ARTE SU MARTE

On full moon nights, werewolves party,

L'opera ha un inizio ma si evolve spesso ribaltando i propositi iniziali dell'artista.

Alcuni pastelli ad olio del maestro G.M.Zago.

Some the recent works by the master Gianantonio Marino Zago.

Ovvero : la versatilità artistica di Gianantonio Marino Zago.

Some recent works by the master Gianantonio Marino Zago.

Digital art by G.M.Zago.Series Astrall

"Zago and your Friends" London 2011/12.

Some mosaic-type oil works made by the master G.M.Zago at the end of the 90s

ROSA SPINILLO.Zago and the Neo-Informal-Materico Gianantonio Marino Zago doesnt want to be labelled nor pigeonholed; he is a multifaceted artist and versatile, deeply affected by the art of the second half of the XX century to which he belongs to by birth but not for training or education. He learnt on the road, gathering with other maudits artists like himself. Among the many there was Mario Schifano. Zago has absorbed Schifanos and Rauschenbeurgs styles well and hes been deeply influenced by them, even if unconsciously. Its impossible not to think of Warhol or Manzoni; a shade of our dear old 1900s is in the imagination of this artist who didnt study History of Art but he quotes it through his sensations and emotions. Hes completely subjugated to a passion for strong colours, a full red or a vivid blue which he makes, sliding on the canvas like the Jackson Pollock “dripping”. And then, we shouldnt forget about Burri with his bags and his combustions, nor Fontana with his neat lines; Zago is all this, and even more. He is ceaselessly in the process of researching even when he goes around collecting waste, such as coke tins, syringes, condoms, smashed rackets, old shoes, lighters, cigarette butts, food remnants; I figure Zago in my head Daniel Spoerri in action, his infinite ideas which will inexorably turn rubbish into true Art; always with a whip of irony. What makes an artist a real artist is irony, not taking oneself too seriously, the challenge, an open mind and high intellingence make the rest. And then the magic is done: a master piece is born as from a manufacturer demiurge God, a sort of protective numen living in every artist. Art is the expression of ones real inner self, its the language reflecting the spirit of the artists time, its to communicate a message and to abandon provincialism. This is the only way to create the greatest Art, otherwise it is only an amateur work. Zago has dedicated his life to Art; in his loneliness he has infinite ideas, fascinations, sensations. His beginnings are figurative; in the Nineties he exhibits in New York a collection of twenty landscapes picturing Verona, his beloved city. At the end of the Nineties he abandons Figurativism for Neo Divisionism melting into Abstraction. His “mosaic” works are the most famous of this period. But today, his attention is directed to Informal Art, with very powerful material, dripping colour which dominates the surface, cohexisting with still objects worn out by time, assemblage and ready-made post-duchampian; it s almost a rendition of the Dada fairy tale omnipresent in our history. Art as provocation Provoking has become a dominating element in any kind of language, very welcome if it serves the purpose of stirring consciences, but useless if it doesnt communicate anything. And the “Monnezza”, as Zago calls it, doesnt lay only on the corners of the streets but also in our conscience minds, passively observing our fates with no will for intervening and change them. Zago is not only an artist, he is a dreamer who believes in a better world, a special person with no hypocrisy, loyal and real as a very few are. Not to forget the Zago photographer, digital artist; unquestionably remarkable. But to be honest, I prefer the latest Zago, the neo-Informal artist he is, with his creations of “Mondezza”; there he reaches the full potential of his creativity. I would suggest to him to keep on following this path researching new materials because Art is continuous research, research, research. You are a researcher born and bred; I am sure you understood me, with my best wishes!

