Acrylic painting
104x138 cm
2021

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Assenza/Essenza (Rome n.2) is part of a homonymous series, which focusses on the challenge of removing the support from paint, by making it become the sole protagonist of the work, thanks to the study of an extreme use of colour.

The purpose of disengaging from the technicality of the support is to turn the colour itself into the support of the work. This is possible through the method of stratification, where the layers of colour are laid one upon the other until it deposits, becoming a compact and material “sheet”.

The composition of this work is also enriched by the signs left in the atelier from the previous works. Here the artist uses nylon panels as a work surface, from which the “sheets” of colour are later removed. The traces of the previous works is still present on the nylon, becoming incorporated and carried over in Assenza/Essenza when it is detached. This process helps creating an elaborate tapestry of infiltration and superimposition.

In Assenza/Essenza, the artist becomes an alchemist, manoeuvring the matter in the Nigredo phase, where everything is still transforming and the mixing colours are visible but not all identifiable. Through the action of time and chance, the work comes to life, freeing itself of both the static nature of the support and the artist’s manipulation.