Presenting the Artist; Daniela Alfarano
We were there to meet the talented artist Daniela Alfarano who presented her exhibits. They seemed like very simple, but delicate feathers, painted on to a graphite background by what I imagined using a very fine paint brush. You would even have been forgiven for thinking that these art pieces were simply feathers glued onto a dark contrasting background. Whereas, in fact it turned out to be a much more complex process, using white paper and the laborious use of a pencil. It wasn’t until Marco explained the method to us, and we looked more closely at the drawing, that we started to understand the delicate process involved and see each individual pencil stroke.
Exhibits
Entitled ‘Un giorno raccoglierò le mie piume e voleró via’, 2020, (One day I will gather my feathers and fly away) which I imagined refers to her countless efforts in drawing enough of these feathers and will one day join her mother who passed away when Daniela was very young. Each feather is unique and almost seem like they are floating; in movement; airborne. They were also displayed in such a way that they could all be floating around the room; at different heights on the wall.
“Ogni parete è sacra nell’attimo in cui raccoglie arte.”
Daniela Alfarano
She also exhibited another piece of work depicting the sea entitled; ‘Nel puro vero’ 2021 (In the pure truth), which again, could have been mistaken for some very clever camera tricks of 3 photos perfectly aligned on a gallery wall. You can see the work above, behind Sandra and Daniela. We were once again pleasantly surprised to learn that these too used the same technique. Three individual drawings, with each one taking up to 2 weeks to complete. At a closer look, you see the detail and the accuracy in her strokes to depict the direction of each wave and shadow.
We enjoyed a glass of bubbles and aperitif style nibbles while looking around the work. What made me feel even more comfortable (in an environment that I’m not accustomed to), was the openness of Sandra and Marco, making me feel like an amateur like me is still able to appreciate art. Their generous gift of a catalogue of the work at the end of the sociable evening was a wonderful memento of the night. We all look forward to more exhibition evenings in the future in this great location.
For more information
This exhibition is showing until 18th December at Marco Bertoli’s Studio in Via Farini, 56, Modena. For more information and opening days/times, please visit the website. Photography by Lavinia Nitu.