“My suggestions come from reality, the most disturbed and truthful. A boundless media flow of images and videos of violence”
AT: Where are you from and how/why you start engaging to art?
EP: My education has always been artistic, starting from high school up to the academy. Firstly I studied in Modica, the city where I was born, and then, at eighteen, I moved to Florence as to follow specifically my passion for painting, until the end of my studies in “Design and curatorship of the exhibitions setup” in 2010. Therefore, I can say that my training was quite standard, like many young people who want to pursue a path and do it, without so much distraction, without worrying about the rest. I can’t say why I took this path, perhaps initially, if I think back to me around adolescence, I remember being a bit obsessed with drawing, I can not say if it has been the reason. If I take a step back I feel I have had and still have a certain determination. This together with a small incentive of potential and a lot of curiosity, have positively influenced my career.
AT: When did it become serious?
EP: I can affirm that I do this work seriously, but I couldn’t identify a specific moment of transition. I believe that everybody become adults thanks to a series of experiences, positive and negative, and all formative.
AT: Are there any person that have been significant in your progression as an artist?
EP: No, nobody. Only my determination
Site specific project “U N O”, 2017 – Installation view
AT: What’s your first approach to the work? Where does your process start?
EP: My work starts from a media survey, I am an image researcher. I draw from the web, from television and from movies. My suggestions come from reality, the most disturbed and truthful. A boundless media flow of images and videos of violence. I analyze the most instinctive state of human nature, where man and the animal are close, and there is supremacy and submission, where reason is not contemplated.
AT: What are your favourite tools and materials for working?
EP: I work with traditional materials such as oil paints and canvas, or fusing that allows me to work on the drawing with the same gestures of painting. I use a whole series of big and uncomfortable tools, like rollers and brushes, which allow me a total control over the surface and my gestures. I often build tools that I can not find on the market, but as much as they can help me they are big and uncomfortable too.
AT: Do you leave your work open to interpretation? Or do you think the viewer should engage with your work in a specific way?
EP: I would say both cases. In the most informal and completely aniconic works, where the etymology of the image is a distant suggestion, I let the observer interact directly with the surface. In other works, more iconographic, instead I interact on the focal point of the scene, denying the chance of reading to the public. I like to investigate this aspect of interaction, I think it is particularly stimulating.
Negare una visione personale (blue light), 2016, olio su tela, 120×100 cm
Negare una visione personale (payne gray), 2016, oli on canvas, 20×100 cm
AT: How do you feel while you are working? You think of the final result?
EP: I feel very often in tension, it is a cathartic moment, in which a long period of thought and reflection is going to be realized. The dynamics are reversed, and suddenly I need quick time for immediate executive effectiveness. I don’t think absolutely of the final result, it would be a distraction, I want to built all with the care it needs.
AT: How do you understand when a work is finished?
EP: In my view a job is finished when it has reached its autonomy and effectiveness, or maybe, the initial assumptions start to coincide with the last phase of the work.
AT: Where does the inspiration for the work come from? Do you find inspiration outside or it’s all inside you?
EP: As I just said before, the stimula is always external and it comes from the media, from images or movies, but you must consider that painting is a continuous stimulus because it feeds itself, from previous work to later work.
AT: Do you think art can be learned or it is something innate?
EP: I think Art it’s something innate in us, visceral, but I think it is also possible to learn. Artists always study and learn continuously, otherwise they would have no chance of improvement during their career.
AT: There are any artists that influenced your works? Why?
EP: Regarding influences or techniques, no one in particular.
Altre tipologie di relazione | Conversation 2, 2015, fusaggine su tela, 100×70 cm
Relazione predatoria (intraspecifica #001), 2015, fusaggine su carta, 230×150 cm
AT: How important is for you the role of social media?
EP: I would say very important today, due to the fact that communication flows a lot through social media. It is a fantastic tool which reaches artists, curators, gallery owners, directors, in other words all the people of the sector as well as a generic public. It’s effective and useful, even if it is used badly or in excess, could be a double-edged sword.
