“The monumental ordinary”
Boccanera Gallery presents “The monumental ordinary”, the new solo exhibition of the Trentino
artist Andrea Fontanari.
The expo will be open at the Boccanera Gallery in Trento from 5 March 2024 to 11 May 2024.
On the occasion, the architect Mariano Pichler also was involved to give substance to the unique
idea of the gallery owner Giorgia Lucchi Boccanera, and so to design an original and unusual setting,
completely new inside the space of her gallery.
The layout of the exhibition area is characterized by the combination of large paintings on canvas
that are forming semi-closed architectures interacting with the environment, which are accesible
and usable from different points of view. These spaces, created by the works themselves that act as
walls, host inside other works of smaller size, with the intent to make the viewer understand how
the artist feels comfortable in expressing himself pictorially, without being conditioned by the size
of the canvas.
Fontanari’s production is characterized by the monumentalization of the ordinary. This means that
the subjects and objects represented are taken from the artist’s and not only, daily life . These objects
are later brought back on canvas, spectacularized and ennobled to be the absolute protagonists of
the scene.
From a pictorial point of view Fontanari prefers an energetic and vital style, aimed at visually
enhancing most of the compositional elements, while the intersection of brushstrokes, often
vigorous, contributes to the plastic construction of the figures.
The artist’s pictorial-figurative research reveals a visual vivacity, born from the intention to capture
every curious point of view of the ordinary.
The approach to the daily life of Fontanari wants to underline how usually we take for granted, in an
unconscious way, the real inner essence of the things that surround us, inhabit our world and make
it potentially an immense source of motivation, joy and hope.
“The monumental ordinary collects large and small works, installed in an unusual way creating
walkable spaces; a way to emphasize what I represent in paintings in terms of public vs private, real
intimacy compared to performance intimacy with our collective desire to follow and be part of the
intimate moments of others. In my view it’s about helping the observer empathize with the subject
and think about what it feels like to be the subject/object. What’s our part in this? What do we get
out of it? What does our participation mean? I love the history of painting, but most of all I love to
paint my life and what surrounds me, I wanted to do it in a way that was self-conscious and made
the viewer aware of himself.” -
That’s how the artist explains his works and the originality of the installation by the gallerist Giorgia
Lucchi Boccanera.
The young artist from Trentino, Andrea Fontanari, exhibits his large-format works at his second
solo exhibition in Trento at the Boccanera Gallery.
BOCCANERA GALLERY TRENTO
via Alto Adige 176
+39 0461 984206
info@boccaneragallery.com
boccaneragallery.com
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+39 340 5747013
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Andrea Fontanari was born in Trento (IT) in 1996. He lives and works between Trento and Venice.
He has recently been invited to participate at the group exhibition “Pittura italiana oggi” at the
Triennale Milano (October 2023 - February 2024).
In 2023 he was selected by the critic Luca Beatrice for the project Supernova 23, an exhibition
project hosted by Gallerie d’Italia - Intesa sanpaolo within Miart.
He was selected at the 21st Cairo Prize at Palazzo Reale in Milan in October 2022.
In November 2020 he presented his first solo exhibition at Boccanera Gallery.
In 2019 he was selected for the VAF Foundation Artistic Award 2019.
In 2017 he was selected among the five Italian artists Under 35 to participate at the Biennale d’arte
contemporanea europea itinerante JCE - Jeune Création Européenne (2017-2019).