely tomorrow. The same story of woman who can be seen in the lively and stimulating work of Regina Thyssen. Two female bodies are turning to the pernicious voyeuristic desire of observer, quick brushstrokes sweep the scenes and as transported by heavy gusts of wind playful orange rectangles are placed on the vision of the artist. The pure love, essential, virginal who can prove two people in white robes. So light floating in an ocean of whiteness lovers Nicole Weaver, mindful perhaps for style and composition of some equally graceful flights that Marc Chagall did accomplish some of his subjects.
A heavenly regal garden of delights Alexander Paul outlines in his artwork. A sublime projection of the origins of this planet where purity, harmony and uncontaminated proceeded to unison. That dimension is now lost but there Alexander redelivery in this extraordinary vision. The night muse for artists and silent accomplice of the meetings of the lovers. So from Chopin Nocturne notes may have taken flight, to stayed in the mind of Rafal Stepniak and have materialized on the canvas. The music certainly resonated in the mind of the artist by his own admission, the deepest blue have slipped from the palette to the canvas, perfect picture for fall in love with the Art has become true. Changing expressions, witnesses of the facets of the days the women of Maria Rodrigues. Her faces testify, in the wake of the creations by Fauves, as can be endless sensations that invest the hours of a lifetime. It is unique in this collective the strand na誰f promoted by Geertje Eshmis. She plays classical landscapes of Holland, her native land, with the will impromptu revive a realistic vein, archaic but inherent in that part of Europe excellent outcomes with that investigated the kind of landscape. A brief foray into photography is permitted by the click of Alex Hilger, addicted to find a new light to the theme of metamorphosis. On an all-encompassing black they come to the surface two cocoons of new life, mirror, symmetrical but not identical. A transformation in the transformation. An internal change, an encounter with the ' other, a change enhanced. The key to Alex, in love with life, get enough to see beyond the horizon.
Elisa Domenichetti
Critical analysis by Rebecca Rossetti
Alexander Paul It is so fascinated by the shape and plasticity of materials, so as to create imaginary stories rich in imagination. As in “Les Plus Grand Jardin�, we can find a fairy landscape, impalpable, almost frozen, where time is slowly. If you look closely in the distance, form of buildings take place, as if from the early complex started something magical carrying lightly the observer. Angelo Gaggero Ligurian spirit, for more than forty years of career he dedicated himself with love and dedication to the creation of impressionistic landscapes; but something inside him has changed, his love of the matter takes a different form, he leaves the palette to focus on the use of different materials such as wood, concrete, debris and salt. Salt, is the protagonist of the work, coexists with colors from white to pink, creating a true work, alive, pure, a synonym of the new artistic way undertaken by the artist. Anna Maria Castello Since a kid she has been in contact with art, every spare moment was a good chance to live it; so why not make it a real lifestyle ? Her selected artwork for the exhibition denotes the ability of the artist to reinterpret a simple photograph of the city of New York with warm colors and mixed materials on the hard surface of wood. An amazing business card that emphasizes the interpretation of impulsive emotions and impressions transmitted by the colors and lights. Axel Hilger An artistic spirit has always been trying to emerge and take shape in Axel; he wrote short stories, poems, novels... but in the end that spirit that sought to emerge was a photographic talent. Photography, faithful companion, always present. An oracle in fact. His camera moves away from the usual landscapes and portraits, for him the camera is like the lens of a microscope, focusing on details, analyzing every single particular which is further amplified by the choice of the black background giving a greater sense of mystery.
Burim Ajdini Art history professor, has participated in many competitions, collective and arts festivals in Macedonia , Kosovo and Albania. " Dawn " is a romantic view, represented by delicate strokes, soft, subtle and fine lines rise creating profiles of houses and people. Charity Janisse All-around artist with thousand passions such as travel, writing, exploration of urban issue, stations and abandoned buildings. These passions led her to photograph and to find beauty and functionality in all things. In her works presented at the Exhibition she emphasizes her love for colors, shapes and the moving shades that take form during the painting process. Francesca Salis “So in this immensity my thought is drowned: and sweet to shipwreck in this sea ". G. Leopardi With this words Francesca describes its strong links with Sardinia, mother earth; but her gipsy nature and her emergence is the gateway to new experiences and emotions. So he transcribes on canvas her stories that unfold as trails of images and moods. The matter and color struggle and love, investigate the undefined, madness, diversity, beauty recalling something intimate dictated by distant memories and deep wounds. Authenticity, femininity, contamination, emotion, mix giving life to her poetry of a dream world. Gaston Abregu In his blood is flowing the Argentine vitality sees as its synonyms acrylic white and natural elements such as sand and/or wood which generate fluid movements within the canvas, variables and dense describable as pure abstract. Geertje Eshuis Who doesn’t like to relax in a country and hear only the sound of the wind? Geertje gives us her vision of the silent and composed of the Dutch countryside with windmills; a personal reflection or meditation on ourselves. She likes to use warm and cool colors, creating the right mix of matter tactile vision.
