Expression of the research and of the incessant experiments of the last decade, aimed at investigating the sensorial features of color and the plastic potential of the chromatic material, the Aphonia pictorial cycle expands on a succession of chromatic variations around the same theme, around the same conceptual fulcrum, but with formal solutions and outcomes divided into several iconic and stylistic registers, admirably mastered by the strong personality of the author, to be considered among the most interesting of the emerging artistic scene, for his ability to transfigure echoes and suggestions of the pictorial tradition and of the aesthetic heritage of the past seasons in an autonomous and original formal language, released fromthe artistic trends of our time, but deeply rooted in the contemporary.
The scenarios of the Aphonia cycle, completely free of artificial objects, episodes of narrative character and devoid of any descriptive purposes, are essentially connoted as interior landscapes imbued with a strong symbolic charge.
On the terrestrial plane, separated almost imperceptibly from the kaleidoscopic ether by the slightly undulating hilly profile, which determines the horizon line, rise up at variable distances silhouettes of cypresses fiercely pushed out, with their thick and peaked foliage. With a configuration similar to cosmic pillars, the cypresses punctuate every horizon traced in this pictorial series, assuming the same ancestral value of an alignment of menhir. The painter has made them his own personal code as an artist, a signature style that is both form and content; in fact, they are not irrelevant to the adoption of this distinctive “sign” nor the morphological characteristics of the plant and its widespread presence in the land of origin of the painter, nor the “sacred” nature of a primitive tree, that has risen since ancient times as a symbol of immortality and in this context, more than ever, identifiable with the axis mundi (the axis of the universe), the cornerstone of the religious cosmology of very ancient civilizations. In an even more suggestive meaning as more faithful to the conception of the author, according to an existential and suggestive value, we could push ourselves to transfigure each of these tree flames into so many souls that populate the terrestrial horizon, living axes of earth-sky conjunction that each human being, in fact, embodies.
The bare and essential landscape stands out alone on the boundless vastness of a sky whipped by the chromatic vortexes of Abstract Expressionism, generating a vibrating interpenetration of the figurative element with the forms of abstraction, of the physical plane with the super-sensible one. The impression conveyed by the “limitless spaces” that open up to our gaze is that of being confronted with a revival of the theoretical-aesthetic category of the Sublime, which has permeated a significant part of the European pictorial production of the Romantic period and which appears here reinterpreted in an original key and according to canons of absolute contemporaneity, both on the conceptual and on the executive level. In particular, the spatial construction of the image, as well as the type of chromatic layout, refer to that “dynamic sublime”, according to the definition of Kant, referable to the phenomenon of nature characterized by a powerful explosion of energy, from the unleashing of the elements’ fury that gives a swirling speed to the atmosphere. Likewise the essentiality of the compositional structure, based on a substantially bipartite space scan, in which the lower figurative element – a combination of horizontal and vertical lines – occupies an infinitesimal part compared to the immeasurable spread of the immense sky, also recalls the poetics of the Sublime, acknowledged in its most meditative and spiritual declination, aimed at showing the eternal dialogue between finite and infinite, among transient earthly dimension and cosmic totality.
The investigation focuses on a strongly dynamic spatiality, generated by a disruptive gestural energy that becomes a direct mirror of the author’s mood and in which at the same time the viewer, operating a sort of identification, can read the reflection of one’s inner condition.They are canvases characterized by an all-over painting made of bright, dense and vibrant chromatic material, in which the color is freed from the constraint of the form, pulses of autonomous life and creates a magnetic, hypnotic visual space capable of involving the observer in an immersive and totalizing relationship with the work.
Although Ciampica’s cypress trees sink roots in his places of origin, in the familiar lands of the Trasimeno lake area, the images evoked are not physical locations, geographically recognizable, but they refer to the universal dimension of the soul and instill an emotional resonance at any latitude.
