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PRESS RELEASE (18/04/2014)
It will be inaugurated today, in Loano, in the Doria Palace the solo exhibition of Ferdinand Marquis. “Fragments” is the title of the pictorial exhibition by the Sicilian artist, who has lived in Liguria since 1964.
Art critic Silvia Bottaro wrote about the exhibition, “... In his works we often trace the symbolism of the enneagram as a psychological “map” and personality of contemporary man who, perhaps unconsciously, returns a pilgrim in search of his soul. Oceanic voids seem to take shape in the whirlpool of color: purple reds aware of cosmic tragedies, golden yellows and whites and burnei in a kind of atmospheric dust where there are fragments, shatters, particles, wreckage of faces, landscapes, civilizations, places placed in a continuous eternal conflict of water, air, sky, in an inconstant, capricious vortex of seaweed, silt, sand. There is an interweaving, in an almost perspective play of islands, coasts, land and sea: a fantastic, somehow epic, solemn gap. We are facing, in my opinion, pulsating works from within to which correspond concerns, emotions that have, however, a wider, planetary dimension.
Human consciousness is a subject close to Marchese's heartstrings and he seems to want to put it at the center, in some way, of his artistic investigation: the colors of the human journey have something sacred in them, all the way to the four elements-water, fire, earth, air-of creation. The journey fascinates, from birth it belongs to us. It is departure and arrival, it is desire for something yet unknown, but it is, as well, knowledge, change, experience, tradition, future. In Marchese's works are contrasted, but with an intimate musicality, the emotional and spiritual dimensions linked, always, to every departure and consequent return, but it is indispensable thought to initiate either a solitary or group journey toward one's own, or toward the discovery of a destination.’
The exhibition will remain on display on the second floor of the City Hall, in the Mosaic Room, until the’May 11, p.v.. and will be visitable every day 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Ferdinand Marquis was born in Termini Imerese in 1956; he has lived in Liguria since 1964. He lives and has his studio in Toirano. At Loano he carries out his work as an elementary school teacher. In fact, he has been a teacher for many years; he has worked with children from three to 10 years old, establishing numerous graphic-pictorial and ceramic art workshops in schools; and also, linked to art and creativity, he is a promoter of Phylosophy for children, a project based on actual philosophical activity that aims to bring oneself toward critical and creative thinking and to educate the student in listening, thinking and democratic praxis.
He began painting at a young age under the guidance of Professor Ferdinando Fioretti of Bra. He deepened and developed painting techniques as a self-taught artist until he met Spanish painter Albert Barreda, who introduced him to the dimension of abstractionism and art didactics in the school setting. With the same he began a close collaboration since 1986, an activity that led him to Vic, Barcelona and Madrid in search of new sources of inspiration. In art workshops, children are led to the discovery of graphic activity as a means of communication, freed from all stereotypes induced by the adult world, and, as such, art.
He held his first major exhibition at the Ghisolfi Gallery in Loano in 1988, followed by a solo show in 1989 at Stelio Rescio's “Il Brandale” gallery in Savona. This was followed by a series of numerous exhibitions at the Albenga Civic Gallery. There are numerous participations in group exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including Quipu, a noncelebratory interpretation of the discovery of America in the year of the “Colombiadi” at the Savona City Hall and Villa Groppallo in Vado Ligure.{:}
