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REVERIE: LO FEMENINO DIVINO
4 DE MAYO - 4 DE JULIO DE 2021
EN EXHIBICIÓN EN
ESPINASSE31 MILÁN
La galería contemporánea Espinasse31 se complace en presentar una nueva exposición colectiva en su sede de Milán , que se podrá visitar del 4 de mayo al 4 de julio de 2021. La galería celebra la reapertura de espacios culturales en toda Italia esta primavera con 'Reverie: The Divine Feminine'. La exposición presenta obras de cuatro artistas: Meg Gallagher, Silvia Berton, Oscar Estruga y Antonella Mellini, conectadas por sus representaciones de la energía femenina, las deidades femeninas, la forma femenina y la imaginación femenina.
La Divinidad Femenina es un concepto basado en la espiritualidad, representado comúnmente en una variedad de religiones y culturas desde la antigüedad. Mientras que la energía, la conciencia y el yo existen en un plano binario, la Divinidad Femenina representa la mitad femenina, necesaria para el equilibrio espiritual. En teología, transmite que existe una contraparte femenina de las deidades y estructuras masculinas que dominan las religiones monoteístas occidentales. Las diosas fueron adoradas y representadas artísticamente en la mayoría de las sociedades en la historia temprana, lo que le dio a este concepto un peso cultural significativo. Sin embargo, lo que es quizás más interesante es el resurgimiento de la Divinidad Femenina, como un concepto de estudio y una fuente de inspiración creativa, en los medios de comunicación modernos en los últimos años. Vinculada al movimiento de la Nueva Era y al feminismo, la Divinidad Femenina ahora va más allá de las connotaciones naturales o religiosas, y también toca aspectos físicos y sexuales de la existencia femenina.
A través de una variedad de pinturas y obras escultóricas, 'Reverie: The Divine Feminine' explora este concepto mientras sumerge al espectador en los mundos imaginativos y oníricos de los cuatro artistas expuestos. En lugar de presentar una narrativa lineal limitada por el género o el sexo, la exposición tiene como objetivo arrojar luz sobre diferentes formas de interpretar o expresar la feminidad. Al reunir a tres artistas mujeres y un artista masculino, todos de diferentes edades y antecedentes creativos, la composición es ricamente variada en términos de medios y estilo, al tiempo que representa armoniosamente ensoñaciones del cuerpo y el retrato femeninos, dioses y paganos, metáforas y paradojas. La fuerte calidad narrativa de todas las obras expuestas hace que la composición parezca una misma historia escrita en diferentes tipografías.
El concepto de lo Divino Femenino se presenta en primer lugar en la exposición a través de una visión dualista de la condición femenina, obtenida al poner en diálogo las obras de arte de Meg Gallagher y Silvia Berton. Las dimensiones eróticas, físicas, espirituales y etéreas de la condición femenina se contrastan y se complementan entre sí; la sexualidad abstracta de Gallagher, emparejada con la emoción figurativa de Berton, proporcionan dos mitades de un todo, que sin saberlo completan las historias inacabadas de cada una. El valor de esta poderosa combinación se enriquece con las diferentes trayectorias creativas de las artistas, que brillan a través de sus respectivas técnicas pictóricas.
Meg Gallagher is a visual artist and designer, born in New Zealand and based in Sydney, Australia. Her creative career began as a fashion trailblazer, having collaborated with some of the best industry names, becoming an expert denim designer for Ksubi, accumulating a customer base of celebrities and collectors, and being named as One to Watch by Vogue Italia in 2010. Gallagher, whose chosen medium of expression has now transitioned to painting, focuses her art practice on developing contemporary nudes. The artist references her prominent fashion know-how through the use of denim as a canvas; she then reflects a previous background in dance, as well as her recent experience of motherhood, in her potent yet delicate depictions of feminine subjects. Women’s sensuality and sexual energy are always at the forefront of Gallagher’s works, which celebrate the beauty of the female form and figure. Works such as ‘SENSUAL’ or ‘VIXEN’ (2020) recall the Divine Feminine in more than one way—the idolised female body, the allusions to eroticism and fertility, the strong connection to earthly nature, and the dreamlike quality to Gallagher’s use of colour and expressive brushstrokes, which place her works between the lifelike and the surreal.
