Selected Paintings
My artistic practice focuses on the relationship between the Self and the Other, at the fulcrum of which the body is placed; perceived as a vulnerable, alienating and contradictory topos.
The work is articulated in a series of images that embody an analytical, restless look focusing on minimal and fragmentary experiences. It is a gaze that proceeds by intuition, which gropes its way over the surfaces of the nearest reality, dissecting them and at the same time establishing new relationships among them. The surface, object and primary subject of painting, is here conceived as the skin, the boundary, the obstacle within which experience necessarily takes shape, and in constituting itself as limitation it is charged with the desire to overcome itself.
My method develops by means of drawing and painting. These mediums respond to my primary need to establish a prolonged and exasperated contact with the object fathomed, in order to analyse it, deconstruct it, and reinterpret it starting from the marks that follow the actions of the eye and the brain. The dominant use of pastels allows considered gestures to be made without concern over dry times. Pastel demands absolute attention, producing a visual tension that foments the obsessiveness of the gaze.
One of the most important aspects here is the relationship which interposes between the work and the observer, assuming the character of an exclusive rapport. The scale of each work is extremely reduced, tending never to exceed the dimensions of the human face. Thus, each image takes on the appearance of a small window, too small to be able to overlook it. The observer is induced to approach as close as possible to retrace the drawn paths; to seek and identify a coincidence of glances, to activate and maintain a restless state of searching generated by the intentionally cropped subjects, shifting while in pursuit of completeness.
The sectioning action of the gaze takes place in a continuous alternation between the naked eye and the camera lens. Direct and filtered perspectives incorporate one another, realising a mediated vision that is peculiar to the contemporary world, which accentuates the fragmentation of perceived reality and the dispersion - or retreating - of its meaning.
Chiara Enzo
2010s
La mia mano II
2013
Tempera, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
17.7 × 14.8 cm
Socks
2013-17
Tempera, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
14.8 × 16.2 cm
Letto
2014
Tempera, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
18.6 × 19 cm
Neon spento
2017
Pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
10.8 × 10.8 cm
Graticola
2018
Tempera, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
19 × 19 cm
A me stessa
2019
Tempera, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
24 × 16.8 cm
Parziale esposizione
2019
Tempera, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
17.7 × 15 cm
Untitled (skin)
2019
Tempera, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
17.7 × 15 cm
Exhibition Views
Exhibition view of Letti - in una stanza (Beds - in one room), 2017 (1 of 2 on the pedestal) and Torso, 2018 (on the wall) at “Gli atelier - Mostra di fine residenza” at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, San Marco Gallery, Venice, Italy, 2018
Beds - in one room is a work made up of two images with an apparently similar subject, that are placed back to back in a single frame so that it is impossible to have an eye on both in a single field of vision. This work further articulates the reflection on the fragmentary nature of perception and experience. The observer is brought here to move repeatedly and work on the idea of void, interruption, distance, thus highlighting the limitation of human mnemonic faculties.
Letti - in una stanza (Beds - in one room), diptych
2017-2018
Tempera, pastel, colored pencils on cardboard applied on wooden board
27 x 26 cm
Torso
2018
Tempera, pastel, colored pencils on cardboard applied on wooden board
23 x 22 cm
2020s
Sul bordo
2021
Tempera, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
16.8 × 24 cm
J.
2021
Tempera, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
19.1 x 19.1 cm
Camera
2022
Watercolor, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
14.9 × 17.7 cm
Dorso, M.
2022
Tempera, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
23 × 22 cm
Indolente
2022
Watercolor, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
17.6 × 14.8 cm
Untitled (Distesa)
2023
Tempera, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
14 × 17.9 cm
Strettamente legati [Il profilo di mia madre] (1 of 2)
2023
Watercolor, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
24 x 15 cm
Strettamente legati [Transito] (2 of 2)
2023
Watercolor, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
24 × 15 cm
Mani (self-portrait)
2024
Watercolor, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
15 × 22 cm
Punti
Watercolor, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
2024
15 x 17.9 cm
Lavabo II
2025
Watercolor, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
22 x 18 cm
Dal letto
2025
Watercolor, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
16.5 x 24 cm
Rash
2026
Watercolor, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
10 × 15 cm
Exhibition Views
Exhibition view of Situazione con M., 2023 in “The Cargo Cult and other certainties” at ZERO…, Milan, Italy, 2023 (Photo: Roberto Marossi)
Situazione con M.
2023
Watercolor, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
19 x 26.1 cm
Exhibition views of M., 2023 (top) and Lettino, 2023 (bottom) in “Viscere” at ZERO..., Milan, Italy, 2023 (Photo: Roberto Marossi)
M.
2023
Watercolor, pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
22 x 15 cm
Lettino
2023
Pastel, colored pencils on paper applied on wooden board
22 x 15 cm
Exhibition view of Nuca (Nape), 2021 in “Chiara Enzo. Fragments of Reality” at Fondazione Sandra e Giancarlo Bonollo per l’arte contemporanea, Thiene (VI), Italy, 2024. (Photo Giovanni Canova)
Nuca, B.
2021
Tempera, pastel, colored pencils on cardboard applied on wooden board
19 x 19 cm
All art works by Chiara Enzo © the Artist
Courtesy of the Artist and Vitamin Creative Space.
