Jeudi 14 Janvier 2016 10:57:39 par Alix Chambaud dans Expositions

Flatland Gallery is very pleased to announce Paolo Ventura's (1968, Milan, Italy) first exhibition in the gallery. Known for his works that weave a mysterious atmosphere of fiction and memories, the established Italian photographer Ventura clearly has a natural gift for narrative. Each of his pictures is its own little mystery, a concoction of atmosphere, character and detail that urges for closer examination.

Giardino Autunnale, 2015, Unique work, hand painted photography and collage, © Paolo Ventura, courtesy Flatland Gallery, Amsterdam

Often his series of reflective, melancholic and partly humoristic narrative works are anchored either in the war period or in a timeless setting. Having worked as a fashion photographer for a decade in Milan, he quit and moved to New York City, where he developed artistically, creating dioramas in his closet.

He lives now in Tuscany, where he has been working on simple, painted backdrops instead of dioramas. Inspired by the long winter and greyish tint of his hometown, Milan, he applies usually three to four colours, predominantly grey, green, black and white; rather monochromatic and atemporal. Due to these artistic measurements, the distinction between reality and surrealism becomes unclear.

Winter Stories, Photo de Rêve, 2007, © Paolo Ventura, courtesy Flatland Gallery, Amsterdam

His characters are placed within an unspecified, ambiguous dream state of fantasy and nostalgia. On the one hand, it is a rather gloomy microcosm, filled with grey skies, dusky backgrounds and piercing silence. On the other, it's a comically overblown world. The protagonists pose unnaturally on a stage-like wooden floor and wear comedia dell'arte-like make-up, with clown-like red noses and rouged cheeks, evoking humour.