curated by Francesca Referza

Thursday 25th September 2013 Velan will inaugurate VERSUS XIX with works by: Paola Angelini, Sara Enrico, Helena Hladilová, Alessandro Roma, Namsal Siedlecki. Coetaneous of Artissima – which this year celebrates its twentieth year from foundation, Velan Center presents in 2013 the nineteenth edition of Versus, a classic in the program of the center, an exhibition presenting the works of young artists, many of whom have already achieved important rewards such as prizes, invitation in foreign institutions for research or specific assignments,  temporary presence in many institutional exhibitions. This year’s edition aims to be a visual micro reflection about the possibility of re-evaluating painting, in the works of five young artists. Expressive technique with a lumbering historical heritage, in particular in our country, painting has been treated with a sort of snobbism by the latest generations, but has come recently to be rediscovered as an expression media in a traditional sense but also as a technique allowing the artist a surprising versatility.

Paola Angelini (San Benedetto del Tronto, Ascoli Piceno, 1983) uses drawing and painting as the fluid instruments of an inner research with interesting psychoanalytic results. Her pictures, frequently large in dimensions, very often take their origin from very small animals placed in the foreground as if to establish a sort of space ‘limen’. From that starting point Paola Angelini develops an almost always figurative painting, but with strong inner projections, leading the observer far beyond the painted subject, also thanks to an accurate choice of colour. What surprises in the work of this young painter from Marche region is the power of her images, obtained with the use of cold colours side by side with lively ones, the presence of deep shadows and the material density of the line.

Sara Enrico (Biella, 1979) takes advantage of the sculptural possibilities of painting through a systematic research of its chromatic as well as of progressive transformation potentialities. She reinforces the use of the material testing combinations which can in a way destroy the specific functions of the material itself. The works of the artist from Turin are in fact the result of a multiplicity of direct and indirect passages from the original material on different kinds of media, from the most traditional canvas or tissue to the more modern scanner       and computer, opening interactions also with more ample reference systems. The obtained result contains panting in its DNA, nevertheless keeping minimal visual traces of it.

Helena Hladilová (Kroměříž, Czech Republic, 1983) is an attentive observer. Her work originates in general from the discovery of details, often invisible because they are small or hidden or forgotten. The artist takes inspiration from the starting environmental conditions to create works which, by stimulating the sense in a brand new way, force the observer to consider a thing in a different way, sometimes just by substituting or adding an element. In my opinion the works by Hladilová show often  a mixture of  irony and melancholy, deriving I think from the culture of her origins.

The works by Alessandro Roma (Milan, 1977) are fascinating compositions, a sort of Piranesi style of our time. In his artistic practice Roma uses collage as a preferred technique, but he creates also terracotta sculptures and bas-reliefs in large dimensions. His collages are tromp l’oeil where the surface, at a certain distance appears to be uniform, while at a more attentive observation it appears to be a texture of different forms, whose original iconographic forms, such as trees, plants, rocks, can be inferred but not immediately recognised. Taking inspiration from traditional painting Alessandro Roma has created a personal and refined artistic language where oil painting, mixed with spray, varnish and graphite is able to transform elements taken from external landscapes in a visual experience which recovers back to the memories (lived or imagined) of the observer.

Namsal Siedlecki (Greenfield, USA, 1986). After the imprinting in the Accademia di Carrara, the artist has started to radically bring into question the traditional idea of sculpture with a series of installations where the few basic elements were combined and reread through the ideas or origin an time. In his more recent works the artist is becoming more and more interested in the possibility of the recovery of the original identity of the material, which is physical and poetic at the same time.

The artists:

Paola Angelini (San Benedetto del Tronto, 1983), lives and works in Venice

Sara Enrico (Turin, 1979), lives and works in Turin

Helena Hladilová (Kroměříž, Czech Republic, 1983), lives and works between Rome and Turin

Alessandro Roma (Milan, 1977), lives and works in London

Namsal Siedlecki (USA, 1986), lives and works in Turin

We thank the artists, Brand new gallery, Milan and Massimo De Luca, Mestre. The exhibition will remain open from September 27th to October 31st, 2013 from Thursday to Saturday from 3:30 pm to 7:30 pm