This spring, in the heart of Milan, two remarkable exhibitions are hosted by Gilda Contemporary Art: LEILI and Mauro De Carli R. – ORIZZONTE DEGLI EVENTI
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Born in March 2017, Gilda Contemporary Art is a place with its own soul and history, a hybrid of tradition and modernity, a home for contemporary art. Despite COVID-19 restrictions, Gilda Contemporary Art is looking forward to promoting its latest exhibitions, a breath of fresh air in the current artistic Milanese panorama.
Let’s start with the ongoing event: LEILI. Curated by Cristina Gilda Artese, LEILI is a two-person exhibition by Darya Ershad and Janan Nozari which focuses on female identity.
Darya Ershad and Janan Nozari come together to discuss the themes of female identity and old stereotypes: old but not "ancient" subjects, as they are still largely debated nowadays.
Starting from the strong genetic matrix of Middle Eastern women, they analyse the new Western female models, without finding unique and absolute models. Therefore, they readdress the topic starting from the concept of femininity, which is no longer strictly recognizable on being a mother or an independent and emancipated woman. When motherhood is no more related only to the parent gender or to the ability to generate, being a woman takes on a broader meaning, breaking away from traditional categories.
Darya Ershad was born in Shiraz in 1983. She graduated in painting at the University of Art & Architecture in Tehran and in 2008 she moved to Italy. Here she approached the world of stage shows, working with theatres and ateliers as a costume designer for several years. During these years, she developed a particular understanding of fabrics and various materials that brought her finally to conceive a new way of expressing her ideas: in her latest works, indeed, we experience several layers of fabrics, threads and knots telling stories and memories about her life.
Janan Nozari was born in Iran in 1983 and lives and works in Tehran and Rasht. She graduated in painting from Sureh University in Shiraz and further specialised in Illustration at the Art University in Tehran. Her adult experience in India, where she lived for several years, was fundamental. She uses painting, photography and installation in her work, but it is mainly in the use of embroidery and experimentation with textiles that the focus of her exploration lies. Her works are inspired by women's lives and bodies, by the female impulse to give birth. Themes such as gender identity and expression, and the relationship with the history of feminism are constantly explored within her poetic. Although she is deeply influenced by her Iranian artistic origins, she looks at the contemporary world through the eyes of modern art.
Once LEILI will be over, Event Horizon (Orizzonte degli Eventi), Mauro De Carli R.’s next solo exhibition, will lead us to the discovery of the theme of transcendence. Combining suggestions drawn from quantum physics, personal dream visions and quotations from the history of art and alchemical imagination, Mauro De Carli R. will introduce us to his new paintings.
Focusing on the connections between art and the spiritual dimension, De Carli uses painting to reveal the hidden, the mysterious. For De Carli, painting is a way of going deep inside to bring out the unconscious, and at the same time it is a process of sublimation of matter and individuality into weightless spiritual forms. De Carli's activity is the result of the hybridisation of different pictorial styles, from shaded colour layers to more aggressive signs, with a peculiar graphic attitude seen by the artist as a valid tool for the direct expression of thoughts.
Mauro De Carli R. was born in Sesto San Giovanni in 1980 and he lives and works in Milan. He studied Contemporary Sacred Art at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, and thanks to this experience he had the opportunity to assimilate different languages of the visual arts and multiple expressive solutions that eventually found a synthesis in painting and graphics. His graphic and pictorial works are showcased in several private and public collections in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, France, England, China and Brazil. He has realised several public works including an altarpiece in the church of Lugnacco (Ivrea) and one of his works is presented in the Civic Museum of Fano (PU), one in the MAiO Museum of Cassina dè Pecchi (MI) and one in the town hall of Bussero (MI).
So, let’s hope to have soon the chance to go and see these two exciting exhibitions!