Terre senz'ombra, by Francesco Poiana at Messum's, Cork Street, London.
During our last trip to London we went to the Royal Academy and then popped into Messum's as their exhibition looked interesting.
Lands Without Shadow, is the translation of the title of these works by Poiana. Lands without shadow is a phrase used to describe a state of openness, a land where truth abounds because there are no shadows in which falsity can hide.
These paintings are joyous, communicating lived experience through emotional responses to colour. The focal point is light - specifically the period of fleeting illumination between night and day - and the beauty and physicality of form created by the meeting of colours. The works are an explosion of exuberant, contrasting, almost Fauvist colour that define the landscape and eliminate darkness. These are not literal landscapes, but terrains shaped by perception, intuition and memory. At times, the images seem to slip beyond representation, moving towards the abstract.
La Casa del Vescovo, 2025, (carborundum print)
L'ultima Luna, 2025, (carborundum print with hand colouring)
Materia Dell'ombra, 2025, (carborundum print with monotype)
Salina Pink and Magenta, 2022, (mixed media)
Salina Orange, 2022, (watercolour and gouache on paper)
Shoreline Salinas, 2022, (watercolour and gouache on paper)
Salina Notte, 2022, (acrylic on paper)
Salina Sunset 1, 2022, (watercolour and gouache on paper)
Salina High Tide, 2022, (oil on canvas)
Hello Erine
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment about the paintings being joyous. They truly are.
It occurs to me perhaps these kinds of paintings would be really good at hospitals and hospices. I used to push my late grandad about in his chair and would often walk by gloomy foreboding type of landscapes. Barren, overcast stuff ... I used to have work extra hard with jokes or silly persiflage to lighten the atmosphere.
Some of these paintings remind me of rothko. I think he taps into something v. profound in our biology and make-up.