CLAUDIA ONISTO
Claudia Onisto's work reinterprets the traditional representation of the anatomy, creating figures that are neither “human” nor “animal” but rather organic forms that look and feel somehow “alive" to to the observer. No longer are they just bodies designed to breathe or to be fed upon, but individual parts, organs or gears of the same mechanism, that depend upon each other, contributing to the survival of these strange creatures. Organisms which are brought to life through the fusion between painting and street art, a hybrid of techniques and styles, a new artistic language that mirrors the hybrid figures that she creates, halfway between reality and imagination. They float, stretch and form spirals in the space, seemingly dancing to an unknown rhythm. And it is the artist’s imagination that animates these figures, replicating, in her own way, the technique which the surrealist Breton defined as "pure psychic automatism", or rather, letting the hand move across the page without rational control or prior thought, to allow for a spontaneous and direct unfolding of the subconscious mind through the act of drawing. And this is exactly what we can observe in the work of Claudia Onisto. And while each piece is consistent with the next and therefore undoubtedly part of a single body of work, there is also a profound and mysterious dimension to the individual drawings that act as a bridge between the visible and invisible, the real world and a dreamlike universe, in a difficult balancing act between the truth and invention, expressive restraint and the purity of emotion.
[Daniela Pronesti']