Mariella Simoni

The distinctive artistic trajectory of Mariella Simoni (born 1948) revisits the articulations between conceptual art and abstraction, between poetry and matter. Originally from the Lake Garda region in Italy, the artist studied art history in Parma, as well as philosophy and psychoanalysis. Her early works, in the mid-1970s, immediately assert her interest in organic developments and the movement of the living, employing objects in imbalance, or plants invading the exhibition spaces. Her shift to painting in 1982 can be seen as an extension of these questions into the pictorial space. The material in her paintings preserves that same vitality. The trace of the artist's gestures and the sedimentation of paint layers attest to the sometimes lengthy temporal dimension of their conception. She settled in Vienna at that time and formed connections with several artists who shared her concerns, such as Herbert Brandl, Otto Zitko, closely associated with the Junge Wilde, or Franz West. She participated in several exhibitions organized at Peter Pakesch's gallery, and was later invited to exhibit at Documenta IX, the international contemporary art exhibition, in Kassel, in 1992. A nomadic artist, Mariella Simoni's work evolves across the cities where she resides: Athens, Paris, Ghent, New York... She occasionally turns to sculpture or installation. Variations in formats, supports, dominant color schemes, and contrasts repeatedly challenge her practice, as shown by her recent works, which show greater economy in the use of materials and a different relationship to relief. The presentation of this set of works newly acquired from the artist and Peter Pakesch testifies to the intensity of this artistic inquiry.