An artwork by Paolo Tesi.
Gold/Smith Gallery will feature the art show “Insect and Man,” by Paolo Tesi, from July 1-26. On July 7, from 5-7 p.m., a long-distance interview live from Pistoia, Italy will be held with Tesi via the internet.
Tesi was born in Pistoia in 1945, where he studied painting at art school and continued his studies at the Magisterium d’Arte and the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, studying engraving and drawing. Throughout his career, Tesi has produced many works of art, posters, brochures, and catalogs, and has been curating art and literature magazines, and artwork and art-book reviews.
Although Tesi is a “painter with the temptation to write,” as he puts it, he never gave up on pure painting, realizing, among other works, numerous wall paintings. For several years, he has devoted himself to paintings depicting insects. Last December, he inaugurated an exhibition of insect paintings, titled “Insekten Homines,” at the Biblioteca San Giorgio di Pistoia.
“Insects inspire my creativity, there are many to crush them and sweep them away,” Tesi said. “No one loves them. In me, they stimulate the curiosity and the desire to observe them carefully so as not to lose the inspiration.” Insects are a metaphor of the more visceral side of the world he depicts. Even the material he paints on has the rawness his subjects transmit.
In Europe, the billboard is a means of announcement, publicity, notice. One strata is pasted on top of another until these large masses of glued paper begin to fall away from their original ports of entry. Tesi has a friend that brings him these room-size sheets of ex-billboards, torn away from their walls, warped and ragged. Tesi repurposes this detritus into the rough surfaces where his fabulous creations reside.
Gold/Smith Gallery is located at 8 McKown St., Boothbay Harbor. It is open Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon-5 p.m. For more information, call 633-6252 or email goldsmithgallerybbh@gmail.com.
