“If you leave yourself free in this process the possibilities are greater. For this reason I love painting, because it’s different every time and it’s terrifying for how powerful it is”.
AT: Where are you from and how/why you start engaging to art?
GC: I was born in Turin in 1987. My debut in contemporary art world begun in 2006 with the first exhibitions in non-profit spaces.
AT: When did it become serious?
GC: After graduating in Theater set design, in 2011, my artistic path became more serious with my first solo show at Francesca Antonini Arte Contemporanea in Rome.
AT: Are there any person that have been significant in your progression as an artist?
GC: I met many people who helped and supported me, with whom I had a constructive and fundamental confrontation for my artistic career; Lea Mattarella, Gregorio Botta, Lorand Hegyi, Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo to name a few.
‘Asomatognosia’ by Guglielmo Castelli, 2017, Photo by Sebastiano Pellion Di Persano – Torino Porta Nuova train station – Installation view
AT: What’s your first approach to the work? Where does your process start?
GC: I have a background as set designer. Therefore the first approach to the composition of content and form starts from the space. Intended both as a container of time and narration. To design a scene it is essential to face with the text and understand the fundamental elements, this I tried to transpose in my approach as a painter. What can happens on that two-dimensional surface? what can I insert and how I can handle the error understood as possibility. A sort of subset of spaces. It regards not what I represent, but what I paint can tell which could not be seen. What happens around.
AT: What are your favourite tools and materials for working?
GC: Solvents and oil colors.
AT: Do you leave your work open to interpretation? Or do you think the viewer should engage with your work in a specific way?
GC: The interaction of the viewer on art is a topic of argumentation from a long time. Painting has in itself a nature that requires the need to look beyond, therefore I never thought to canalise the perception of the observer in one direction, indeed, often my paintings, which are figuratives although with abstract elements, suggest in those who look at forms different from those I had originally intended. It is incredible how the public entering into what its sees can widen or restrict its own interpretation.
Costance, 40 x 30 cm, oil on canvas, 2017
Le ore fatte di nulla, olio su carta, 100 x 70 cm, 2018
AT: How do you feel while you are working? You think of the final result?
GC: I make a mistake every time, but I understand that this path of error brings me to a better result. The initial expectation which relies on the technique, soon gives way to improvisation and the attempt to go beyond the initial idea. If you leave yourself free in this process the possibilities are greater. For this reason I love painting, because it’s different every time and it’s terrifying for how powerful it is.
AT: How do you understand when a work is finished?
GC: I understand that a work is finished when it has the right balance with respect to what I wanted to say and to what I must leave hanging. If you add even just one element would be to distort the whole composition.
AT: Where does the inspiration for the work come from? Do you find inspiration outside or it’s all inside you?
GC: I find my inspiration reading a lot and trying to look beyond the curtain of things.
AT: Do you think art can be learned or it is something innate?
GC: Sensibility and technique could be refined. But the feeling of dizziness in the creative act is innate.
DISCOMBOMBULATE , Mix technique on canvas, 140 x 100, 2019
“Sigarette, tric trac, bombe a mano”, mix technique on canvas, 140 x 100 cm, 2019
AT: There are any artists that influenced your works? Why?
GC: From Bosch to Vuillard, passing through Berlinde de Bruyckere.
AT: How important is for you the role of social media?
GC: Social media have given the image a great power and a great speed in communication. In some cases also an eccentricity that in itself would not have.
AT: What do you find to be the most challenging or daunting thing about pursuing art? What is the most rewarding part of working as an artist?
GC: Being an artist has a side of duty, a role of transmission of contents, visions and social re-establishment.
AT: What do you do outside of painting?
GC: I’m doing a lot of research.
AT: What are your goals and expectations for the future?
GC: I have many projects in the pipeline……..
