“The Absurd Theater of the Traveler” by Giuseppe Gallo presents some surprising and innovative recent works made with experimental procedures at the Galleria dello Scudo, Verona.The art pieces consist of fragments taken from images that cannot be reconstructed, and of which the artist does not allow us to find even a mnemonic trace. On the contrary, he himself, considering the process as employed, is no longer able to recuperate the original forms.As in archaeology, this is a question of putting the shards back together, though in the impossibility of regaining the unity of the find. With a daring inversion of the archaeological procedure of recomposing an object, the background was made at the end of the work. And this is the result of the union of four traditional techniques: oil paint, watercolor, tempera, and fresco.Gallo himself said about his working method in his words: “It is like working on nature, where there is the intervention of the wind, of insects...”His procedure is intentionally laborious, slow, and complex. Here, in a certain sense, this contemporary artwork is treated like an archaeological find.In one art piece there appears the phrase “Gallo è matto,” Gallo is mad, reduced to fragments and scattered like DNA throughout the work. At first, the forms start as black shapes on glass; then they are painted in oils, and then detached, and are reduced to myriad multicolored elements.In this show, we can also feel that he has let himself to go back to memories of his childhood, something that emerges, not only from his technique but also from his feeling for restoration. In fact, his father was a restorer who involved his son in his work and who repeatedly said, “Art is logic”.Gallo has reminisced that, “I passed my childhood restoring frescoes; I had the materials at home. I have painted since I was three”.The ongoing exhibition is on view through March 30, 2018, at Galleria dello Scudo, via Scudo di Francia 2, 37121 Verona.For more details, visit: https://www.galleriadelloscudo.comClick on the slideshow for a sneak peek on the exhibition.
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