the chaos that embeds passions, urges and compulsions that complete the whole
Viviana Riccelli
March 2 – April 13, 2024
Galleria Duemila
210 Loring Street, Pasay City
Artist Statement
My paintings are inspired by everyday life, encounters and memories, nature, but never overlooking the real world, people’s struggle and the tragedies that encircle us. My materials, palette, and forms allow me to create artworks that evoke feelings of intimacy and tenderness, but also energy of life, fantasy of dreams, drives, anxieties, and fears without being fixed in any specific time or narrative.
This exhibition is an invitation for the viewer to be absorbed in a magic spell immersed in a space within unreal images.
Patterns and silhouettes project layers of time and meaning onto my canvases; these allude to narratives but never are they fully disclosed.
These artworks are telling the chaos that embeds passions, urges, and compulsions that complete the whole.
Viviana Riccelli
Letter from a Neighbor Who Dropped by to See If You Were Alright
It must have been an exhilarating revelation to have landed on an island within an island and discover both comfort and chaos hidden in the depths of the sea. A painting (In the Depth of the Sea in Siquijor) from 2017 greets me as I walk into the gallery. It brings me back to when the artist first caught sight of Siquijor’s coast more than a decade ago. Lines that overshoot the picture plane are tamed by a material as humble as tissue. It creates a translucent surface like the sails of a boat. A pungent yellow brushstroke against an azure ground promises a sun-kissed shoreline at the end of a long, arduous ride.
In her first solo exhibit in the Philippines entitled From the Sea to the Sky in Siquijor (2017), the artist visualizes her locality in a surreal frame of mind. How can one in a subconscious state transform the power of line and shape into multiple poetic narratives?
On the one hand, Viviana carries a strong background in drawing as seen in her intricate melange of curved strokes. In Eve and Adam the Flight from Paradise (2022), a staccato of long and short lines are joined to emphasize either a vortex or a conical pathway into a luminous abyss.
Her apprenticeship under the abstract expressionist Nicolas Carone signaled a turning point in her development as a painter. She would learn from him to forget conventional images and break the space into organic forms. Curvilinear lines in Chaos 13 The Doubt (2024) allow me to rhythmically read figures and animals that populate the jungles of her mind.
On the other hand, by collaborating in the sculptural practice of artist Beverly Pepper, Viviana has nurtured an eye for the monumental. An intense sense of scale converges in her expansive image planes, drenched in color. The largest piece in the exhibition, Chaos 23 Rising from the Gorge is also the most enigmatic. Once again we see lines seeking out the edges of her canvas, directing our vision away from a closed orifice, a portrayal of mystery and adventure.
An impatient viewer could easily dismiss the figures in the painting. Could they be Viviana’s neighbors? The kind that belts out soapy love songs to a karaoke machine at the most unholy hour? But according to her, Filipinos are among the most gentle and kind people she has ever met. There must be some form of conscious and unconscious dialogue for her to live in harmony with the people and the island she found; a duality of the picture plane that allows abstraction to evolve from the chaos.
How did Viviana discover this new experience? Was it she who arrived at abstraction or was it the people and the land that came to her?
Sandra Palomar
February 2024
About Viviana Riccelli
Viviana Riccelli, an artist born in Rome, embarked on her artistic journey by immersing herself in various cultural landscapes across Europe and beyond. She pursued her passion for art through rigorous study in Rome, Berlin, Venice, and Cairo, where she honed her skills under the tutelage of esteemed mentors.
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Galleria Duemila opens “Chaos: the chaos that embeds passions, urges, and compulsions that complete the whole” by Viviana Riccelli