“Goodmorning Bambino”, Kusntlerhaus Bethanien, Berlino 2018. Photo Guglielmo Castelli
Guglielmo Castelli Born in 1987 Lives and works in Turin, Italy SOLO EXHIBITIONS / 2O18 GOODMORNING BAMBINO Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin / 2O17 ARTISSIMA 2017 – Disegni Curated by Luís Silva e João Mourão ASOMATOGNOSIA Curated by Treti Galaxie Sala Reale Stazione Porta Nuova / 2O16 CADAVRE EXQUIS a tribute to Carol Rama curated by Olga Gambari Amsterdam Art Fair Ron Lang Art Gallery Amsterdam / 2O14 IN THE DARK EVERYONE IS EQUALLY BAD Guglielmo Castelli / Lucebert RON LANG ART Gallery, Amsterdam. EPARINA a cura di Claudio Libero Pisano Galleria il Segno, Roma. Programma Artisti in Residenza MACRO Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma. / 2O13 Al di là di ogni ragionevole dubbio Guidi & Schoen arte contemporanea Gallery, Genova.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS / 2O18 PAINTING IS AN ILLUSION, A PIECE OF MAGIC, SO WHAT YOU SEE IS NOT WHAT YOU SEE Galerie Zink 67 Rue de la Régence, Brussels October 25, 2018 through November 17, 2018 Artists Guglielmo Castelli - Tatjana Gerhard - Gregory Forstner - Ondrej Drescher FIVE WS #4 - WHERE? Project &nd Napoli UNCERTAINTIES – IMPROBABILITIES Hopstreet Gallery, Brussels CURATED BY LORAND HEGYI Guglielmo Castelli, Ugo Giletta, Juul Kraijer, Barthelemy Toguo Sandra Vasquez de la Horra, Tinus Vermeersch A STRONG DESIRE PS120, Berlin Co-curated by Justin Polera and Aleksandr Blanar Curatorial Text by Christina Gigliotti BIENNALE INTERNAZIONALE D’ART CONTEMPORAIN DE MELLE Curated by Chloé Hipeau-Disko et Frédéric Legros RECTO/VERSO 2 Fondation Louis Vuitton, Le Secours populaire français, Paris CHALLENGING BEAUTY Insights into Italian Contemporary Art Curated by Lorand Hegyi THE PARKVIEW MUSEUM, Singapore / 2O17 MOLLINO / GALLIANO / CASTELLI NContemporary gallery, No2O London, Supported by the Italian Cultural Institute in London. / 2O16 CHALLENGING BEAUTY Insights of Italian Contemporary Art a cura di Lorand Hegyi Parkview Green Museum Beijing THE HABIT OF A FOREIGN SKY a cura di Isisuf – Istituto Internazionale di Studi sul Futurismo FuturDome, Milano TWINER #4, With or Without Wings Centrale del Tennis, Foro Italico, Roma. INTRIGUING UNCERTAINTIES a cura di Lorand Hegyi Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Saint Étienne Métropole. ARTE FIERA 4O Lo sguardo delle gallerie sulla grande arte italiana a cura di Giorgio Verzotti e Claudio Spadoni Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna. DITTICO a cura di Alberto Zanchetta Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Lissone. / 2O15 OBSCURITIES – UNCERTAINTIES Disturbing Narratives Guglielmo Castelli, Allison Hawkins, Peter Martensen Francesca Antonini Arte Contemporanea, Roma. A cura di Lorand Hegyi panoRama Dialogue with Carol Rama. Nopx, Torino curated by Olga Gambari. / 2O14 Alfredo Aceto Guglielmo Castelli Erik Saglia Via carso 5 Torino Almanach galleria Heike CurtzeVienna a cura di Lòrand Hegyi. Almanach II galleria Bagnai Firenze a cura di Lòrand Hegyi. Premio Fondazione VAF Schauwerk Sindelfingen Stoccarda. / 2O13 Premio PRIX CANSON 2O13 PETIT PALAIS, Parigi. L’ARTE È UN ROMANZO. La straordinaria storia delle parole che diventano immagini A cura di Luca Beatrice Palazzo della Penna, Perugia
PRIX / 2O16 Lists 3O Under3O Europe Forbes / 2O15 VINCITORE Premio speciale sezione Pittura Combat Prize 2O15 / 2O14 FINALISTA Premio Fondazione VAF Schauwerk Sindelfingen Stoccarda. / 2O13 FINALISTA Premio PRIX CANSON 2O13 PETIT PALAIS, Parigi. ARTISTIC RESIDENCE / 2O17 Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin / 2O14 Macro - MUseo d’Arte Contemporanea, Roma