whitecross gallery

Paolo Giardi

Paolo Giardi is an insatiable collector of images and texts. His associative imagination is fuelled by art history and literature, glossy monthly magazines and daily web updates. In the artist’s hands, materials from printed and online sources are scrutinized, edited, catalogued and then re-edited, sampled and mixed in what has become his main method of work: the montage. From collage books to preparatory sketches and paintings, Giardi uses montage in order to manipulate images and transport them out of their original context. Everything is permitted in his exercise of associations. In the final work, the original cuttings are still recognizable, but they now speak on a different register, like hieroglyphs to be deciphered. Literature is a key feature in Giardi’s art, appearing through citations, allusions or adaptations. Explicit examples are in an early collage book inspired by Euripides’ Medea or in the series of paintings entitled Roman de la Rose, a free adaptation of the 14th century novel. Traces of Marcel Proust, Samuel Beckett, Italo Calvino and more contemporary authors are to be found scattered throughout his titles. From figurative painting to poster graphic, pop art and fashion illustration, each of Giardi’s series of works seem to have their own unique identity. In shifting subjects, styles, languages, he is investigating the endless possibilities for the formal representation of the self and the cacophonous mess of the signs that surrounds it. In disobeying its own rules the work reveals, with a very humorous attitude to art, the fragmented and uncertain condition of life. Paolo Giardi was born in Florence, Italy, where he studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti. In addition to privately commissioned works, he has also collaborated in a number of cross discipline design projects. Giardi is represented by Whitecross Gallery in London and was the subject of the gallery’s inaugural exhibition. He has also appeared in solo and group shows in Paris, Rome and Florence. Paolo Giardi currently lives and works in London.