Artist statement
Alberto Pavan
Artist Statement
I am a self-taught painter working with figurative and non-realistic imagery using oil on canvas. I paint from my emotions and memory that are unique to me. Through my long and eventful life, I have collected an archive of images which became my reference and my fuel in externalising my creativity. As a child I film, Italian noir comics and graphic novels including Barbarella, Belle du Jour, Valentina, Corto Maltese, but also Diabolok and Satanik, controversial comics for adults. These images which galvanised into my visual memory that has continually been drawn upon in my painting.
I developed methods and techniques with brushstrokes onto the canvas conveying movement and depth where each stroke becomes plastic and purposeful. My colour palette has evolved from a dark, gothic tone to a colourful, vibrant one influenced by my experience by the culture and landscape of Brazil.
The triptych of the Mantellate
These three paintings were born after I saw a nun, strolling in the west-end wearing her habit in a way which, I assume, was personalised by some experienced tailor able to combine traditional sartorial skills with a sense of drama and the theatrical.I am not even sure if nuns can make these choices, but, I have learnt that, in this life, where there is power, there is a way. This nun, in particular, looked pretty powerful. It was ether that, or she was somebody in fancy dress. But I doubt it; her body language said nun.
So, i combined some of the characteristics of the expected habits and some pop elements, typical of our present culture. I appropriated myself of the iconic hat of Maleficent, which is recognisable by all generations.
Coincidentally, in that period, I was doing bulls in different poses. I thought that there combination of bulls and nuns had visual effect very evocative; some symbol of Inn and Yang
The noir film - Oil on canvas - cm 61x76 - Painting inspired by an imaginary cinematographic poster for a gangsters movie
Price £ 250
Feeling under scrutiny in a small town - Oil on canvas - cm 29x39 - a painting inspired by old sensations
Price £180
The soldier’s shower
Cm 29x39 (A4)
Oil on paper for oil
An omage to male beauty. This male nude communicates, for me an evocative homoerotic feeling of longing
Price £150
The party and the loaner
Oil on canvas Cm 40,5x51
A man alone sits giving his shoulders to a party of people sharing a table. Please notice that the guests all use only one side of the table.
Price £250
Africa London - Oil on canvas - Cm 44x56 - A face that. To me, it says London. People are at home here.
Price £180
A strong presence - Oil on paper for oil paint - Cm 44x57 framed An iconic image. Black, yellow and green shades.
Price £180
Donna Fabia Fabion de Fabian - Oil on paper for oil paint - cm 29x39. The title of the painting is taken from a character in a poem of Carlo Porta, a poet from the region of Padua, where I come from. The character is a very pompous woman who enters her church to thank her god for having made her an aristocrat rather than a commoner. I thought that this figure came looking posh enough to impersonate Donna Fabia, who stayed in my thoughts since my school days.
Price to be established