TORONTO – The exhibition “La superficie introvabile – The Unfindable Surface: The Explorations of Anna Romanello and Mario Martinelli” was inaugurated in the presence of a large audience. 

The exhibition, organized by the Consulate General of Italy in Toronto and the Italian Cultural Institute in collaboration with Villa Charities and with the support of Heritage Calabria Joseph D. Carrier Art Gallery at the Columbus Centre will remain open until November 13.

The exhibition features the works of two of the most established Italian artists, Anna Romanello and Mario Martinelli. Two artists, the first born in Calabria and the second in Veneto in Treviso, who through their works, illustrate the contemporary Italian artistic panorama from North to South.

The director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Toronto Veronica Manson thanked the co-organizers of the event – the Consul General of Italy, Luca Zelioli, Villa Charities and its CEO Marco del Vuono for hosting the exhibition – Giulio Recchioni, director of cultural programs, for setting up the exhibition and Flavio Belli who curated it with great talent. “Of course, thanks go to the two artists who traveled from Italy to be here tonight,” she said.

Born in Calabria near Sibari, Anna Romanello is a performer-artist. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan and continued her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris and at Atelier 17, where she experimented with engraving procedures with international artists and engravers such as H. Goetz and Friedlaender. In Italy, she worked at the Calcografia Nazionale in Rome and since 1972 has taught at various Academies of Fine Arts in Italy. From 1986 to 2017, she was a professor of printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, where she developed modern techniques of etching and engraving with simultaneous colors and photographic collage. She has edited Artist-Books in Italy and France. “Her works have been exhibited in various galleries and museums in many countries and are present in public collections such as The British Museum, London; National Library, Paris; National Library, Prague and Bratislava; Calcografia Nazionale Roma; E. Caraffa Museum in Cordoba, Argentina; National Library, Florence; and Museum of Modern Art, Bari, Italy,” said Manson.

Mario Martinelli was born in Treviso, studied Literature at the University of Padua, where he then completed a PhD in Contemporary Art. During the same period Mario Martinelli also studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. He taught Art History for decades.

Martinelli’s work as a theoretician and teacher has always gone hand in hand with his research as a practicing artist. This research has evolved within a very personal inner reflection, which began in 1969 with his first “tela non tessuta” (Stessuti), which evolved in the 1970s and 1980s into “traspareti,” a wonderful neologism combining “trasparente” and “pareti” (walls), or the play of light and shadow on both the canvas and the walls of buildings. “He exhibited at the 1992 Lausanne Biennale and the 1995 Venice Biennale.

Since then, Mario Martinelli has traveled the world and presented live installations in which the shadows of passers-by were projected onto the walls of Venice, Milan, Paris, Toronto, Montreal, Tokyo,” said Veronica Manson.

The director of the Italian Cultural Institute then thanked MP Marco Mendicino and MP Anna Roberts who were present at the inauguration of the exhibition as well as the Hon. Joe Volpe, editor of Corriere Canadese.

Information on the exhibition: https://www.villacharities.com/culture-heritage/joseph-d-carrier-art-gallery/exhibitions/

Here below is a photo-gallery of the inauguration (photo: Italian Cultural Institute and Corriere Canadese) with the artists, the Consul General Luca Zelioli, the MPs Anna Roberts and Marco Mendicino, the director of the IIC Veronica Manson, the Publisher of Corriere Canadese Joe Volpe, other guests and some of the works of the artists