FUN 4 KIDS

The first event of the year at PUNTO SULL’ARTE gallery is a delicate exhibition, four artists who seek to focus on childhood, on play and those objects which are all intents and purposes a child’s work tools, with which they construct their own identity. The protagonists are two painters, SABRINA MILAZZO and CLAUDIA GIRAUDO, and two sculptors, VALERIA VACCARO and the Norwegian LENE KILDE – the latter makes her debut in Italy with this event at PUNTO SULL’ARTE.

The opening reception of the exhibition will be held on SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, from 5 to 7 pm, at PUNTO SULL’ARTE – Viale Sant’Antonio 59/61 and all the artists will be present at the Gallery. At 6pm the art curator Alessandra Redaelli will take a short speech in which she will introduce the artists and the essence of the exhibition.

SABRINA MILAZZO (Turin, Italy, 1975) presents us with a new series of her high resolution oil canvases, where the Disney characters that have fed the imaginations of the last few generations seem to melt onto backgrounds of inflamed and luminous colours, in a kind of uneasy moment of transit between the age of innocence and that of awareness. And the point of equilibrium between childhood and adolescence is also the fulcrum of the works by CLAUDIA GIRAUDO (Turin, Italy, 1974), who brings to the exhibition a selection of her gentle and ambiguous characters, somewhat fairy-like, sometimes dressed as if for a masked ball or a pirouette at the circus, often engaged in a mysterious conversation with their guide animal. VALERIA VACCARO (Turin, Italy, 1988) returns to the gallery with a new series of sculptures that both enchant and deceive us, works in which nothing is as it seems and where the preciousness of the marble is disguised in the simplicity of the wood to then mimic combustion, symbol of the constant transformation of reality. Here too the protagonists are toys that by now have become part of history, like the slender articulated Pinocchio that all of us have held at least once or like the cardboard animal silhouettes with which we invented small zoos in our bedroom; and then there are the coloured pencils with which children draw their dreams. Finally for the Norwegian sculptor LENE KILDE (Rælingen, Norway, 1981), who here makes her PUNTO SULL’ARTE debut, the toy is not an historical protagonist, but an accessory in the hands of a child whom she shows to us through details: shown faceless but with the little feet firmly planted on the ground and the little hand firmly grasping the object of their attention. Created from metal mesh and concrete, particularly fascinating for the contrast that she creates between the visible parts – extremely realistic – and those which are invisible, Kilde’s sculptures are as light as drawings just sketched on the page, dreamy and vaguely melancholy.

The exhibition is accompanied by a BILINGUAL CATALOGUE created by PUNTO SULL’ARTE containing curator Alessandra Redaelli’s critical text and the reproduction of the exhibited artworks.

All visitors are invited to bring headphones and a smartphone for listening to the critical text and watch audio-visual equipment by using QR codes.

CLAUDIA GIRAUDO was born in 1974 in Turin. She graduated with full marks in 2001 at the Accademia Albertina of Fine Arts in Turin, under the guidance of Prof. Franco Fanelli. She started her research in the context of visual painting, developing her skills through the study of Renaissance and Northern European Masters; this background transpires from both her technique and her choice of the subjects, yet maintaining her personal style. She frequently exhibits in art fairs, private galleries and institutional public places, among which the National Etruscan Museum Villa Giulia and Carlo Bilotti Aranciera Museum in Villa Borghese (Rome), Polo del 900 in Turin, the Jewish Museum in Bologna, The Artist House in Tel Aviv and Casa del Conte Verde Museum in Rivoli. Her works belong to permanent collections and national and international museums, among which the Harmony Art Foundation in Mumbai (India), Museo MACIST in Biella, Museo Eusebio in Alba (CN – Italy), Sala del Consiglio in Bossolasco (CN – Italy) and Museo Civico in Bevagna (PG – Italy). She lives and works in Turin.

LENE KILDE was born in 1981 in Rælingen, a small town near Oslo, Norway. She attended the Art School in Asker and studied sculpture at the Einar Granum School of Art in Oslo. In 2012 she obtained a Master’s degree in Product Design at Oslo and Akershus University College and was subsequently awarded a three-year scholarship by the prestigious Norwegian Arts Council. She has exhibited her works in solo and group exhibitions and art fairs in Europe, Switzerland, USA, Dubai, Lebanon and Taiwan. Among the international art fairs, she took part in SCOPE Basel and SCOPE Miami. Her sculptures are part of important private collections all over the world. One big installation was purchased by NRK, an important Norwegian public company responsible for broadcasting in Norway. She lives and works in Norway.

SABRINA MILAZZO was born in 1975 in Turin. After graduating in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Turin, she began to exhibit her works in 2003 in important private art galleries and institutional public places in Italy and abroad. She has taken part in national and international art fairs such as MiArt, ArteFiera Bologna and Context ArtMiami. She took part in the 54^th Biennale di Venezia, Italian Pavillon in Turin and in 2013 her works were shown in Art Stay, International Festival of Contemporary Art in Ptuj, Slovenia. Important art critics have written about her work: Luca Beatrice, Domenico Maria Papa, Alessandra Redaelli, Francesco Cascino. Her paintings are part of important private collections all over the world. She lives and works in Turin.

VALERIA VACCARO was born in 1988 in Turin. After attending the Artistic High School, she studied sculpture at the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin (under the guidance of Prof Luciano Massari). Since 2005 she has been exhibiting regularly in solo and group shows in Italy, France, Germany, United Kingdom and Montenegro and she has taken part in art fairs. Between 2013 and 2015 she participated in the Biennale Itinerante Europea JCE Jeune Création Européenne. In 2015 she exhibited at Exhibit in Turin and at the Castle Museum of Contemporary Art in Rivara. In 2017, she won a special mention from the city of Turin at the Art Prize CBM. In the same year, she was one of the winners of ArTeam Cup 2017. In 2021 she was selected for exhibiting some of her sculptures at BAG Bocconi Art Gallery in Milan. In 2022 she is one of the ten finalists of VAF Collection Artistic Prize. She lives and works in Turin.