"I’ve
never grown blasé about the fact that a painting can actually summon
people to the present moment; it seems like a form of magic”, Eva
Bovenzi writes. She titles this exhibition “Present Perfect” in a nod to
the capacity of art to bring a viewer to the Now.
Bovenzi’s visual vocabulary is poetic and entirely her own. Her
paintings are fresh and original, yet also read as timeless iconic
forms. Having studied sources as varied as Spanish manuscript painting,
Romanesque and Byzantine frescoes, Tantric images and Native American
ceremonial objects, Bovenzi describes herself as “in the tradition of
artists who have tried to give visible form to the invisible”. Her work
deliberately evades an easy verbal summary, gesturing towards the
ineffability of experience.
Alluding to the shapes of shields, sentinels and masks, Bovenzi's images
are bold, emphasizing physicality—yet their materiality is countered by
luminescent veils of color that seem to expand past the structures that
contain them. Constructed with matte, fluorescent and metallic colors,
the surfaces of the paintings alternately absorb and reflect light,
adding a subtle depth and movement to the work.
Eva Bovenzi’s art simultaneously suggests solid and void, presence and
emptiness, stillness and movement. Mysteriously emblematic, the work’s
sheer beauty offers the viewer an experience of transcendence, inviting
the present to become perfect. — https://www.pastineprojects.com/project-09
