Gabriele Napoli

Desio (MB), IT – 1999

Lives and works in Seregno (MI), IT

Gabriele Napoli ironically gets back the concept of painting as a trompe l’oeil in a new imaginative way of looking at reality. The stratification of materials reflects the deep cultural and anthropological influences that define one’s belonging to a “place” and to a community. This belonging often entails engaging with the complex management of a legacy. The past thus becomes a significant source, yet it is blurred, erased, and subverted until it transforms into “something else”. As a matter of fact, his oil paintings are marked by a rigorous process: the application of multiple layers of plaster on the canvas creates a textured surface that simulates the perception of a detached frescoes. His pictorial practice unfolds through the slow emergence of the image, followed by a spontaneous tendency to saturate every part of the composition with signs, objects, and figures. In this way, a symbolic universe takes shape, inhabited by a diverse range of presences. The environments, suspended between the real and the fantastical, branch out into natural settings – plains and forests that recall fairy tales – or interior spaces that evoke personal narratives.