- Maurizio Donzelli
The Three Gems
Eduardo Secci is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition “The Three Gems” curated by Ilaria Bignotti and featuring works by Maurizio Donzelli. The exhibition, inaugurating on Friday, May 27 (6.00 pm-9.00 pm) in Florence (Piazza Carlo Goldoni 2, Italy), will be on view until September 10. “The Three Gems” evokes the story of an ancient fairy tale, which continues to resound in our heads of disenchanted adults: the gem itself represents the idea of preciousness, of the discovery in the mineral hardness of things; and also, alchemical wisdom, a powerful intuition that you recognize intact and remains, beyond space and time. Maurizio Donzelli accompanies the visitor in an exploration and imaginative emotion process through an exhibition that develops along with three environments with the desire to propose as many different “germinations” of his artistic production. At first, the audience is invited to a contemplative vision, a slow immersion in the image: the viewer will find, before his eyes, gold on black, some works of the series “O” made specifically for the exhibition. These works declined in new forms in comparison to the previous, such as rhombus and octagon, and made with gold-colored leaves on gold. The present works refer in a certain way to the relationship of opposition between perfection and the possibility of change and indefiniteness. The adjoining room is characterized by a reflective system, in which the observer’s gaze is tripartite, descending, rising, and rotating. The use includes three visual movements, and the artist allows you to enter the work in your steps. “On the floor, the Girandole are specially placed and processed in a walkable form: curvilinear jubilation that unfolds in all the branches of blue, the color par excellence of depth and reflection, of metaphysics and meditation. The whitish tongues swirling on the floor invite the viewer to a second visual moment: the eyes swirl and chase the pictorial aquarium. They rise on the walls and discover that above them, like a double and composite image, other possible mirrors of the image hang. A reflective system acts as a sounding board for the floor installation and multiplies it. The gaze descends, goes up, and finally stands on the walls: a large framed Girandola stands: an attempt by the artist to delimit the boundary between creation and vision, between measurable and inexplicable painting”, writes Ilaria Bignotti. Finally, the explosion of colors, gems of light, and joy, fascinate and amazes the audience, as a kind of imagination machine. The visitor will be enchanted by “three large Aleph, three-dimensional parallelepipeds devices that guard in a diaphanous and reflective membrane, internal shapes in continuous change. A punctum that condenses what is unleashed on the walls: new Mirrors, among Donzelli’s most iconic works, are arranged in the new environment. They are dominated by colors, from pink, from red, from burgundy, from loud yellows”. The exhibition leads into potential new worlds, which seduce and to which our gaze isn’t accustomed.
Eduardo Secci is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition “The Three Gems” curated by Ilaria Bignotti and featuring works by Maurizio Donzelli. The exhibition, inaugurating on Friday, May 27 (6.00 pm-9.00 pm) in Florence (Piazza Carlo Goldoni 2, Italy), will be on view until September 10. “The Three Gems” evokes the story of an ancient fairy tale, which continues to resound in our heads of disenchanted adults: the gem itself represents the idea of preciousness, of the discovery in the mineral hardness of things; and also, alchemical wisdom, a powerful intuition that you recognize intact and remains, beyond space and time. Maurizio Donzelli accompanies the visitor in an exploration and imaginative emotion process through an exhibition that develops along with three environments with the desire to propose as many different “germinations” of his artistic production. At first, the audience is invited to a contemplative vision, a slow immersion in the image: the viewer will find, before his eyes, gold on black, some works of the series “O” made specifically for the exhibition. These works declined in new forms in comparison to the previous, such as rhombus and octagon, and made with gold-colored leaves on gold. The present works refer in a certain way to the relationship of opposition between perfection and the possibility of change and indefiniteness. The adjoining room is characterized by a reflective system, in which the observer’s gaze is tripartite, descending, rising, and rotating. The use includes three visual movements, and the artist allows you to enter the work in your steps. “On the floor, the Girandole are specially placed and processed in a walkable form: curvilinear jubilation that unfolds in all the branches of blue, the color par excellence of depth and reflection, of metaphysics and meditation. The whitish tongues swirling on the floor invite the viewer to a second visual moment: the eyes swirl and chase the pictorial aquarium. They rise on the walls and discover that above them, like a double and composite image, other possible mirrors of the image hang. A reflective system acts as a sounding board for the floor installation and multiplies it. The gaze descends, goes up, and finally stands on the walls: a large framed Girandola stands: an attempt by the artist to delimit the boundary between creation and vision, between measurable and inexplicable painting”, writes Ilaria Bignotti. Finally, the explosion of colors, gems of light, and joy, fascinate and amazes the audience, as a kind of imagination machine. The visitor will be enchanted by “three large Aleph, three-dimensional parallelepipeds devices that guard in a diaphanous and reflective membrane, internal shapes in continuous change. A punctum that condenses what is unleashed on the walls: new Mirrors, among Donzelli’s most iconic works, are arranged in the new environment. They are dominated by colors, from pink, from red, from burgundy, from loud yellows”. The exhibition leads into potential new worlds, which seduce and to which our gaze isn’t accustomed.
