Jolanda Spagno, Bari artist known for perceptual drawings, dies at 51

Jolanda Spagno, a Bari-born artist known for her rigorous exploration of perception through drawing, has died at age 51. Her work, characterized by geometric female figures, blurred portraits, and desolate landscapes, employed graphite, laminated supports, and optical devices to create a mimetic black-and-white realism disrupted by distortions, cancellations, and 3D-like effects. She studied at and later taught at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bari. Spagno participated in the XIV Quadriennale di Roma, the Puglia section of the Italian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, and exhibited in institutions and private galleries, including recently in China. Her drawings, fragile in appearance, revealed an restless vigor that multiplied viewpoints to open the gaze to the paradox of ambiguous reality.