About Antonio Mele

Event: Sleep

Dates: 24 Apr 2013 - 19 May 2013

"SLEEP" , title of the exhibition ANTONIO APPLES proposes to " Sabinalbano Modart Gallery" , is the key to a corpus allestitivo important : about 22 jobs , oil on canvas of variable size as well as multi-material installation . It is a cycle ( realized by the end of 2010 to the end 2012) , where an essential element is
time , the time of sleep , that of a sort of suspension of consciousness , that of sleep, but not the dream. The observation of reality , the starting point of the operation of creative apples , and in the case of how, when and where the man , but also other living beings , with all the differences, sleeps and rests, is the centerpiece of this series of works which explore , with watchful eyes , a certain stage of the day, the amount devoted to sleep , to be precise . If an element exists in the metaphysical and metaphorical artist's iconographic vocabulary
Naples is almost physiological component in that painting , like any other creative language , contains in itself, in that dynamic by which what is perceived is the real and the everyday , on an unconscious level , shifted according to an expression and an inspiration very personal , which have their roots not only in the individual psychic reality , but also in the experiences and cultural baggage that each of us carries . That's how this theory of canvas , as opposed to the other two cycles that have their best interest at the time of the work, and that idleness , focuses on the hours in which the man lies almost completely inert in terms of physical , though her ​​mind continues a tireless labor of reorganization, reworking of drives, aspirations , fears, anxieties,
feelings , almost put order in the content of a series of drawers left half-open. If man, then , unlike the animals tend to sleep as he can, anywhere, in any situation , given that, as predator and prey can not stand the assault during rest , it is said , however, that various images not cross his mind . These are precisely cleaved, these pictorial fragments that Apple tends to capture on canvas , condensing everything, with skill and efficiency, in one scene , even though the peculiarity lies in the fact that in his narrative
through shapes, colors , plays of light and shadow, happy chiaroscuro , the artist tries to not give his vision , but that it deems to be the image that occupies the mind of the protagonist sleeping in portrait painting. In a kind , therefore, to split between author and actor, between the narrator and interpreter , Apple does not aim at a pictorial vocabulary evocative, lyrical prose but , the vehicle of a true story, a frame , a structure completed. In this research, the declination is iconographic illustrious companions in his path : Kafka , Cervantes, Borges ,
Cortázar , Márquez , the figure of M. Babylon, from a perspective of ' magical realism ' and a breath so to speak Latin, South American . And in fact the creatures that Apple brings to the canvas are , yes, daughters of sleep, but I'm not Fellini ,
grotesque , or mere visions of the dream. It starts from the situations and characters of all concrete and newspapers, pictorially realistic , in which , throughout the narrative, a quid eerie , alienating , sometimes even denouncing social, ecological , interpersonal, helps to create a framework that incorporates itself an imperceptible gap , a discrepancy studied charge of the surreal , where the madness of life is apparent, the other world is no different from the real and normal. And this is also thanks to a pictorial approach ' craft ' , as Apples, in the wake of
an old Italian tradition, not only prefer oils , but , specifically, raw pigments mixed with linseed oil, as it has always been up to 800 . The interesting detail is that the artist starts from sketches and models
photoshop , according to a modern technique and composition with cut almost ' photographic ' , which then moves on canvas with great mastery and freedom of color. The result is a greater awareness of color,
a force, an authenticity that is well expressed in the use of precious play of light. The section , then , gives additional force to the image being dense , gestural , robust, full-bodied, as the color gamut , varied and layered, in which Apples
plays with cool colors and warm ones , often mixing them and rehearsing on each other , again with the intention of giving power to light and color, for an iconography that does not linger in any kind of abstraction .