Paola Alborghetti, Matteo Antonini, Susanna Janina Baumgartner, Marco Belfiore, Maurizio Bongiovanni, Sergio Breviario, Pierpaolo Campanini, Gianni Caravaggio, Daniele Carpi, Arianna Carossa, Jacopo Casadei, David Casini, Giuseppe Costa,Carl D’Alvia, Valentina D’Amaro, Alessandro Di Giampietro, Barbara De Ponti, Enza Galantini, Daniele Girardi, Paolo Gonzato, Michele Guido, Debora Hirsch, Pesce Khete, Giulio Lacchini, Maria Morganti, Chiara Pergola, Marta Pierobon, Josephine Sassu, Laura Santamaria, Giovanna Sarti, Kristian Sturi, Marcello Tedesco, Luca Trevisani, Lucia Veronesi.

curated by Laura Santamaria

Book Presentation / Signing Tuesday 7 March 5 - 9 pm

Between The Ground And The Cloud   Finissage -  Thursday 20th April 2017 6 - 9pm 

Exhibition 7 March - 31 March - Tue to Fri 3 - 6 pm - Saturday by appointment

MADEINBRITALY is delighted to present “Drawings From Lightning” artists book and a selection of original drawings; the exhibition includes new works by David Casini, Valentina D'Amaro, Alessandro Di Giampietro, Barbara De Ponti, Debora Hirsch, Laura Santamaria.

“The history of artists’ book cannot retrace the functional formality of the history of art and needs more complex, intriguing, and personal routes. Worthy of an ambiguous object which is always trying to be different from what it seems” 1 whilst this statementby Giorgio Maffei seems to declarethe metaphysical nature of the artists’  approach towardstheir productions of books, in our case  the artist book is also intended as a media to explore chosen to reach new audiencesand create a collaboration between artists, public and institutions. “Drawings from Lightning” was initiated in 2013 as a drawings project and it takes its quintessential title from a natural phenomenon where the lightning comes from the ground going towards the sky (Upward Positive Leaders) which clarifies the essence of the artist’s book itself, i.e. introducing the idea of lightning as the chosen element to tell the desire and the necessity of rethinking the role of the artist today, as conjunction between human condition and cosmic energy.

The book is a collection of drawings representing a statement of the artists’ thinking, an expression of an intellectual position which findsin the drawing practice its favorite language.

“As a primary visual language, essential for communication and expression, drawing is as important as the development of written and verbal skills. The need to understand the world through visual means would seem more acute than ever; images transcend the barriers of language, and enhance communications in an increasingly globalized world.”2   With her words Anita Taylor defines the practice of drawing as a point of dialogue between communities and institution andas a peculiar expression of contemporary art: a language able to narratepresent timesin an universalpanorama.

The exhibition presents a selection of works by artists who, through their specific practice and art research, succeed in positioning the drawing media as a point of avant-garde research through their own interpretation of the landscape and its elements as a whole natural environment, in which certain phenomena are the instruments to generate new ideas or ways of thinking.

Lightnings and natural phenomena meant as mirrors of the mind, divine elements and visual perceptions of thought. 

The 2015 small size, oil on canvas work, is an Untitled Landscape by Valentina D’Amaro from the “Vespro”(Vesper) series recently featured in Vitamin P3: New Perspectives in Painting (published by Phaidon Press, 2016). The painting is representing a dark evening lake view, as an ideal continuation of the research of romantic sublime through nature that started with the 2013 drawing “Tra Terra e Cielo” (Between Earth and Sky) conceived for the “Drawings from Lighting” artists book.

The drawing " A ciel sereno" by David Casini represents a tree which has been struck by a lightning and consequently destroyed. This tree is part of a series of images of downed trees conceived across several years (2003-2008).The poetry of thisdrawing pictures the tree in thatinstant of time, when the tree becomes a loneelement isolated from the rest of the landscape, with a sense of intimate relation between the artist’s look and the natural environment: this singular vision leaves the spectator first disorientatedand only laterable to decipher the poem.

“Effetto Punta” (Tip Effect) is the title of the drawing by Barbara De Ponti, which quotes a scientific metaphor taken from the lightning conductor that can still be effective in protecting a structure from lightning’s damage.  It takes this metaphorical pregnancy thanks to reinterpretation of a physical phenomenon   in as the connection between humans: when they eventually manage to establish a clear dialogue and a healthy interaction, the effect becomes a catalyst of energy, giving light to an open circuit of visions that are gathering in unpredictable results.

With the aim to create new contributions to a collective research and shared discussion about symbols, the work “Upward Lightning” by Debora Hirsch is based on the shape of the lightning bolt that struck St. Peter's Basilica's rod the day that Pope Benedict XVI resigned. The lightning is conceived here in the meaning of a conceptual catastrophe whose presence could break the order of an ordinary perspective introducing a new striking unexpected parameter to the analysis.

The “Lightning Series” are ten portraits by Alessandro Di Giampietro that refer to a mystery of a strong intimate energy between the photographer and his subjects. These were in fact the very authors of the drawings, invited to interpret new characters and to give life to unreleased profiles in the continuous identity changeovers which represent the unlimited perspective of human beings.

“Cosmos celebrates its experience through the flame and me” is a work on paper by Laura Santamaria, a drawing made using flame. Anything that involves a transformation, in terms of process and purpose, is like alchemy. It is not a theoretical and cryptic doctrine, but a daily practice that the artist is led to adopt, mostly spontaneously, becoming aware that a work of art not only expresses pieces of the subconscious but also makes visible traces of the cosmos, which finds its expression through the available and open territory of creation.

Drawings From Lightning is a project by Laura Santamaria started on 2013. It is the first collection of drawings in-depth overview of the artists’s interpretation of the theme of the “Upward Positive Leaders” - which is a rare phenomenon visible during the thunderstorms where the lightning comes from the ground going to the sky.  Lightning is the chosen element - a metaphysical symbol - to tell the desire and the necessity of working together.  A wayof rethinking the terms of how to live the artist’s role today.

It offers a rare look into the personalities of some of the most relevant Italian artists living and working today.

The self-published publication “Drawings from Lightning” only 250 exemplars, offset print on Modigliani - Cordenons paper, 44 x 32 x 3 cm, 2016. It was printed in Italy with the gentle support of art passionate, Artphilein Foundation, Choisi - one at the time, Casa Gialla, Bice Bugatti Club, Spazio Morris, Cordenons. Partner BeArt, Juliet art magazine. First presented in Berlin Kunstraum T27 - Kunstverein Neukölln (2014), Studi Festival Milano (2016), Miart (2016), Fonderia Artistica Battaglia, Milano (2016), Choisi - one at the time - Lugano (2016). 

Archive online www.upwardpositiveleaders.tumblr.com

1 Affirmation by Giorgio Maffei “The artist’s book. Instruction for use” was published into “Il Libro come Opera d’Arte / The Book as a Work of Art, The Italian Avant-Gardes in the Twentieth Century as part of the International Panorama, first reprint 2008 Galleria Nazionale D’Arte Moderna, Mibac, Darc.

2The article “Why drawing needs to be a curriculum essential”  by Anita Taylor was published by The Guardian in 2014