Silvia Mei

about the artist

"These are self-portraits, and portraits of friends and family. Anatomically correct, but less human and more animalistic, so as to highlight our true nature and essence." - Silvia Mei

The artist's statement for her first solo exhibition at RKG:

The pieces that I have in this exhibition are summary of the work I've done in the last three years, they are all works on paper or canvas. The most recent works (2014-2013) are characterized by colour that is more present and more alive. These are self-portraits, and portraits of friends and family. Anatomically correct, but less human and more animalistic, so as to highlight our true nature and essence. The characters are often forced into the natural environment - leaves and plants as well as birds of prey, and black darkness, the symbol of sorrows and anxieties that haunt the mind and body. This driving force has no logical or precise pattern, yet each work is linked to episodes in my life. In the works "In mente tu", "Nel mio cuore terra", "Dagli occhi piante, dal cuore occhi", for example, I deliberately made the subjects blind even though I placed eyes everywhere else in the body, in order not to feel the pain I created in the heart of a person I loved. Life events experienced physically and mentally become my paintings, subjected to changes based on what I am feeling and according to the development of the painting. In any case I always prefer never to give precise denitions. I love it when the viewer is free to see what he wants in my painting, and want it that way...