Maurizio Donzelli, O (rombo), 2022Mixed media on wooden panel and resin
142 x 142 x 6 cm
55 7/8 x 55 7/8 x 2 3/8 in
Maurizio Donzelli, 0 (ottagonale), 2022Mixed media on wooden panel and resin
102 x 102 x 6 cm
40 1/8 x 40 1/8 x 2 3/8 in
Maurizio Donzelli, 0 (ottagonale), 2022Mixed media on wooden panel and resin
102 x 102 x 6 cm
40 1/8 x 40 1/8 x 2 3/8 in
Maurizio Donzelli, Mirror 2222, 2022Mixed media in wooden box
104 x 79 x 8 cm
41 x 31 1/8 x 3 1/8 in
Maurizio Donzelli, Mirror 1722, 2022Mixed media in wooden box
43 x 51 x 8 cm
16 7/8 x 20 1/8 x 3 1/8 in
Maurizio Donzelli, Aleph V, 2022Mixed media in wooden box and mirrors, site specific installation
80x30x29 cm
82x32x158 cm
Total 162x62x187 cm
Maurizio Donzelli, Aleph VI, 2022Mixed media in wooden box and mirrors, site specific installation
50x24x24 cm
179x25x25 cm
Totale 229x49x49 cm
Maurizio Donzelli, Mirror 1822, 2022Mixed media in wooden box
42 x 45 x 8 cm
16 1/2 x 17 3/4 x 3 1/8 in
Maurizio Donzelli, Mirror 1622, 2022Mixed media in wooden box
64 x 51 x 8 cm
25 1/4 x 20 1/8 x 3 1/8 in
Maurizio Donzelli, Girandole, 2022Inks on paper, pure cotton 200 gr
149 x 122 x 5 cm
58 5/8 x 48 1/8 x 2 in
Maurizio Donzelli, Girandole, 2022Inks on paper, pure cotton 200 gr
148 x 108 x 5 cm
58 1/4 x 42 1/2 x 2 in
Michael Staniak, Mirror 2022, 2022Mixed media in wooden box
64 x 48 x 8 cm
25 1/4 x 18 7/8 x 3 1/8 in
Born in Brescia in 1958, he lives and works in Brescia.
Intellectual artist with training ranging from philosophy to anthropology has developed a research that has at its center the problem of the image understood as a potential place of concentration, migration, and alteration of visual memory, declined into works that develop into distinct cycles and experience different materials and techniques to continue to deepen and return to the public an infinite potential of suggestions and iconic references that sink into the dynamics of time and history and range in geographies even distant.
n this composite atlas of images, the Drawings and Tapestries, the Mirrors and the cycle of O, monochrome gold, the Nocturnes, the Pinwheels, and the Lux Drawing highlight the cruciality of thought that is behind the artistic process and bring back to the center of reflection the imaginary principle of doing. The creative act doesn’t end with the return of the work to the world but continues in the reciprocity between this and the viewer, in a making and discarding the image as a seductive device.
These aspects have led many scholars, intellectuals and critics to deal with the work of Donzelli over the years, in exhibitions such as: Immaginale, Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia e L’insieme vuoto, Marignana Arte, Venezia, both in 2022; In Nuce, Museo Civico Medievale, Bologna, for ARTCITY 2021; Metamorphosis, Villa Olmo, Como, 2021; Thresholds, MAC-Museo di Arte Contemporanea, Lissone, 2020; Diorama, Open Source First Shenzhen Biennale, Luohu Art Museum, Shenzhen, China, 2018; Giardini Cosmici, bipersonal with Aldo Grazzi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, 2017; Ad Altemps, Nazionale Romano di Palazzo Altemps, Rome, 2015; Metamorfosi, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, 2012.
The collectives: a political project born from his idea and linked to the position of art in the two years of the pandemic, GestoZero, traveling to the Museo Santa Giulia, Brescia, Museo del Violino, Cremona, Ex Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena, Bergamo, 2020-2021; Intuition, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, 2017 and Proportio, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, 2015.
