Art and Freedom:
The works of 7 artists at New York Encounter
Every authentic art is symbolic: a bridge between two worlds. It expresses a deeper reality – that is, the true reality. (Nikolai Berdyaev)
All art worth looking at – that is, beautiful art – is both a spectacle and a voyage. You can’t have one without the other. Both are equally important components of beauty. They are separable in theory but not in practice.
The spectacle is what initially entices you and catches your eye; the voyage is the experience that the spectacle promises, should you chose to pay attention and to venture toward the mysterious place it points to, beyond itself.
Beauty is everything. Even if it’s true that the art world has never been the same since Duchamp’s upside-down urinal made it forever self-conscious, and even if it’s true that that shark suspended in formaldehyde is a dead end from which artists have yet to retreat – still, for art itself there is always a certain, everlasting source of renewal and inspiration: that spectacular voyage that is beauty.
We want an art that taps that source of renewal. We seek to discover beauty. We seek it in reality, in the world. We tease it out in colors, we entice it with light, we cast an ironic net around it and watch it break free.
We seek to serve beauty, to take care of it, to give birth to it – and to share it with you.
Artist biographies
Pietro Albetti, born in Milan, Italy, in 1973 has exhibited in many group shows in Italy and Europe. His first solo show was in 2001 at Gallery Atelier in Ellwanger, Germany, followed by Farm (2012, Castel of Abbiategrasso, curated by Rodolfo Balzarotti) and Corpo a corpo (2012, Affordable Art Fair, curated by di Francesca Baboni and Stefano Taddei). His group shows have included Animadvertere (2006, Gallery Spazio Lumera, Milan, curated by Michele Dolz), Hyperorganic (2008, Triennale of Milan, curated by Jacqueline Ceresoli), The Memory of Water (2009, Museum of Water, Milan, curated by Daniele Astrologo and Sandra Revello), Urban Scape (2009, Abbiategrasso, curated by J. Ceresoli), Paratissima (2009, Torino, curated by Loca Vong), Wilderness (2010, Gallery Spazio Lumera, Milan), and Attese (2012, Movimento Art Gallery, Milan, curated by Giorgio Lodetti). Pietro lives and works in Milan.
Carlos Cantor Granados has been painting for the past 30 years. Originally from Bogota, Colombia, he has made New York City his second home. Son of an accountant and a dedicated housewife, he grew up in a household full of love, order and support for his artistic inclinations. At a very young age, he showed his passion for the arts by drawing and painting in his uncle Alberto’s art studio, and visiting El Museo Nacional, one of his favorite places to view Modern, and Contemporary Art. He graduated from The School of Fine Arts at La Universidad de Colombia. Granados’ inspiration comes from nature and the human body. His paintings reflect his interest in the use of light, thus his admiration for the works of the Spanish artist Joaquin Sorolla, and the English master Turner. Granados' work can be found in private collections in Colombia, the United States and Spain. He has exhibited in solo and group shows, as well as public murals.
Martin A. Bacich was born and raised in Northern California. He received his bachelors of Arts (1994) from the University of San Francisco after completing an independent major in conjunction with the Academy of Art in San Francisco. He received a Masters of Architecture (1997) from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Martin's body of work is a portrayal of life's ordinary experiences, and the artist's immediate surroundings. His drawings and paintings communicate the usual in life with simplicity, boldness, and courage. Cityscapes, landscapes, still lifes, portraits, Christian and biblical imagery, as well as work originating from the artist's ever-churning imagination, populate his portfolio of work.
Martin lives and works in San Diego with his wife Kristine and his five children.
Francesca Ceccarelli was born in Florence, Italy in 1980. Her first solo show was in 2001. She has exhibited in Florence, Rome, Bologna, Milan and New York City. She moved to the United States in 2006 where she worked on her solo show Births held at Seed Gallery in New York. That same year she exhibited her works at Galleria Paradigma in Florence, in an exhibition entitled Overlight curated by Elisa Gradi. From 2008 her works have been acquired by important international collectors. During the same year she participated in the group show Umanitas et Concordia in San Giovanni, Rome, with a project installation. At the end of 2008 she moved to Milan where she currently lives. She has exhibited in Milan in many group shows and in 2010 she participated in the exhibition Lightness, curated by Flavia Fiocchi at the Effearte Gallery.
