Atipografia reaches its sixth exhibition and presents Luminous Terrain, a group show by young artists Yulia Iosilzon (Israel, 1992), Grace Mattingly (Chicago, USA, 1991) and Guendalina Cerruti (Milan, 1992). In the spaces of the gallery in Arzignano (Vicenza), the exhibition combines the works of the three artists, finding an aesthetic and conceptual common point in the fairytale and fantastic dimension.

Guendalina Cerruti, Light Bouquet, 2021, colored led bulbs, decorative grommets, canso, translucent polyethylene prop, plastic snap buttons, cm 100 x 30 x 30, courtesy Atipografia, Arzignano

As I have already said several times in various contexts the future of art is in my opinion in the province where no one would ever go, but where rare pearls are born and have been born, one of these is: Atipografia, in the deep Veneto. From the early 20th century until the early 2000s, the space housed a typography, born from the hands of the great-great-grandfather of Elena Dal Molin, now director of Atipografia, which was born in 2014 as a non-profit cultural association dedicated to artist residencies and site-specific projects. Today Atipografia is also an art gallery and has presented several interesting projects in the last two years.

Yulia Iosilzon, Burgundy Tights, 2023, oil painting on transparent fabric, cm 25 x 20, courtesy Atipografia, Arzignano

Today I tell you about the Luminous Terrain exhibition, a project outside the path undertaken by the gallery so far, but for this reason it is interesting because it comes out of its comfort zone. The works on display differ in medium, ranging from painting, sculpture and installation. Their common denominator are the themes dealt with, which the artists share and which they face, each with their own language: images related to the world of fairy tales, the fantastic, enchantment, childhood, the invention of stories and therefore the fiction. Despite the theme, the exhibition wants, as it should, to push the visitor’s gaze to reflect on the images created by the artists, so that one can find himself/herself in some of them and connect it to some real event that has happened. When visiting the exhibition, the great work that the gallery space itself carries out in comparison with the general harmony of the collective cannot go unnoticed: the works, the light and even the smell of the materials help the fruition to the fullest.

Grace Mattingly, Rehearsal, 2023, oil painting on canvas, cm 190 x 140, courtesy Atipografia, Arzignano

Grace Mattingly‘s large and small format paintings are bright and joyful, populated by female and gender-neutral figures that mingle with animals and other creatures in a reality suspended between the dreamlike and the fantastic, while Guendalina Cerruti‘s installations tell of inner monologues of micro universes full of feeling, but also of sarcasm, located between reality, representation and imagination. The artist is the bearer of an enigmatic aesthetic, in which the characters suffer from an existential and social malaise, a product of contemporary society linked (obviously) to consumerism and lifestyles that we would define as glamorous. Finally, Yulia Iosilzon‘s works are inspired by children’s illustrations, the world of fashion and theater to propose stories in large-scale works. The legibility of her works is voluntarily endangered by the persistent use of techniques that interrupt the image, breaking the previous impressions one has of the work in its visual fullness.

Guendalina Cerruti, 400 Oxford St, 2022, acrylic on canvas stitched on patchwork, cm 100 x 100, courtesy Atipografia, Arzignano

Walking through the gallery rooms, fiction and reality meet: the works of these young artists generate a journey along a borderline between our real experience and our unconscious, between symbolic images of popular culture, up to those of mythology and of child psychoanalysis. Luminous Terrain is a group show that asks us to embark on a journey towards an unknown that we apparently don’t remember or that we don’t accept, until we reach another world that reminds us that reality is only one of the possibilities. You can visit this exhibition until 27 July 2023, in Arzignano, near Vicenza where high quality things happen.

Info:

Yulia Iosilzon, Grace Mattingly e Guendalina Cerruti. Luminous Terrain
27/05/2023 – 27/07/2023
ATIPOGRAFIA
Piazza Campo Marzio, 26
36071 – Arzignano (VI)
www.atipografia.it/home

Francesco Liggieri

Independent artist and curator. Founder of No Title Gallery in 2011. I observe, study, ask questions, take informations and live in contemporary art, a real stimulus for my research.