Gihan Fawzy Sensitive artist from the soul, the paintings are like autobiographies, considerations of his happy feelings and melancholy. The framework proposed here is just an autobiography just a face, a tear falls from one eye seems focused on the present and future key to the fight is between past and present, embodied by the colors black and white, struggle which it takes place in a forest, allegory perhaps , of her soul. Gottfried Seigner An Austrian artist overwhelms the viewer with his pictures, real tsunami of colors. The colors are allowed to slide down the canvas loosely and with a completely random direction, when the artist feels the perfect time, with a curt gesture and decided to paddle mixes them for the whole canvas. Maria Rodrigues Warm and cool colors, softness and asymmetry of matter describe Maria. Emerging from the color, the female faces, characterized by large eyes and thick lashes that immediately catch the viewer's attention and full lips, which seem to want to say something, a kind of seduction made of looks and sighs. The artist thus conveys how she feels with mixed by spatulas in the fingers. Michelle Bro - Longuemart Woman, mother, wife and artist. Painting is her way out from the real world, it is the way that gives her freedom to express herself: it also points within this framework, he sees a female figure, surrounded by nature and (most likely) butterfly wings, a character or maybe an alter ego who lives through his creativity parallel. Memo Miftari After taking several trips and research concerning the realism and all its nuances, dividing them into projects called "Evolution 1, 2, 3" the poetry of Memo is described as the new freshness and Flemish neo-realist: neorealist regarding the ability to grasp (in this case) the perfect time of the birds in flight and transmit the sweetness and it surrounded by nature; Flemish, because the plumage of the birds so dear to him, it seems almost real and tactile.
Nada Bittar Art is her soulmate and what she loves more the world. Her artworks are characterized by a large variety of style and colors, the latter being fundamental, such as possess a soul. “Luminous Horizon� embodies these features. A female eye in the center of the canvas and around it shades of purple, again symbol of femininity, along a curve of black lines echo of her various styles. Nicole Weaver In her first work she tried to recreate half realistic face and half abstract face, two different personality what they live inside the same person an echo of the first Picasso, while in the second work angels floating in a sky of a paradise with idealized color warm and cold. Oscar B. The Parisian atmosphere by grays and rusty, the chaotic atmosphere and the reflections of the Seine playing with the sun rays, are characteristics that prevail in his paintings. What we propose in this context is a poetic reconstruction of a city where he wanted to focus on landscapes but rather of many elements that may hint at houses and people; everything filleted, obviously from a utopian vision. Pansy Tang Artist difficult to encode, carefully watching the picture you can see two subtle nuances: the first is the passion to the sky with clouds, which brushwork, are revealed, in our eyes, compact and full-bodied; the second love for the journey, which has taken on the guise of the spacecraft, which is a character in a new comic manga? Pascale Patissier "Dreams are wishes of happiness shut down the heart" said Cinderella and so did the same Pascale, while her painting is guided by dreams, emotions and situations that happen around. These feelings on the canvas are transformed into colors, shadows and shapes; within the framework undisputed protagonist a beam of light that is emitted by all the work carried out with the color white, perhaps with an allusion about the soul of the artist and a backdrop for a series of shades of purple symbol of her desires hidden or her unconscious that seeks to emerge.
Rafał Stępniak The artist in this work tells a night vision of a landscape indefinite. The oil color underscores this deep into the darkness detailed contours of matter, which seem almost out of the canvas. Regina Thyssen Her artwork focuses on the women's bodies. The bodies she paints do not embody stereotypes of body lean, wiry and dry model but rather that of femininity so a meatier body, abundant, soft. The realization of her paintings, and especially what makes them special is the brilliance of approach between their female bodies seen front or from behind, creating landscapes composed only by human figures. The contrasting colors accentuate them even more these surreal landscapes. Tony Stuckens Artworks of fluid forms, envelop the viewer moving it to another dimension. The curves which allude to bodies, come together and dialogue with each other, giving it a dynamic and lively, while choosing the color orange along with all its nuances and shades give a touch of movement almost futuristic out of the painting.
Rebecca Rossetti
January 2016 - M.A.D. Gallery, Milano Group Exhibition Catalogue Idea by Rebecca Rossetti Created by Andrea Massucco
Critic texts by:
Manuela Accinno
(Burim Ajdini, Francesca Salis, Gehan Fawzy, Gaston Abregu, Memo Miftari, Pansy Tang, Tony Stuckens)
Eleonora Valeri
(Anna Maria Castello, Geertje Eshuis, Gottfried Seigner, Maria Rodrigues, Michelle Longuemart, Nada Bittar, Nicole Weaver, Oscar B., Pascale Patissier, Regina Thyssen)
Andrea Massucco
(Alexander Paul, Angelo Gaggero, Axel Hilger, Charity Janisse, Rafal Stepniak)
MAD GALLERY MILANO – Corso San Gottardo 18 | Milano Curators Alessandra Magni, Carlo Greco tel: +39 348.28.54.357 |+39 347.36.01.557 info&press office: madgallerymilano@gmail.com web: www.madgallerymilano.com