AT: What’s your opinion about the contemporary art system nowadays from your point of view as an artist?
EP: I don’t think I want to have a personal opinion, or want to take a specific position about it. I know you must be part of this system. Whether you like it or not, you’re inside or you’re out.
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?
EP: At the beginning, it’s certainly discouraging trying to get noticed, much more complicated than you might think, even if you have a good job and all the cards in order to be one of the best artists in the panorama. We need to do a lot and even more, show all our determination. The most rewarding part comes from the comparison with the public, from the dialogue, from the attention that is given to you and your work. Compliments, especially if you are thirty, are something really important, a strong if you want to work and produce in the best way.
AT: What do you do outside of painting?
EP: I am currently studying for teaching pictorial disciplines.
AT: What are your goals and expectations for the future?
EP: I wish keep on growing professionally, to consolidate my work and my ideas. To continue a constructive and profitable comparison with other artists and operators in the sector. In other words, go on well and better.
Ettore Pinelli Modica (RG), november 1984 Education Accademia di belle arti di Firenze | Academy of Fine Arts of Florence MA Curatorial studies and exhibition design, Fine Arts (2010) BFA in painting (2007) Solo Exhibitions 2017 [ U N O ] BOCS ART (AIR), a cura di Alberto Dambruoso e Annalisa Ferraro, Cosenza 2016 COME OUT AND PLAY, Basement Project Room | Arte Contemporanea, a cura di Alesandro Di Gregorio, Fondi (LT) SLIGHT FIST, Galleria QUAM / Tecnica Mista, a cura di Gabriele Salvaterra, Scicli (RG) RELATIONS / About reactions, Ex Chiesa di San Giovanni, a cura di Stefania Rinaldi, Prato 2015 ALTRE TIPOLOGIE DI RELAZIONI, Spazio Espositivo di Francesco Siracusa, a cura di F. Siracusa, Agrigento (AG) DIALOGO | Ettore Pinelli e Giovanni Viola, Palazzo de Leva, a cura di E. Alfano, Modica (RG) 2013 Ettore Pinelli, Kaos Spazio d'Arte, a cura di Ivano Fachin, Modica (RG) 2012 ELEMENTS, Palazzo de Leva, a cura di A. Guastella, E. Alfano, Modica (RG) 2008 Studi di (non) figurazione, a cura di Dir'Arte, Castello di Donnafugata (RG) Group Exhibitions 2017 18º PREMIO CAIRO, a cura di ARTE Cairo Editore, Palazzo Reale, Milano Arteam Cup 2017, promosso da Ass. Culturale Arteam ed Espoarte, BonelliLab, Canneto sull'Oglio (MN)
DIALOGICA | atemporali connessioni contemporanee, a cura di F. Piazza, Galleria regionale di Palazzo Bellomo (SR) Visioni d'interno, Burning Giraffe Art Gallery, a cura del progetto COLLA, Torino Omaggio a Salvo Monica, Ex Chiesa della Sciabica e Auditorium M. Crocifissa Curcio, a cura di F. Lauretta, Ispica (RG) Tecnica Mista_Dieci Anni, a cura di A. Sarnari, Galleria QUAM / Tecnica Mista, Scicli (RG) PREMIO COMBAT PRIZE 2017, promosso da Blob Art, Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori ex Granai di Villa Mimbelli e Fortezza Vecchia, Livorno (LI) Imago Mundi | Mediterranean Routes, Cantieri culturali della