About Painting at Rolando Anselmi

Artists: Maddalena Tesser, Gianni Di Rosa, Patricia Treib, Blair Whiteford, Wang Zhibo, Sofia Silva, Anna Schachinger, Rachel howard, Theodora Allen

Exhibition title: About Painting

Venue: Rolando Anselmi, Berlin, Germany

Date: October 23 – December 20, 2021

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Rolando Anselmi, Berlin/Rome

Rolando Anselmi is thrilled to announce About Painting, a group exhibition conceived for the new gallery venue in Rome. Echoing the past Berlin project About Sculpture, the exhibition, which extends over both floors of the gallery, aims to present an articulate overview exploring contemporary painting. The relevance of this medium is examined through the work of nine international artists, diverse in their approaches and techniques, invited to exhibit their personal understanding of the medium itself and to expand the conventional debate around the notion of painting.

The exhibition features works by Theodora Allen (b. 1985, USA), Gianni Di Rosa (b. 1984, ITA), Rachel Howard (b. 1969, UK), Anna Schachinger (b. 1990, AT), Sofia Silva (b. 1990, ITA), Maddalena Tesser (b. 1992, ITA), Patricia Treib (b. 1979, USA), Blair Whiteford (b. 1990, USA) e Wang Zhibo (b. 1981, CN). The exhibition aims to create a narrative space, exploring the relationship between surface and matter, subject and background, sign and depth, in an attempt to show an heterogeneous spectrum of different possibilities and facets within the practice of painting.

The question of the image, pictorial narration and methodology are investigated by Maddalena Tesser starting from female sensibility, understood as a presence in the world in relation to memory, identity and the ambiguities of reality.

Themes such as time, play, history and myth merge in Gianni Di Rosa‘s work, giving rise to articulated paths within an imagery steeped in personal and collective memories, as in Studio per Cartavelina and Totenkopf.

The abstract forms in Blair Whiteford‘s works depict a dialogue between human forms, experiences and systems of the world. The understanding of forces such as nature, death and time become motifs of artistic production, formulated through the visual paradigm of distortion and dissolution.

Patricia Treib‘s paintings are composed of fluid and abstract forms, absences and shifts of perspective, suggesting a calligraphic gesture in which space and emptiness become primary motifs. The main subject of Treib’s works is the process of the gaze, capable of grasping new relations between things beyond what is simply recognizable.

Wang Zhibo‘s interest in aspects of everyday life is expressed in her works through the capture of moments capable of portraying the true nature of objects. In Perfect, perfect, perfect circle and In red the artist analyzes structures, origins and genesis of objects and bodies that are suspended in pre-established spaces and times.

Sofia Silva‘s predilection for elementary forms and simple grammars gives rise to the coexistence of various painting techniques, collage and knitting. Stasimo della sorpresa and Stasimo del batticuore stage a narration that, like the chorus in ancient Greek tragedy, does not use images, but comments on an invisible and inaudible event, manifesting itself through matter and form.

Intrigues of color and the overlaying of different materials create J.S. (Postumus) e Stadtpark Ried im Innkreis by Anna Schachinger. The layering of colored pigment and the weaving of various elements confuse the sense of depth: foreground and background blur, creating new ways of interpreting the composition.

The combined use of acrylic and oil allows Rachel Howard to reproduce violent acts through the gestural quality of her brushstrokes. In Painting of Violence (Tall Buildings), the deep strokes and different shades of color seem to rip through the canvas and give the painting an object-like appearance.

In Theodora Allen‘s works, mythological visions shape the narrative of the coexistence of man and nature. In the exhibited triptych, composed of Dawn I, Dawn II and The Open Heart, geometric figures accompany the gaze towards the source of light that radiates from the center of the composition.