"NEW HORIZONS"

11-16 February 2013

It has been another successful show at Room 212!

To everyone who supported me throughout the week: thank you for showing so much interest in my art and ideas, and kindly buying my paintings and smaller works! Please keep following me!

"New Horizons", thread and acrylic on primed canvas, 60x80cm, SOLD

"New Horizon", detail

'BLUE MEDAL'

This is the documentation of my latest stitching work. It is not finished yet, but what I want to show here is the small embroidery hoop which stretches the fabric and leaves it in place. It frames the piece and also makes it ready for hanging:

YOU ARE TWO-FACED...

These are images of the reverse of some of my stitching works. I think they are visually very interesting considering that the patterns created are unintentional.

VERSATILE THREADS

thread on canvas, work in progress, 20x20cm

'TROJAN HORSE'

Here is the amazing work of Susan Collis, one of the most inspiring artists I came across during my Ba at Manchester Metropolitan University. I thought I would include her in my writings because I strongly feel that the concepts and ideas behind my own paintings, and three-dimensional drawings, relate, in some ways, to what Collis tries to communicate with her installations.

The beautification of the banal, the re-staging of the elements, the victory of the over-looked...that is what I am talking about!

"Susan Collis's work might at first glance appear to be out of place in an exhibition, and you have to look closely to discover it. Mundane things, seemingly left behind from a previous exhibition, are actually meticulously worked by hand."

Susan Collis, 'Since I Fell For You', 
2010, 100% Cotton, 2002, 
Boiler suit, embroidery thread, 
63 x 183/4in.

'Since I Fell For You' (detail)

Susan Collis, 'Enter, Us', 2009
Screw made of  18 carat white gold,
White sapphire and turquoise

Susan Collis, 'Trojan horse', 2007, 

wooden table, diamond, fresh water pearl, oyster pearl, 

mother of pearl, conch shell, Brazilian opal, white opal, 

white howlite, magnecite, gold mother of pearl, 

cultured pearl, agate, orange calcite 

'Trojan horse' (detail)

STITCHING DROPS

My aim is to mimic pictorial accidents, or occurrences, by replacing altogether the most fundamental medium; in my paintings, in fact, there is no trace of paint yet its presence is still traceable. The explanation to this lies in the long process of combining and then eliminating, one by one, all the media involved in my work at a particular moment in time, until paint itself was no longer needed, for its essence had been transposed onto the other compositional elements of my work, most of all: thread.

'Zeffiretto', thread on linen, 20 x 20cm, SOLD

'The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain', 

Thread on canvas, 92 x 92cm

As an important and foremost contingent aspect of my practice, time is essential for the development of my ideas of imitation, however, it becomes the contrasting element of my work, for the execution of a paint drop, which is normally created in seconds, takes much longer when reproduced by stitching its features on canvas. 


'The Fountain of Good', 
Thread on canvas, 
20 x 20cm, SOLD

I wanted to use paint's density and texture, but without actually painting.