Guglielmo Castelli

13/06/2017

“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
Costance, 40 x 30 cm, oil on canvas, 2017
guglielmo-castelli,-le-ore-fatte-di-nulla,-olio-su-carta,-100-x-70-cm,-2018
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.

image1
DISCOMBOMBULATE , Mix technique on canvas, 140 x 100, 2019
guglielmo castelli, sigarette, tric trac, bombe a mano, mix technique on canvas, 140 x 100 cm, 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