JOURNEY INTO THE SUBLIME
Exhibition text by Dr. Urvi Chheda*
Journey Into The Sublime celebrates the process and many experiential germination during the course of introspecting, analysing and creating.
While the face of each germination may be different, the underpinning intention armed with motivation and persistence is common. The exhibition maps two kinds of Silvana Abram’s journey: the passage towards the creative essence and process of beginning from the blank canvas.
Here, we trace physical or matter and the abstract or sublime derivatives, which denote not only the conceptual realm but also an identity to her daily meditative realisations.
“Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air plant be sustained by the light.” ― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet.
Silvana Abram’s practice is spontaneous yet pragmatic.
They are trials and products at the same time.
The binary does not confine to the given time or material, rather it dissolves within the flow, imbuing a transitory effect.
The abstract motifs in watercolours, and charcoal are neither static nor in the movement, they are themselves in their formal qualities.
So, is it our conditioned perception that identifies us with some confined space? Or are we staring at the efforts of the journey to sublime?
Silvana’s expertise in watercolours again discloses her method of timely control.
While letting the hues flow over canvas, she takes a complete charge in merging the next hue. What germinates may appear spontaneous but it is calculated and pragmatic! The interplay of contrast in Silvana’s rendition is motivating, and authoritative.
“Every time – in front a white canvas, I embark on a journey and cross layers of matter until I reach the creative essence. Following from the depth of your breath you compose forms and sounds – cast in the harmony of the universe.” ― Silvana Abram
Journey Into The Sublime is an effort to momentarily realise our sensorial alteration in its truest form!
*Urvi Chheda holds Masters in Visual Art in Art History and Aesthetics from MS University of Vadodara, India. Graduated from Sir JJ School of Art, Mumbai, she is presently researching on site-specific art, questioning the artistic autonomy. At the same time, she is interested in the meme-making process, which, she believes, is slowly becoming a significant part of formal representation. While not reading critical theories, she practises Kalaripayattu, an ancient martial art that originated in Kerala, India.
SMART ARTIST HUB
Silvana Abram’s artworks are energized with immense movements and moments, inundating the aura with a sublime yet ferocious demeanor.
The splashes in the abstract, the static in figurative, and the steadfast use of pigments speak volumes of her free-spirited artistic schemes. Equally captivating, her collages and sculptural works expand the imaginative horizons that she continues to surpass persistently.
THE INFORMAL COLORS OF LIFE
Prof. Elisabetta Zamarchi
Silvana Abram’s works remind us immediately of what Merleau Ponty wrote about art, that is, the secret of art is based upon a process of providing meaningfulness rather than mere imitation. This concise assertion includes the meaning of the 20th century’s research work carried out by philosophical aesthetics which can be summarized in two questions: what is the aesthetic power of painting? Is it the capacity of representing reality or rather transfiguring it? Moreover, what is the potential of pictorial images and what are their a priori implicit ends? Maybe the 20th century’s greatest merit has been that of acknowledging a specific meaning to painting as an art able to unveil cognitive activities being engrained in perception and body emotionality, as a place of thought which makes clear the immanent meaning of tangible reality without philosophic mediations by catching the invisible – spiritual, divine and holistic – in the background of the visible. What appears, upon seeing the informal colors used by Silvana Abram, is the fusion between aesthetics of painting and aesthetics of vision since an operative theory of painting can be perceived whose formal end is the search for a dynamic interaction amongst senses, the sense of sight in the first place, but the sense of hearing as well, because the lyricism of this peculiar poetic abstractionism does communicate with the beholder. It so happens that Silvana Abram is also a poetess. By looking at the abstract of color fields, both lyrical and informal, which characterizes Silvana Abram’s paintings, one can see immediately the phenomenological suspension upon the existence of things. Things, upon which we all base our hearing and willingness activities, are seen to be aesthetically enjoyed along a research style which aims at detecting their regular and distinguishing features. People, faces, oneiric figures and spaces both fanciful and real, all become images, something that distances itself from forms in order to arouse the mind of the beholder to overcome the limits of perception and to vary its perspectives. What one can grasp in the artist’s works is the tendency to follow that secret bent that Merleau Ponty attributed to painting as a peculiar activity, that is, its making reference to the body as a medium used by the individual to be alive. It is thanks to this peculiarity that the pictorial art is no imitation, or rather it’s “the painter who is born from the objects as an expression of the visible, and a painting may refer to any empiric object provided that it is self-figurative. A painting may be the exhibition of something if it is the exhibition of nothing only, if it can bore the shell of objects to show how objects become objects and the world becomes the world . Silvana’s images, made by means of a magisterial composition of acrylics, pigments and earths, fusions of color fields where black is hardly present, remind of the sense of a visual perception engrained in the living body, manifestations of an ancestral ego which can symbolically express itself through a technique aiming to represent the soundless language of the body. Abram’s painting of aesthetics starts from a vision aesthetics which reveals the interlacement between the ego and the world, the body and the world. At the same time it lives the space not as the “sphere” (be it real or logic) in which objects are placed but the medium for which the disposition of the objects becomes possible . Silvana Abram’s a priori figurative painting can be felt in her way of outgrowing the two-dimensional reality of the painting which turns into a self-centred living space. A space brought to life through the eye of the beholder. A space that offers the beholder great possibilities of form transmutation: “Form transmutation means that what existed before does not exist any longer. Moreover, transmutation also means that what exists now, being part of the play of art, is the true permanent essence ”. The beholder stands before the true permanent essence of flowing life.
