GIUSEPPE VASSALLO | GIUSEPPE SCIORTINO, LUNATICO | LUNARE

Giuseppe Sciortino | Giuseppe Vassallo

LUNATICO | LUNARE

Curated by Ilaria Introzzi

Opening Tuesday, September 19th 2023 at 7:00 p.m

September 20 - November 10 2023

Galleria Patricia Armocida of Milan is pleased to announce the duo exhibition Lunatico | Lunare by Giuseppe Sciortino and Giuseppe Vassallo (Palermo, 1988 and 1990), curated by Ilaria Introzzi, opening on Tuesday, September 19th 2023 at 7:00 p.m.

The exhibition focuses on two artists who are similar but also very different. Academic artists, also due to their training, yet, at the same time, free from any theoretical, technical, and formal conventions, they create highly personal works.

A different yet familiar dimension where seemingly imaginary spaces and eras find their definition and essence.

Lunatico | Lunare is a manifesto, in short, of their artwork thus far and a vision for its evolution in the future.

In the series dedicated to miniatures, Giuseppe Sciortino plays with perspective balance-imbalance and the subjects are not human or natural figures, but rather everyday (micro)settings. And, on a more intimate level, the memory left on cardboard, paper, or panel, is clearly visible to spectators thanks to precise chromatic choices of recognizable symbols.

An unconscious and entirely chance expedient, the result of an internal processing of ordinary situations that anyone can experience at any moment: noticing wrinkled sheets; looking at a simple tile; seeing a tissue on the floor.

Spectators are naturally prompted to move closer to examine the content, hence assuming the same position of the artist when he was painting: seeing the image beyond the painting. Different objects from segments of reality. Things without apparent meaning or value, which, included within the artwork, act as fragments of memories: the signifiers of his artwork are visions of everyone’s lives.

Diapositives on display, deliberately avoiding the writing of a story. Instead, the casualness with which they’re installed is the intrinsic cipher and interpretation of Sciortino’s refined style. Of how memories can instinctively surface in no particular order.

Giuseppe Vassallo guides Lunatico | Lunare visitors on a journey where what catches the eye most are the paintings from which a fine, precious dust emerges, both visually and internally, a testament to a luminous yet intimate scenario, marked by life in some way, where nature ideally merges with humankind. Thus the artist conducts his own authorial research which, in addition to his homeland and his passions- photos shot with analog cameras and vintage photos found at flea markets, his Motoguzzi with which he travels along the coasts of Palermo – contributes to the creation of the humanity in his artworks.

Images of figures immersed in water, subjects looking at their reflections in the element, and landscapes, mainly seascapes, serve as the occasion for a composition – on canvas or panel- born of the need to express oneself through a sign, that of painting. Spontaneous gestures, backgrounds that are monochrome or colored, speckled with contrasting particles of light. Movements adapted to the subject, though reminiscent of the first technique Vassallo experimented with: sculpture. A method developed over the years when he had not yet chosen painting as his main vocation.

Plastic gestures of bodies and spaces influenced by his homeland and the young artists of Palermo with whom he grew up with during his time at the Art Academy up to the present. Memories that become artistic medium and autobiography for the observer.

BIOGRAPHIES

Giuseppe Sciortino (Palermo, 1988). After attending Eustachio Catalano Art High School in his hometown, he moves to Florence to take Professor Adriano Bimbi’s famous painting classes at the Fine Arts Academy, and graduates in 2011. Thanks to Bimbi, one of Italy’s most well-regarded sculptors, considered his “life mentor”, he partakes in several artist residencies and projects, engaging with different topics and already established colleagues. With their guidance, he understands the craft of painting, slowly mastering the medium and the language that still accompany him today.

Some other mentors are Mauro Pratesi and Susanna Ragionieri under whom he studied.

After about six years of collective projects, he zooms in on the kind of subjects that will characterize his artwork from then on, namely those objects, figures, and situations that attract his attention, or rather what he calls "my distraction", meaning they’re not images of the present - photographic - but portrayals of the past. Painted memories.

Full-time painter, since 2017 he has been teaching drawing and painting in private lessons, academic settings, and for organizations.

