Noemi Zavoli (Forlì 1960) Italy 

Artist Statement:

After completing my art studies in Ravenna and Venice, where I delved into the painting techniques related to the Italian tradition, I dedicated myself completely to painting. I started to approach the idea of “interior & space” after my experience with Graham Rust.

In addition to the creation of oil paintings and watercolors on paper, I created frescoes for private and public spaces, and decorations of entire rooms and objects, pursuing the idea of mimesis and total immersion in the natural elements.

I also collaborated with Sellerio editions, a historic Italian novels publisher, making covers of books and with Italian fashion brands working on specific illustrations and projects.

This series of works is inspired by my passion for nature and by the idea of the “cabinet of curiosities” of the eighteenth century. These works, however, do not represent a collection of exotic oddities or novelties, nor are they substitutes for reality, quite the contrary, they are intended as botanical studies, as an exaltation of what surrounds me. My subjects are the plants and elements that belong to my daily life which I come across and observe while walking in my garden, which mark the passing of the seasons.

My visual language is strongly influenced by classical Italian painting with its thin, transparent layers of colour, soft shades, and the theatrical chiaroscuro which I use to highlight the characteristics and tonal values of my subjects immersing them in a silent and meditative atmosphere within a confined space – like in a diorama. I aim to evoke a story, a small tale studded with simple elements. The scene appears to be crystallized, suspended, and it is at that moment that I insert a small animal, a country mouse, or an insect, a pure flicker of life, pursuing the idea of a poetic realism of small things.