Expanded Painting: Five Artists Explore the Boundaries of Painting at Galleria Massimo Minini

The group show 'Expanded Painting' at Galleria Massimo Minini in Brescia, curated by Helena Kontova and Giancarlo Politi, draws on the concept of an expanded field first theorized by Rosalind Krauss for sculpture in 1978, and later applied to painting in the 2005 Prague Biennale. The exhibition features five international artists from Generation X and Millennials—Armin Boehm, Sol Calero, Brandon Lipchik, Paul P., and Giuliana Rosso—who fluidly cross techniques, media, and supports. Works date from 2013 to 2019. Giuliana Rosso's poetic, dreamlike interventions maintain narrative coherence through recurring subjects developed in two and three dimensions. Sol Calero juxtaposes joyful fruit compositions, architectural structures, Baroque painting, tradition, kitsch, and craftsmanship, creating a participatory oasis. Brandon Lipchik combines digital language with thick paint layers and artificial colors to evoke memory and emotion. Armin Boehm's tragicomic human types with split, fused faces depict the grotesque of the everyday, using dark expressionist palettes and fabric collage. Paul P. moves from erotic photography research to abstraction, with yellow monochromes framed in minimal mahogany grids. The exhibition interrogates the limits and possibilities of painting, affirming its vitality.