The gallery is pleased to annonce from January 14th an exhibition of recent works by Carlo Guaita.. In this exhibition, the Italian artist (born in Palermo in 1954) will subtly take us on a journey through sculpture, (cement, stone or cardboard), painting or books, using a lexical grammar that relates to the titles of the series he has been working on for some years now, such as Dagherrotipi, Orizzonte, I Colassati, Universo Appeso, Paesaggi residuali, and Quasi paesaggio - the title of this exhibition - underlining a vision that is never definitively resolved but always suspended and in motion, between absence and presence.

As Denis Viva explains in his 2018 text on Carlo Guaita CarottagesGuaita's research confronts painting and landscape, the latter understood as an antagonism but also as a generative substrate. In these various aspects, the artist achieves a continuous stratification, almost an archiving, like this set of works on paper - collage photography and ink, or small monochrome paintings, made - as always with Guaita - on the simplest possible material, passing over and over again a colour diluted in the final transparent varnish on the support. The colour is not spread but left to settle horizontally. Often, but not always, black appears. Its intensity is such that we perceive a presence rather than an absence. It should be a total absence of light but, paradoxically, it has its own emanating force. Sometimes it is because of a saturation, a layer, a pressure, a tearing. In all cases, it is an absence obtained by stratification.

Si può procedere in avanti per aggiunta o si può procedere all’indietro per toglimento. In avanti si aggiunge linea su linea, massa su massa, corpo su corpo, sino a ottenere una figura di paesaggio, paesaggio di presenza. Indietro si tolgono corpi, toni e luci sino ad avvicinarsi a una figura monocromatica, paesaggio di assenza. Mettendo in atto dei processi che portino in crisi i concetti di avanti e indietro, togliendogli progettualità e linearità, rendendoli circolari o a strappi, con paure, rotture, aggiunte cancellanti e cancellazioni incongrue, fatte in saturazione, si può trovare una sorta di figura sospesa, monocromo piatto, reso denso e paesaggio denso, reso piatto. Questa figura si presenta come un non essere né l’uno, presenza e rappresentazione, né l’altro, assenza e astrazione, una figura che è sempre un quasi; quasi paesaggio.

On peut avancer par addition ou reculer par soustraction. En avançant, on ajoute ligne sur ligne, masse sur masse, corps sur corps, jusqu’à obtenir une figure de paysage, paysage de présence. À rebours, on élimine les corps, les tons et les lumières jusqu’à s’approcher d’une figure monochrome, paysage de l’absence. En mettant en marche des processus qui ébranlent les concepts de va-et-vient, en supprimant la planification et la linéarité, en les rendant circulaires ou saccadés, avec des craintes, des ruptures, des ajouts d’effacement et des ratures incongrues, obtenues par saturation, on peut trouver une sorte de figure suspendue, un monochrome plat, rendu dense et un paysage dense rendu plat. Cette figure se présente comme n’étant ni l’une, présence et représentation, ni l’autre, absence et abstraction. Une figure qui est toujours un presque ; presque paysage.

Carlo Guaita  2022