INNER PEACE Artwork

EXPLOSIVE JUXTAPOSITIONS With explosive juxtapositions, artist Marco Battaglini collides the principles of idealistic beauty, as epitomized in Renaissance painting, with the modern anarchic anti-consumerist ideology of graffiti, that espouses the transformative power of defacement. Enormous in scale, the details of the pastiche artworks purposefully expose the divide between these two stylistic trends to emphasize the superficiality of our modern culture and the collapse of the concept of art and culture as a linear progression. “I have always loved art. I am the son of artists and all my studies have been in the Arts: Liceo Artistico in Verona and then Accademia di Belle Arti in Venezia,” says Marco Battaglini, who moved to Costa Rica from Italy some twenty years ago. “There are many movements that have influenced me. During my training, I was into surrealism, followed by abstract expressionism and conceptual art. I think that my fascination for different artists, movements, concepts and techniques has made me bring together everything into a single composition.” Marco’s “single compositions” are energetic frames that may contain everything from ancient Greek pillars to Renaissance nudes to modern luxury brands and urban graffiti. They smoothly combine a respect for tradition with a tendency for rebellion. The beauty of classical order and form goes hand in hand with wild and independent self-expression. It is as though these dissimilar modes of creativity aren’t really foes, but friends – two sides of the one same coin. Neither of the two can be suppressed or neglected. Both must always be put on display, permitted and engaged with.