chronology | collection | back to artist

Rossana Pinero (b. 1962- ) is an abstract painter. She lives and works in Tuscany, Italy. Pinero’s works are notable for their vivid colors as well as for the fluid calligraphy marks that she places against a layered, textured background. Her canvases are often divided into different horizontal planes where opacity plays against transparency, from one layer into the other.

In her last series “Quaderno Etrusco: viaggio in Italia”, Pinero worked closely with the Italian poet, Elena Clementelli. Creating her own chromatic alphabet, she interpreted and visually translated the poetry, giving each verse a visual sense. In this way, she painted the pages of a notebook- a quaderno- highlighting with her images the creative/destructive character of nature, of its relationship to humans and the passage of time.

Her work conveys both a strong sense of unity with nature as it relates to the external landscape as well as a clear intention on capturing the inner states of the self and human emotion. In this sense, Pinero aligns with early European modern artists. Yet her work is greatly influenced by abstract expressionist painters, in that she follows the idea of painting as a spontaneous, expressive and individual experience

Pinero’s palette is continually informed by nature. It includes rich, earthy tonalities as well as vivid blues and subtle greens. Inspired largely by the surroundings of her current home in Tuscany and by the influence of her frequent visits to Spain, France and Mexico.

Having grown up in a family that traveled extensively, Pinero was strongly encouraged to learn about different cultures and languages and it was only natural for her to incorporate these influences into her art. She currently dedicates herself exclusively to painting, although in the past she worked in the medium of black and white photography as well. It was through her photography work that she obtained her first art grant in 1994 followed by two others, in 1995 and 1996. She lived in New York City where she worked in advertising for several years. In 2000, she traveled to Italy with a small art grant and began learning ancient painting techniques, the use of pigments, a technique that she currently incorporates into her abstract paintings.

In her works, the gestural brushstrokes represent a strong physical approach to painting as if counter-fencing with a partner, yet the delicacy of the transparent layers of her paints, with underlying fields of color and subtle tonal variations, have an emotional and intuitive effect as well. In all of her works the intention perceived is a deep desire to communicate and channel her spiritual life onto the canvas. Her works are biological portraits, as subterranean photographs or even as fragments of mysterious memories for mankind. She creates an essential calligraphy-intuitively to narrate the remains of history that have remained trapped in her hands.

When asked about determining moments or encounters of her artistic development, she replies “My first encounters with the work of Rothko, Mitchell, Kline and other abstract expressionist artists in New York City, the frescoed murals of Pompeii and Mexico, my decision to live in Italy and the birth of my son André, the new light he brought into my life. These have been the great life-changing moments for me. Then there is the everyday experience, the unexpected and often anonymous encounters that have a great impact on my art, these are the small delicate events but nonetheless equally important in my work

 

 

back to artist