Interview published by IN Magazine n.2 May/June 2018
Intervista pubblicata da IN Magazine n.2 maggio/giugno 2018
An astounding nature
Manuela Vallicelli is a young artist from Ravenna, Italy, active in painting, photography and video art. Her childhood in Africa is clearly visible in her works, especially in big size paintings.
By Linda Antonellini
Manuela Vallicelli is a painter of Ravenna, Italy, with an African past. When she was just two years old her family moved for work reasons to Nigeria, amid the most uncontaminated jungle. When she was thirteen she came back to Ravenna where she completed her art studies: art high school and Beaux Arts Academy. Since the year 2000 she devoted herself only to painting. Talking with her it is noticeable how her work is all one with her identity, painting is perceived as an urgency and a source of energy, an unstoppable expression of her own self. Spaces and the breath of nature are always present in her research, moving from the figurative of the first years to the latest abstraction of landscapes where the horizon disappears in the infinitely small or in the immensely wide. She has made a mural for the permanent collection of the museum Paolo Pini of Milan and her works are in private collections in Italy and abroad. She has been on view in exhibitions at galleries in Italy and abroad and in 2011 she won equal first the award Marina di Ravenna.
Having seen your works focused on nature, how important has it been for you to have been living so many years in Africa?
Surely a lot. I remember when as a child I would wait for the storm in the garden, watching the sky that became more and more black. In Africa every color, sound and smell has an astounding intensity. This force of nature which I own, has brought me to produce a series of big size paintings.
A dominant characteristic of your works is the use of natural pigments…
I think it is the best means to create colors and obtain the correct opacity and transparence I look for in each painting.
Another recurrent mean of expression is video art…
The meeting point between video art and painting has been undoubtedly photography. Video art is a natural landing of this interest I have, it is a complement to painting.
Considering this tight relation between photography and video art, do you use any images when you paint?
No, and I don’t draw from life. My approach could be defined as threshold painting, I place myself between realism and abstractionism. Images are born as an effect of a spontaneous generation, it is the product of a dialogue between my inner world and external nature, an encounter between inorganic and organic, thought and nature.
Future projects?
I am working on a personal exhibit with big size works that will be combined with video projections. I am also making an art book dedicated to Luca Scacchi Gracco with the collaboration of Franco Maria Ricci, Jean Blanchaert and the actress Greta Scacchi, daughter of Luca Scacchi.
Manuela Vallicelli 