“MANENT” – the golden book of Contemporary Art
Prof. Stefano Valeri and Sergio Rossi
Curated by Professor and Academic SERGIO ROSSI (University of La Sapienza, members of the scientific committee at the Sodoma Foundation in Rome) and Professor and Academic STEFANO VALERI (University of La Sapienza, members of the scientific committee at the Sodoma Foundation in Rome)- critical preface to DANIELE RADINI TEDESCHI (members of the scientific committee at the Sodoma Foundation in Rome) EVENTA publisher, March 10th 2012. pages 120-121, 224-227.
The artistic style of Silvana Abram, through pure and elegant chromatic aesthetics, accompanies the viewer in a trip to a deep discovery of human intimacy, with extensive brushstrokes full of body, transparencies, and various shades of colour, carefully selected and produced with powders of pure colour pigments. This aesthetic creation is abstractionism where colours and tones mingle together producing an intrinsic rhythmical element almost reaching a hidden but yet clear musical dimension , after being meticulously put together, it generates an emotional perception of lightness and general well-being. This artist has chosen to include in her creative portfolio themes that directly link to human feelings, filling the viewer with different emotions, including reflection and serendipity. Her visual masterpieces and writings are influenced by the predominant characters of abstract art, abstract expressionism and pop art. In the works of Silvana Abram, there are delicate artistic reminiscences of the Blaue Reiter art movement whose manifesto professed the domination of the spirit (the Knight) over human instinct (the horse) therefore the function of spiritual leadership is entrusted to the artist. The abstract artists, in fact, are oriented towards a vision of art that brings out the deepest impulses of mankind. It is the same visual spirituality through which this artist starts an adventurous quest to the ideal representation of human souls, using techniques of bright colour sublimation. All those concepts and artistic displaying lead to the conclusion that the abstract paintings by Silvana Abram are a perfect synergy and synchrony of abstractionism and emotional lyricism. Bright areas of colour seem to chase after each other, blending and exploding into a chromatic pandemonium where the colour black is almost never present; all this combined with the skilful use of lighting techniques amuses the viewer’s eye. In her paintings, there are references to song lyrics, melodic patterns belonging to classical-baroque music, like in the acrylic painting called “Canon in D Major” by Pachelbel, and visual snapshots that reveal the history of human beings. The exemplum of this painting narrative technique is “The power of Italian Ideas”, creation that marked the speech of President Napolitano’s speech in occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy. Using acrylic colours, creativity and personality intertwine just like her materials and colours do, thus becoming protagonists in the novel. In the colours of Silvana Abram there is a strong and energetic aestheticism, a blissful cohesion between painting and perception as it is revealed in her sensory interaction technique: human sight is being gladly received by the explosion of bright colours, and our hearing is concentrating on listening what the artist wants to tell us. These paintings are the “Nativity”, “Secret Love”, “Vision of Beauty”, which can, like any other masterpiece of Silvana Abram, establish a very deep and intimate communication line and yet very direct with the observer.
CREATING ART BOOK
Prof. Paolo Levi
The abstraction suggested by Silvana Abram’s personal painting style is an efficient synthesis of the finest painting particulars and lyric visual enthusiasm. Her masterpieces expose composed alterations of soul dynamics and the reasoned chromatic selection attracts the visual attention of the viewer who is thereafter emotionally overwhelmed by soothing colour waves. When viewing those masterpieces, it seems tranquillity is pervading the canvas but colour flashes flare up the painting in a joyful manner, powerfully vivid yet accurately studied and measured in the context of a sound architectural composition. The artistic result is so visually empowering thanks to a clever adoption of colour lighting techniques; this feature becomes essential when viewing and understanding her style. Broad and different backgrounds, defined by an embracing motion, come together generating an unique and eclectic blend of colorations that mingle in a delicate manner. Colour waves clash against each other taking the visual result to different extremes: colour patterns disappearing amongst each other or separating them with broad lines. The impression conveyed is one of a spiritual magma generating different yet enticing observations. Silvana Abram takes the definition of painting to a higher level, a dimension where perception in reached by emotions and feelings. A magical emotion perception. The artist makes her paintings original and unconventional. General artistic movements and current pictorial thoughts do not belong to her originality that represents a breath of fresh air reaching high spiritual levels that are not experienced by many. Her artistic compositions create a direct and intimate communication link with whom is standing before them. Her originality relies on the use of song lyrics, feelings that sometimes conflict with one another, mixing visionary experiences with important events happened in human history. This emotional whirlwind is filtered and conveyed using a deep artistic sensitivity highlighting and emphasizing fragments of a reality filled with light and unperceivable vibrations, airy and quick like a blink of the eye.
