Paolo Toffolutti's Olfactory Return to Painting in Venice

Paolo Toffolutti (Udine, 1962) presents 'Soggetti Smarriti' at SPARC* in Venice, his first solo exhibition after a 25-year hiatus from studio practice during which he taught and curated. The show, curated by Luca Berta and Francesca Giubilei, features around twenty recent oil-on-canvas works. The gallery space is permeated by the strong smell of turpentine, which the artist uses as a fetish and synecdoche for painting. Toffolutti employs a monotype technique, never painting directly on canvas, resulting in traces of physical labor that evoke minimalism and existentialism. He likens painting to masturbation—an intimate act exhibited publicly—and describes it as a practice meant to be watched secretly from a distance. The works explore the interstitial space between self and other, where surfaces mirror and sniff each other, saturated with turpentine.