Veronica Smirnoff – Tales of Bright and Brittle

La galleria Riccardo Crespi presenta Tales of Bright and Brittle (Racconti di Fulgore e Fragilità), la terza personale in Italia dell’artista inglese di origine russa Veronica Smirnoff.

Comunicato stampa

La mostra sarà accompagnata da un libro edito da Gli Ori, Pistoia. | The exhibition will be accompanied by a book published by Gli Ori, Pistoia.

La galleria Riccardo Crespi presenta Tales of Bright and Brittle (Racconti di Fulgore e Fragilità), la terza personale in Italia dell’artista inglese di origine russa Veronica Smirnoff.

Le opere in mostra costituiscono un corpus quasi completamente unitario, concepito e dipinto tra il 2017 e il 2018 dall’artista che approfondisce varie intuizioni tra fantasia e storia, folclore e immaginazione. Smirnoff trae ispirazione dalle sue esperienze di luoghi, dal suo amore per libri e racconti, nel rispetto di storia, miti ed epiche comuni.

La tempera all'uovo su tavola gessata, una delle tecniche più antiche e minuziose, è strumentale al procedimento in cui l’artista combina la tecnica dell’icona con la miniatura, la tradizione asiatica con l'arte popolare, nonché con spunti e simboli da altre fonti, per aggiungere significato e validità ai suoi soggetti. Impadronendosi di diversi linguaggi pittorici attraverso giustapposizione irrazionale e pura intuizione, fa intuire l'implacabile conflitto tra figurazione e astrazione, un equilibrio sottile e costantemente re-immaginato tra allegoria e appropriazione.
Nelle parole dell'artista: "La magia dell’audacia di raccontare quel che sempre accade nello spazio mentale è la prova dell'immaginazione che permette di muoverci liberamente nel regno della fantasia, riluttanti a mettere in discussione la mancanza di logica tra le cose incomprensibili che prima o poi trovano un senso e ci insegnano qualcosa sul mondo reale."

Gli spunti tematici sono molteplici e inestinguibili: in Scarlet and Seraphim l’esplicito riferimento a L’isola dei morti di Böcklin si allenta in uno spazio più luminoso, suggerendo la possibilità di esplorare ancora pittura e vita - che qui mostrano un destino comune in cui pensieri ed immagini sono soggetti ad un eterno ritorno. Non mancano neppure i cenni al mondo contemporaneo, nella sua bellezza e fragilità: Echelon mostra un gruppo di persone incolonnate, forse migranti - ma più semplicemente esseri umani - in cammino verso ignoti territori, in cui ognuno porta storia e sensibilità proprie: ciò che rende unico il nostro viaggio, racchiuso in una memoria collettiva, mai priva dell'antico istinto di meraviglia, sicurezza e speranza.

Veronica Smirnoff, nata a Mosca nel 1979, vive e lavora tra Londra e Mosca.
Alcune mostre: 2016 Anthropocene, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milano; 10. Group show 2006-2016, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milano 2015 Painting Now, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milano 2014 Forward, Eton College, Windsor, UK; A Midsummer Night’s: Dreams... and Music, St Peter’s Church, Londra; Would Be Worlds, Erarta Gallery, Londra; Walls, Pushkin House, Londra 2013 Beyond The Shore, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milano; EVERYWHERE BUT NOW, 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Salonicco, Grecia; Renewal of the Sacred, House of the Nobleman, Londra; The Future Can’t Wait, B1, Victoria House, Londra 2012 Dreaming Beauties, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milano; The Madding Spring, Gallery Vela, Londra 2011 Opulent Vision, Ford Project Gallery, New York 2010 BRIC Theme Auction, Saatchi Gallery, Londra; John Moores Painting Prize 2010, Walker Art Gallery, National Museums, Liverpool; Zhar, Galerie Stanislas Bourgain, Parigi 2009 Women to Watch: The Figure Re-Figured, Friends of National Museum of Women in the Arts, Londra 2008 Invasion: Evasion, Baibakov art projects, Mosca; Morozka, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milano 2006 TGU, Zoo Art Fair, Londra; Lenin Lovers, Curator Space Gallery, Londra 2005 Baroquerocks, Espace Brochage Express Gallery, Parigi

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Riccardo Crespi gallery is pleased to present Tales of Bright and Brittle, the third solo exhibition in Italy by the British artist of Russian origin Veronica Smirnoff.

The paintings on show make up the body of work, conceived and created between 2017 and 2018, which explores various insights into the fantastical and historical, the folkloric and illusory. Smirnoff draws inspiration from her experiences of places, her love for books and tales, abiding with history, myths and old epics that people hold in common.

The egg tempera on gessoed wood, one of the oldest and finicky techniques, is instrumental to the artist's working process. She employs methodology, associated with icon and miniature painting, Asian tradition and folk art as well as ideas, symbols and gestures from other sources to add meaning and validity to her subjects. Borrowing from different pictorial languages versus irrational proximity and pure intuition somewhat intimates the relentless conflict between figuration and abstraction, a subtle and constantly reimagined balance between allegory and appropriation.
In the artist's words: ''The magic of daring to relate something always happens in the mental space. It is a test of imagination which allows us to move freely in the realm of fantasy, reluctant to question the lack of mental connection between the incomprehensible things that eventually make sense and teach us something about the real world."

The thematic cues are opulent and self-perpetuating: in Scarlet and Seraphim, the explicit reference to Böcklin’s Isle of the Dead loosens into a more luminous ephemeral space, evincing that it is still possible to explore painting and life. Here they reveal a common destiny in which thoughts and images are subject to an eternal return. Incidentally there are always allusions to the contemporary world, enduring in its beauty and fragility: Echelon depicts a group of people walking in line, perhaps migrants but simply human beings heading for unknown lands, to where each will bring his or her own story and sensibility. Thus every individual journey is unique yet embraced by our collective memory, never bereft of the ancient instinct of elementary wonder, belief and hope.

Veronica Smirnoff was born in Moscow in 1979. She lives and works in London and Moscow.
Selected exhibitions: 2016 Anthropocene, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milan; 10. Group show 2006-2016, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milan 2015 Painting Now, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milan 2014 Forward, Eton College, Windsor, UK; A Midsummer Night’s: Dreams... and Music, St Peter’s Church, London; Would Be Worlds, Erarta Gallery, London; Walls, Pushkin House, London 2013 Beyond The Shore, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milan; EVERYWHERE BUT NOW, 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece; Renewal of the Sacred, House of the Nobleman, London; The Future Can’t Wait, B1, Victoria House, London 2012 Dreaming Beauties, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milan; The Madding Spring, Gallery Vela, London 2011 Opulent Vision, Ford Project Gallery, New York 2010 BRIC Theme Auction, Saatchi Gallery, London; John Moores Painting Prize 2010, Walker Art Gallery, National Museums, Liverpool; Zhar, Galerie Stanislas Bourgain, Paris 2009 Women to Watch: The Figure Re-Figured, Friends of National Museum of Women in the Arts, London 2008 Invasion: Evasion, Baibakov art projects, Moscow; Morozka, Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milan 2006 TGU, Zoo Art Fair, London; Lenin Lovers, Curator Space Gallery, London 2005 Baroquerocks, Espace Brochage Express Gallery, Paris