Chiara Baima Poma: Painting as a Mysterious Dialogue Between Past and Present

Italian painter Chiara Baima Poma (born 1990 in Cuorgnè) graduated from Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti di Torino in 2010. She co-founded the collective Pacific Social Art Club (PSAC) in London with three other women artists, then moved to Gran Canaria where she now lives and works. In 2023, she held her first solo show, Specchi per le allodole, with Galleria Peola Simondi in Turin. Poma describes her artistic identity as innate, not acquired. Her childhood memories—summers with cousins at her grandparents' house, drawing with chalk on asphalt—feed her nostalgic, dreamlike imagery. Her first exhibition was a series of portraits of patrons at a soup kitchen in Australia. PSAC remains active, planning a new edition in autumn 2024. She has also shown with Black White Gallery in London and ECOCA in Connecticut. Poma works slowly, obsessing over details, and feels her paintings take on a life of their own. Her subjects are often women, used as conduits for an intangible melancholy. She no longer fears the art market. Her studio in Gran Canaria is chaotic and colorful. A recent trip to Senegal inspired a new series titled A volte gli spiriti vogliono sangue, exploring collage and new palettes. She is also working on an art book about the Baye Fall, a non-canonical religious institution in Senegal. Her dream project: fresco an entire church.