Sareo Street Art Festival 2018
Sunil Deepak, 30 June 2018
The tiny town of Schio in the north-east of Italy, where I live, has a long tradition of organising an annual street art festival. The city invites artists living in and around Schio to present their works in an open air exhibition in one of the streets of the city centre. This post is about my favourite art works from this year's Sareo street art festival, which I visited yesterday.
In the past I remember seeing sculptors and other artisans presenting their works in this street art exhibition. However, for the past few years, this event is limited only to paintings. So let me start with the presentation of my favourite ten art works from this year's event.
Except for the last water-colour painting (no. 10) which was the art work that I liked most, the remaining art-works presented below are not placed any particular order.
1. Fragile Equilibrium by Antonia Bortoloso
The first art work of this post is of a sad looking girl in pastel colours dominated by shades of purple. The painting is called "Fragile equilibrium" and is by Antonia Bortoloso. To be honest, I am not very fond of the "romantic" style of paintings, to which this work belongs. However, there was something in this painting which attracted me. I like the vulnerability in the eyes of the girl in the painting. Antonia Bortoloso is known for her paintings of female nudes.
2. Tea time by Daniela Baroni
It is a still life. It can also be described as a "romantic" painting. The label on this painting said its title was "Tea kettle", but I think that the label was put on it by mistake and it belonged to another painting of Daniela Baroni in the exhibition. It looks as if it is painted on leather and I like the creases that surface gives to this painting.
3. The City by Gianpietro Cavedon
I loved this painting. Its artist, Gianpietro Cavedon is comparatively better known and some of his works are in art museums. I loved the sense of fog, rain and reflected lights that he gives to an urban landscape in this painting. Though it has touches of strong red and blue, overall it gives a sense of softness which I like.
4. Untitled by Pierluigi Macorig
Macorig's painting is a landscape seen from the top of a mountain or from an airplane. It is mostly in different shades of green with the blue of the sea at the top and few dabs of earthy brown in the centre. I think that it is a peaceful painting that I can put up in my bedroom and watch without getting bored.
5. Figure 2 by Mauro Mazzari
Mauro Mazzari is another well known artists with his works shown in different parts of the world. On his website, an art critic is cited with the following words: "In front of Massari’s paintings, more than once, I ask of myself how is it that he can express with such delicacy the disquiet many of us feel facing our current world." I don't see any disquiet in his work presented in Schio. Instead, this painting of a girl lost in thoughts seems to be in the romantic tradition. I like her expression and the warm earthy colours of this painting.
6. Hongkong by Egidio dalle Molle
I am not a fan of pop art, yet this painting of the Hongkong skyline by Egidio dalle Molle appealed to me. This was the first artist in the exhibition with whose work I was already familiar - I had seen some of works in other exhibitions in Schio.
7. Venus by Giannino Pesou
This old fashioned collage made probably with wood or synthetic material by Giannino Pesou also belongs to a kind of work that usually does not appeal to me but somehow, it appealed to me. The expression in the eyes of the figure reminded me of a friend who is now no more. This proves that appreciation of art is subjective, it depends upon the kind of emotions it can evoke in us.
8. Vibrations by Lanfranco dalle Carbonare
Lanfranco had three works in the exhibition, two collages and one painting. I liked all of them. Their vibrant colours, their materials, everything spoke to me. The above image presents the details from one of his works where the round surface of the peg is reflected in dots of different colours spread over painted wooden surfaces.
9. The Port by Moreno dalla Vecchia
Among all the different styles of paintings, I love water colours the most. The painting of a port by Moreno dalla Vecchia looks apparently simple but overall, manages to achieve a nice impact. I especially like the wet-on-wet effect he has used for the mountain in the background.
10. Horse race by Sergio Galvanin
I want to close this post with my favourite painting from the Sareo street art exhibition 2018. It is another water colour. I could not find anything about its artist Sergio Galvanin on the internet. I love the effect achieved by the use of white colour to denote the dust rising from the hoofs of the running horses.
Conclusions
I am sure that if you could visit this open air art exhibition, you will choose completely different paintings as your favourites. However, I hope that you have liked my collection of paintings.
By saying that I liked the "Horse race" most, I am not giving any value judgement on the other paintings. In any case, we can't compare a collage with an oil painting or with a pop art work, so value judgements would not be appropriate. However, if you had to choose one favourite art work from these ten presented above, which one would you choose? Doing this mental exercise would help you to have a better understanding about your taste and ideas about art!
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