Italian Artist Brings The Renaissance To The 21st Century In Reykjavík

Emilia Telese, an internationally renowned Italian artist now living in Reykjavík, will be holding an exhibition at Gallerí Korpúlfsstaðir from October 28th through October 31st, with an interesting twist.

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While Emilia has works spanning a multitude of media—from performance and installation to drawings and printmaking—this exhibition, Inner Strength, is comprised of paintings and drawings using techniques from the 15th and 16th centuries.

“My painting practice focuses on the relationship between human beings and their inner self, expressed and reflected in their natural surroundings,” Emilia says in a statement. “I employ Italian Renaissance techniques from the XV Century such as unione and sfumato, first used by Raffaello Sanzio and Leonardo Da Vinci, whilst maintaining a constant formal and conceptual dialogue with XXI Century aesthetics and visual culture. My paintings are made over a months-long layering process, using hand-milled pigment oil paints, and are made to last hundreds of years.”

This particular exhibition “depicts significant people within my life in Iceland, shown with objects or in environments dear to them. The works also relate to my performance practice, catching my subjects in actions or poses emerging from long term dialogue with them,” she adds.

You can catch Inner Strength at the SíM Listamessa Art Fair at Gallerí Korpúlfsstaðir from 18:00 to 22:00 today; 18:00 to 20:00 tomorrow; and from 12:00 to 18:00 both Saturday and Sunday. You can find her works at Stand #46.