The aquatic landscapes of Lombardy in Letizia Fornasieri's exhibition at Milan's Civic Aquarium

The exhibition Confluences. Letizia Fornasieri , a solo exhibition by Letizia Fornasieri (Milan, 1955) hosted at theCivic Aquarium of Milan from July 1 to Sept. 20, 2020, is dedicated to the world of the aquatic landscapes of Lombardy and the typical flora and fauna of these environments; a largely unpublished body of works that follow up on the artist’s pictorial journey that has always been attentive to the theme of nature and the Italian countryside.

The exhibition opens to the public with set days and hours, restricted access, reservations strongly recommended and with precise provisions aimed at protecting the safety of visitors. It is also possible to purchase a ticket at the venue only according to the capacity at the time.

The exhibition, promoted by the City of Milan - Culture, the Aquarium and Civic Hydrobiological Station, curated by Marina Mojana, is part of the I talenti delle donne (Women’s Talents) program, promoted by theCulture Department of the City of Milan and dedicated to the universe of women, focusing the attention of an entire year, 2020, on their works, their priorities, and their abilities.

More than 30 oil-on-canvas works, most of them created ad hoc between 2019 and 2020, become part of Confluenze, a cycle started by Letizia Fornasieri in 2015 with a major exhibition at the Diocesan Museum in Milan on the rural landscape of Siena and continued with a solo show at Galleria Rubin, Sentieri d’acqua, dedicated to the canals and bodies of water in the Cremona and Pavia area.

The artist, the author of celebrated metropolitan visions, icons of everyday living both outside and inside, is a prominent sensibility in the art scene, putting before our eyes with feminine strength in her countercurrent freedom, existing realities that “we do not see.” Fornasieri has always been a careful observer of reality and turns her gaze toward the world, transfiguring it with a style that feeds on the pictorial experience obtained both in the studio and by immersing herself in nature.

Today, attention to nature is very much alive and present even in the suburbs of cities and felt by poets such as Milo De Angelis and Maurizio Cucchi who speak to us of the irrigation ditches and rural environments between the ring roads. It is to this world that Letizia Fornasieri refers by expressing herself with colors that give intuited or precise form to the presence of such a context. This last review was accompanied by prolonged stays in the places observed, by journeys aimed at documenting but also at understanding how human life and its needs have an impact on the natural landscape that can come to characterize it in a sublime way: the Sienese hills, and the marshy plains of Rivolta d’Adda, are a perfect example of how a harmonious balance between the action of nature and that of man can be achieved. As time matures in the artist’s awareness that the canals, in addition to being functional for agricultural work, draw an order in the countryside and in the life of man, marking the time of the days, months and years; in the farmsteads and farms, an attention to purely decorative plants and flowers continues, which goes beyond work and becomes an expression of a need for beauty that enhances even the most forgotten and hidden corners.

In the exhibition, the artist brings to light new elements hitherto difficult to see, and deepens environments and subjects already explored at a distance. The exhibition becomes an opportunity for Letizia Fornasieri’s artistic journey to meet the vocation of the Civic Aquarium, an institution very close to the fish fauna of the territory and the flora of Lombardy’s “wet” landscapes in fact, the canvases on display, portray irrigation ditches, goldfish, garden corners, aquatic plants of Lombardy, water lilies, ducks and geese.

Parallel to the development of the themes, these latest works show an increased compositional sensitivity, a heightened exactitude of the color range and in the softness of the tonal transitions due also to a moderate and skillful use of technology, in fact some works, in the preparatory stage, were drawn and processed on iPads. A testimony of how the contemporary artist’s activity, although linked to traditional techniques such as oil, is constantly evolving to narrate the infinite beauty of nature. The exhibition includes a catalog with a critical essay by Marina Mojana and reproductions of the works on display.

Letizia Fornasieri was born in Milan in 1955 and in 1981 she graduated from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in painting, in those years she established a strong friendship and deep dialogue with the American painter William Congdon. Also in 1981 he won the San Fedele Prize for visual arts. In 1995 he won the Carlo Dalla Zorza Painting Prize, later his painting Milano-Tram - exhibited at the XIV Quadriennale in Rome in 2005 - became part of the collection of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament. Some exhibitions include: 2007 Palazzo Reale, Milan; 2011 LIV Venice Biennale, Palazzo Te, Mantua; 2015 Museo Diocesano, Milan; 2018 Kunstlaboratorium, Vestfossen, Norway. She creates numerous works of a religious nature placed in various churches in Lombardy including the Via Crucis, for the Church of Jesus in Nazareth in Milan. Letizia Fornasieri has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Italy and abroad, and her works are present in important private and institutional collections.

The following have written about her, among others: Flavio Arensi, Luca Beatrice, Paolo Biscottini, Rossana Bossaglia, Lorenzo Canova, Maurizio Cucchi, Vladek Cwalinski, Luca Doninelli, Giuseppe Frangi, Marina Mojana, Demetrio Paparoni, Roberto Perrone, Aurelio Picca, Elena Pontig-gia, Antonio Spadaro, and Marco Tonelli.

The artist lives and works in Milan.

For all information you can visit the Aquarium’s official website, while to visit the artist’s official website click here.

Pictured: Letizia Fornasieri, Red, purple, white fish (2019)

The aquatic landscapes of Lombardy in Letizia Fornasieri's exhibition at Milan's Civic Aquarium

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.