| In Genesis, organized by HUMA3 (www.huma3.com) at the Ai Miracoli exhibition space in Venice, Argentinean abstract artist, Mario Zirardini, takes us back to our very beginnings, before written laws, received wisdom, and force of habit, all but shackled our individual creativity and freedom of expression. as. |  |
Ed Rubin
In Genesis, organized by HUMA3 (www.huma3.com) at the Ai Miracoli exhibition space in Venice, Argentinean abstract artist, Mario Zirardini, takes us back to our very beginnings, before written laws, received wisdom, and force of habit, all but shackled our individual creativity and freedom of expression. The artist’s apparent aim, beautifully achieved in his latest work, is to impact ours senses, awaken our emotional memory, and empower us to see the universe and beyond. A painting should not end on the canvas, the artist states. It should encourage viewers to create worlds of their own. The work of Zirardini allows us to do just that.
That the artist listens to opera while painting—the operas of Wagner, Mozart, and Bellini are among his favorites—should come as no surprise, as Zirardini’s coloratura paintings, the “blood red” operatic intensity of Essence for one, tend to match the soaring notes of the major divas. Think of the heaven-sent voice of Maria Callas—on her good days—singing Norma and you will be looking in the right direction. The artist is definitely a shaman. The construction of his canvases, from composition, to the laying down of shapes, colors, and textures, transports us to another dimension; each painting tells a story based on the artist’s search for the truth. It is here, basking in the light of his brush strokes that our own thoughts and ideas come into play.
In Roberta, a paean to the Zirardini’s dog who gave him unconditional love and affection for 15 years, a majestic flower is laid across a lushly painted background. This romantically heady drama, in shades of red and orange, whether or not we know the story behind the painting, incites our very emotions. Soon we are thinking of our own past and current loves. Parallel Worlds gives us two dramatically painted electrifying lines resembling lightning shooting across the sky. One is a light green, the other yellow. Both, living side by side in a tangle of red, are suspended in a barely visible black sky. Here the artist is contemplating what in Buddhist philosophy is called, “Prajna,” where the eventual overlapping of subject and object, represented by the two parallel lines in this painting, eliminates the stress of duality and leads us to a heightened discernment, thus introducing the coming of knowledge.
In Allegory of Old Age, reminiscent of abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning’s Woman paintings, two central figures resembling skeletons with wrinkled skin barely attached to their bones are seen embracing. Obviously the artist, with time ticking away, is thinking about his own mortality. While the painting’s background can be read as representing past, present, future, the existence of two brilliantly colored ovals embedded in the figures, signal a rich interior. Happily, and none too soon, we are assured that as long as our hearts keep beating a glittering conscience will remain. A master of color, Zirardini is equally adept in his use of pure white. In Regards, using white to both invade and neuter the surrounding cacophony of colors, the artist’s intent is to block out the outside world in order to give the viewer space in which to roam freely. It is in the practice of meditation where the object is that one gets beyond the reflexive “thinking” mind and into a deeper state of awareness.
Genesis, the largest painting in this exhibition shows Zirardini at his most ambitious. Attempting to express the near impossible, “the origin of the origin,” the artist has fashioned a panoramic canvas of which the very depth leaves us no other alternative but to follow the artist into the unknown.
This amorphously embellished painting, though open to multiple readings, can be seen as the trajectory, beautifully set in paint, of one’s journey through life. Like the I Ching, the ancient Chinese text widely used for divination, those able to enter innocently into the wide and wondrous world of Genesis, will find their whole life spread out before them. For the pure of heart and keen of mind, happiness will rear its head, unlimited possibilities will be revealed, and decisions will be made. Such is the power of Zirardini’s art.
