Pessoli and Manai's Symbolic Menagerie at Bologna's P420

Alessandro Pessoli and Piero Manai are exhibiting together at P420 in Bologna. Pessoli's work blends fairy-tale elements with Christian iconography, featuring crosses, depositions, and light beams alongside flowers, walruses, parrots, and elephants. His animal symbolism evokes tarot cards rather than clear moral lessons, as seen in 'Sentimento Illumina' with its scepter-flower-magic wand resembling an Emperor Arcana. 'Illumina la pittura (deposizione)' echoes Maurizio Cattelan's 'La Nona Ora' and Delacroix's 'La Liberté guidant le peuple', but a colorful flower bouquet pierces the figure. Manai frequently explores the theme of the head, including self-portraiture. The pairing of 'Torso' and 'Testa fiorita' highlights a dialogue between Manai's essential presence and Pessoli's evanescent colors. A triptych juxtaposes Manai's 'Senza titolo' as if resulting from burning Pessoli's head, while another triptych balances Pessoli's joyful composition of an angel or Christ on an elephant ('Before the dark') with Manai's stark rigor. 'Love and Death (Dreamer)', painted for the show, presents a pareidolia of a lamentation over a dead or sleeping Christ guarded by a donkey and a diaphanous lioness. All Pessoli works were created for this exhibition.