Looking for Art is a Milan based gallery with the ambitious goal of promoting young artists (under 35) by creating a space of experimentation and exchange as well as by supporting the artists’ careers in the art market. They offer a rich and vibrant selection of artworks, ranging from sculptures to illustrations, paintings and photographs. Here, we put the spotlight on four female abstract artists at the Gallery: Valeria Marini, Ludovica Crippa, Alice Monzani, Valeriya Eremina.
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Our journey through the Italian female abstract artists begins with Valeria Marini (b.1985). Marini rediscovered the art of painting thanks to her experience of motherhood. Her work experiments with techniques, materials and colours in order to reach a representation of life’s movement. Marini’s paintings show her dexterity with different (sometimes recycled) materials, which are used to form vibrant compositions of layers and colours. In Risvegli, 2021, the artist uses vigorous, overlapping brushstrokes to represent the passage from winter to spring. The predominant white and black on the left are followed by the green and pink emerging on the right. The coarse texture of the chromatic transition brings to life the awakenings (Risvegli) in the eyes of the viewer.
Another abstract artist whose work plays with layers and chromatic compositions is Ludovica Crippa. Crippa, aka VINO, was born in Milan in 1994. In her oeuvre, the artist is constantly in search of the right balance among lines, shapes and colours. A key theme of her artworks is memory, which is explored not only through the choice of using recycled materials, which act as time bearers, but also through the creation of layers of paint, which appear as “deposits of memory”. In XXX, 2019, the rigid yet chromatically harmonic composition of shapes, rectangles and squares, shows in each of its sections different stratifications of paint as well as incisions and marks. Each section appears as a different wall, altered by the passage of time.
A different approach is taken by Alice Monzani (b. 1999). As the other artists, Monzani works with different materials and plays with compositions. In her work, however, past and present are not linked by the direct representation of the passage of time but through the relationship between the techniques used, embroidery and sewing, which she learned from her grandmother, and the portrayal of snapshots of everyday life. Monzani’s artworks are characterised by an evanescent and melancholic atmosphere which brings the viewer to a state of contemplation. These traits of her work are apparent In Ombra, 2021. In this, the embroidery pattern, a clear nod to tradition, is interrupted by a luminous rectangular shape resembling a window. The dynamic relationship between shadow and light, noise and silence, gives space to a feeling of peace.
The last artist, Valeriya Eremina (b. 1989), works with layers and colours to create abstract paintings inspired by the “small miracles” of the everyday life. Eremina uses vivid and metallic colours to create dynamic compositions experimenting with low reliefs. In her work the research into everyday life translates into an introspective movement that looks at the artist’s soul, “Art is a way to manifest one’s own soul”. In Backstage, 2021, she captures the energy and movements typical of the atmosphere of shows’ backstage with large brushstrokes of silver, white and gold acrylic paint interrupted by the rough and dynamic patterns of the texture. The viewer is put directly in front of the inner reaction of the artist to this energetic scene.
These four emerging artists clearly show the vibrancy of the young artistic scene in Italy. Exploring themes going from the artist’s inner soul to memory and the everyday life through a varied range of materials and techniques, they are able to exploit the fertile ground for experimentation offered by Looking for Art giving shape to an impressive body of work.
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