April 17, 2017 – June 30, 2017
OPENING Wednesday May 17th 2017 at 5 p.m during the Nocturne Rive Droite
The Epic Truth of Salvatore Alessi “To each his truth”. This quote borrowed from Luigi Pirandello, Sicilian writer awarded in 1934 by a Nobel Prize for literature, resonates like a powerful echo with regard to the work of Salvatore Alessi. If it is conventionally held that the truth is the conformity of thought and reality, what about this conformity? How to recognize and know what is truthful and what is not? If at first sight these notions seem purely philosophical, they are, however, indicative of a time when the truth is weakened, yet opposing error and illusion, and by extension to lies. Religion, science, the virtual and media worlds are as much holders of the truth as themes explored by Salvatore Alessi, who, by confronting our critical judgment with the contradictory diversity of the truth, presents a happy theater of reflection on the paradox and the absurdity of life.
With the tip of his brush, the Sicilian artist born in 1974 in San Cataldo, illustrates the facets of a contemporary disenchantment in a tragic figuration mixing academism and syncretism. Like altarpieces, these canvases testify to a theatricalization of the cult, the taste for contemplation and excessive decorations. His characters are as mystical as saints, haunted by an indiscernible aura, and likewise reveal a most neutral expression. Without a smile or a suggestive look, each face is at least not extinguished. Like a mirage, the details of the eyes, the nose, the mouth are generally nonexistent in his last works, leaving room for a veiling, whether physical or shadows and light. Alone or inescapable, the human figure is at the center of each of the compositions, such as the main actress of an author’s film. The scenario often confronts a real world to the imaginary, playing a surrealist scenery reversing the laws of gravity and which elements finely represented are clues to understanding. However, his work is not there to give answers, but rather to raise questions.
Excerpt from Anne Laure Peressin’s text – May 2017