SIMBOLISMI, ARMONIE E GIOCO SPIRITUALE VIVONO NEL PRESENTE DELL’OPERA
di Ermanno Corti
Lo stile dell’artista Silvana Abram è una sintesi pittorica del nostro tempo, essa gode di pregnante e meditata resa formale e c’induce a leggere con maggiore attenzione le sue opere dall’originale impostazione.
In un suggestivo racconto scenografico dove magistralmente scorre il colore vivono tematiche dense di profondi simbolismi e fantasia descrittiva.
Nelle sue pagine pittoriche c’è una coerente ed essenziale immediatezza cromatica-luministica, guidata da una base moderna estremamente sensibile, ricca di ricordi e sentimenti che ella realizza con valida maestria e che la contraddistinguono mirabilmente. L’equilibrio formale, le armonie cromatiche ed il tratto dinamico, sempre ben studiato e sicuro, determinano la sua valida scansione estetica contenutistica di forte carica emozionale.
È una esplosione di creatività e personalità dove la materia e il colore divengono protagonisti nell’opera per potenziare una propria immagine artistica impegnata di rara qualità pittorica. In ogni opera della Abram, dal sapore informale, si riconosce una concreta ed appassionante lettura: il colloquio rigoroso tra forma e colore lascia un’impronta del tutto personale al suo iter. Abilità tecnica, solida preparazione di base e autonomia gestuale evidenziano un racconto concettuale d’insuperabile e singolare bravura che l’artista riesce a fissare sulla tela con una sostanziale poesia. Ella, servendosi dell’acrilico su tela, con un lessico espressivo fondamentale dà compostezza formale all’opera con una sincera comunicazione, dove si aggiudica una notevole interpretazione di innegabile preparazione tecnica.
Sono opere che ci affascinano, e che attraversano un sapiente gioco di armonie tonali e segniche e che trovano un valido riscontro di contenuto e stile: la sostanzialità della grafia, la vigoria del colore e la composizione strutturale vanno al di là della sola rappresentazione estetica, si aprono ad una dimensione spirituale intellettuale di struggente visione. È un animo sensibile quello dell’artista Silvana Abram, infatti le sue opere le permettono di diffondere messaggi veri, intensi e ricchi di valori. È un linguaggio singolare mai ripetuto, ma rinnovato di suggestiva forza compositiva, sempre attento alla ricerca stilistica. Nascono soggetti esclusivi fluttuanti di verità poetica ed espressiva personalità: la Silvana Abram pertanto conduce la sua arte mediante un particolare stile del tutto unico, in costante evoluzione, che si distingue.
THE DESTINY OF AN ARTIST
di Donat Canenna
Despite her background in humanities, thanks to tone abstraction, this artist has discovered the implementation of an unique medley whose features belong to the daily theatre of the absurd where colour light and space are continuously moving towards an unknown and permanent central point of gravity. The canvases are widely open to the observation of fascinated eyes that fall for visual enchantment also when standing in front of a “Felix” scenario, in a unique and singular imaginative world, these are the theatrical settings of “day dreams” by Silvana Abram. This emotional charm unravels the pictorial complexity that could not be more articulated, moreover also nurtured with narrative greatness and with emphasised details that become reality in the form of colour harmonies, projections of different light hues and graceful tone modularity. A grand framework made of abstractions, both intentional and unwanted and often evolved into different results. All this composition is dealt in a way to be light years away from any reference to post-modernism: the inner scenario is as just as you stare at it. And on the other side, the strong and clear willingness to always be only herself; the need to interpret the chromatic and visual balances is endless and perpetual (there are no signs of this endeavour in the works of Mrs Abram) to make them become “corridors” for literary-emulsified changes since the classicism of the to the atmospheres of “abstraction language”. This given circumstance is such a rarity in the current and too harmonized artistic trend where artists frequently depict intellectual reality without interpretation or any kind of emotional research. Silvana does not belong to this artistic movement at all as she investigates reality including every single undisputed emotional detail and including them in her masterpieces. THE NEW BLAUE REITER In the works of Silvana Abram we clearly notice a strong echo of a new “Blaue Reiter”, as when in Munchen, at the beginning of the twentieth century, (in that period, in this German city arts were more cosmopolitan and culturally more vibrant than in Paris) arts groups arose continuously with the influence of foreign authors, including Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Alex von Jawlenskij. And right in 1911, from this Bavarian association, in opposition to the Secession and the strong bourgeois and impressionist tendency, Kandinsky and Franz Marc departed this group to found the Blaue Reiter (Blue Knight). The two were soon joined by August Macke and Bernard Koehler, who was the sponsor of the group: these artists were united by the desire to establish a relationship with the music and ballet, science, philosophy and religion, with French and Italian artists, with problems of cultural policy, as well as including the vision of Kandinsky on the spiritual in art. The group, in fact, embeds into their production the orientation spiritualistic, moreover the vision of art as impulse of the inner man. And this is Silvana Abram’s artistic manifesto: a new and personal freedom to look at artistic compositions, which free to be free and at the works of classical arts.
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