After his exhibitions in Switzerland and Germany establishing a privileged relationship with the Galerie Carzaniga in Basel, Gianriccardo Piccoli returns to expose in Italy in a one-man show at the Galleria dello Scudo in Verona, with a selection of twenty paintings executed between 2001 and 2007. He is known since the ’60s like an exponent of the so-called “figurazione esistenziale” (existential figuration) and interpreter of a language inspired by models from the painting tradition of Lombardy, also as a result of the influence of Ennio Morlotti. In the next decade his work was increasingly appreciated: he was awarded the Premio Feltrinelli in 1984; he held a solo show in the Teatro Sociale, Bergamo (after his return from the United States); he participated in Aperto 86 section of the 1986 Venice Biennale; he had a show in public space in Wiesbaden (Brunnenkolonnaden am Kurhaus, 1988), and two anthological shows in 1990 in the Galleria Matasci, Tenero (Switzerland), and in Monza’s city museum in Serrone di Villa Reale.

Adieu I (2001) and Letto di Vincent (Vincent’s Bed, 2003) introduce a series of works joined from an unusual lightness. The titles confirm “this dimension lying halfway between nostalgia and anxiety, dream and memory, alarm and loss of reason: Secretum, Solitudo, Butterfly, Letto di Vincent, Favola (Fairytale)” (F. D’Amico). Conceived like transparent coverings, inside of which he placed object-trouvée or daily life objects, the works demonstrate how the artist has elaborated a language centred on the searching of materials and particular techniques. In addition to the traditional use of oil and tempera, he resorts to gauzes and acetates; he prefers wax to amalgamate the chromatic elements, also obtained through the application of stained papers or painted canvas scraps.

The narrative dimension of the paintings, marked from the employment of objects, makes a deep impression: the ceramic duck in Trappola (2006), the small shoes forgotten on a chair in Trasparente (2006), the wool skein in Penelope (2007) or the boat presence in Exodus (2007), symbol of the travel in its various metaphorical valences. Some paintings appears like interior views – Entro o esco (2005-2006), Insomnia (2007) – in which “the aim of summarising the space of a room – for example through allusions: a picture hanging on the wall, a scratch on the wall, the imprint of a mattress, or a light penetrating from outside - is only apparent. The theme actually becomes a ‘psychological interior’” (S. Facchinetti), always to be intended like visions of a delicate nostalgia.

The show is edited by Fabrizio D’Amico, author of fundamental texts on the Italian art of the second half of XX century. The catalogue published for the occasion, in addition to text written by him introducing the works in the show, presents a poetic prose by Dante Isella, authoritative studious of Italian literature, and a critical essay by Simone Facchinetti, Curator of the Museum Adriano Bernareggi in Bergamo, which analyzes the themes that have inspired the most recent search by the artist.