All 100 works were performed by master Gianantonio Marino Zago in 4 hands with 100 international artists. Event of 2011 and for the first time in the world an artist has ventured into a performance so demanding that it required almost two years of intense work. All the works were then exhibited in various prestigious London galleries until 2013. VALENTINA BASILE.Contemporary art continuously relies on experimentation. It follows a path that was initiated by the great artists of the 20th century. They were artistic pioneers who finally embraced the use of new and atypical materials in a context that is the natural result of the combination of new artistic taste and developing historical events. Initially, these materials were sand, plastic, cork and iron sheets. Later on, Pop Art introduced the use of waste as artistic material. After getting rid of its initial provocative side, this new idea inspired the higher concept of recycling. As a matter of fact, in addition to being an emotional and psychological experience involving all senses; art has indeed always been influenced by current issues. Artists portray the joy and sorrow of society, its golden age, its highs and lows, through the use of a brush, of a chisel and other tools. As a result, contemporary art is confronted with issues that are the result of an increasingly technological and artificial world, where pollution is at the forefront of such problems. Therefore, art appears in the form of the increasingly common practice of recycling, according to Gabriel García Márquez’s idea that: “things have a life of their own, and one only needs to make their soul resurrect”. Waste, which would otherwise be abandoned in ever growing rubbish tips, undergoes a double re-evaluation: First, it becomes worthy of being used again and therefore it gains a new life and experiences new ways of being employed. Second, it upgrades into an artistic object and becomes part of a creative product. Rubbish becomes a completely integrated part of this product, a tool and means thorough which the artist’s emotions are expressed, and it gains a value that is equal to that of other noble elements such as colour and drawings. Artists, who got together to support EMERGENCY by taking part to the Zago and your friends’ charity Art Exhibition, are from different nationalities and hold different chromatic and stylistic preferences. All this paintings are defined as the product of “four hands”. The real innovation and the special feature of this realisation lies in the fact that all of the 100 participating artists put themselves in the hands of only one artist: Gianantonio Marino Zago. They all accepted to make a risky bet: they all created their own piece of art work, but then agreed that another artist would further complete them. They embraced the possibility that their creations could become something different, something that still intrinsically reflects their ideas, but that, at the same time, becomes something completely new; the product of a process of cultural and artistic osmosis. The paintings are the result of a mixture of materials and techniques, although all join together by a common expressive search. This search becomes a tactile experience: it is possible to perceive how materials extend beyond the boundaries of the frame to become reality. Materials become an extension of the art work by means of real objects appearing on canvas. These objects, randomly collected from kerbside and urban rubbish bins, are used in a non-random way. Zago selects the materials on the basis of a set of emotional and aesthetic criteria still fully respecting the harmony of the previously completed product. Sometimes he recreates some “trompe-l’oeil” effects, where the paintings recall the materials and the two are almost impossible to distinguish from each other. Pop art therefore appears in the form of Coca-Cola® or Fanta® cans, some of the artist’s favorite objects. Moreover you can see cigarette packets, abandoned stuffed puppets, torn shoes, pens, belts, brushes and much more. Zago creates multi-material art work that he occasionally also performs by using oil based pastels, a type of technique used to represent symbolic subjects become a very powerful graphic element. In such context, art becomes a means to fight the system and it also becomes a political and social statement promoting human rights, peace and solidarity. In the era of globalisation – far from a cold and mechanical virtual world – art becomes a real tool through which one can express their own ideas. Thanks to this International event, these ideas become evidence of emancipation and a vehicle for knowledge that is accessible to everyone. The artwork gains an enforced or even a new meaning. It become a vehicle for a message that is closely related to current issues that fully comply with EMERGENCY’s cause. These issues include; spreading social problems, job loss, human trafficking and the unacceptable drama of war victims. Such topics are dealt with expressive boldness and are occasionally matched with equally sagacious irony, striving to arouse and tease people’s mind so they can finally look beyond the dust of a pre-made reality; they can stop and think to come up with their very own personal view of the world.

A video of my work in "work in progress". Sorry for the quality but I did it with an old mobile phone that I found in a cardboard box, next to a waste bin, I'm a recycler artist and so ...-Un video di un mio lavoro in " work in progress".Scusate per la qualità ma l'ho fatto con un vecchio cellulare che ho trovato in una scatola di cartone, a fianco di un cassonetto dei rifiuti, sono un'artista riciclante e allora....

Portraits and caricatures of famous and less famous people.

Personale nel 2008 del maestro Gianantonio Marino Zago con tutte opere polimateriche del riciclo.

Opere varie del maestro G.M.Zago

Alcune opere e foto del Maestro G-M-Zago

Zago's digital works series Astrall ZAGO ON ZAGO. If you allow me, I would like to spend a few lines to describe my digital work. I want to do this because I have seen many people lingering on my works and I would like to give them a lens to interpret them. In 1999, I started playing around with the computer to create something I could define artistic. I have focused myself so much on graphic softwares that still now I cannot do anything else and often I have to appeal to the help of others even for a simple copy and paste. When I started, I gave myself some rules, which I want to resume briefly. Because of my long artistic heritage, during which I tried to do everything, I had to define my meaning of digital artist. Hence, I turned the mouse into a brush and I often use the function of retouching brush and pixel work well as colour to distribute on the file. For this purpose, I chose very simple graphic programs for everybody, like everybody can decide to get brushes, colours and a canvas if they want to paint. The difference comes then from the mind who creates and not from the means used. That is the reason why I am not attracted to tecniques of collage or traspositions of images or what else technology give us for the creation of special and futuristics effects. To say it all, I am an old fashioned digitalist.

Zago in four hands with international artists for the "Zago and your Friends" exhibitions in London 2011 and Rome 2017.