Celestial Heights, mostra personale Achao

About

The solo exhibition of French artist Achao entitled Celestial Heights will be inaugurated on Saturday 22 June at 7 pm. The event will be presented to the public by international art critic Marta Lock and has the patronage of the Institut Français in Rome, whose team and communications manager will be present. The artist will be in the gallery at the disposal of visitors for the duration of the exhibition to illustrate and present his new large-format works that will develop the theme of spirituality through three complementary expressive themes, always marked by Achao's personal reinterpretation of Abstract Expressionism and characterised by stylised leaves that bring him close to the master Henri Matisse: Pantha Rei, Mandala and Vahanas.

What emerges clearly is the strong spirituality that is released by the large free-standing works, i.e. without a frame, to instil a more immersive feeling in the observer who seems to enter a dimension of calm and well-being thanks to the enveloping colour tones and floating shapes that characterise Achao's production. Marta Lock says of him:

"Achao's most recent production is developed through three main themes, that of nature evident in the evocations of leaves that bring him close to the artworks of Henri Matisse's last period, as well as the universe as a whole, the stars, the shape of bodies gliding; the Mandalas in which the circular shape predominates because the artist considers the perfection of the inner circle; and finally the rectangular Vahanas that reach upwards because in Hinduism they constitute the vehicle of divinity, the means by which individuals can bring it to themselves, multiplying its powers. Not only that, what is common to all of Achao's paintings is the evocation of music both in the titles and in the shapes that seem to literally float on the large canvases where he works with acrylic paints superimposing different layers of shapes that give the sensation of movement; the link with Matisse, who dedicated two of his most important canvases of the Fauves period to music and dance, can also be seen in this, and is manifested in Achao's art with abstract and transparent forms, despite the strong and decisive tones chosen for each layer. Classical music is the absolute protagonist of all the titles of his artworks, because it is thanks to its accompaniment that the inner self is predisposed to open up towards a new, more spiritual passage and dialogue with that unconscious world that needs constant work to emerge."

The one at the Galleria Angelica is the second stage of a series of exhibitions that will see Achao working in Italy and France. In fact, the first appointment was inaugurated on 27 May at the Institut Français, which can be visited until 27 June, then the works featured in Italy will be exhibited from 31 July to 11 August at the Richard Casteau Exhibition Hall in Roussillon en Provence, France, and finally the exhibition tour will end at the Saint-Jean Campus and Dome. UCLY (Catholic University of Lyon) in Lyon, France, with an exhibition that will run from 19 September to 28 November 2024.

Achao is in his fifth solo exhibition in Italy, and third in Rome; Celestial Heights will be on view until 30 June 2024.

CELESTIAL HEIGHTS-PERSONAL EXHIBITION ACHAO

From 22 to 30 June 2024

Angelica Gallery

Via di Sant'Agostino, 11

Rome

VERNISSAGE: Saturday 22 June at 7 p.m.

OPENING HOURS: from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily

ENTER: free