Paola Angelini 保拉・安傑利尼 b. 1983
Paola Angelini’s practice is founded upon the rich tradition of Italian art; and her personal approach to figuration and enigmatic imageries place her in the lineage of influential artists from the Roman School and Magic Realism in the early 20th century.
Born in 1983, Angelini lives and works in her birthplace San Benedetto del Tronto in Italy. She obtained a BA in Painting from Academy of Fine Arts in Florence in 2008. Then, she went on to study visual arts with artist Bjarne Melgaard and curator Marta Kuzma in 2011 and 2013 respectively at IUAV University in Venice. She exhibited at the Norwegian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale in an exhibition titled "Baton Sinister" in collaboration with Bjarne Melgaard. In 2017, she obtained a MA in Fine Arts at KASK & Conservatorium in Ghent, Belgium.
In 2014 and 2016, Angelini participated in the Artist in Residency program at the Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale (NKD), Norway, as well as the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa residency in Venice. She has had solo exhibitions in different cities in Italy, such as Vicenza (Fondazione Coppola), Venice (Ca' Pesaro Museum), Milan (“Italian Painting Now”, Triennale Museum), Urbino (Palazzo Ducale), Prato (Palazzo Pretorio), as well as other countries like the USA and Norway.
Angelini is well recognized in the Italian contemporary art scene. Among the awards she received is the Level 0 award at Art Verona (2014 and 2019) selected by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto (MART) and Ca' Pesaro Museum in Venice.
Aesthetics of Quiet Dissonance
In her visually complex paintings, Paola Angelini weaves personal memory, classical philosophy, art historical references, ancient and contemporary imageries into seemingly discordant yet profoundly silent compositions.
Imbued with a suspended atmosphere, her works pulsate with a spiritual rhythm which reflects her interest in religious iconography and ancestral beliefs. Her figures escape space and time through the decidedly unrealistic rendering of light and shifting perspectives. At times flat, at times filled with volume, these figures seem to be in a constant state between emerging from and dissolving into the background, moving in and out of existence.
Materiality
Materiality plays an important role in Angelini’s visual language. Her way of preparing the canvas with layers of rabbit glue and plaster gives her works a unique skin-like texture that heightens the sensuality of her oneiric imageries, bringing her subjects to live.
The distinct tactility harmonizes her seemingly incongruent compositions of shifting scales and perspectives, allowing her fragmentary subjects derived from ancient imageries, art history and personal memories to come together.
