The exhibition "Beyond the Island," travel notes by Concetta De Pasquale,hosted by the Councillorship of Culture and Tourism of Naples, from January 10th to February 6th, 2014,at the prestigious Castel Nuovo, in Carlo V Hall, offers visitors the mostrecent production of the artist; approximately 40 works, including large andsmall paintings on paper.
The exhibition landed in Naples after a successfulexhibition in Florence, last October at Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. It is anexposition characterized by a strong suggestive impact, where large paintingsmade with oil and tar pigments on paper, together with the travel logs, whichrepresent, as Marco Moretti defines them in his critical essay in the catalog,real diaries of "real and imaginaryjourneys" of the painter. These diaries tell us of her island, Sicily,where the artist lives from many years now. A real and imaginary story of herland, full of metaphorical references to "ulyssiac travel", a travelthat everyone starts crossing the borders of his own "Island" goingbeyond the certainties of life. The major De Pasquale's paintings, floating inthe metaphysical world, are made with the footprints of her body in motion. Theartist does not use any pencil or brush, the footprints are the result of aphysical encounter and intimate with the paper, impregnated with pigments andtar. A melee that the painter has employed with the paper, for some years now,since the paper itself is considered to be a material able to absorb andwelcome her creative energy.
Antonio Vitale, who is the curatorof the exhibition, suggests an interpretation of the works focusing on the bodyas a communication tool that is not isolated from a kind of narration that,without a sign, gives greater strength to the meaning: it is the story of ajourney that is not physical and that does not go back in time and memory. DePasquale's painting has no signs since the artist does not want to beimprisoned by boundaries; moreover she is never surrounded by material in orderto feel free to be absorbed by the medium of the painting. An oily and odorouspainting that impregnates the paper, defining the changing geographies in asetting steeped in light that transcends the boundaries of physicalityalone. During the exhibition it ispossible to appreciate the video "Island" created by Anna Di Leo, whoemployed an intimate look to show the poetic and the most unique aspects of thetechnique of the artist. The final result is an artistic dialogue between AnnaDi Leo's multimedia poetic and Concetta De Pasquale's figurative painting.