Silvia Berton is an Italian artist, best known for her unique approach to portraiture. While her creative focus is now on oil painting, Berton’s extensive background in photography—behind and in front of the lens—is greatly reflected in her technique and vision. Although minimalist in nature, Berton’s style is full of character and strength, conveyed through the arresting gaze that characterises her ‘Teens’ (2020) portrait series, or the vigorous movements in her ‘Dancer’ (2019) and ‘Memories’ (2021) freeze-frame scenes. The compositional imagery of her works creates a seductive atmosphere of reverie and introspection; with strong narrative elements and enigmatic portrayals, the viewer is drawn into the artist’s inner emotional world. Critics have described the experience of viewing her works as “slipping into someone else’s dream.” Berton’s female subjects evoke an aura of mystery, passion, and intimacy, while existing at a crossroads between the vulnerable mortal and the ethereal divine.
Berton’s portrayal of the most abstract aspects of femininity through figurative works, complemented by Gallagher’s candid and carnal depictions of the female body with elements of abstraction, represent two sides of the paradoxical and complex coin that is womanhood.
Moreover, ‘Reverie: The Divine Feminine’ places a strong emphasis on the different religious, spiritual, and mythological conceptions of femininity. The exhibition is created under the notion that, by tying diverse artistic representations of womanhood to diverse belief systems, the potential for interpretation of the works and the concept is magnified, and the viewing experience becomes richer and more reflective. It is for this reason that Oscar Estruga’s and Antonella Mellini’s artworks form an essential component of the exhibition, through more concrete ties to spirituality, as well as a common imaginative and oneiric approach.
Oscar Estruga is a Spanish painter and sculptor. Born in 1933, he borrows from Greek and Cycladic mythology to recreate and reinvent Ancient Worlds; his work touches upon themes such as beauty, nature, and the human experience, while reflecting a calligraphic form of the artist’s imagination. This can be seen through Estruga's two exhibited serigraphy series, ‘Erotica’ and ‘Mistica’ (1987). With imagery and themes that range from the sacred to the obscure, Estruga explores the ways in which Ancient cultures viewed eroticism, and offers an alternative vision of women’s sexual representation in art. Incorporating both figurative and abstract forms, the illustrations appear as dream scenes, while proposing multiple views of the physical, metaphysical, and spiritual power of feminine and masculine energies. The same is true for Estruga’s bronze sculptures, which spread out throughout the exhibition, coexisting with the contemporary artworks on the gallery’s walls. Masked figures, myths, goddesses such as ‘Oscura Deméter’ (1980) or common women such as ‘Cariatide’ reflect the sculptor’s dreamlike portrayal of the feminine, divine in both its idolatry and humanity.
Antonella Mellini is an Italian contemporary artist with a strong focus on the examination of modern society and its changes. The artist addresses this complexity through a creative style that is visually simple, with her works existing on a two-dimensional plane and within the confines of a sharp black outline. However, Mellini’s works harbour a multidisciplinary approach and are thematically complex, with conceptual links drawn by her use of recurring metaphors. The eye is the absolute protagonist on the stylistic and narrative levels; for the artist, it represents our relationship with the world and with ourselves, as can be understood with ‘UNIVERSE’ (2020). Moreover, hands represent an intimate extension of the soul; this element is featured in her ‘GAME OVER’ (2020) diptych, which intends to portray the yin-yang, win-lose duality of what she imagines to be the game of life. A highlighted work by Mellini that strongly anchors her artistic vision to ‘Reverie: The Divine Feminine’ is ‘LAST’ (2020), a re-imagined Last Supper scene. The triptych brings together an Aztec Goddess of fertility, Jesus Christ, and a Sumerian fish-man sage—different cultural and religious conceptions of divinity eat and talk at the same table.
Estruga’s and Mellini’s representations of female idols reflect the historical weight of the Divine Feminine as an alternative to patriarchal worship structures. All in all, the exhibition aims to extend the reach of this concept, by encouraging dialogue and interchange of perspectives.
