Andrea Respino
Andrea Respino
Born in Mondovì, Italy, Respino lives and works in Turin. His career as an independent artist started in 2018, when he wrote a short story titled Children’s Games (Possible drafts for a tribute to Bruegel). Until that point, Respino had been half of the artistic duo Alis/Filliol with Davide Gennarino. The two have been subject to solo exhibitions at Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro in Milan; and Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin. Their work also featured in the Italian Pavilion of the 57th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2015.
It’s the harsh, frenetic strokes you’ll notice first. Manic scribbles back and forth across the legs, bellies, and forearms of the men that populate Andrea Respino’s panels. These men, often older men, are in a state of undress, or sometimes nothing at all. They inhabit desolate outdoor spaces—barren terrains, bare trees, gloomy skies—carrying out indecipherable actions.
Respino’s drawings and paintings give shape to a world of men who manifest their condition of uncertainty through odd gestures taking place in incongruous settings. Where figures are absent, their presence remains palpable thanks to the scattering of discarded and oddly defunct objects riddled with a sense of past presence.
Respino purposefully leans towards anti-classical art: the harshness of 14th-century Tuscan painting, or the hybrid creatures of the visionary Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch.
It’s the harsh, frenetic strokes you’ll notice first. Manic scribbles back and forth across the legs, bellies, and forearms of the men that populate Andrea Respino’s panels. These men, often older men, are in a state of undress, or sometimes nothing at all. They inhabit desolate outdoor spaces—barren terrains, bare trees, gloomy skies—carrying out indecipherable actions.
Respino’s drawings and paintings give shape to a world of men who manifest their condition of uncertainty through odd gestures taking place in incongruous settings. Where figures are absent, their presence remains palpable thanks to the scattering of discarded and oddly defunct objects riddled with a sense of past presence.
Respino purposefully leans towards anti-classical art: the harshness of 14th-century Tuscan painting, or the hybrid creatures of the visionary Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch.
Featured Work
Compenso per "I beati verdi"
2021
Compenso per "I beati verdi"
Andrea Respino
2021
136 x 110cm
Oil on canvas
