Attraverso — Paolo Pibi

Pananti Atelier presents “Attraverso”, a solo exhibition by Italian artist Paolo Pibi, curated by Twenty14. In a dimension where the boundaries between the real and the digital are becoming increasingly blurred, and where access to new technologies is bringing tools once considered the realm of science fiction within everyone’s reach, painters are confronted more than ever with a fundamental choice: whether to push beyond the limits of their expressive medium or remain within the boundaries of a familiar territory.

Paolo Pibi experiences this choice as both a metaphorical and a literal journey. His paintings investigate the surface of the canvas, exploring its limits and possibilities. Through a process of pictorial expansion, the artist opens a passage towards an unfamiliar landscape, leaving us with a question: is it our imagination or his own that brings this world into existence? His works evoke arcane environments inhabited by unsettling presences and elements, generating a continuous movement between concentration and distraction — like a thought that inevitably slips away with the sudden intrusion of an interruption.

In Pibi’s universe, space and time, the material and the digital, the imaginary and the real are released from their conventional categories, or rather, they pass through them, tracing the horizon of a suspended dimension. This journey, conceived as a complete immersion, reveals the digital medium not as an alternative to painting, but as an extension of the pictorial language itself. Everything becomes an experience, accompanied by the resonance of three notes joined together to form a single chord. The viewer is invited to surrender to this experience while remaining fully present, even if only for the duration of a loop.

The exhibition introduces digitally native works within the gallery space, presented as holographic projections and NFTs created with the technical support of Lorenzo Miglietti, accompanied by an original sound composition by Gavino Murgia. Particular attention has been dedicated to the development and curatorial approach of the digital dimension of the project, through collaborations with specialised professionals and organisations.

Thanks to the technical sponsorship of Nemes Srl, a leading company in the field, the artist presents a holographic work displayed within a unique Olototem structure. The lower level of the gallery is entirely dedicated to a video installation composed of three NFT artworks, available on Reasoned Art, the first Italian gallery platform entirely devoted to crypto art.

Paolo Pibi (Oristano, 1987) studied at the Mario Sironi Academy of Fine Arts in Sassari. In 2013 he moved to Milan, where he joined Studio d’Arte Cannaviello gallery. He has participated in numerous exhibitions, including solo shows such as Change, Studio d’Arte Cannaviello, Milan (2019); #FFFFFF, Apart Spaziocritico, Vicenza (2017); and Fake Golden Age, Esentai Gallery, Almaty, Kazakhstan (2016).

Selected group exhibitions include Adagio, Kogakuin University, Tokyo (2021); Neue Stimmung. Sopravvivenze metafisiche nella pittura italiana contemporanea, Casati Arte Contemporanea, Turin (2020); and Modus Operandi. Ricognizioni sul contemporaneo tra pittura e fotografia, Twenty14 Contemporary, Milan (2016). In recent years, Pibi’s work has been selected for several significant projects, including Louis Vuitton’s Woman Pre-Fall 2020 campaign, for which he was commissioned to create two artworks; Google Arts & Culture; and the project Control by Paco Cao for the National Gallery of Rome.