Solo exhibition
«Act and individual starting point 1» in Venice

‘’Act and individual starting point 1” is the title that the artist herself has decided to give to the compendium of works exhibited at Palazzo Pisani-Revedin. Maria Stamati sharpens her senses, goes deeper by probing the system of beliefs, ideas, dogmas and convictions that lead the individual to instinctively consider a situation as right or normal. On the contrary, she does not stop at appearances, but thoroughly examines each event looking for a connection between the interior and the exterior, analyzing the causes and circumstances that lead to any results. The set of works entitled “Replacement” is emblematic of this assumption and stands as an invitation to reconsider the expression “no one is irreplaceable”. The uniqueness of each person is in fact an unquestionable principle for Maria Stamati, as is the need to consider the other at the same level, without depriving them of the possibility of giving voice to their own thoughts. This is what the artist also emphasizes in “The silent one does not mean that has nothing to say”, an exhortation not to underestimate those who are silent and decide to stop and think, rather than speak casually.

In the title “Love does not possess” it is already possible to understand the theme addressed by the artist in this work, where the free and open horizon of Love is told through a lively blue background, abruptly interrupted by an agglomeration of different colors that allude to the manipulations and the dependencies that exist in some love relationships, and in which inevitably one wonders “is there Love?”.

“In the before and after of the other” is a work suspended between past and future, symbol of the connections – both real and metaphorical – that lead an individual to transform into the current version of himself. Memory as lived time is finally the main subject of the work “What we lived and what we live”, in which excerpt of memories detach from the flat surface of the support taking possession of the surrounding space, modeled by an intertwining of threads and concatenations.

Overall, Maria Stamati’s production makes us reflect on the polysemic aspect of the images; looking at her artworks means making a journey to discover the most intimate and hidden side of the human being, although never without a hold on the present and reality. Shape, color, material and writing give life to a formal balance of rare beauty and elegance, in which the artist interprets an emotionality balanced by self-awareness. The fragile harmony between impulse and reflection is the added value of Stamati’s production, which reminds the observer how ephemeral human existence is and how a person’s thinking and actions can affect both their life and the lives of other people coexisting in their environment, as well as the entire planet.

Martina Scavone
Art historian