Cinzia Cardinali
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EARTHLY SKY. Infinite Routes of Randomness
Cinzia Cardinali (Art Curator - Art Advisor)
As in a virtual cross fade-out, the exhibition Earthly Sky constitutes the natural transition of the thematic and aesthetic path traced by Matteo Ciampica in his recent personal exhibit Axis Mundi, where the author clarified the founding core of his poetics and that in today's context are proposed again and expanded with new significant stylistic contributions.The exhibition in progress proposes about forty works, that are the expression of the research and of the incessant experiments of the last decade aimed at investigating the sensorial features of color and the plastic potential of the chromatic material; an intense and fruitful creative process, culminating in the drafting of the Aphonia pictorial cycle, of great breath and visual power, which expands on a succession of chromatic variations around the same theme, around the same conceptual fulcrum, but with different formal solutions and outcomes.
The production of this exhibition consists of three groups of works, whose expressive code, far from univocal, is divided into several iconic and stylistic registers, admirably mastered by the strong personality of the author, to be considered among the most interesting of the emerging artistic scene, for his ability to transfigure echoes and suggestions of the pictorial tradition and of the aesthetic heritage of the past seasons in an autonomous and original formal language, released fromthe artistic trends of our time, but deeply rooted in the contemporary.
The artistic process here displayed does not unfold according to a pre-established path, in such a way as to give to the visitor a complete freedom to relate to the artist's pictorial world and to be stimulated according to subjective sensitivity and affinity. The spectator is therefore free to wander guided only by his own instinct among the stylistic keys, different but connected by a common denominator found in the title of the exhibition, which contains in its complete expression the meaning, complexity and depth of the artistic research of Matteo Ciampica.In the opening words is summed up one of the focal points of his Weltanschauung, or the theme of cosmic dualism Sky-Earth,explicitly taken from the Treaty of the Terrestrial Sky by Wenceslas Lavinio of Moravia, a text known in the alchemic-esoteric literature of the seventeenth century. In particular, in the paragraph that refers to a process of transmutation of the elements into“…a pure earth that, by a strong bond, possesses the virtues of the highest Heavens enclosed in itself; and precisely because this same earth is united and joined to Heaven, I give it the beautiful name of Earthly Sky”, is containedthe philosophical assumption that fully reflects the image of the world represented by the artist.
The scenarios of the Aphonia cycle, completely free of artificial objects, episodes of narrative character and devoid of any descriptive purposes,are essentially connoted as interior landscapes imbued with a strong symbolic charge.On the terrestrial plane, separated almost imperceptibly from the kaleidoscopic ether by the slightly undulating hilly profile, which determines the horizon line, rise up at variable distances silhouettes of cypresses fiercely pushed out, with their thick and peaked foliage.
With a configuration similar to cosmic pillars,the cypresses punctuate every horizon traced in this pictorial series, assuming the same ancestral value of an alignment of menhir.The painter has made them his own personal code as an artist, a signature style that is both form and content; in fact, they are not irrelevant to the adoption of this distinctive "sign" nor the morphological characteristics of the plant and its widespread presence in the land of origin of the painter, nor the "sacred" nature of a primitive tree, that has risen since ancient times as a symbol of immortality and in this context, more than ever, identifiable with the axis mundi (the axis of the universe), the cornerstone of the religious cosmology of very ancient civilizations.In an even more suggestive meaning as more faithful to the conception of the author, according to an existential and suggestive value, we could push ourselves to transfigure each of these tree flames into so many souls that populate the terrestrial horizon, living axes of earth-sky conjunction that each human being, in fact, embodies.
