evocante
Evocante is a collection of paintings that seek to capture a sense of energy, of something wordless and primal.
The paintings capture some of the luminosity and grandeur of the old masters, but soon reveal something altogether different. The historical paintings are stripped from the storytelling’s familiar primary role, into something more indefinite and dreamlike, leaving only the energy and the spiritual core of the painting. It’s not only the subject, the stories, or the thoughts or the qualities that make an impact on us but also the moment we collide with them.
Evocante takes some inspiration from modernist and abstract expressionist artists such as Bloom, Kandinsky and Rothko, many of the pieces are suffused with a dreamy, mysterious quality that offers the viewer little in the way of easy answers or simply parsed meaning.
Some of the works are left intentionally unfinished, inviting the viewer to find their own way into a particular painting, to situate themselves in relation to a work that is personal and born of the moment.
Matteo’s paintings move far from conventional categorizing ways, they are more than one thing at once, they are at multiple places simultaneous. By choosing to leave some works incomplete, the viewer is also moved to reflect on the process of creation, to attend carefully to the textures, shapes, and lines of any one piece.
Evocante includes interpretations of iconic works such as The Raft of the Medusa. Rendered in a distinctly contemporary mode, the accumulated grandeur bestowed on these masterpieces through the years is stripped back to reveal the emotion and humanity that has sustained their justly earnt reputations. Through Matteo’s revision, these historical paintings move from a world of physical suffering into one of spirit.
Created in layers of transparent washes and bearing translucent forms, the paintings in Evocante move between the real and the otherworldly, the figural and the abstract. The paintings suggest but never impose, offering up moments of reflection and deep immersion.
Evocante is an invitation to feel.
