SAMUELA MALIZIA
The definition of “conceptual art” applied to Samuela Malizia’s work refers, even before a stylistic direction, to a way of understanding painting as the visual transcription of an idea expressed with images and words or, rather, with the image’s becoming word and vice versa. Samuela Malizia creates much more than integrating two complementary elements of image and word in the works. Both make up a meaningful visual unity comparable to the structure of a sentence. Here, like punctuation, color marks the rhythm of the reading and fills the space left empty by the words, offering an answer to the question posed by the latter or introducing other levels of meaning. Put differently, the problem of “verbalizing” the painted color and making the word “pictorial” creates a form of art to be interpreted visually, more immediate and direct, and on the connotative writing level. The intent is not to destabilize the observer through different, although unitary stimuli. On the contrary, it offers a keen, mental experience at the same time, restoring value to images and words in an era that has debased both in the use-abuse of mass-media communication. This union is so powerful that it is felt even when the word does not appear painted on the canvas. Nevertheless, it makes its presence felt in the uniform layers of color, just like an idea still potentially awaiting the observer to reveal itself.
[Daniela Pronesti']