VENICE SEEN BY A BRAZILIAN ARTIST

From 5th November, Space Alizarine in the Galleries Marval, offers a rather unusual image of Venice to visitors.

 

Indeed, the way Katia de Carvalho, a young Brazilian artist catches a glimpse of the 2’000-year old city, leads us to realize that if the venitian architectural lines resemble those we already know, the palaces and other prestigious dwellings are treated with so vivid colours that we would more easily notice at carnival balls than in such venerable buildings.  Fusing depiction of that glacial architecture ingenuously interpreted with the treatment of her uncommon palette generates positive alchemy: the introduction of meridional chromatics married to the watery reflections of the sea and canals in that ancient metropolis of the medieval Europe.

 

For her first exhibition, Katia de Carvalho brings with her oils, the breeze of the New World with the purpose of taking us to the Old World.

 

Original in french  by Patrice Allanfranchini

journalist, historian, critique d’art

(Publication 12/2004)

THE THEATRE OF MEMORY

The painting of Katia de Carvalho is suspended between truth and fiction: while being too real to derive from fantasy, it is at the same time detached from the phenomenonical by the use of anatomical and perspective licences, producing a dreamlike vision, with aspects of nature, of the city and of man.

 

Katia de Carvalho’s work can be subdivided into two main thematic areas: urban landscapes and rural themes. The artist has dedicated much of her work to Venice, portraying the façades of the buildings hung like sheets between the air and water. These are arabesque bi-dimensionals depicted in the true sense of the words, as if the canvas were the toponymical homage of a student of architecture.

 

Unlike the works of landscape painters, who immediately spring to mind, Venice does not provide the backstage for the processional celebration of life and power: the perspective games of prestige are missing and there is no single touch of the Goldoniano or the folkloristic. No, Katia de Carvalho is more reminiscent of Monet, with identical subjects captured under different lights and at different moments of the day.

 

The essence of Katia de Carvalho’s work, therefore, is theatrical.  Her work has its roots in the antinomy of 18th century Venetian art, the sumptuous external perspectives of Canaletto and the meticulous internal views of Longhi, tinged with a very personal touch, guided by the thread of memory and recollection.

 

 

by Cinzia Bollino Bossi

Original text in Italian/2008