Raquel Isaza was born in Brooklyn, the daughter of a Colombian father, a sculptor, and a Russian Jewish mother, a teacher. At the age of 10, she moved to Colombia, where her paternal grandfather, an adventurer and poet, her “rock”, helped to raise the family. Isaza grew up among the fumes of turpentine and clay in her father’s art studio, and images of Picasso’s artwork. She graduated from Fine Arts at La Universidad Nacional de Colombia, then continued painting at The Art Students League of NY, and studied Iconography with master iconographer John Walsted. In Isaza’s abstract art work, one can observe a constant search for light, color, and movement, thus her interest in the works of Klee, Rothko, Kline, Tamayo, and Van Gogh. The themes found in her paintings echo shadows, caves, tunnels, landscapes, water, loneliness, change, and Mary. She has exhibited her art in Colombia, Holland, and the United States. Her work can be found mainly in private collections.
Veronique Chabrolle Dalla Favera (Verodalla) was born in Beaune, Burgundy. She began her professional career in gastronomy, first as manager then as owner of a Michelin-starred establishment in Nuits-Saint-Georges. Her break from haute cuisine came in 2002. Since 2007, she has been exhibiting her artwork in a Beaune gallery that was opened for that very purpose across from the Hospices de Beaune.
In 2007 and 2008 Verodalla began to show her work, little by little, in galleries, at exhibits and in national shows. In 2009 her pieces made their way into private collections through exhibitions in Monaco, Lyon, and Paris. She also began exporting her work.
In 2010 she firmly focused on the international with Venice, Verona and the USA. Her emotional and professional connection with New York led to several events in New York in 2011, the same year she established new workshops in Fontaine les Dijon.
Verodalla’s world is reflected in her use of volume, choice of materials, and well thought-out color palette. Each canvas reveals a universe and reflects a sober, refined, soothing, cheerful, simple, and sometimes obvious atmosphere. Verodalla’s creations offer harmony and purity, escape and balance. A sensation of well-being predominates in her work.
Verodalla recalls a personal impression or feeling fixed in her mind and couples it with an image that caught her attention. She then conceptualizes the canvas or sculpture inwardly until she feels compelled to create the material object.
Her art was triggered by a technical revelation: a mineral paste made of chalk and cellulose fibers. The natural material—which requires considerable dexterity for modeling and several hours of sandpapering and drying—offers Verodalla the possibility of adding texture to her flat, monochromatic pieces.
Lara Leonardi (Livorno, Italy): “My passion for design dates back to my childhood. I was always drawing secretly, even when I was not drawing, I looked at the world as if I were drawing it. Amedeo Modigliani said,“The art of design should never perish, its end would mean the end of art itself.” This is my inspiration and this is what I have always kept in my heart as an artist.
As far back as I can remember, I used design as a way of explaining everything that I encountered in the world to myself. Drawing was effortless and it was of vital importance to me as I navigated through the tender ages of my young life. As I observed, stopping here or there, I reconfirmed what I had discovered with a black line scratched on a thin piece of paper.
It all started one day when I picked a flower in a garden. I placed the flower gently in the palm of my left hand and carefully examined it. There before me, in that moment, I beheld the most beautiful design that I could ever wish to see. It was perfect. There, in an instant, before the beauty of this freshly picked flower, I was profoundly touched and my life’s vocation was born.
As I walk through life and sometimes encounter cruelty, the wounds I have received force me to continually seek the beauty that I encountered on that fateful and life changing day.
Over the years, I realized that the flower had a face, the same face that had also generated that perfect and fragile flower. That is the face that I am always searching for tirelessly.
