New Delhi, Feb 21 (IANS): Renowned Italian painter Francesca Amalia Grimaldi will exhibit her latest set of works in the national capital on February 23, sharing her take on the identities and ruminations as a woman artist in a contemporary urban world.
The four-day exhibition (February 24-27) titled ‘Metamorphosis’ at LTC, Bikaner House features Francesca’s reflections on India, following her year-long stay in the country.
Uma Nair is the curator of the event organised by Delhi-based Masha Art.
Florence-based Francesca is a trained geologist whose paintings have been on public display for three-and-a-half decades now. The upcoming show will feature a series of abstract studies created in the mould of modern intensities and expression. The paintings and collages, a total of 32, are done in mixed media and acrylic-on-canvas pastels.
The show will be inaugurated on February 23 evening (Friday, 6 p.m.) by the Italian Ambassador in India Vincenzo De Luca and art historian and author Aman Nath, founder of Neemrana Hotels.
Francesca, a landscapist-turned-abstractionist, formally studied the Classics and has a degree in geological sciences, from which she draws her deep passion for the history of art while also finding inspiration from nature.
Having created ripples in her native country, she will now showcase what she created between 2020 and 2024, after living in India for a year now and appreciating its cultural fabric.
The artist recalls her initial artistic creations were deeply influenced by works with a predominantly figurative character.
Her love for landscape painting often stems from a desire to capture the essence of a place and the beauty that surrounds us.
“Landscape painting allows me to express their deep connection with the environment and convey their emotional responses to the natural world,” she says.
Curator Uma Nair notes that the paintings in Metamorphosis abandon figurative themes and focus on the new frontiers of the abstract.
These works let the shapes, lines and colour dominate in a bid to reach the manifestation of internal emotions, she notes.
“This is done by making use of a language characterised by a contracted drawing synthesis and a great chromatic value,” the curator adds about Francesca, whose works can be found in private collections in Italy and abroad.
To famed Italian critics, Francesca’s works on the subject of the world and her inner rumination, as she faces life in all its many shades and shadows of travels and life’s leanings.
‘Metamorphosis’, though, deviates from her course with its abstract studies created in the mould of modern intensities and expression.
The paintings in the exhibition are those of deepened depths of abstract tenor and an understanding of atmospherics beginning with a Goan landscape, an abstract study titled ‘Under the Sea’ and a diptych named 'For War’.