The bare and essential landscape stands out alone on the boundless vastness of a sky whipped by the chromatic vortexes of Abstract Expressionism, generating a vibrating interpenetration of the figurative element with the forms of abstraction, of the physical plane with the super-sensible one.The impression conveyed by the "limitless spaces" that open up to our gaze is that of being confronted with a revival of the theoretical-aesthetic category of the Sublime,which has permeated a significant part of the European pictorial production of the Romantic period and which appears here reinterpreted in an original key and according to canons of absolute contemporaneity, both on the conceptual and on the executive level.In particular, the spatial construction of the image, as well as the type of chromatic layout, refer to that "dynamic sublime", according to the definition of Kant, referable to the phenomenon of nature characterized by a powerful explosion of energy, from the unleashing of the elements' fury that gives a swirling speed to the atmosphere. Likewise the essentiality of the compositional structure, based on a substantially bipartite space scan, in which the lower figurative element - a combination of horizontal and vertical lines - occupies an infinitesimal part compared to the immeasurable spread of the immense sky,also recalls the poetics of the Sublime, acknowledged in its most meditative and spiritual declination, aimed at showing the eternal dialogue between finite and infinite, among transient earthly dimension and cosmic totality.
In the series of paintings just described, the investigation focuses on a strongly dynamic spatiality, generated by a disruptive gestural energy that becomes a direct mirror of the author's mood and in which at the same time the viewer, operating a sort of identification, can read the reflection of one's inner condition.They are canvases characterized by an all-over painting made of bright, dense and vibrant chromatic material, in which the color is freed from the constraint of the form, pulses of autonomous life and creates a magnetic, hypnotic visual space capable of involving the observer in an immersive and totalizing relationship with the work.These are the works in which all the thematic nodes evoked in the title of the exhibition,condense and express themselves with plastic evidence, from the celestial-terrestrial dualism to the poetics of randomness and its infinite routes, which constitutes a central part in the existential reflections of the author.
Randomness is, according to Ciampica's vision, the realm of the unpredictable, it is the imponderable and indeterminable force that governs the fate of the earthly world, investing it with its multiform, changeable branches.The place of his representation is then fixed in the tumultuous space above the horizon line, which demarcates the border between the human sphere and the breath of the cosmos, accessible only to emotional sphere, where the pictorial surface appears to be crossed by intertwined, multidirectional trajectories, by tangles of color in which the pigment assumes a physical consistency, becomes matter, full-bodied substance as if it were biologically endowed with its own vitality.The free and impetuous brushstrokes at times thickens so as to form ripples branched in relief on the pictorial fabric, which interpenetrate in a tight dialectic with the grooves produced by the scathing lashes of the spatula strokes.But all this shattering explosion of lines and chromatic energy, to which the author entrusts the translation by images of the omnipresence and pervasiveness of the unfathomable laws of chance, does not imply the belief that mankind is inexorably destined to succumb to them.In this gateway, the static presence of the cypresses, firmly planted on the ground along the horizon line(metaphor, as we have said, of the individual and its terrestrial transit) is a counterpart of the dynamic whirlwind of randomness and appears to us as a visual support, almost a symbol of firmness and self-determination.Illuminating from this perspective is a reflection of Picasso: "The accidents, trying to change them ... it's impossible. The accidental reveals the man ".
If the one presented so far constitutes the most substantial nucleus of the exhibition, the gaze still saturated with chromatic accents can range and approach images from the more "studied", more controlled, compositional structure, from which appears the desire to include the cosmic inspiration in an ordered pattern of elementary geometries.It is in this series of works that the concept referred to in the title of the exhibition and already widely stated, reaches its most complete expression.The symbolic landscapes traced by Ciampica, where the horizon is only a temporary limit, are here enclosed within the circle,a form that has always been associated with the idea of perfection, of union, of totality but at the same time connected with the evolutionary possibilities, because it is shaped like a large container that welcomes infinite prospects of development.This celestial circular abode is not treated by the author as a figure in itself, that is to say, to the simple format of the tondo, but is deliberately placed in a visual relationship, as well as dialectic, with the quadrilateral of the canvas.We find it both perfectly inscribed and asymmetrically positioned in the quadrangular format, almost to instill the sensation of floating inside the magnetic flow that surrounds it.Assuming the symbolism of the circle as a representation of the intellectual and spiritual dimension, in its dichotomous relation with the square form, it embodies sky in relation to the earth, to all that is material. The more or less abundant color drips that we see bounding trespass beyond the circular perimeter, as if attracted by gravity, are none other than the dynamic image of the interpenetration between Earth and Sky, between the imperfect or the perfectible and the ethereal supernatural world.
