The city of Barga is known far and wide as Barga Art City – after all there are more than three dozen art exhibitions held here each and every year here. Many of these exibitions are from visiting artists who bring their work to show to the public and then leave when the show finishes but there are also artists working away in studios dotted around the city. Most of these are well known to the Barga public as they exhibit their works on a regular basis but over the past couple of years there has been a new influx of artists working in the city who are more or less unknown.
They exhibit either in galleries outside of the area or may yet to have a major show of their work.
Over the next couple of weeks, we hope to highlight some of these artists by visiting their studios and workplaces and getting a quick preview of some of the work that they have been working on over the long winter months.
Paola Marchi
The first in the series is a newcomer to Barga, she moved here recently with her partner and two children. Her name is Paola Marchi and she was born in nearby Seravezza on the other side of the mountains towards the coast.
She says that most of the references in her work as from Dubuffet and the Art Brut school but also cites influences from Basquiat and the painters for the Transavanguardia group.
Transavanguardia group, the Italian Neo-Expressionist group. The term was coined by the critic Achille Oliva in his texts for an exhibition he organised in 1979 in Genanzzano titled Le Stanze. The leading Italian Transavanguardia artists were Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Nicolo de Maria and Mimmo Paladino.
Paola will have her work on show to the public during August in the Museum of Memory rooms in Barga Vecchia
Paola Marchi nata a Seravezza (lu) 1975.
Mi sono laureata a pisa in lettere moderne con una tesi in storia del cinema sui rapporti tra cinema e pittura.
Ho pubblicato un saggio sui rapporti tra cinema e pittura nel libro a cura di Marco grossi: “Giorni d’amore un film di G. De Santis”,Lindau 2001
Ho frequentato il corso di nudo presso l’Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara, ho effettuato tre mostre di cui due personali a Massa e una collettiva a Pietrasanta.
Il mio punto di riferimento per la ricerca artistica sono l’Art Brut (Dubuffet), Basquiat e i pittori della transavanguardia e in genere tutte quelle forme di espressione artistica spontanee e di matrice apparentemente elementare.
Dal 10 al 19 agosto mi hanno dato le stanze della memoria per una personale.
Paola's work is great. I especially like image 6 and 18. Thank you, Barga News, for the upcoming series of articles about artists in Barga. Barga is always an insiration for me as an artist. I visit every other year with a small group of painters (and hope to make it every year) and am glad when I can meet local artists.