Diego Gualandris: Painting as Seduction and Entropy

Diego Gualandris (b. 1993, Alzano Lombardo) lives and works in Albino. He studied at Accademia di Brera in Milan and Accademia Carrara in Bergamo. Currently in residence at Castro Project in Rome, he has been part of Altalena, an independent research project, since 2017. Gualandris views painting as a sophisticated form of seduction, aiming to make his practice increasingly aware of its erotic and attractive nature. He works primarily on large formats to establish a physical relationship with the canvas, using his body as a unit of measure. He believes a good painting remains a good painting even when cut into a thousand pieces. His influences include Miquel Barceló for primitiveness, Georgia O'Keeffe for sensuality, and Mario Schifano for his face. Horror and fantasy have been fundamental to his formation; he recently listens to Cartola, Luiz Bonfá, and Vinicius de Moraes in the studio. He wrote 'Fiabette' for his sister Chiara, later published with Altalena. Titles often come from his fairy tales or are conceived as song titles. Gualandris is fascinated by the idea of waste and entropy: he created a large triptych about a real-life murderer named Isaia, then rolled one 3x2 meter painting into a horn-like sculpture, annulling months of work. He prefers simple rectangular formats and uses oil paint 'wildly,' often employing stuffed animals as brushes. He sees contemporary Italian painting as a fertile ground with many interesting artists.