Air
The White Shadows

Venice, Chiesa della Misericordia

Friday 15 March – Wednesday 20 March 2019

curated by Luca Beatrice

Evaporating as the atmosphere of his painting, Air tries one of the most difficult challenges for those who try their hand in the art of painting today, in the contemporary era: facing white and turning it into shadow, alluding to the realistic image eluding its verisimilitude. Whenever it comes close to some certainty, it immediately discards in another direction: so Air surprises us, escapes us, freeing ourselves from any definition that is too immediate. One would say: pure and simple painting. The young Lombard artist, whose identity lies behind the nom de plume Air Daryal, comes to the test of maturity after having passed in recent years interesting training experiences such as the award at the Triennale di Verona in 2016, the solo exhibition at the Maimeri Foundation in Milan at the beginning of 2018.

The exhibition at the Chiesa della Misericordia in Venice will present the new production of Air: about fifteen large format paintings dominated by the sense of shadows, white shadows obtained through the layering of a few colors that are added to that research on the materials of which the artist does not reveal the procedure, thus maintaining the mystery of the “recipe”. Selene, Igea and Acropolys, Atlas and winged Lion are the first titles of this new pictorial phase that sees Air at work, concentrated and full of stimuli. Words that refer to his passion for the classic, never disowned matrix because there is no modern concept that does not take root in history. Yet even distant images, or what remains of them, vanish in the blinding white of its shadows in pursuit of pure light, the primary essence of painting.

Luca Beatrice