simonetti
belonging
my art is about conversation, common grounds that stem from origins, experience, culture, education. a sense of belonging someplace that stays with us our whole lives, defines us, puts us in relation with others. when we meet, we compare our lives and relate to each other story, narrative, or personas. and we meet in in-between places, liminal spaces that feel safe and familiar. thresholds between worlds, they represent a quiet haven where everyone belongs, and feels welcome . at home.
lines / cuts
it is a pythagorean dance, of crossings and screens, of subtractions and additions, with an architectural, theatrical, “segmenta” modularity that dictates the junctions of a visibility that can be poetic, constructive, but also sudden, fulminating, charming. a true abstract alphabet, which explores physics made of “levia gravia”, studious, elaborating, of an artistic lymph with a subtle body, lines, laminarity, that are energetic flows, of light and color, which as such play a part and represent the whole, with a typically fantastic, loose, free slenderness. all of this in a spatial allegory that feels the cuts, the blemishes, the colors, the metrics and even the perspectives; it makes them its own and then absorbs them, incorporates them and so, in the end, an arcadian clarity of candor and cleanness emerges: michele simonetti.
f. gallo mazzeo, art critic
the advent of modernity, 2023
minimalist geometries
edges, corners, lines and geometric figures come to life on the canvas of the florentine artist michele simonetti. the life experience, remembering leonardo da vinci sperienza, is the essential element of his artistic production based on the observation of new york urban landscapes, the city he lives and works in. the artist perceives, memorializes, elaborates his pieces according to his artistic creativity: simonetti's great intuition is to interact and engage with these new york elements through his florentine experience.
the process seems to be aimed to a renaissance of the great american city: its visually and architecturally complex buildings are simplified in minimalistic structures and geometries that connect back to the rules of one of the most flourishing eras of the italian art and culture.
simonetti interprets [or imagines] the perspectival views that capture his attention on a daily basis, the silhouettes of the slender buildings against the sky that seem to touch eternity. thick construction agglomerates, he morphs them into some sort of experiential backwards trail, to describe them into few geometrically recognizable elements, to present them in their harmony and balance.
the florentine artist process develops through hazardous and exact color choices, where every element claims a specific identity while still blending in the overall piece.
simonetti’s art is based on careful observation, on the intriguing esperientia vitae he has, but incorporates hints to imagination. some glimpses are renaissance-ed to perpetrate order and beauty standards. connections to the times when florence was the new york of the renaissance through red and green marble blemishes are immediate. the goal to read, blend and connect arguably the most complex city of the contemporary age with the renaissance florence is quite a complex task, accomplished through harmonious, enjoyable and balanced compositions.
v. venneri, historian and art critic
cai catalogo artisti italiani, 2023
