VALERIANO LESSIO
If art and life are understood as mirroring each other, Valeriano Lessio’s works vividly confirm this. Far from being merely a support in Lessio’s art, the canvas becomes a border between the embodiment of the artist’s inner and outer existential dynamics in their colors. The tension of a now-dancing, now-warring gesture that follows the creative impulse becomes visual and emotional perceptions evoked by the rhapsodical layering of paint. There is an almost epic tone in these works, something both grandiose and universal that pushes the artist to go beyond himself to immerse himself in the chaos of the existing, where opposing forces clash in an essential struggle for life. Light and shadow, being and non-being, apparent truths and unsolvable enigmas, everything and its opposite coexist in Lessio’s works. They indicate an all-encompassing vision of painting, which excludes the objectively represented form to tell what part of reality is unseen yet “is” and constitutes the complex web of existence. Despite a pictorial execution that seems “emotional” entrusted to the gestural impetus, Lessio’s works instead are considered and transferred from within on to the canvas using an equally studied compositional criterion. As there is nothing chaotic in the layers of paint agreeing or fighting, the harmony of opposing forces make life possible and are equally essential to artistic creation.
[Daniela Pronesti']