CRITICAL NOTES AND CURRICULUM
by Clorinda RUZZI
Laura Ferretti lives and works in her native land, the Maremma, of which she feels and tells the charm. Throughout the years,
still remaining faithful to figurative art, she has invested her works with symbolic meanings. And the places have become more
and more places of the spirit, ways for an articulate reflection on life, on the actual sense of life.
So Maremma, Maremma of today, of the sunflowers, simple and vital and luxuriant, but also the ancient one, that bitter one of
marshes, Maremma with its wide skies becomes a vision of her life and roots. Desert, in its hard, naked essentiality, alludes to
the encounter with ourselves: an encounter which goes beyond appearances and common places. And also sea such mutable,
such charming and elusive painted with its scale of light and shadows. As life. And then deeper and deeper into sea depths:
liquid search of what is in the depths, beyond the actual knowledge of ourselves, in that fascinating and multiform essence that
is our subconscious. Everything flows. As seasons picked in flowing time, in growing pale of colors reproduced with basic colors
pure or blended in complementary colors red-green, blue-orange, yellow-violet, white-black. Few colors, always the same, but
they produce emotions ever new and new, quivering emotions. The fundamental elements of her painting are a strong sense of
color and a true love for light that always breaks forth to animate her work. It is more special the clever lightness of touch she
unites the silky softness of oil colors with the rigidity of the steel spatula. So it is that be born contrasts or strokes of thick, dark
color standing out on dreamy atmosphere. And shapes, in their essentiality and immediacy, become more and more three-
dimensional and clear as we distance ourselves from painting. Lately her expressive feeling induces Laura Ferretti to imbue
with emotions that make poetic her landscapes moving in nuances or evocatively lost in the mist. Contours disappear, shapers
turn into allusions, secret atmospheres alluding with marks that don’t tell. A new spiritually appears, timid, through hiding and
rarefied charm of colors.It is different the azure thread that, along the years, produced some works, result of a deep, punctual
and personal search, both on the religious side, both on the expressive one.The first sacred representation is an ”Assumption of
Our Lady”, an Altarpiece that breaks with the expressive canons of tradition. The event, pervaded by a modern religious
sensitivity, is narrated through manifold spaces invaded and joined by the light, through an essentiality that excludes any merely
decorative element. Her altarpiece representing “The Assumption of Our Lady ” is placed in the 16th– century Sanctuary of Our
Lady of Charity in Seggiano (Gr). Other sacred works follow, backwards, the drama of “Our Lady at the foot of the Cross”,
altarpiece placed in the ancient Church of Mercy in Grosseto. After a “Nativity”, essential, but under a jubilation of stars. The
theme of the faith in everyday life is expressed in “Love's flowing around “. The work “And the Word is made flash” has brought
the message of the great mystery of the God who becomes man for love and, at the same time, that of the great significance of
the yes said by the Maid of God.”The smile of Mary” is a work connected with Medjugorie messages and the Gospa redeeming
sharing. Besides this Marian cycle, we find the works “Thinking about the Holy Shroud” and the XII Station of the Cross, titled “
The Dead of Jesus – Euthanasia”, a painful Way, provocatively updated, born of famous Venetian paiters will who invited the
Tuscan painter to realize the project together them. The Way is placed in San Pietro Orseolo Church in Venice-Mestre. “Deep
roots: the Etruscans and their world” (title of the travelling exhibition) arises out of her love for Etruscan people and their culture.
