Approached to feature in this interactive art exhibition in Milano Italy – Aldila, Beyond the Obvious, was an invitation too good to turn down.
I submitted my piece from Carnivale – Venice.
A bright, oil colour painting depicting the flamboyance of Carnivale which takes place in Venice each year.
Naked bodies, masks, colour and the true spice of life fill the streets of Venice and are embedded in the painting.
The exhibition was interactive – when people touched on the painting they could enlarge, reshape and create their own art piece within the piece.
Truly experiential and fun!
“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth”
(Oscar Wilde)
Click below for the experience
Notes from the Curator:
Art Curator Irene Delaude
“Carnivale” is an artwork produced by Australian artist Samantha Beau and inspired by a trip she made in Venice during the celebration of the carnival in 2019. The ability of the artist to capture emotions from her experiences is particularly evident in this 63.5 cm x 155cm oil on canvas. The artwork is composed by abstract figures for which Beau chooses bright colors such as pink, green, as well as yellow and blue. The colors help the viewer to unravel between their presentation of her Venetian experience and to understand the reality she lived there. Although the figures are abstract,on the left there are two figures that remind me of Venetian masks, like the first is on the top left and reminds of the feathers some masks have. If all the figures in the artwork are clearly abstract, there is one on the right side that is not. The viewer can distinguish a female naked figure that Beau represented after having seen her in Venice. In fact, the artist attended a mask ball in which a naked woman was being painted. Beau’s talent resides in her mastery to first observe reality and then go a step beyond it, after having recollected it in her mind. The result of her Venetian experience is colorful, chaotic but at the same time clear. We can consider Beau’s artwork as a postcard, a now vintage object we al lsent to our loved ones when we were traveling somewhere, as we wished they had been there with us. ” Carnivale” reminds me of postcards: thanks to the artist’s expressivity the viewer is able to imagine not only the situation of Venician those days, but also the colors, the sounds, the scents, the voices of the people abuzz. What
“Carnivale” does express excitement, the one I am sure Samantha Beau experienced on her skin.
