Stefanucci & Zarattini | Juxtaposition | February 2024

Von Buren Contemporary presents

JUXTAPOSITION

Duo exhibition featuring the works of

Marco Stefanucci
Luca Zarattini

Presentation text: Marta Spanò

Juxtaposition will remain on show until March 14, 2024

Von Buren Contemporary
Via Giulia 13, 00186 Rome

Von Buren Contemporary is delighted to present Juxtaposition, the duo exhibition of Italian artists Marco Stefanucci and Luca Zarattini.

This show is a study of contrasting styles, a pas de deux in which Stefanucci’s small, haunting, monochromatic images are placed side by side with Zarattini’s bold, colourful shapes and patterns.

At first glance, the show appears to focus on two colliding worlds but on closer examination, the juxtaposition reveals unexpected similarities stemming from a shared experimental, reflective and poetic approach.

Stefanucci’s paintings on wood seem to speak to us from the past: silent, fleeting missives in which scenes, faces and landscapes that have been lost to time resurface through the mist, like distant yet still familiar memories. Instead Zarattini’s works on canvas, with their rich colour schemes, appear as the bright and energetic manifestations of a kaleidoscopic mind. Countless swirls blend and dissipate, relying on the association of form to suggest meaning rather than employing recognizable motifs.

Where these two artists overlap is in their physical engagement with a wide variety of techniques and materials. The use of acids and solvents to corrode the pictorial surface has long characterised Stefanucci’s creations while Zarattini’s research has led to an original, complex layering technique that he uses for his collage paintings.

Both artists are also firmly anchored to the past: Stefanucci has studied the techniques of Old Masters in depth and references to their work and art history are the pillars of his oeuvre. Zarattini meanwhile taps into our unconscious recognition of archetypal forms and images, creating an intriguing dialogue between the past and present.

Marco Stefanucci was born in Rome in 1970. He graduated in Graphic Art and the History of Contemporary Art at the city’s La Sapienza University. He has exhibited in Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, England and Luxembourg.

Luca Zarattini was born in Codigoro in northern Italy in 1984 and is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna. The recipient of various awards, Zarattini’s work has been shown extensively in Italy and abroad.