Gerlanda di Francia

MILD REBIRTH

feature

May 19th, 2023

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Arch Enemy Arts presents MILD REBIRTH, an enchanting series of six new paintings by Italian artist Gerlanda di Francia. Texturally rich and intricately detailed, each piece is an embrace of earthen greens and subdued blues, colors that quietly glow like oxidized copper and ceramic celadon. Working in acrylic on fiberboard and inspired by ancient techniques, di Francia intentionally creates a surface texture reminiscent of fresco, smooth and dry like soft chalk, as graceful and absorbent as the imagery of the show itself. 

 

“Inspired by the natural cycle of the changing seasons,” di Francia writes, “Mild Rebirth emphasizes introspective visions related to the awareness of growing and changing into a new form…There is a sense of melancholy related to nostalgia for what one has been before but also the strength to awaken in a new form with the sweetness dictated by the knowledge of a new self.”

 

Thus di Francia renders nature personified as the female source, woven into each piece like the crosshatched lines of her gentle brush. In “My Own Lacustrine,” the artist manages to depict the full generative cycle and all of its emotional complexity through the life of a frog. In it, Mother looks on as tadpoles overtake her body. They grow and flow through her, feeding off of her. She is ever-present, ever-loving, yet her eyes hint a tender sadness. Deep and beautiful as ripples dance around her, the stream carries leaves and separates flowers, symbols that gently remind us of her sacrificial decay. 

Gerlanda di Francia lives and works in the countryside of southern Italy. She studied painting decoration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and has been exhibiting in galleries around the world since 2015. This is the artist’s second solo feature with Arch Enemy Arts, following her show last year. We invite you to join us in celebrating this gorgeous exhibition on First Friday, June 2nd from 5PM - 9PM at 109 Arch Street, Philadelphia.

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- Candice Musher

 

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MILD REBIRTH will be on view from May 19th - June 11th, 2023.
Sold works will begin to ship the week of June 18th, unless other arrangements have been made.

Items marked with a red dot have already been sold.

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