NAZZARENA POLI MARAMOTTI
“PRATONERA”
Text by Cecilia Canziani
Opening Thursday, June 24, from 3 to 8 p.m.
Until September 18, 2021
Pratonera is the name of a specific place in Cavriago, near Reggio Emilia, at the foot of the Apennines. Located in the vicinity of Nazzarena Poli Maramotti’s studio, it is her family’s place, full of affections and memories, but above all of customs that make it home and in a certain sense remove it from the passing of time. We are pleased to announce her fourth solo show at A+B Gallery and this time the exhibition is accompanied by a text by Cecilia Canziani.
The artist’s biography and her way back to home is the main core of this body of works that tell us about a place of life and ties. Pratonera was born from the rethinking of typical images such as fog, gates, long and straight roads, rows of vines, animals, people, the game of cards, popular celebrations.
Nazzarena Poli Maramotti has rendered the images that inhabit this landscape with different elements, all derived from painting. From extremely small to large formats, from works on paper to those on canvas, from subjects that can be traced back to portraits, landscapes and still life, right up to playing cards, with a special focus on the figure of “La Pita”. The ceramic works of flower vases and landscapes, executed with the excellence of the local kiln, are exhibited for the first time in this solo show.
Pratonera is a life story, a work by several hands and a choral portrait. It is an articulated exhibition in which all the elements are bound by a code, like the one that is activated by the game of cards, made up of gestures, words and habits.
Nazzarena Poli Maramotti (Montecchio Emilia, 1987) lives and works in Cavriago, Reggio Emilia. She studied painting at the the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste in Nuremberg and the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino. Her research is based on classical subjects such as portraits, still lifes and mainly landscapes, and proceeds with a discontinuous and disorganised painting whose spots and graphic signs (rocks, mountains, clouds or buildings) alternate with brushstrokes that deny both the figurative and abstract nature of the subject. Recent exhibitions: 2021 Passage / Paysage curated by Roberto Lacarbonara at Palazzo Barbò in Torre Pallavicina, Bergamo; Rassegna Salvi curated by Riccardo Tonti Bandini at Palazzo degli Scalzi in Sassoferrato, Ancona; 2020 Traces curated by Marina Dacci at Museo Civico in Bologna and Libere Tutte curated by Giuseppe Frangi and Daniele Capra at Casa Testori in Novate Milanese, L’altra notte curated by Davide Ferri, Z2o gallery, Rome; 2019 La Pratica Quotidiana curated by Davide Ferri and Francesca Bertazzoni at Oratorio di San Sebastiano in Forlì; 2018 Cairo Prize finalists at Palazzo Reale in Milan. Solo exhibitions at A+B gallery: 2018, Unterwasser; 2016, Wanderdüne 57°38’53 “N 10°24’22 “E, curated by Rossella Moratto; 2012, Portraits. Anatomy of a portrait; Awards: Mediolanum Prize for Painting Artefiera Bologna (2019); Debütantenförderung of the State of Bavaria (2016); Euromobil under 30 Artfrst Bologna Prize (2014).