Two Thoughts

8 March – 6 December 2020

The Pattern Room at Collezione Maramotti will be housing Two Thoughts, a solo show by Svenja Deininger that brings together a series of new paintings specifically conceived for this project; they will be in dialogue with four works from the 1920s by Polish painter Władysław Strzemiński, on loan from Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź.

Building on a painting from 2018 that was acquired by Collezione Maramotti, and drawing inspiration from Strzemiński and the Architectural Compositions he made almost a century ago, Deininger worked on numerous pieces at the same time to arrive at this final selection of paintings and the “phrase” they compose on the walls of the room.

Deininger sees her works as part of an ongoing process: the individual pieces, on which she may work over long periods of time, are not self-contained entities, but part of a creative reflection that leads the artist to imagine their placement within a specific spatial context. As if generating lexical units while simultaneously elaborating their syntax, Deininger’s creative process unfolds through a sequence of assiduous reworkings of the surface of each painting, while developing a system of interaction between them all.

The range of textures, finishes and thicknesses that can be seen up close are achieved by combining oil paint with gesso, marble dust or glue – materials that absorb and reflect light in different ways – as well as by building up layers of paint and working on both the front and the back of the canvas. Deininger’s compositions of lines and colours evoke an abstract realm, yet her imaginary is rooted in concrete shapes and objects which are transposed and hybridized on the canvas, reshuffled to invite new interpretations. The flat appearance of her surfaces is also frequently belied by closer inspection, revealing different levels of depth and sometimes even relationships of perspective between the elements. Deininger, who paints only in natural light, responds step by step to each phase of the works as they take shape, as they “come into the world.” Her painting is experimental in its process – with errors and shifts in direction considered an integral element – yet precise and calibrated in its formal results.

This project inspired by Strzemiński highlights Deininger’s reflection on the work of an artist from the avant-garde generation, far removed from her from the historical and theoretical standpoint, but with unexpected formal affinities and a similar investigation into the deeper essence of vision and painting.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue with essays by Luigi Fassi, Paulina Kurc-Maj, and Władysław Strzemiński.

Opening by invitation: 7 March 2020, at 6.00 pm, with the artist present.

8 March – 6 December 2020
The exhibition can be visited, free of charge, during the opening hours of the permanent collection.
Thursdays and Fridays, 2.30 – 6.30pm
Saturdays and Sundays, 10.30am – 6.30pm
Closed: 25 April, 1 May, from 1 to 25 August, 1 November. 

Press-clipping selection: 

P. Watzl, Studio Diary - Svenja Deininger, in "Parnass Kunstmagazin", 20 Apr. 2020

L. Pratesi, La Collezione Maramotti riapre con Svenja Deininger, in "Exibart", 26 May 2020

E. Arzani, La pittura di Władysław Strzemiński e Svenja Deininger a Reggio Emilia, in "Artribune", 20 Aug. 2020

L. Fiore, Il flirt tra pittura e rigore geometrico è aperto all'imprevisto, in "Il Foglio", 28 Aug. 2020 

V. Tassinari, Incroci di sguardi. Alla Collezione Maramotti l'incontro di Enoc Perez e Brigitte Schindler con Carlo Mollino e di Svenja Deininger con Władysław Strzemiński, in "Il Giornale dell'Arte", Sep. 2020 

G. Piselli, Le stanze del pensiero di Svenja Deininger | Collezione Maramotti, in "ATPdiary", 7 Sep. 2020

S. Chiodi, Le doppie visioni di Svenja Deininger, in "Doppiozero", 13 Oct. 2020

J. Saxby, Svenja Deininger: Two Thoughts, in "This is Tomorrow", 12 Nov. 2020