Marta Sforni on Painting, Mirrors, and the Fragility of Venice

Marta Sforni (born 1966 in Milan) lives and works between Berlin and Venice. Her recent exhibitions include Painting Now 2 at Galleria Riccardo Crespi in Milan (2018), The Venice Glass Week at Ca’ del Duca in Venice (2018), SPIEGELUNGEN at Alte feuerwache in Berlin (2018), and DAVANTI at Galleria Riccardo Crespi (2018). She cites a wide range of influences: from the painter of a glass vase in the Villa of Poppea at Oplontis to Giorgione's Tempest, Matisse's La Dessert Rouge, Bonnard's Marthe in the bath, Morandi's bottles, Ross Bleckner's Dome, Philip Taaffe's Queen of the Night, and the Rothko Chapel. She also credits Luciano Fabro, her professor at Accademia di Brera, who taught her to convey the weight of stone through painting. Sforni describes her process as one of 'gemmation,' where each work emerges from the previous, driven by curiosity. She uses oil paint with a technique of layering glazes, inherited from Venetian painters, and guards a secret recipe for 'rosa Tiepolo' given by a descendant of the Tiepolo family. Her recurring motifs—chandeliers, fabrics, vases, mirrors—serve as metaphors for fragility, memory, and the passage of time. She sees Berlin as offering a clearer perspective on Venice's fragility, beauty, and age. For Sforni, painting is 'the language through which I express myself,' and she laments that contemporary Italian painting is little visible both in Italy and abroad.