Barbara Vincenzi

Piani (di) colore - Pensiero e materia -

Planning and rigor are the basis of Vinicio Momoli's entire artistic career, in a research that has its roots in minimalism, a current that arose in the Seventies from which he soon distanced himself by introducing a vast range of colors and freeing himself from the typical rigidity of geometric abstraction. Born in '42, originally from Padua, Momoli must be fully understood in the careful reading of his dual nature: architect/designer and artist. Thus a broader journey is revealed which finds him already active in the Seventies in America and France and then subsequently hits the artistic scene in Canada and Spain. Extreme discipline is the cornerstone of his work which frees itself from the right angle in a play of solids and voids, of colors and thicknesses alternating between works on the wall and others on the ground, in a dissemination of the environment between painting and installation .

The design phase remains the matrix from which the different levels and color planes then develop and interact in a continuous dialogue between idea and body. His works range from objects to environmental installations aimed at exploring different techniques and a great variety of materials, and together they penetrate to the deep roots from which the relationships between space and work of art arise. In this exhibition there are around twenty works that testify to the last three years of work in which he uses exclusively rubber: the primary order is partly overcome by the elasticity and body of the material. The shapes are modeled like a 'skin' on the support, overcoming rigid concepts, stratifying into planes and overflowing outside the frames, projecting outwards due to the effect of gravity.

The molded matter becomes the heir of remote concepts: the rubber is imprinted with the codes of the earth, it overlaps at levels between footprints and elements of nature, each with its own history, between smooth or slightly furrowed layers, or more intrusive in a language refined capable of exalting itself in form between whites on whites and blacks on blacks. The variations of blacks or just whites become infinite, woven into patterns capable of enhancing the coldest and warmest tones, in an infinite reading of variables, lights and perceptions. Residues of the earth and organic elements find space and strength and override thought. Since his beginnings, Vinicio has never shied away from colour, but rather his vitality leads him to use a bright palette and to dare risky contrasts, between yellows and fuchsia or reds and lapis lazuli, in which he skilfully combines visual balance and formal elegance towards a multiple perspective.
Even the reds and blacks become important between massive protrusions and smooth or slightly furrowed surfaces, in a varied code to read.
Rubber becomes a malleable element almost capable of describing drawings. And here are the small light tiles in which different, more subtle shades intervene, to which we entrust the task of imprinting a trace of a forest or the horizon of a sea.

Barbara Vincenzi (2017)