UNA is happy to announce Vorrei una casa al mare ma dipingo sempre montagne, first solo exhibition by Thomas Berra at the gallery.
Thomas Berra: Vorrei una casa al mare ma dipingo sempre montagne
January 15 2022 – April 16 2022
UNA Galleria, Piacenza
Berra, born in Milan and currently living in Finland, starts from the traditional technique of painting on paper or canvas of large and small format, to expand on various supports such as curtains or walls, creating dreamlike and immersive artworks. Berra's ability to deal with the space and realize all-round installations is the focus of his exhibition at UNA. The artist, thanks to large curtains painted in acrylic and hanging from above, transforms the gallery into an enveloping space, in which the visitor is invited not only to enter but to stay and spend time as if he were catapulted into another dimension.
Berra always creates a personal and intimate imaginary which, moving from a clear reference to the real world, distances gradually from it to outline a new one. His current artistic practice takes its roots in the four-year pictorial cycle Logion alle vagabonde (2015-2019), inspired by the homonymous book "In Praise of Vagabonds" by Gilles Clément. The series focus - through colour - on plants, undergrowth, and unwanted vegetation. Vagabonds are the weeds that grow in interstitial urban gaps; they are invasive and are usually removed, yet they resist. Through the botanical paradigm of biodiversity, Elogio delle vagabonde deals also with the need for inclusion, the importance of defending diversity. In Berra's most recent works, greenery meets dreamlike landscapes, animated by subjects that seem to come from a fairy-tale or an enchanted world, where man is one with nature, in a sense of perfect community. Dreams are an essential element in Berra’s work. The artist, strongly inspired by the dreams present in Fellini’s movies, recalls the Italian director’s book Il Libro dei Sogni in his work.
The title of the exhibition Vorrei una casa al mare ma dipingo sempre montagne[I wish a house by the sea but I always paint mountains] evokes the idea of a constant desire, perhaps deliberately, never realized, a sort of daydream that leads to continuous research; to a look towards the outside, which becomes an intimate thought and crystallizes on the canvas; to an incessant need to paint.
The usual green palette that characterizes Berra's work is now complemented by yellow, red, orange, and light blue; the influence of the colors that animate the landscapes and nature around Helsinki, where Thomas now lives and works, becomes clear.
The exhibition is accompanied by a critical text by Finnish artist and researcher Tero Nauha.
Thomas Berra (*1986, Desio, lives and works in Helsinki) studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. Among his main exhibitions: Usva Utu Sumu, Zazà Ramen, Milano (solo); Katso Merta: alle volte mi scordo di guardare il mare, Kuja Gallery, Helsinki, (solo), FIUR, curated by Ivan Quaroni, Civic Museum Magazzini del Sale, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, (solo), Tree Time, curated by Andrea Lerda, Mountain Museum, Turin; Tutti dobbiamo dei soldi al vecchio sarto di Toledo, curated by UNA, Spazio Leonardo, Milan, (solo); Il Paradigma di Kuhn, FuoriCampo Gallery, Siena, and Studio O2, Cremona (2018); Stupido come un Pittore, Villa Vertua Masolo, Nova Milanese, 2018; So long (Arrivederci), Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome, 2018; Verde Indagine (solo), Placentia Arte, Piacenza, 2017; Dopo il diluvio (solo), Villa Vertua Masolo, Nova Milanese, 2017; Carrus Navalis, Dimora Artica, Milano, 2016; Souvenir, Palazzo Mezzanotte-Piazza Affari, Milan, 2015; THOMAS (solo), Room Galleria, Milan, 2015; 8½, (solo), Spazio 1929, Lugano, 2015; CIAO (solo), Mana Contemporary, Chicago, USA, 2015; Casabarata (solo show – works completed in residency in Tangier, Morocco), Banca Sistema, Milan, 2014; Crises and rises, Palazzo delle Stelline, Milan, 2012; CIAO (solo), Room Galleria, Milano 2012. In 2018 Thomas is among the shortlisted artists for Premio Cairo and in 2017 he won the 6artista Prize and was in residence at the Fondazione Pastificio Cerere in Rome and at Schafhof – European House of Art Upper Bavaria, Freising, Germany. In 2014 he founded Subculture fanzine, a collective publishing project exhibited at Edicola Radetzky, Milan; in 2013 he was the winner of the Unicredit Prize with a solo show at Superstudio Più, Milan.
