Paolo Troilo, Unknown Acrylic on canvas |
A modern artist. Not often I get exposed to them funnily enough. Apart from the local art gallery, I don't find myself seeing a lot of new works, but browsing the internet does become useful sometimes. I stumbled across Paolo Troilo, an artist based in Milan, in a forum one day. After checking out his website, well frankly, I'm in love with his works.
He works almost exclusively with black and ivory paint, which creates a dramatic effect. Also remarkably, he uses just his hands to create the twisted forms on his canvas. There's something just a bit intimate about this, like he's betraying more about himself than the artist who uses tools on the canvas. When he's done creating his writhing bodies, he'll splatter and smudge paint to create the most beautiful wispy effect.
I use the painting above as an example, but it was really hard to pick out just one I wanted to talk about among the many others that I mulled over. I also couldn't find a title, date or size for the piece, so I'll have to stick with unknown until I find the time to research more.
But I mean, just look at him. The anatomy in which you can almost reach out and feel the contours, the smooth cool skin like sculpted marble. The man who once sat in the dark being illuminated by a heavenly light, a spiritual glow.
But this is where I absolutely love the way Troilo has stayed away from this idea of calmness and peacefulness. The man is being torn from his skin. There's not this gentle ascension out from the shadows, it's torture. It's strange, because we can't see the face so clearly, it's very obscured. However I can feel the grimace of pain, the clenching of the jaw, the furrowing of the brow, the valiant attempt to simply endure the pain. Every cell is starting to protest, to scream in pain and resist the transition... it's killing him.
It's like Troilo has taken every calm and peaceful religious ascension that we see in classical paintings and twisted it into something tangible. He's turned the saint-like apparition to someone more human, more empathetic. I also don't get the immediate feeling that this is a religious painting, but there is definitely something metaphysical or otherworldly about it.
The ominous blackness around him just adds to this contrast of light and dark, this duality. Maybe it's a reflection of the man himself, his own inner split.
I'll be keeping tabs on Troilo in the future, I can't wait to see if he continues to produce such beautiful works.
The ominous blackness around him just adds to this contrast of light and dark, this duality. Maybe it's a reflection of the man himself, his own inner split.
I'll be keeping tabs on Troilo in the future, I can't wait to see if he continues to produce such beautiful works.