He has participated in several exhibitions and collaborations in Italy and abroad, including „Summer Workshop 2022“ at the „Studio Enrique Martínez Celaya“ in Los Angeles, CA, an exhibition and discussion of work and Artistic collaboration between „Casablanca studio“ and „LIAF“, and the 59th Venice Art Biennale curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi and LIAF, curated by Pauline Curnier Jardin.
What mediums do you prefer to work with, and why?
As a painter, I prefer classical methods of representation on canvas or wood panels. I have an unconventional approach to painting. I believe it is an ongoing process, and there are many intermediate stages in my work that I try to enhance while completing a painting. The images I create are mnemonic; therefore, not drawing on any photographic or real reference, I make use of the construction of pictorial traces that I make on the canvas with acrylic and cans. These spontaneous gestures and color choices help transform and guide the compositions through the dynamism and unpredictability of the figures.
You reside in Venice. How does the city inspire you?
I have lived in Venice for about ten years now, and it is a city that is anything but easy to live in. As we know and as it is for most Italian cities, it is steeped in history and culture, and it is akin to living inside a museum without walls. It certainly conditions me to live here; all the history and architecture seem to hold us accountable for the „beauty“ one wants to have imparted in one’s work.
What role does emotion play in your art?
I would say something very important: let me explain myself better. I would like to say that it is not „emotion“ that plays a role, but I am more convinced that it is experience. What I mean is that I discover myself as I develop work, and it is a way of talking about me or what my psychological realities may be. Maybe I could be romantic? Maybe. It’s a thrill to think that someone empathizes with the emotions I would like to convey through the images—that in a way they understand me. I wonder: is it possible? In the meantime, I try.
Where do you work? Can you describe your studio space?
I recently changed studios, and now I find myself painting with some painters I already knew from my academic background. „Zolforosso“ is an artist-run studio born in 2017 in Venice, which to date has three spaces and is occupied by 14 artists, distributed in two ateliers: one in the historic Venetian neighborhood of Santa Croce and the other in mainland Mestre, in Viale San Marco; plus a „Third Space“ exhibition space. Through the exploration of diversified personal research (ranging from painting to sculpture, from installation to new media), zolforosso investigates contemporary artistic production, experimenting with new ways of working, participation, and community sharing. It is an open place of continuous confrontation, a laboratory, an association, as well as an exhibition space.
How do you overcome creative blocks or challenges?
More than overcoming creative blocks, I feel that there are things that I have to respect about myself in order not to fall back into unsatisfactory situations. Painting is a craft that has no restrictions of any kind, no timelines, and where haste or a sense of duty are feelings that need to be pushed away. It means having a cool head, where the moment I don’t feel I have too much „drive“ I need to give up, for a few days, the thing I love most, which for me is painting. Constantly, I question myself about what I want to communicate and how to manage to be as rational as possible with myself and my ideas. I am very concerned with curating this „language“ that belongs to me, and this helps me to have greater foresight about everything I do.
Do you have a pet?
Sort of: one of my roommates recently brought home a dog, and my parents have one too; it is interesting to be a secondary character in their lives; it makes our relationship very genuine. I would say that I spent my childhood with many animals, and with each of them, I feel I experienced stories that I still tell with pleasure as if they were friends. Then again, I didn’t play football with kids but preferred to spend my time at the pond with tadpoles.
How did the current series about dogs come about? What led to its creation?
Let’s say that dogs have always been the subjects I have most represented, and in addition to a special fondness for them, I was intrigued by the paintings of past masters where they were depicted. Animals have been secondary characters in painting; a way for artists to talk about themselves, to show themselves to the public for what they most deeply were. I see Goya’s „Perro enterrado en arena“ when I think of dogs in painting. Mystical figures are a symbol that has enormous importance for human civilization. „The dog can find what we have lost in the proverbial forest of the unknown and procure food by hunting; in some cultures, it was thought to be in contact with the spirit world.“ (A. Ronnberg and K. Martin, The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images) I work by appealing to the cliché, repurposing things that have already been proposed and revised in art, almost as if the goal was to bore us or make us realize that deep down our fantasies, are always the same. We could talk about the same thing a million times, but we will never be bored.
Do you have any upcoming projects or exhibitions?
From January to February, I am participating in a group show called „Haunted Garden“ with a group of young Italian artists at „The Artist Room“ exhibition space in London, and several exhibitions have just ended. Ironically enough, the only serious schedule I have this year is to be calm and work.
Alessandro Miotti – www.instagram.com/miotti_alessandro/
