Traffic Gallery is delighted to host in its spaces MUCHO MUCHACHOS, a solo exhibition of the young Venetian artist MARIA GIOVANNA ZANELLA (1991), who for the occasion presents a series of large-format oils on paper, a sculptural installation composed of six whistling works, and some Books painted on paper that are part of the Love Letter series.
The works, all on preview, make up the artist’s first solo exhibition within a private gallery. Maria Giovanna Zanella graduated in the painting course at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, the city where she lives and works, and where she developed her artistic making through gestural painting of strong impact.
An anthropic nature appears in her works, where the man at the center of the representation is flesh and sex. A man whose belly understood as the visual fulcrum, suspended between the head and genitals, is figurative geometric center, carnal and spiritual, abundant and luxurious.[1] This carnal aspect in the artist’s pictorial works has been and is very present, although the path recently taken follows a different direction. Zanella’s focus is slowly shifting from sex to touch, from the abundant body to the use of hands.
[1] Taken from Milena Becci’s text for the 2019 exhibition TUTTI NON CI SONO
