Reviews
Elisabetta Fontana's art is the type of art where, knowing the sentiments of the soul, enjoys finding itself in a society where Economic Man is the ideal, ,and manages to express these sentiments on a canvas which becomes the world. Her art becomes matter and is ready to take on all those responsibilities which Man shuns away from. Elisabetta Fontana's is a type of instinctive art where signs talk. Her art assumes the paradox where rationality confronts expressive irrationality, finding its basic expression in a sign. The artist "relates" on a canvas thus creating a "diary of life" - her artistic and chromatic biography. Feelings like fear, happiness, sadness, anger, disgust and surprise share a common space. Bursts of feeling gain their strength from Fontana's artistry. An informal artist who brings new life to the subject - it is reincarnated, exploring those hidden places of "Me" in the maze of memories. A memory asking to be brought back into the light. A memory reinterpreted on a state of consciousness typical of this Parma artist. Shapes and colours leave room for the artist's soul, which appears and communicates its darkest sentiments. Thought becomes action. Action becomes gesture. Slowly, the subject becomes a story ready to be told. Emotion is the pictorial plus. Emotion is that sentiment which Elisabetta Fontana manages to transmit most easily in her works. An emotion stemming from the topics and chromatic narrative where darkness is set against light, shadows against infinity.
Fontana's work envelopes the intangible world of the soul. A soul hiding. A soul speaking and revealing its most intimate secrets. The soul splinters and become both "Me" and its least faithful representation; it becomes "Id". So starts an internal conflict between Wanting and Wanting To Be. The soul wears Pirandello's mask assuming the meaning of "front stage" and "back stage" described by Goffman. Introspective study defines her Being as an artist. An emotion transparent in all her work. An emotion which turns the universe into a tangible entity. A silent world depicted and shared. Inner feelings return with an expressive force which find, in the weight and consistency of the materials, their best and most faithful representation. The metropolitan city becomes Elisabetta Fontana's area of exploration. Its chaos and fleetingness, its sounds and mainly its fetishes become the artist's basic elements. Her aim is to give new life to objects which have "Another" meaning. Elisabetta Fontana's soul has the colours of the rainbow and the most subtle hint of infinity.
February 2010
Salvatore Russo
Art Critic