Exhibition of Italian duo celebrates China-Italy ties
The Zhejiang Art Museum is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the establishment of comprehensive strategic cooperation between China and Italy by hosting an exhibition of Italian artists Sandro Sanna and Donato Piccolo.
The "Visual Traps: Slide in between Atoms" exhibition will run until February 13.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella paid a visit to Hangzhou last month amid the two countries' warm cultural ties. An exhibition at the China Academy of Art was held to mark the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's death and his adventures across China.
This time, the Italian Cultural Institute in Shanghai is hosting the duo exhibition, which showcases cutting-edge artwork from the far-off European nation.
There are 42 pieces by Sanna and Piccolo, including paintings, mixed-media pieces and art installations. The on-site installations reveal a captivating maze of light and shadow.
The two painters reflect unique approaches to current Italian art. Sanna is well-known for his exploration of light and space, which he expresses through abstract forms that reflect the movement of nature and time.
To decipher the inexplicable secrets of the visible world, Piccolo uses technology to combine mechanical installations with natural materials. Because of their unique artistic languages, the two artists collaborate to create visual traps that provoke deep artistic observations between stationary and moving objects.
Sandro Sanna is well-known for his exploration of light and space.
"Sanna and Piccolo arrive in a context defined by a centuries-old artistic vocation: a genuine reflection of the fundamental vision of the universe. Incredibly, the artworks on display represent precisely a world in which the content is understandable by Chinese people as long as they use traditional philosophy and cosmological concepts," said Francesco D'Arelli, director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Shanghai.
Sanna, born in Sardinia in 1950, moved to Rome in 1965. Since 1974, he has been teaching in the Painting Department of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, dedicated to researching and exploring the dialectical relationship between light and form, space and time , questioning the destructiveness, variability and temporality of existing things, as well as the possibility of grasping certainty. In Rome, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna and the Palazzo Venezia have collections of his paintings.
Donato Piccolo often uses technology to combine mechanical installations with natural materials.
Piccolo's artistic sphere includes Rome, Berlin and New York. He is a well-known naturalist, physicist and biologist who teaches in the New Media department at Rome University of Fine Arts.
Painting, sculpture and mechanical installations are among the forms he uses in his work. Their function, according to the artist, is similar to atomic sliding and tunneling theories. He installs machinery and devices and, using powerful machine components, analyzes the forms and processes of the experienced world.
Piccolo took part in the 52nd and 54th Venice Biennales, and his paintings are displayed and acquired by institutions worldwide.
For those who are more interested in the cultural contacts between Italy and China, the China Academy of Art gallery is next to the museum. The exhibition "The Perfect Path: Hangzhou, Marco Polo's City of Heaven" is currently underway, featuring works by Chinese artists who offer fresh perspectives on the language of visual art. It focuses on a generation that, while steeped in a millennium of tradition, has blazed a new trail.
A painting by Piccolo
If you go
Date: Through February 13 (closed on Mondays)
Hours: 9am-4:30pm
Admission: Free
Address: 128 Nanshan Rd
南山路128号
