Flavia Caponera

My work focuses on the process and practice of figurative painting. I deconstruct the illusion of the image by revealing the artist’s presence and the layering of materials, as well as the influences of my research, such as Gentileschi’s "Self-portrait of the Artist as the Allegory of Painting" (1638-9), Rodin’s "Thought" (1886-9), and 18th-century paintings of artists' studios.

I make decisions directly on the canvas, which I see as an extension of my mental space. Through sketched lines and transparencies, my works reveal all their preliminary phases. The use of a limited palette- reminiscent of classicism- creates imaginative landscapes of marbles and ruins that convey a sense of layered time, and bring lost or hidden things to light. This concept is reiterated in the display, where the landscape paintings drape over the small studies of the elements that compose them and become layers in themselves.