Giulio Rigoni exhibits at Galleria Gagliardi since 2024.
Giulio Rigoni is a self-taught artist who has mastered a highly personal style that makes him easily recognizable. His refined and intimate paintings, with their modern take on ancient traditions, have long attracted attention in the world of private collecting. He has exhibited internationally, including at the Dakar Biennial, and in Boston, Paris and more recently London.
Rigoni transports us into a two-dimensional world where the apparent immobility of faces, gardens, labyrinths, castles and towers take on the orderly sobriety of late medieval painting, and where perspective planes open, like Wunderkammer, on amazing fairytale views. Allegory is a recurring theme in Rigoni’s artistic creations. His invented sitters and architectural settings all emerge from the kaleidoscope of an imaginary golden age, establishing a silent conversation with the viewer. At the same time, there is always a playful dimension to the artist’s work which, combined with the influence of late Gothic art and a meticulous eye for detail, adds to the air of enchantment.
Rigoni’s technique typically involves oil paint and gold leaf on wood although over time, he has expanded his research to include new materials such as paper, brass and fabric.
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In the search for balance between classical aesthetics and the way of conceiving forms in a contemporary key, his art is loaded with unreal images, often enchanted, suspended in atmospheres that suggest distant times, mythical, leaving the viewer the task of decoding the meaning according to a personal interpretation. His art turns to the viewer to enjoy the beauty of the work and perceive the atmosphere or the feeling, in a smiling and inspired motion, without necessarily decoding the language.
From a technical point of view, while experimenting with the use of different materials such as paper, brass and fabric, his figure is that of oil painting on wood often embellished with gold leaf.
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Giulio Rigoni’s work transports us into a mythical time space made up of two-dimensional elements that become scenography.
The apparent immobility of the faces, the epic scenes and the French gardens, always subtly asymmetrical, moves from the spiritualistic and orderly sobriety of late medieval painting. The perspective planes open, like wunderkammer, on amazing fairy-tale views.
The light is clear and defined: the pre-synthetic chromatic universe is based on the warmth of the primary colours. While the darkness is dense and restful, mystical when they dress in gold. The artist uses a coded pictorial language made of elegance and balance through which it transpires, like a universe peeked through a keyhole, an imaginative tank full of phenomenal characters.
Allegory is the recurring theme of a drawing that tells stories. The sentient characters and objects, all coming out of the kaleidoscope of an imaginary golden age, establish a silent conversation.
Clouds, ships, towers and fantastic animals appear to us intent in a semi-serious minuet where naturalistic representation is preferred a platonic idealization. The deliberately static but disorienting space invites the observer to slide towards a high and inner dimension. In this world of Oz, some people squeeze a cloud like a sponge.
There is the intimate space of a meticulous detail but also the dreamlike of a horse almost Chagallian.
There is a still life with mythological implications but also a childish and pleasantly playful dimension. The artist turns to the user to enjoy the beauty of the work and perceive the atmosphere or the feeling, in a smiling and inspired motion, without necessarily decoding the language.
Jade Saint Amour of Chanaz
SOLO EXHIBITION
2023 VonBuren Contemporary Rome
2023 Ceravento Art Area Pescara
2022 VonBuren Contemporary Rome
2021 Jonathan Cooper Gallery London
2019 Galleria La Telaccia Turin
2018 Città Oniriche, Satura Art Gallery, Genova
2017 Rome, rêve et réalité, Pavè d’Orsay, Paris
2015 Meraviglie, Mamaart Gallery, Rome
2015 Contemporary Renaissance #2, Giudecca 795 Art Gallery, Venice
2014 Segnali sul Lago, 50 e Più ONG, Lago Maggiore
2014 Contemporary Renaissance, Giudecca 795 Art Gallery, Venice
2014 Dakart 2014, Dakar Biennale, Dakar
2013 Art@Hilton, Giudecca 795 Art Gallery, Venice
2013 Té con l’artista, Roma&Roma, Rome
2013 Le Nozze, Opera Unica Gallery, Rome
2011 Room for Surprise, Stephen Score Art Gallery, Boston
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 ArtHotel Milano
2022 Inventarium Barcellona
2021 Art Hotel Rome/Paris
2020 Città Invisibili Florence
2019 Le ruban blanc -Noi Paris Paris
2019 Mama seeds Berlin
2018 Il Nastro Bianco, Testaccio Spazio Espositivo, Roma
2017 Io sono qui! Macro, Roma
2017 Aleph Rome Hotel, Roma
2017 Quintessenza, Palazzo Costanzi, Trieste
2016 Oscar Wilde, RvB Arts, Rome
2016 BIAS Biennale Arte Sacra, Palermo
2016 Oltre i Libri, Biblioteca Angelica, Rome
2015 Alice in Wonderland, RvB Arts, Rome
2015 CIBO, Emporio Liberarti, Trieste
2015 SpaziOfficina, Castello, Capalbio
2013 Oh, make me a mask!, Emporio Liberarti, Trieste
2012 Lineas, Don Chisciotte Gallery, Rome