| The impact and dynamism of Rodolpho Parigi’s paintings sprout from many hours of labour in a small and quaint studio in São Paulo, to the sound of the White Stripes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, fuelled by hearty, home-cooked Italian platters. It couldn’t be any other way, these powerful and at times overwhelming works could not have been made to the sound of Vivaldi or Billie Holiday and inspired by sushi; they rock. As he says, “I create an environment in which to paint and it’s reflected in my work…I paint from the stomach, it’s visceral.” |  |
Painting that Rocks! – Camila Belchior
The impact and dynamism of Rodolpho Parigi’s paintings sprout from many hours of labour in a small and quaint studio in São Paulo, to the sound of the White Stripes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, fuelled by hearty, home-cooked Italian platters. It couldn’t be any other way, these powerful and at times overwhelming works could not have been made to the sound of Vivaldi or Billie Holiday and inspired by sushi; they rock. As he says, “I create an environment in which to paint and it’s reflected in my work…I paint from the stomach, it’s visceral.”
I met Parigi a few years back when, reminding me of Pirandello’s play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, he oozed colours and ideas in search of function and format—and he found them. Exposed to works by heavyweights Franz Ackerman, Jeff Koons and Anish Kapoor, Parigi defined his relationship with spatiality, colour and volume respectively, and consequently holds these giants as pivotal influences for his current work. The impact of his exposure to Julie Merehtu and Matthew Ritchie’s use of line shouldn’t be overlooked, seeing as it is such a prominent and defining feature.
There are three main trends in Parigi’s most current production; black on white, expansive interventions on walls; contained medium-scale anamorphic forms in monochrome settings; and large-scale canvases where these other formats are fused and remodelled to form explosive surfaces where containment and expansion are negotiated within the physical limitations of the canvas. Of course they all drink from the same source, and his profound interest and fascination with bodily trimmings, detailed anatomical drawings and pornography comes through in every piece. It is not so much that these influential references are reproduced precisely, but, rather, that they are digested and absorbed in order to create something associated with and inspired by the real, but that only truly exists in the dimension and limitations of the canvas.
The wall series works as the flip side to the coin of the large-scale canvases. On the wall, Parigi dedicates himself to black paint, normally on white surfaces and expands as far as appropriate. He names the wall painting series “Apropri_ação” (Apropri_action), which reinforces the active staking and conquering of territory. On canvas, Parigi explores juxtaposing vivid colours and the tension that arises within the containment of the canvas; the explosive image never splatters its shrapnel far enough, since the edge of the canvas is the edge of its reality, although it could go further if not restricted. Parigi also explores tension within his medium-scale canvases by carefully choosing colours that play off each other, contracting and expanding the components that form it. Parigi is inclined to explore fusing the conditions of wall and canvas paintings in a new series, where the explosions go beyond the limitations of colour and the wall goes beyond expansion in monochrome.
Parigi does not count on the confident tracing of a projected image onto the canvas or wall, but trusts in the improvisation and instinct that arises from confronting his surface rhythmically and stoically until it’s as fluid as a body and as alive as rock ‘n’ roll.