The artist translated his thought also through teaching, teaching for seven years “Theory of Perception” and “Psychology of Form” at the NABA Academy in Brescia.
Over the years, theoretical reflection has been the subject of several publications, including: Spettacolo di Niente, 2003, Mazzotta, printed on the occasion of its homonymous exhibition at the Calcografia Nazionale di Roma; Lo Sguardo Del Disegnatore, editions l’Obliquo 2002; Metamorfosi, Mousse publishing 2012; Diramante, Bandecchi and Vitali Firenze 2015; La Linea Del Tutto Mousse publishing 2016.
Among others: Peter Assmann, Ilaria Bignotti, Bartholomew F. Bland, Paolo Bolpagni, Vito Calabretta, Daniele Capra, Luca Cerizza, Alberto Dambruoso, Daniela Ferretti, Luigi Ficacci, Angela Madesani, Massimo Minini, Mauro Panzera, Roberto Pinto, Francesco Poli, Francesco Tedeschi, Clarissa Tempestini, Valerio Terraroli, Tommaso Trini, Gabriele Salvaterra, Andrea Viliani, Mauro Zanchi.
Maurizio Donzelli’s works are housed in numerous public and private collections both in Italy and abroad.
Born in Brescia in 1958, he lives and works in Brescia.
Intellectual artist with training ranging from philosophy to anthropology has developed a research that has at its center the problem of the image understood as a potential place of concentration, migration, and alteration of visual memory, declined into works that develop into distinct cycles and experience different materials and techniques to continue to deepen and return to the public an infinite potential of suggestions and iconic references that sink into the dynamics of time and history and range in geographies even distant.
n this composite atlas of images, the Drawings and Tapestries, the Mirrors and the cycle of O, monochrome gold, the Nocturnes, the Pinwheels, and the Lux Drawing highlight the cruciality of thought that is behind the artistic process and bring back to the center of reflection the imaginary principle of doing. The creative act doesn’t end with the return of the work to the world but continues in the reciprocity between this and the viewer, in a making and discarding the image as a seductive device.
These aspects have led many scholars, intellectuals and critics to deal with the work of Donzelli over the years, in exhibitions such as: Immaginale, Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia e L’insieme vuoto, Marignana Arte, Venezia, both in 2022; In Nuce, Museo Civico Medievale, Bologna, for ARTCITY 2021; Metamorphosis, Villa Olmo, Como, 2021; Thresholds, MAC-Museo di Arte Contemporanea, Lissone, 2020; Diorama, Open Source First Shenzhen Biennale, Luohu Art Museum, Shenzhen, China, 2018; Giardini Cosmici, bipersonal with Aldo Grazzi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, 2017; Ad Altemps, Nazionale Romano di Palazzo Altemps, Rome, 2015; Metamorfosi, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, 2012.
The collectives: a political project born from his idea and linked to the position of art in the two years of the pandemic, GestoZero, traveling to the Museo Santa Giulia, Brescia, Museo del Violino, Cremona, Ex Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena, Bergamo, 2020-2021; Intuition, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, 2017 and Proportio, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, 2015.
The artist translated his thought also through teaching, teaching for seven years “Theory of Perception” and “Psychology of Form” at the NABA Academy in Brescia.
Over the years, theoretical reflection has been the subject of several publications, including: Spettacolo di Niente, 2003, Mazzotta, printed on the occasion of its homonymous exhibition at the Calcografia Nazionale di Roma; Lo Sguardo Del Disegnatore, editions l’Obliquo 2002; Metamorfosi, Mousse publishing 2012; Diramante, Bandecchi and Vitali Firenze 2015; La Linea Del Tutto Mousse publishing 2016.
Among others: Peter Assmann, Ilaria Bignotti, Bartholomew F. Bland, Paolo Bolpagni, Vito Calabretta, Daniele Capra, Luca Cerizza, Alberto Dambruoso, Daniela Ferretti, Luigi Ficacci, Angela Madesani, Massimo Minini, Mauro Panzera, Roberto Pinto, Francesco Poli, Francesco Tedeschi, Clarissa Tempestini, Valerio Terraroli, Tommaso Trini, Gabriele Salvaterra, Andrea Viliani, Mauro Zanchi.
Maurizio Donzelli’s works are housed in numerous public and private collections both in Italy and abroad.
- Chico da Silva,
- Jordy Kerwick
- Daria Dmytrenko
- Caroline Achaintre
