KINGDOM OF BROKEN DREAMS
Opening: Sat, July 13，6:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Exhibition: July 13 - August 9, 2013
Artist Website：
http://www.dilkabear.com/
http://paolopetrangeli.carbonmade.com/
“Kingdom of Broken Dreams” is the joint personal exhibition of two artists: Dilka Nassyrova and Paolo Petrangeli, which will be held at the Flower Pepper Galllery of Pasadena, California from the 13th July until the 9th August 2013.
The Stylistic and Aesthetic path which comes about when the works of these two artists, so different from each other, but at the same time perfectly compatible with eath other; is indeed strengthened by their own individual peculiarities.
They have both created a series of paintings which are able to express strong but diverse sensations to the observer, and when they are placed next to each other they appear to complete themselves, to resolve and to complement each other.
Some of the characters which Dilka portrays, appear to be under the influence of some magic spell, their bodies surrounded by mysetery, wrapped in thorns, feathers, branches and roots. But others appear to have been captured in a moment which may appear to be melancholic at first sight, but after careful observation one cannot fail to notice that we are dealing with a particular moment of awareness, not melancholy.
These are the characters that live in the worlds that Dilka shows us: they are aware of their own suffering, they are aware that they await the arrival of someone who will never come to them, aware of their own solitude, but without ever giving in to their feelings.
We see that it is in the work that is most full of semantic elements (“lake of tears”), that the main character faces her sadness without shame, without being overcome by it. Though she is aware of having lost some of her own freedom and a little of her innocence, she survives proudly and elegantly.
Paolo Petrangeli’s paintings on the other hand, are highly ironic and almost self-deprecating. Contained in the different spirits of the paintings that we see, are the concepts which are dearest to the artist. On the one side we see cultural icons such as Bela Lugosi and Frankenstein. The choice is made not to portray a vampire, but to show the actor who historically represents all visual work about vampires, while Frankenstein’s monster symbolizes non-conformity to social norms, although he is the product of the very same society which struggles to recognize him. Everything that is creepy ends up covered in icing and becomes endearingly cute. Thanks to Petrangeli even monsters are able to find friends.
The second spirit of this set of works sees the friendship between a robot and a human, in which the robot gives life to an allegory in the style of Collodi, with a series of dichotomies: human and it is often the little robot who gives us lessons in humanity .
These are paintings tell us complicated stories and both artists are able to do just that, with lightness and incredible skill. The result of the combination of their different styles is something almost perfect, because each one complements the other: if Dilka’s stories are suitable for a rainy day, then those of Petrangeli are little but beautiful surprises, like seeing a rainbow appear unexpectedly, while we are stuck in a traffic jam.
by Andrea Oppenheimer