Trivium – Altri sguardi

Simonetta Chierici has always been sensitive to the therapeutic and cathartic dimension of art, transposing existential doubts and inner tangles onto paper, a metaphor, in its fragility, of the precariousness of human existence.

Her introspective path gives life to works of great lyricism, based on abstract compositions dominated by polychrome swirls, broken lines, small rounded and egg-shaped elements floating in an indefinite space.
Her works are devoid of any figurative reference to the real world, they are mental landscapes, whose strength is given by the ability to balance the energy of the sign and the luminous contrasts with the delicacy of nuances and shades.

Thanks to watercolour, Simonetta Chierici creates an elegant play of transparencies and chiaroscuro, with a chromatic range that moves from bright colours, in purity, to diaphanous backgrounds, in a continuous alternation of solids and voids, lights and shadows.
Watercolour is not only the ideal technique to fully express her chromatic sensitivity, but also allows her to paint without the aid of preparatory drawings, spontaneously and instinctively, only indulging in the movements of the hand flowing fluidly on the sheet.

Although used in a gestural way, watercolour generates a more controlled and more rarefied language than oil painting and allows her to translate on paper only the essence of what she wants to represent - rather than depict - in her works.
This is how iterated circular shapes, vortexes, lines and fragments suspended in a liquid and indeterminate space are born: archetypal figures as evanescent as they are evocative, born from an introspective path of existential reflection.

Living Beings, inspired by the theme of bacterial cultures and the dissemination of creatures that grow within a primordial flow, ideally mark the transition between the first group of works and the more recent nucleus centered on the natural world.
Starting from a research strongly linked to the inner dimension, the artist has oriented herself, especially in recent years, towards themes of more general interest, such as nature, environmental sustainability and the balance between humanity, the plant world and the animal world.

At the basis of various works created over the last few years there is a careful reflection on the concept of the Anthropocene, a geological epoch associated with the profound changes – and upheavals – caused by humans on Earth, in particular starting from the industrial revolution.
Simonetta Chierici leads us to reflect on the need to overcome a purely anthropocentric vision of the world: humans represent only one of the many species that populate the planet and must therefore adopt balanced and harmonious forms of coexistence with other animal and plant species.

Through different formats, including origami and artist's books, the author transposes the fascination of the natural world in its infinite variety onto paper, showing us the beauty of trees, plants, leaves and flowers, their connections with the cycle of life and their perennial regenerative force.
In the Grande Origami made in 2020, the role of plants is investigated on several levels, through photosynthesis and through the relationship with other forms of life, while in the smaller origami all the charm of nature unfolds, with elegant plant and floral compositions that cover the pictorial surface entirely, with a chromatic density far from the transparencies and light tones of the works of the early 2000s.

The fascination for nature leads the artist to adopt a more figurative and more realistic language than the abstractionism that characterizes the first cycle of works, devoid of any reference to elements of the real world.
The same also applies to the self-portrait in which Simonetta Chierici depicts herself within a composition based on the colours which, according to scientific studies, are perceived by birds: a work symbolizing the will to overturn the traditional anthropocentric vision, suggesting the presence of alternative points of view and new ways of observing reality.

On the other hand, poised between figuration and abstraction are the papers in which she paints sequences of stalks of grass, fragments of imaginary meadows, in which she inserts writings taken from the language of an Amazonian population, in some cases translated into Italian.

It is as if the author, with her works, wanted to make nature speak directly, giving it a voice and forcing man to listen to it: a reflection that follows in the wake of what has happened in recent years in various countries (especially in the Centro and South America), which have officially recognized nature as a legal entity.
Also from a technical point of view, Simonetta Chierici carries out a constant experimentation, alternating various types of paper and similar materials, ranging from the transparency of tissue paper, to the body of cotton paper for watercolours, to the three-dimensionality of cardboard origami and art books.

Paper lends itself perfectly to the creation of a multiplicity of different stylistic solutions: technical and formal experimentation is never an end in itself, but is always aimed at defining the most effective and most suitable language for translating into painting the themes at center of her research.
Even in her most recent works, Simonetta Chierici maintains a clear expressive coherence and demonstrates the ability to address issues of general and current interest through a strongly lyrical and evocative language.