Tellas. Lago

MAGMA gallery is glad to present the solo show of Tellas, “Lago”, from February 1st to March 16th 2019.
"Lago" tells of the long and recent trip of Tellas in Canada last summer: a discovery, a vision. Each of the exhibited works, created specifically for the exhibition, represents a fragment, a memory, a photograph, a suggestion of the colors and the landscapes experienced by the artist and displayed on the canvas with a completely new palette. This solo show represents a further important step in the artist's research shared with MAGMA gallery since 2016.
"Lago" is a 2500 km long road trip on Canadian territory, from Montreal to Toronto, following St. Lawrence river, meeting Kingston on Lake Ontario and then arriving at the Bruce Peninsula and Lake Huron, to finally reach the Niagara Falls. 500 km a day, among the lakes and forests of Ontario; boundless landscapes, an essential nature red, green and yellow colors contrast with the colors of the great lakes.
If, in the previous exhibition "Tropico", Tellas had portrayed the natural power of the east coast of Australia, in “Lago” his artistic evolution is clear and powerful. To the preciousness of the details shown with the care and the incredible technique that distinguish his style, the canvases are divided into squares of different colors and details, connected by white solid silhouettes that overlap with vibrant colors and background details, giving new strength to the work, even more enhanced by free dripping as in "Toronto's Chinatown". In other works such as "Tobermory", large dark patternings are ripped apart, leaving a glimpse of lush backgrounds. Essential colors and clear signs want to express the strength of that uninhabited, silent and, at the same time, fertile natural environment. In canvases like "Forest Mills", instead, the autumnal mass of leaves, similar to a reddish tangle that moves with the wind, suffers a scratch, a tear, made of light or color. In these interventions Tellas sees instants of simple images, like observing the sky while lying under a tree, glimpsing the light between the leaves.
Tellas's artistic research fulfill the need of returning to a more intimate connection with nature: in the artist's works, the centrifugal force of the elements and the instinctive movement of some touches of color, announce that to chaos and to our ongoing horizon revolution, will follow a new calm. Each Tellas' large wall, painting or work on paper describes a world, faraway or close, real or imaginary, that tells about a primordial nature and energy from which we feel attracted.
 
Tellas (Cagliari, 1985) participations to international festivals are countless, among these Artmossphere, the first Street Art Biennale in Moscow in 2014 (with 70 international artists) and La Tour Paris Project in 2013, considered one of the most innovative contemporary art projects worldwide. In 2015 he realized a huge public work in Cagliari, the Capital of Italian Culture for that year, while in 2016 he made major public interventions in Madrid, Spain and Albany and Perth in Australia. Significant are also the collaborations with some historical Italian fashion brands, such as Salvatore Ferragamo and Marni. For the latter, Tellas created, in two different periods, several videos and projects, also presented at the 56th Venice Biennale. In 2017, Tellas returned to Australia, selected by Townsville municipality to realize a great public intervention in the city. In 2018 his works were exhibited at the Gagliardi Museum of Noto on the occasion of the exhibition "ABSTRACTA - from Balla to Street Art", which retraced a century of Italian abstract painting from Futurism to the most significant contemporary street artists.

Vai alla guida d'arte di Bologna