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Interview
1. What are the foundations of your research (Art Identity) ?
My work is based on doubt and the absence of certainties. With this spirit I get up every morning, always at the same time, and go to my studio, animated by the irrepressible desire to subject the daily tests with which I try to affirm my existence to scrupulous and punctual checks.
2. Who are the artists who have guided you in your research?
I could make a long list but it would be boring, don't you think! Instead, I believe it is more true to say that every work of art that I have seen and that has sparked my attention has in some way influenced my research. Whether it is a formidable work, or its exact opposite a humble and ugly painting, I have always learned from all these things. It is not the works of art that teach something but it is the willingness to listen to their voice, sometimes loud and full, sometimes weak and almost inaudible, that makes the difference.
3. Define yourself as a human being using three adjectives.
I only get one, curious.
4. According to your vision, where is contemporary art going and where would you like it to go?
It is difficult for me to give an answer, art has always been, and contemporary art is no exception, it is by its elusive nature it does not follow a linear course, every time they try to channel it into some forced conduct it disappears to reappear where it is least expected . I believe that every artist seriously engaged in his work hardly sees beyond his nose so "ora et opera", I don't think there is another way.
TWO WORDS ABOUT HIS WORK
I've been taking note of everything that crosses my mind about notebooks, small black ones, for more than 25 years now. Drawing is a daily practice that has the sole purpose of capturing ideas. I draw with what comes my way, biro pen, empty felt-tip pens, colored pencils, with improbable colours. They are never serious drawings, they are notes that I need to stop ideas that otherwise would escape me. However, I must confess that often these first ideas are betrayed or contradicted during construction. The work is done by doing and feeds on everything it finds along its way. I often destroy works done previously to reuse parts of them in others, following a kind of cannibalistic logic that often ends up devouring me too.
I need to feel besieged by work. I can't focus my attention on a single piece, I have to work simultaneously on multiple things together and bounce from one to another with complete freedom. It is the work itself that asks me, in doing so a climate is determined, a landscape is designed, the works that are born together do not necessarily have a link between them. Bonds are determined over time and with changing situations. This is how I like to work, paying attention, always with an ear strained to hear the voice of the work, and that of the space in which I find myself operating. I am a painter, my works for me are paintings with spatial relevance the color that spreads from the back due to the refraction of light is just a way of making the painting dialogue with the space that hosts them.
Gabriele Landi from 1996 to today, with ups and downs, has taken part in some group exhibitions including "Dialoghi Siciliani" Taormina curated by Matteo Galbiati 2021/2022, "Equal/Diseguali" curated by Nicola Ricci and Giovanni Bonelli at VÔTRE Contemporary Spaces in Carrara 2021/2022 . In recent times he has held a series of personal exhibitions including "Errare Errando" at the Inner Room, Siena at the invitation of Federico Fusj (2020) "Cerchiami Chimera Fino in Fondo" at the Madonna del Pozzo in Spoleto curated by Franco Troiani (2020) and finally "Lieve Svanire" at VÔTRE Spazi Contemporanei in Carrara at the invitation of Nicola Ricci (2021).
For more information
www.instagram.com/landigab
