Maria Giovanna Zanella

The artistic practice of Maria Giovanna Zanella (Schio, Vicenza, 1991, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice), which includes both painting and sculpture, explores physicality as a place of vulnerability and friction but also, and above all, of contact, warmth, and passion. If, as the artist claims, ‘the flat and strictly delimited body is the frontier of an isolated individuality’, it is no coincidence that her paintings depict voluptuous anatomies, excessive masses, vibrant flesh tones, portrayed in an intimate gesturality that is not afraid to expose itself.  In the paintings, it is the brushstroke that amplifies the dynamism and intensity of the compositions, while in the sculptures, the penetration into the ‘living flesh’ is entrusted to the materials, which in addition to clay and ceramics can also include bread, yeast, and flour. Exhibited in private and institutional spaces (the State Archives in Naples, Palazzo Thiene in Vicenza), Zanella's work is a celebration of desire in all its forms.

Sara Boggio