ANNA MAGNANI Painting

I was born in Parma, Italy's little Paris, and ever since I was a child I loved spending my afternoons among tempera and brushes, experimenting with my creativity on stones and walls. The inspiration and desire to paint was great, so for six months I attended a drawing course with Maestro Gianni Melegari. His teachings helped me perfect myself and find my way, which I built on rigour and constant commitment. In 1999 came my first major solo exhibition entitled I mnemagoghi, or 'memory arousers'. Memories with immense evocative power were the real protagonists of this artistic series of mine. I subsequently collaborated with several art galleries until, in 2004, the San Lorenzo Art House chose me to do a cultural exchange with a group of US artists. In the summer of that same year, I left for Miami where I had the honour of being present at the Art Center and participating in the group exhibition inspired by the city. My artistic research never stopped and, in September 2009, at the Eleonora D'Andrea Contemporanea Gallery, I presented the series ...A nudo in which I stripped my art and investigated the concept of inner beauty. That event was a success and, a month later, my installation arrived at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lucca. Over the years my way of making art has changed a lot, but what has always remained constant is the modus operandi. I use an ancient technique, that of oil painting, and I treat my works in every part, starting with the construction of the support. I highlight the parts of the painting that serve me to express the message I want and leave others incomplete to give free interpretation to those who observe them. My free and constantly evolving art gives birth to works pervaded by an original and intense poetics that, between silence and energy, I dedicate to the power of life. I never strive for perfection: it is the depiction of tensions and details rich in material touches that gives strength and meaning to my compositions. I like to work with themes, even very different ones, in which I put my whole self in order to stimulate my imagination and that of the observer without reserve. Through painting I feel I can completely express myself, my inner world, my fears, my dreams.