ANDREA MIRABELLI
It’s not so much fun to pick up the pieces.
Text by Giorgio Verzotti
April 23 > June 19, 2026
A+B Gallery is pleased to announce It’s not so much fun to pick up the pieces, the first solo exhibition by Andrea Mirabelli with the gallery, opening on April 23, 2026 at 6 pm in its exhibition spaces in Brescia.
For the occasion, the artist presents a new body of paintings alongside a newly conceived sculpture, specifically developed for the gallery’s two rooms. The project originates from a reflection on the role of the monument in contemporary societies, a theme Mirabelli addresses through a painterly language that combines “epic tension and ironic counterpoint,” as noted in the critical text by Giorgio Verzotti, published on the occasion of the exhibition.
The works on view focus on a precise and recurring moment: the toppling of the statue as a symbol of overthrown power. Mirabelli captures the culminating instant of a collective gesture—or its immediate aftermath—in which the effigy of authority lies on the ground, fragmented, trampled, and recorded through the gazes and smartphones of onlookers. The imagery stems from media sources, selected by the artist within the flow of digital communication and reworked through a rigorous painterly practice grounded in drawing and observation.
The painting process activates a tension between derivation and reappropriation: media images are manually translated into painting, retaining a strict structural framework while introducing autonomous chromatic decisions and suspended elements that intensify both the dramatic and unstable qualities of the scenes.
Alongside the paintings, a large-scale 3D-printed sculpture introduces an overtly parodic dimension, shaped in response to its placement within the exhibition space. Moving between epic register and disenchanted perspective, Mirabelli’s work identifies paradox and ironic counterpoint as possible tools for engaging with the complexities of the present.
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Andrea Mirabelli (Milan, 1996) graduated in Painting from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera and furthered his studies in 2017 at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, where he studied under Michael Müller. He gained experience as an assistant at Laboratorio Avallone (2016–17; 2021–22) and has served as teaching assistant in Contemporary Art History and Contemporary Art Languages at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, collaborating with Elisabetta Longari. Recent exhibitions include Note sulla scultura – Deposizioni at Teatro Pacta, Milan, as well as participation in significant group shows such as NOVECENTO. Il secolo lungo at Galleria Giovanni Bonelli, Milan (2024), featuring an unpublished text by Aldo Nove; La città: tra realtà e sogno at Galleria San Fedele, Milan; and Considering Boiler Venting at A+B Gallery, Brescia (2025).