Artist: Marco Pariani

Skarstedt presents Painting Bakery, Marco Pariani’s third solo exhibition with the gallery and second presentation in London. The exhibition features a selection of new paintings and works on paper marked by their black and white backgrounds and quintessential iconography.

In his latest exhibition, Pariani showcases a plethora of festive iconography including gingerbread men, snowmen and cookies among other cartoonish characters which make up his whimsical world. In many ways, Painting Bakery is a fluid extension of Pariani’s past show, Inflatables, at Skarstedt London, yet reveals a distinct progression in both technique and materials. Expanding into the tricky terrain of black gesso paint, Pariani experiments with bold colour compositions and graphic layering, synthesising colour and form. This exhibition takes its inspiration from gingerbread house-making competitions, thus, resuming his investigation into the semiotics of holiday paraphernalia while revelling in its ‘ugly’ patterns and garish candy colours.

Pariani’s artistic methodology mirrors that of a chef or even a scientist, using his studio instead of a kitchen or laboratory. He combines disparate ‘flavours’ until inspiration strikes resulting in the masterful textures seen in artworks like Gingerbread Soccer Team or Eight vs Eight. Like a baker, Pariani breaks down disparate elements of his practice to their most essential states and blends them to create each piece. Through deconstruction and reconstruction, he builds something wholly new that explores the intuitive act of painting. In this way, Painting Bakery is as much about the means of creation as what has been created.

In the throes of experimentation, he layers gesso with spray paint, resin, acrylic, and graphic icons, even incorporating a piping bag – which is a cone-shaped bag most frequently used to decorate cakes and biscuits. These techniques are revealed in Contactless Cookies, yet here Pariani breaks into the ‘frame’ of the artwork, allowing his nebulous formations to seep into the ‘transitional spaces’ between the subject and canvas edge, thus, pushing his compositional limits. Striking a balance between purposeful intention and spontaneous creativity, Pariani merges the raw energy of street art with the meticulous refinement of his studio practice.

The detailed and textured canvases on display require days of preparation to build the perfect surface for creative output. Finding pre-prepared canvases sterile and flat, Pariani uses gesso to prime the surface, creating a smooth, stable foundation that enhances the vibrancy and adhesion of the paint, contributing to the overall longevity of the artwork. Chemical fortifications are crucial to the artist who grew up assisting his father in his wood workshop, sawing, glueing and painting furniture to create something beautiful and enduring.

The collaborative energy reverberating through the people, shops and bars of Brooklyn fills the artist with inspiration, however, he will also look to Instagram, Amazon and his large library for visual stimuli. On one hand, Pariani’s works appear brutally abstracted, yet they are grounded in objectivity allowing him to ‘destroy everything’ and morph the remains into a new phenomenon. Pariani’s approach is one of spiritual determination, choosing his darker colour palette based on personal growth and intuition. Striking monotone paintings such as Black and White and Green Cartoon were created with the other in mind, instilling pictorial continuity whilst enhancing their playful chessboard aesthetic. Likewise, the tiled backgrounds of these works are reminiscent of Martin Kippenberger’s Krieg Böse [War Wicked] series.

Blending the permanence of painting with the impermanence of graffiti, Pariani fuses opposite forces into a cohesive entity. Guided by his unwavering perception, he builds his canvases first in strength and then in subject, often destroying it entirely to discover his true intentions. Painting Bakery not only exemplifies his unconventional process but illustrates his distinct visual language through an endearing and quirky lens.