Paola Angelini: What is Orange? Why, an Orange, just an Orange!
Marsèlleria presents “What is orange? Why, an Orange, Just an Orange!“, the first solo show in Milan by artist Paola Angelini. The exhibition features a selection of large and small paintings, created during a residency at NDK (Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dale), on the Norwegian fjords. The series takes its cue from another work produced during the residency, “La storia raccontata da mio padre”. In the canvas the different stages of a story – shared in a private setting – coexist on the same plane in a coherent pictorial style.
Conversely, the canvases from the series “What is orange? Why, an Orange, Just an Orange!“, only leave room for the objects represented. The new paintings thus become still lifes or compositions, in which “La storia raccontata da mio padre” lingers on the background. They leave aside every committment to narrative representation and, by selecting and deleting single elements, they let the subjects emerge with levity. Far from being a symptom of carelessness, this process appears as the only possible approach to continue a research consisting of marks, drawings, matter on canvas. The common trait in the series is the colour orange – but it could have been blue or pink – that creates the necessary suspension to extend this exercise of removal.
Paola Angelini was born in 1983 in San Benedetto del Tronto. She studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. She participated in several exhibitions in private galleries and museums in Italy and abroad. In 2011 she attended the Visual Arts workshop at IUAV in Venice with Bjarne Melgaard, and in the same year she exhibited in the Norwegian pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, part of the show Baton Sinister curated by Melgaard. She received several awards including Level 0 Award ArtVerona in 2014, selected by Mart Museum in Rovereto. In 2014 she was artist-in-residence at Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale (NKD, Norway) and at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in Venice. Her solo shows include: Regio, curated by Arild H.Eriksen, Massimodeluca Gallery, Mestre – Venice (2014); Landskapet, Nordic Artists’Centre Dale (NKD), Norway (2014); Blue Memory, at Rod Bianco Gallery, Oslo (2012). She is currently artist-in-residence at Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale (NKD, Norway). She lives and works in Ghent (BG).