Zisa, ZAC, Palermo BOCCIONI+100 | Modernolatria a cura di Melissa Acquesta, Gemma Anaïs Principe e Valentina Tebala, Galleria Nazionale di Cosenza – Palazzo Arnone, Cosenza BOCCIONI+100 | Boccioni in the BoCS, Residenza artistica BoCS Art, Lungofiume Crati, Cosenza CONDENSA, Fusion Art Gallery, a cura di Barbara Fragogna, Torino 2016 Shine On You Crazy Diamond, rassegna di arte contemporanea, a cura di Eva Comuzzi e Orietta Masin, Cervignano del Friuli Premio Francesco Fabbri per le Arti Contemporanee 5ª Edizione, Villa Brandolini, a cura di Carlo Sala, Pieve di Soligo (TV) GRAY AREA | TRA LEGALE E ILLEGALE, AMY-D Arte Spazio, a cura di Anna D’Ambrosio, Milano Arteam Cup 2016, promosso da Ass. Culturale Arteam ed Espoarte, Palazzo del Monferrato, Alessandria Postcarts from an artist, a cura di My Home Gallery, Art Verona | Art Project Fair / independents off, Verona TU 35 2016 | GEOGRAFIE DELL'ARTE EMERGENTE IN TOSCANA, Guardare il mondo di oggi e immaginare quello di domani, CENTRO PER L'ARTE CONTEMPORANEA LUIGI PECCI & Officina Giovani (Ex Macelli), Prato PREMIO COMBAT PRIZE 2016, promosso da Blob Art, Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori ex Granai di Villa Mimbelli e Fortezza Vecchia, a cura di Adriana Polveroni, Antonello Tolve, Cristiana Perrella, Francesca Baboni, Ilaria Bonacossa, Luca Panaro, Stefano Taddeo, Livorno (LI) Esodo | Cammini di liberazione, Premio Artivisive San Fedele 2015/2016, Galleria San Fedele, a cura di Andrea Dall’Asta e di Daniele Astrologo Abadal, Ilaria Bignotti, Chiara Canali, Maria Chiara Di Trapani, Matteo Galbiati, Chiara Gatti, Massimo Marchetti, Kevin McManus, Gabriele Salvaterra, Milano PREMIO WE ART INTERNATIONAL, promosso da No Title Gallery in collaborazione con Basement Project Room e Planitars, Area35 Art Gallery, a cura di T. Donà, Milano 2015 PIERO ZUCCARO. FLYBY | Buemi, Iozzia, Cicciarella, Pinelli, Previtera, Severino, Valino, Galleria QUAM / Tecnica Mista, a cura di M. Meneguzzo, Scicli (RG) PREMIO MARINA DI RAVENNA 2015 | I vincitori a palazzo Rasponi, in collaborazione con MAR (Museo d'arte della città di Ravenna), Palazzo Rasponi dalle Teste, Ravenna ARTES | SOME VELVET DRAWINGS a cura di Eva Comuzzi e Andrea Bruciati, ArtVerona 2015 PREMIO MARINA DI RAVENNA 2015, mostra dei finalisti, Galleria FaroArte, Marina di Ravenna (RA) REALISMO INFORMALE, Galleria QUAM / Tecnica Mista, a cura di A. Sarnari, Scicli (RG) PARATISSIMA SKOPJE, Youth Cultural Center, a cura di Nada Prlja, Skopje (Macedonia) Autonomie del disegno, Galleria QUAM / Tecnica Mista, a cura di E. Alfano, Scicli (RG) Any Given Post-it, White Noise Gallery, a cura di S. Catoni e C. Garlanda, Roma 2014 TOGETHER, Galleria QUAM / Tecnica Mista, a cura di SEM (Spazi Espressivi Monumentali), Scicli (RG) PREMIO FAM giovani per le arti visive, FAM, Fabbriche Chiaramontane, a cura di Amici della Pittura Siciliana dell’Ottocento, Agrigento (AG) Arte al Metro | generazione anticonsequenziale, Galleria QUAM / Tecnica Mista, a cura di A. Sarnari, Scicli (RG) Artisti di Sicilia. Da Pirandello a Iudice: una linea contemporanea, Ex Stabilimento Florio delle tonnare di Favignana e Formica, Favignana (TP) / Fondazione Sant'Elia, Palermo (PA) / Castello Ursino, Catania (CT), a cura di V. Sgarbi Nymph Arethusa | Estetiche Iconografiche, Galleria d'Arte Contemporanea Montevergini, a cura di E. Alfano, Ortigia (SR) (Co)incidenze, Palazzo de Leva, a cura di Emanuela Alfano, Modica (RG) 2013 Pittura e Cinema, Movimento Culturale V. Brancati, a cura di P. Nifosì, Scicli (RG) Week end al cubo | Open art night, Galleria QUAM / Tecnica Mista, Scicli (RG) 2010 Restart, Piattaforma artistica PASS/O, a cura di PASS/O, Scicli (RG) 2009 OpenLab_2, Studio .Lab, Firenze OpenLab_1, Studio .Lab, Firenze Reflex, anfiteatro del Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, a cura di Studio .Lab, G. Fezzi, U. Borella, Prato
Awards and Prizes 18º PREMIO CAIRO, PROMOSSO DA CAIRO EDITORE (MILANO) | FINALISTA PREMIO ARTEAM CUP 2017, promosso da Associazione Culturale Arteam e ESPOARTE | FINALISTA PREMIO COMBAT PRIZE 2017, Promosso da Associazione Culturale Blob ART (LIVORNO) | FINALISTA SEZIONE PITTURA PREMIO FRANCESCO FABBRI PER LE ARTI CONTEMPORANEE | 5ª EDIZIONE, promosso da Fondazione Francesco Fabbri (TREVISO)| FINALISTA SEZIONE ARTE EMERGENTE PREMIO ARTEAM CUP 2016, promosso da Associazione Culturale Arteam e ESPOARTE | FINALISTA TU 35 2016, CENTRO PER L'ARTE CONTEMPORANEA PECCI (PRATO)| FINALISTA PREMIO COMBAT PRIZE 2016, Promosso da Associazione Culturale Blob ART (LIVORNO) | FINALISTA SEZIONE PITTURA PREMIO ORA 2015, promosso da Associazione culturale Radar | ARTIST SELECTED BY THE CURATORIAL COMMISSION presieded by Andrea Bruciati PREMIO WE ART INTERNATIONAL, promosso da No Title Gallery in collaborazione con Basement Project Room e Planitars (MILANO) | VINCITORE PREMIO ARTIVISIVE SAN FEDELE 2015/16, promosso da Fondazione Culturale San Fedele (MILANO) | FINALISTA PREMIO MARINA DI RAVENNA 2015, promosso da CAPIT in collaborazione con MAR, Museo d'arte della città di Ravenna (RAVENNA) | VINCITORE PREMIO FAM GIOVANI PER LE ARTI VISIVE, promosso da Fabbriche Chiaramontane (AGRIGENTO) | FINALISTA ECCELLENTI PITTORI | IL DIARIO DELLA PITTURA ITALIANA VIVENTE, progetto a cura di Camillo Lagnone Performance and Happening 2015 MEET 'ND SCREEN_ETTORE PINELLI | C.o.C.A. / Archivio biblioteca arti contemporanee | Modica | LINK Artist Residency & Workshop 2017 BOCS ART Residenze Artistiche Internazionali, a cura di Alberto Dambruoso e Annalisa Ferraro (I Martedì Critici), Cosenza 2016 RELAZIONI POSSIBILI | TERRITORI CONTEMPORANEI, Ettore Pinelli | Raffaele di Vaia, a cura di Stefania Rinaldi, STUDIO MDT Prato 2015 RITRATTO A MANO 2.0, Workshop\Residenza con Simone Berti e Valentina Vetturi, a cura di Giuliana Benassi, Ex Convento delle Clarisse, Caramanico Terme (Pescara) PREMIO GIOVANI ARTISTI SAN FEDELE 2015/16 (Milano) Collections BOCS ART MUSEUM (Cosenza) MUSEUM MICROCOLLETION (Varese) IMAGO MUNDI COLLECTION | BENETTON FOUNDATION (Milano) Projects and Collaborations 2009 .LAB, is a group of young artists who want to share their ideas, projects and visions about contemporary art, Firenze (ex studio Rosai) Reference Galleries QUAM Gallery, Scicli AMY-D ARTE SPAZIO, Milano Fusion Art Gallery, Torino Contact ettorepinelli@gmail.com
