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A NEW DIMENSION OF ART

ILIAS RIZZI

I have always perceived a bridge between reality and my inner world. My idea is to convey this sensation to others by creating fantastic yet tangible parallel visions, much like reality. Today, as in the beginning, the essence remains the same. That's why I reach out to all those for whom reality as it is, is not enough. I am fascinated by the idea of transferring my energies onto a blank sheet to create objects and creatures that do not belong to this world.

About Me

THE POETICS THAT PREVAILS OVER THE EGO

In a post-idealistic world, such as the contemporary one, new trends of thought are emerging. From 1990 to the present day, our society has undergone a radical transformation after the collapse of the ideologies of the 20th century. These ideologies divided the world of culture into two distinct and opposing sections, outlining general directions that society sought to follow. Today, however, the opposite is happening: the world of culture is so separated from common society that often the former, to gain attention, must bend to the will of the latter. The merit of this upheaval is the increasingly pervasive segmentation of common thought, driven by a disruptive technological progress and greater mass education. It is often said that today's collective knowledge is more ignorant than that of the '70s or '80s. According to statistical data, it seems to be quite the opposite: the number of graduates has increased considerably in recent years. However, what I believe has changed in the early 2000s is the annihilation of critical thinking in favor of a superficially knowledge-oriented approach. Knowing how to read a text does not necessarily mean knowing how to analyze it. This happens because the world of culture desires to be drawn to the masses, when it should be the other way around. Instead of conforming to the logic of individual gratification, society should strive to help the community achieve the maturity it needs today.

Ilias is an artist who, starting from the world of illustration, given his studies, transforms his practice from descriptive and mannerist to something morbidly his own.

Ilias Rizzi's works are truly contemporary because they manage to shape what is most current and mainstream, like the portrait of Billie Eilish, into a process that bewilders the viewer. His exceptional painting technique does not serve a perverse mimetic game. The artist does not aim to evoke a sense of spectacle in the viewer; in fact, in front of a Rizzi canvas, we are not the same passive spectators as when faced with a product of pure entertainment. Before a work by the young artist, we remain involved in a way entirely detached from the surface image. There is a distance between author-work-viewer that is difficult to perceive in most works of art. Ilias creates suspensions of visions, within which illustration and descriptive style transform into well-defined moments suspended in time, subtracting emotion from a complicated narrative.

In his artistic practice, there is no pathos or emotional impulse. Everything remains frozen and stable but at the same time, evolving as if they were individual frames of a cinematic film. Dimensions that seem to arise through psychic automatism, detached from the will to escape or express the intimacy of oneself, converge into something "beyond," even further than the metaphysical. Eros and Thanatos are swept away by the desire to go beyond the emotional perception of the here and now.

In Ilias Rizzi's poetics, there is no cynicism, nor is there a futile narcissism; there is only the desire to define one's art, far from useless social conventions or hypocritical spirituality. For Ilias, art is an aspiration to the beyond, much like the staircase that Mirò often represented in his artistic works.

Francesco Funghi

BIO

Ilias Rizzi (Cholargos, Athens, 1991) is an artist of Greek origin based in Florence. After earning his degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, he participated in training programs both in Italy and abroad to deepen his artistic research. He has exhibited works in various solo and group shows.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2020
"Nyarlathotep - The Crawling Chaos",
Sala C.Banti. Montemurlo (PO), Italy.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023
“Net_Walking”,
Parco della Rocca di Carmignano. Prato, Italy
2022
"Artkeys Prize",
Ex Tabacchificio Saim. Salerno, Italy
2022
“Net_Walking”,
Parco della Rocca di Carmignano. Prato, Italy
2019
"Contemporaneamente",
Limonaia di Villa Strozzi. Florence, Italy
2017
“Ma il cielo è sempre più blu",
Simultanea Spazi D'Arte. Florence, Italy

Ilias Rizzi collaborates as a designer for various magazines and musical artists, in addition to creating illustrations for national and international publications.