The Lunatico Lunare exhibition at Galleria Patricia Armocida is his first solo show in Milan, curated by Ilaria Introzzi.

Some recent shows: I luoghi possibili solo show in 2022 at Galleria Indigo Perugia and Quadri da marciapiede, Second Edition, curated by Bohdan Stupak at O/R Artroom, Milan. The year after he was a Premio Combat finalist and took part in the event held at Villa Mimbelli, Livorno. In 2020 he wins the Premio Mestre di Pittura at Centro Culturale Candiani, in Venice Mestre, while in 2019 he’s co-protagonist of Confini soggettivi, Chiasso Perduto, Florence. And in 4x1=1° - Giovani artisti dell’Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze per Primo Conti, Museo Primo Conti, Fiesole (FI, 2017). He’s particularly influenced by his experience in the home of the Spanish painter Xavier Bueno, during the 2017 event Visite nelle case d’artista: summer residencies with his Art Academy colleagues, students of Adriano Bimbi, who were asked by institutions, curators, and art critics, to develop a specific theme for a particular place or person.

Giuseppe Vassallo (Palermo, 1990). From a young age he shows a talent for depictions, mainly and obsessively, for drawings. As for figurative art in general, he selects sculpture, which he studied at Eustachio Catalano Art High School in Palermo, as his preferred medium. While studying, he also embarks on a path to teach himself how to paint. A long and multi-layered path which will become the chronicle of every single work and formative experience, distilled and spread throughout all his artwork. Thanks to photography, at the service of painting, trustworthy guide for every reflection, utilized as a sketch for constructing images.

His interest in the subject matter and in figures also characterizes his years at Palermo’s Fine Arts Academy, where he got his undergraduate degree in Museum exhibition planning and design and then his Masters in Graphic arts, to further study chalcography techniques.

At this end of this period and in parallel with his first group exhibitions in Palermo, such as Imago Mundi - Rotte Mediterranee, Luciano Benetton Collection / Cantieri Culturali della Zisa - Spazio ZAC (2017); PALERMO17 - Simone Geraci, Simone Stuto, Giuseppe Vassallo, curated by Giusi Affronti, at La Piana Arte Contemporanea Gallery (2017), he also shows his work in other parts of Italy: in 2016 in Tuscany at SRISA in Florence with De Pingendi Natura and at Galleria Susanna Orlando in Pietrasanta (LU), curated by Pietro Gaglianò, where he is also part of the 2020 group show GRAND hotel ORLANDO. 

Milan is where his most recent shows take place: the group exhibition Quadri da marciapiede, Second Edition (2022), curated by Bohdan Stupak at O/R Artroom; his first Milanese solo show LUCE PRIVATA at Mieru Mieru (2022) and Lunatico / Lunare  (2023) at Galleria Patricia Armocida, both curated by Ilaria Introzzi, marking the continuum of his expressive journey.

His work is welcomed abroad in 2018 with Residenza + Mostra, curated by Virginia Glorioso at the Italian Cultural Institute of Budapest, in collaboration with Várfok Galérie. Another important experience which leads him to consider a hands-on approach to the surrounding landscape while plein-air painting. A detectable point of view in all his works, even future ones. That same year he’s part of the group show Komm mit nach Palermo curated by Synne Genzmer at the Italian Cultural Institute of Vienna. 

Some other noteworthy exhibits: Usque ad sidera, usque ad inferos, gli spazi infiniti posseduti dall’artista Giuseppe Vassallo/Roberta Busato, The Others Art Fair 2019 with Galleria Susanna Orlando, Turin, the duo exhibition Dikotomica with Simone Stuto, curated by Giovanni Scucces, with text by Mariateresa Zagone, SACCA Contenitore di Sicilianità, Pozzallo (RG), and the recent solo show Non è mai come appare (2022) at La Piana Arte Contemporanea in Palermo. 

Of note is his presence in the 2020 - 2021 Mestre di Pittura Prize at the Fondazione Musei Civici in Venice and his participation in the 2019 Premio Combat Prize catalog, published by Sillabe.