Arazzi e Reti - Maurizio Donzelli

TheMerode is pleased to present Maurizio Donzelli’s exhibition Arazzi e Reti , curated by Daniela Ferretti.

Tapestries, in particular those created in the historical period from the Middle Ages to the early years of the Renaissance, exerted a strong fascination on Maurizio Donzelli. The absence of perspective, the dreamlike and enigmatic themes, and the fairy-tale atmospheres are the traits that most piqued the artist's interest. He observed, studied, analyzed and metabolised the ancient images, drawing from them fragments, traces of an arcane lexicon, and powerful suggestions to fuel his visual imagination and activate a creative process in which the methodical re-elaboration, decomposition and recomposition of the chosen elements produces a new original narrative structure. Donzelli has defined his own visual grammar in which the stylistic signature that distinguishes him is recognizable and which, as the author himself states, requires an emotional involvement on the part of the observer: "finally, it is to the gaze of the spectator that I entrust the infinite visual-emotional dynamics that complete my work." Even in the very recent and complex paintings of the Reti/Nets series the artist involves us in the defining of fantastic geographies and transports us with mastery into the exploration of new imaginaries always poised on the threshold between the visible and the invisible and our perceptive capacity.

About the artist:

Maurizio Donzelli lives and works in Brescia, his hometown.
He taught Theory of Perception and Psychology of Color at the Accademia di belle arti Santagiulia in Brescia. He produces drawings, paintings, textiles, sculptures, and installations through which he seeks the meeting point of the real world, our perception of it, and its artistic representations. His approach to making art is rooted in philosophical considerations of the nature of perception, and how visual phenomena such as color, images, and art itself affect the way we see and understand reality. He considers drawing both an intellectual and technical pursuit, and it is central to his practice. Donzelli’s work also features mirrors, which he sees as symbols of the process of perception. With their simultaneous ability to reflect and distort, they also mirror our own variable and inevitably inexact comprehension of the surrounding world.

About the curator :

Daniela Ferretti, an architect specialised in the field of exhibition design, has set-up more than 250 shows for public and private entities since 1977, both in Venice and elsewhere, for which she has collaborated with many leading Italian and foreign art critics and historians. She boasts collaborations with the Venice Biennale, Scuderie del Quirinale and Galleria Borghese in Rome, Barcelona’s CCCB, the Hayward Gallery in London, the Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Haus der Kunst in Munich, the Puskin Museum in Moscow, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and Palazzo Grassi in Venice. In addition to designing exhibitions, she is also experienced in curating and organising them in their entirety. Head of the Exhibitions Office of Venice's Department of Culture, in 1996 she was appointed Coordinator of Shows and Exhibitions at the Venetian Civic Museums Directorate. She directed the Fortuny Museum from 2007 to 2019. In 2008 she joined the Board of Directors of the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, and since 2019 she has been a member of the Board of Directors of Fondazione dell'Albero d'Oro.