Natural 1
Hostile
Volpiana's project for Le Scalze is a reflection on existence and our historical times, confronting which—he himself states—"the artist defends his nature, protecting it from society: the same society from which his art derives." It is a painting that preserves purity of intent while offering sanctuary to the spirit. A refuge that the artist, at the time, found in the vines, which welcomed him and offered themselves to him as a form of defense from events.
S. Salvati
The work moves like a bridge, as often happens, between the personal and the social, helping us to have a vivid perception of the contemporary world.
It speaks of an individual story but, at the same time, of common experiences, shared experiences in this world that we often perceive as confusing.
Raised in the shadow of the family tannery, he lived amid the fumes and acrid atmosphere that for years characterized the lives of leather workers. For years, witnessing the process of extracting hides from animal bodies and chemically tanning them, he observed the changes the skins underwent as they achieved a different function, a different meaning.
The processes of transforming hides have their origins in prehistory and can be considered among the first ways in which humans decided to influence other living beings to promote their own survival, by killing and flaying them. This process carries profound meanings that span history to the present.
Leather has been used since the beginning to protect the body, to dress it, to walk comfortably, or even to decorate it, but it can also be interpreted as a paradigm of centuries in which the word progress has meant subduing nature and exploiting its resources.
All of this inevitably came at a cost we all know: the health and environmental risks posed by tannery fumes and the necessary slaughter of meat have been repeatedly proven. The poisonous atmosphere, illnesses, and frequent accidents caused serious consequences for workers, who saw their lives shortened and burdened by disease.
The Earth within the Earth
I try to be like Her, spontaneous and shameless, sometimes impetuous, but always with little success. And all this I've said must be written on my canvases, where I try to have the presumption and audacity to copy Her, taking advantage of Her beauty.
Now, therefore, speaking of man in relation to Nature and of His Nature itself is inevitable. Therefore, one can always observe the signs of the Earth, with its wounds, lacerations, and imprints, within the works. I don't even want to speak or pose the problem to be solved, but I would like everyone, by reading, to try to "violate" Her in another way; I challenge anyone to put their hands inside Her and finally feel like a welcome guest. Then, realizing Her will no longer be a challenge but a rebirth.
me
Denis Volpiana has made the concept of "fracture" the leitmotif of his most recent artistic research. Primarily pictorial, her highly gestural approach often leads to sculptural, three-dimensional results. The canvas, with its two-dimensional surface, is no longer sufficient when it is literally attacked by the chemical agents of the compounds Volpiana uses in the color matter, borrowed from the alchemy of tanning, the artisanal tradition from which the artist's training originates. It rebels against its own form, almost shaking off the static framework that constrains it to flatness. It is the color itself that makes these works material, in the pictorial impasto that, layered, is gradually revealed by the chemical reagents or by the artist himself. It is a work in constant evolution, in the changes that pass through it over time, sometimes even atmospheric (the snow falling on the canvas gives rise to an unprecedented craquelure). In wanting to embrace space, in becoming a third dimension, these paintings (ir)rupt parts of themselves, in a tension that becomes a constant yearning for freedom.
P. Cason
Beyond the Border
I have always understood the border as the limitation of a form. The work I proposed until a couple of years ago highlighted the patch of color and its boundary.
a source of enrichment.
Then I began to talk about fractures, those that are still present in my works through the materials. I speak of the natural boundary of things, the one identified with lines established by nature.
From here, I began to delve deeper into my existence and from here, I began to expand these boundaries, seeking openings to exit and re-enter through them, wanting to explore what cannot be seen.
me
We know that the artist uses tanning resin to make oils and acrylics more susceptible to cracking and shattering of the paint layer.
Fractures and cracks form a network that traumatically alters the regularity of the chromatic surface, transforming it into a sort of recording, a memory trace.
The fracture can allude to the existential condition. Ultimately, in life everything breaks, wears out, transforms, dies, and is then reborn in other forms.
"Nature is the master," it is said, and it is clear that Denis Volpiana is one of its disciples because, observing his works, we find nothing artificial. There are no allusions to complex mental constructions, nor any of those useless displays of intelligence and sophistication typical of so much contemporary painting. Instead, there is something that everyone can understand and empathetically connect with their own experience.
I.Quaroni
Volpiana's statement is peremptory: "Being is being." There is no room for doubt. It is necessary to demonstrate and love the fracture that exists between self-awareness and polite falsehoods. The fracture, the gap, the "non-being" becomes a place of attraction and exploration, a reason for a new path aimed at the search for a new self-being, in which the contradiction of the nonexistent becomes the primary reason for the reaffirmation of a new self-conscious individuality.
A.M. Spanò
