Vera Portatadino: Painting as Emergence and Dissolution

Vera Portatadino (Varese, 1984) is an Italian painter who studied at NABA in Milan and Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, earning a PgDip and MA. In 2014 she founded Yellow, an independent research project on contemporary painting, which she directed until 2019. In 2018 she won the Premio Treviglio and received a special mention from the Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia for a reinterpretation of their permanent collection. Her works are held in private and public collections including the Mart Museo d’Arte Contemporanea. In 2024 she participated in The Mountain Touch at Muse Museum in Trento, Pittura Italiana at Triennale Milano, and the 23° Premio Cairo at Museo della Permanente in Milan. In an interview with Davide Dal Sasso, Portatadino discusses her approach to painting as a process of emergence and dissolution, resisting fixed images. She describes painting as a tangible version of thought, not illustration, and emphasizes the importance of dispersion and multi-perceptual experience akin to mysticism. Her work oscillates between figuration and abstraction, aiming to hold contradictions and create an anti-narrative, poetic space. She elevates detail over grand narratives, citing the example of a flower fallen from a balcony. Her painting Supermarket (2022) layers oil glazes on panel depicting yellow asters bought at a supermarket, appearing luminous yet destined to crumble, reflecting the precarity of existence.