‘All things, great, small, invisible’ presents the first solo show by Italian artist Siro Cugusi (*1980, IT) at Valerius Gallery.

Siro’s artistic language is a personal reinterpretation of the Surrealist concept of the uncanny, the liminal and metaphysical space where nothing is what it seems. We are catapulted into impossible scenes, halfway between the unconscious and reality. Through these landscapes dominated by illusions and imagination, the artist tries to create a parallel, utopian world, a personal aesthetic and poetic dimension, in works that inevitably clash with the prose of reality. Siro creates an autonomous and personal language — unknown, full of archaic and metaphorical meaning — stilistically alternating between Renaissance and Surrealism, merging the two.

Siro Cugusi is a graduate from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Sassari; he lives and works in Sardinia. Exhibitions include solo shows at Museo Nivola, Orani, IT, (2024), Sarah Brook Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2024), CookeLatham Gallery, London, UK (2022), Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, US (2020) and group shows at Museo CAMUC, Ulassai, IT (2024), Galleria Annarumma, Napoli, IT (2024), Sperling, Munich, DE (2024), ColeccionSolo, Madrid, ES (2024),  Steve Turner, Los Angeles, US (2021).

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Text by Sasha Bogojev:

 

Siro Cugusi
All Things, Great, Small, Invisible

It wasn’t until the early Renaissance that the Western art tradition found the means to envision the unimaginable and make the impossible feel vivid and real. Since this imaginative breakthrough, metaphysical painting emerged as an exploration of reality beyond the physical or material world. In that way, the discoveries of Piero della Francesca, Giotto, and others laid the foundations for Surrealism, Pittura Metafisica, or any work that conveys a sense of stillness, a dreamlike atmosphere, and an uncanny clash of elements suggesting deeper philosophical or existential questions. Also conveying a distinct absence of time or place, Siro Cugusi (1980, Italy) engages with themes of mystery or the unseen forces shaping our perception and existence, and Valerius Gallery presents a cohesive selection of works that blend the mundane with the dreamlike, proposing a familiar yet peculiar and uncanny world.

At first glance, the depicted scenes feel strongly associated with symbolism, appearing as an archaic or primordial form of visual storytelling. However, Cugusi is not interested in the narratives or messages the imagery could convey. More concerned with their evocative essence, they harness the ability of painting to possess its own logic that doesn’t obey the constraints of physical reality. Through
compositions and ways of arranging disparate elements, he is a choreographer who considers forms' ornamental quality, symbolism, perspectives, scale, ways of
rendition, and relationship. Therefore, the visuals might appear as esoteric, not in the sense that a chosen few can decipher them, but that they purposely don’t fit within the constraints of the ordinary reasoning process. To achieve this, the varied
historical influences are synthesized into a distinct vocabulary and language—the
strong ambiance of Medieval or Renaissance metaphysics, the Rousseau-like layout of the perspective and depth in an almost staged, theatrical, lush environment, and the insisting on archetypal still life-like arrangements of various forms.

Working without a strictly planned structure, the work stems from the countless drawings that employ immediacy and directness to tap into the subconscious. The paintings are developed as a continuation, reflection, or further exploration of those drawings. They’re not treated as blueprints but merely as a glimpse of the finished work, utilizing the same thoughts, feelings, and urge to make that image. Stepping into the painting sphere, Cugusi utilizes the particular qualities of the medium while improvising with the formal qualities of the image. The somewhat slower phase of applying, handling, removing the paint, and waiting for it to dry directly affects the artist’s relationship with specific sections, elements, or decisions. The entire process is a journey of discovery, a way of giving meaning to findings and making connections between elements or how they’re presented. This ranges from playing with the scale or stylizing them, devising basic organic, occult-like shapes, to using paint’s materiality and viscosity to forge entirely abstract manifestations. It’s an alchemic process of creating, transforming, or transmuting the material into a new entity with distinctive qualities while being directly influenced and guided by pure instinct, affinity, character, or soul.

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And the fact that many scenes appear as garden views isn’t coincidental either. From the Garden of Eden, the Persian or Zen garden, such grounds have deep and varied symbolic meanings across cultures, religions, and artistic traditions. Revolving around the universal themes of creation, fertility, transformation, learning, discovery, and the human condition, they aren’t far from Cugusi’s primary objective—pulling the viewer inside his painting and letting them find their way out of it or get lost in it. Because of that, they are not autonomous images but sections of a parallel world in which elements coexist in a non-rational space. They use invention and construction to create a new system of logic and meaning that can only exist within their boundaries, free from the physical world's limitations and common sense.

Working between physical and non-physical realities, Cugusi employs a universal, all-encompassing perspective, referring to everything in existence, regardless of the size or even visibility, both physical and non-physical. And although working with a seemingly eclectic selection of forms, images, and elements, there is a discernible connecting line between the microscopic, the cosmic, and the immaterial that emphasize each other’s evocative weight. From minuscule insects, over mushrooms and owls to stylized crystal-like shapes or golden spirals evoking
anything from shells to galaxies, hurricanes, or DNA, Cugusi’s work taps into the virtually incomprehensible subjects of infinity, expansion, and organic growth—All
Things, Great, Small, Invisible.

—
Saša Bogojev
(Writer & Curator)





Saša Bogojev is an independant writer and curator born in Croatia and based in the Netherlands. Bogojev has worked for many years as European correspondent at Juxtapoz magazine, contributed to various international publications and media outlets, collaborated with artists on monographs/books/catalogs, and curated a number of gallery shows worldwide.

Since 2016 Bogojev started curating and co-curating gallery exhibitions around the globe, including at WOAW, Hong Kong; Albertz Benda, NYC; Trotoar Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia; Plan X, Milano, I; Volery Gallery, Dubai; Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, CN; Drents Museum, Assen, NL; Ojiri Gallery, London, UK; Superzoom, Miami, US; Althuis Hofland Fine Arts, Amsterdam, NL; Can Art Ibiza, ES; The Hole NYC, US; Galeria Yusto/Giner, Marbella, ES; The Curators Room, Amsterdam, NL; Galerie Droste, Paris, FR; The Wunderwall, Antwerp, BE; The Garage Amsterdam, NL; Marian Cramer Projects, Amsterdam, NL; High Line Nine, NY, US; Tales Of Arte, Imola, IT; BC Gallery, Berlin, Germany; Galerie C.O.A., Montreal, Canada; Amala Gallery, Tokyo, Japan.

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