At the height of the aesthetic and philosophical research of Ciampica there is a small group of paintings on canvas and on wood dominated by the black-gold combination. Suddenly concealed the multiform and polychromatic routes of randomness, the sky darkens, expanding in a uniform pattern on which golden silhouettes of cypresses stand out like thin tongues of light to pierce the darkness.The black color spreads everywhere, it subdues and eventually incorporates the frame of the painting, meaning that the infinite space, in its incalculable vastness, can contain everything. The substantial monochrome coat does not flatten the surfaces that, on the contrary, wrinkled by a pasty application of the pigment are transformed into a tactile consistency, generating the effect of a luminescent craquelure.The black background becomes a fatal scenario of fixity and almost eternity with which the temporal relativity of gold is compared.In drafting these paintings, the author has made a process of reducing the language of painting to its "zero degree", as if to say to its primary elements, leaving to the chromatic solo and to the modulation of the surface the task of structuring a new rhythmic gaze.Here we are witnessing the accomplishment of the reductio omnium ad unum, recall and reabsorption of the manifold, variously disseminated and variously configured to the Unity.The highest point of abstraction is reached. In the Earthly Sky the opposites of the world and the antinomies of life are reconciled. The contemplative dimension of silence is given to the spectator.
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AXIS MUNDI
Cinzia Cardinali (Art Curator - Art Advisor)
“Aphonia” is a series of paintings whose subject is only generically attributable to the category of landscape painting, since the environmental context is barely evoked and with an intent anything but naturalistic. The composition of the canvas suggests a revival of the theoretical-aesthetic category of the “Sublime”, proper of the European painting of the romantic period, here reinterpreted in an original key according to contemporary canons, both on the conceptual and executive plan. In particular the spatial construction of the image and the chromatic coat recall the “sublime dynamic” defined by Kant, attributable to manifestations of nature characterized by a powerful explosion of energy, by the unleashing of the fury of elements that engenders a whirling speed to the atmosphere. Also the simplicity of composition, where the figurative element of the stems of trees occupies an infinitesimal part compared to the irrepressible spread of the immense sky, recalls the Sublime poetics, that shows the eternal unequal dialogue between finitness and infinite, between the transient earthly dimension and the cosmic totality.
“Aphonia’s” scenery are free of artificial objects, narrative episodes and excempt from any descriptive purposes; they are distinguished as interior landscapes imbued with a strong symbolic power. On the earthly plane, separated almost imperceptibly from the kaleidoscopic sky by the scarcely undulating hilly profile, cypress silhouettes rise up at variable distances, perceptible as conjunction axis between earth and sky. The cypress trees sprinkle the horizon of this pictorial cycle, assuming the same ancestral value of an array of menhir. The artist made them a code, a recurring stylistic feature that is form and content at the same time. The meagre and essential landscape stands on the boundless vastness of a sky lashed by the Abstract Expressionism chromatic vortices, generating a vibrant interpenetration of the figurative element with the forms of abstraction, of the physical plane and the suprasensible. In the creative act the author unfolds total creative freedom, using a gestural and instinctive painting that becomes a mirror of his mood and creates an empathy status where the spectator can read the repercussion of his own inner condition. Although Ciampica’s cypress trees sink roots in his places of origin, in the familiar lands of the Trasimeno lake area, the images evoked are not physical locations, geographically recognizable, but they refer to the universal dimension of the soul and instill an emotional resonance at any latitude.
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