Giacinto Occhionero. Reversibility Arch

About

The exhibition includes seven new paintings made onto the reverse side of transparent plexiglass and viewed from the front.  A small booklet containing images of the paintings and brief statements by the artist and the gallery is available.

“Reversibility Arch,” marks an exciting new direction for Occhionero, towards a cosmic and enigmatic territory in painting.  Over the past three years, Occhionero has explored the dot motif as a pointillist component of floral compositions and abstract patterns.  He has also used it as a template through which to explore the different visual effects he can create by layering bursts of spray paint onto transparent surfaces.  In this new series, Occhionero’s dots appear in alternately metallic, acidic, and juicy colors.  Suspended between the glossy surface of the painting and a view of land and sky in the background, the small circles of color cascade and swirl towards the viewer with a sense of luminous energy.

For over a decade, Occhionero has maintained a studio in the industrial outskirts of Rome, where he has explored a process of painting on transparent synthetic surfaces.  For "Reversibility Arch," he has expanded his research by painting each work in two separate layers, an initial layer of small colorful circles, sometimes outlined in a contrasting color, and a second layer that conveys the sense of a misty landscape or an animated ocean floor.  As the artist describes, "tears, stripes, discolorations and corrosions appear, as well as dazzling reflections, underwater movement, the precipitation of stormy skies, and moving land--chiseled and scratched."  He paints each work freely and imaginatively, with the hope of conveying a sense of fragility, spontaneity, and simultaneity.