Kaufmann repetto is delighted to present I miei ricordi, frutto d’inspiegabile agitazione “My Memories, Fruit of Inexplicable Agitation”, Pierpaolo Campanini’s seventh solo exhibition at the gallery, which opens in New York on May 10.

Ever since his debut at the gallery in 2002, Campanini has explored the intrinsic limitations and possibilities of painting in his artistic research, creating situations characterized by a sense of incompleteness and transience: precariously united, ephemeral composites, they which survive only through their pictorial representation. In his new body of works, the artist presents hypothetical and inconsistent forms, never part of removed from any logical procedure, that speak of nothing but their own existence. Images/memories that recall recurrent motifs in his practice: puppets made of shoes in gaudy colors, embellished with ribbons and gilt details, are suspended motionless, as if in a dance en pointe, or birds with vaporous plumage that appear inanimate, like old and forgotten trophies. These motifs alternate with cutaways of distorted motors and mechanisms that have been stripped of their original functions, standing against neutral backgrounds devoid of any spatial and temporal connotations, like melancholic faces framed in stage sets.

The construction of the objects, which in the past was often based on ephemeral sculptural assemblages, now derives from the intricate interaction between images and 3D models created by the artist and their processing through artificial intelligence programs. By intervening in the electronic sequence and modifying it with elements that are of specific interest to him, Campanini obtains ever-changing mixtures, generating a flow of potential forms and images that are never completed. Denying, however, any authorship to the technological medium, Campanini deliberately manipulates the torrent of images produced. Inducing the program to provide “incorrect” and dystopian results, he reworks them in preliminary drawings that are then used to produce his alluring paintings with a glossy effect. The utilization of polar, a special kind of paper with an extremely tactile surface, allows him to create oils and temperas in deep and gleaming tones, produced through the superimposition of successive coats of paint.

Thus, Campanini’s art is revealed to be a journey of discovery and transformation,  the creative process takes on a role of primary importance. His predilection for the reassembly and alteration of figures and forms reflects a profound meditation on the very nature of the artistic act, where his personal delight in exploring expressive possibilities is melded with an attentive and meticulous feeling for detail. The artistic process is made up of a rigorous sequence of creative gestures, each of which contributes to the composition of a more extensive and complex work. In this vision, the detailed narration of the process assumes a prominent role, underlining the importance of the “act” of painting with respect to its final outcome. It is precisely by following this “winding path,” rich in nuances and subtle interweavings, that Campanini finds his inspiration: an approach whose true value lies in the experience of creation itself and in an exploration of the multiple possibilities of the act of making things.