It is a pictorial project realized in a very original way. The every day life of this ancient people, so modern and mysterious, lives
again in front of our eyes, coming out from their tombs, guided by a spiral that joins together fragments of objects or tomb
frescos and statues up to reproduce the entire subject in the first square. Among her exhibitions we remember the main ones: at
the Gallery Pascucci in Grosseto, at Umbria Expo Arte in Bastia Umbra, at the Pignatelli Palace in Rome, at the Ghibellino
Palace in Empoli (Florence), at Piccolomini Palace in Pienza. On March 2000 she presents her exhibition, titled “My journey into
the colors”, at Bechtel Inernational Center of Stanford University in California.In April 2001 Laura Ferretti is on display at
"Arketipo", an International Exposition, that takes place at the Castle of Este in Ferrara.In December of the same year she is on
display at the 2nd Biennal Exhibition of Sacred Art that takes place in the Crypt of the Cathedral in Pienza. Since January 2002
she is working at a pictorial project about Etruscan Civilization. It is a rich and articulate work so as to make alive and updated
this ancient people and his culture. It forms an organic nucleus for an exhibition on display in Italy and abroad titled “Deep
roots: Etruscans and their world”. Painting by Laura Ferretti makes a very good impression on stranger specialists of this field
so the painter begins a continuative co-operation with important galleries abroad, like "La Mostra Gallery" in Cardiff
Wales(U.K.). On March 2004, the painter takes part in the opening exhibition of the Welsh gallery, La Mostra Gallery, together
with the four painters selected to represent Italian Art in the United Kingdom. On June of the same year “La Mostra Gallery”
organizes an important art-exhibition, titled “Tuscan landscapes between dream and reality”, for the artist. Laura Ferretti
conveys her warm affection for her land and also the charm, the dreamful atmosphere you may find in Tuscany through her forty
paintings on display.Her work gains the favor of the many visitors. Laura Ferretti shows her pictorial project about Etruscans
and their world from 2nd to 28th October 2004, in the Archaeological Museum in Grosseto. It is the first leg of the travelling exhibit
titled “Deep roots: the Etruscans and their World”. Twenty-five paintings narrate Etruscan love for live. At the side of these
works, landscapes painted with palette-knife show foreshortenings of Tuscany. Land and sky out of the time. In October,
paintings by Laura Ferretti are on display in a very glamorous and defined Golf Club in Cardiff. At the end of October she takes
part in the Manchester Art Show, England.
In October 2004 the painter comes to an agreement with the US Gallery ArtSpreadDpt in Chicago for a lasting cooperation.
December, 17th 2004 she participate in the charity auction for the NSPCC, in Cardiff. In August, 6th -21st 2005 the travelling
exhibit brings the Etruscans on display in the rooms of the sixteenth-century Nerucci Palace in Castel del Piano with the
patronage of the commune. In Dicember, 3rd-17th 2005 the painter participates in "CENTRO D'ARTE SAN VIDAL' in Venice to
the demonstration MAGIC COLORS OF VENICE. As regards the exhibition "The contemporary Tuscan Art in Bolivia" organized
by the Tuscan Region the painter shows her works dedicated to Etruscans "Deep roots: the Etruscans and their world" in the
Italian Embassy in La Paz (Bolivia).
From September 23rd to October 5th 2006:"Deep roots: the Etruscans and their world", travelling exhibition, Luigi Sturzo Gallery,
Venice Mestre. From October 15th to 30th 2006: "Deep roots: the Etruscans and their world", travelling exhibition, Centre of
Culture, Villa Pozzi,Venice Mestre. From December 16th to January 7th 2007:Exhibition of Sacred Paintings, Luigi Sturzo Gallery,
Venice Mestre . September 22nd - October 3rd 2007: One-man Exhibit "What color might tell me..." that opens the artistic season
of the Luigi Sturzo Art Gallery in Venice-Mestre. From December 15th,2007 to January 20th,2008 “Deep roots: the Etruscans and
their world”, travelling exhibition, is on display in the Archaeological Museum“Isidoro Falchi” in Vetulonia (Gr). School-children
and their teacher had an interesting lesson of art and history together with the painter. In March14th-31st,2008 Laura Ferretti is at
the exhibition of ”The painful Way - XV provocations” at the Civic Tower in Venice-Mestre. The review AD dedicates a space to
the painter with publication of critical notes and images in October, 2008. Her painting continue to have an enticing estimation at
home and abroad. It is just arrived an invitation to put on display a one-man exhibition from the important Canadian galleria
“Galerie Gora” in Montréal. Her next appointment is “A Homage to Turner”, international event titled “Lights, emotions and
fantastic riddles” in Castle of Este in Ferrara, from February 14th - 22nd,2009. Her works are appreciated very much both by the
public and the art reviewers.
In October 2010 Laura Ferretti began a collaboration with the Foundation Guseppe De Nittis and the Cultural Center Zerouno of
Barletta.In the period December 15th to 30th, in Barletta, the artist participates in the exhibition "Between the tones of an ideal
space".The show is curated by Dr. Anna Soricaro sponsored by the Fondazione G. De Nittis.
Also in Barletta, in the period April 15th to May 10th, 2011, personal exposure "Deep roots: the Etruscans and their world."From
3rd to 15th October 2011 she exhibited at the Hiring SW1 Gallery in London, with the organization of the New Artemisia Gallery.
From 14th to 16th October 2011, the artist took part in the event "Weekend with the Arts" in the exhibition organized by the
CulturalFerrara.La Ferrara Pro Art Gallery in collaboration with Domus Turkish, is to select artists for the 6th "International
Biennial of Contemporary Art Ferrara", scheduled in 2012.
Her work "The song of the curves and lines of complementary colors" has been selected to participate in the International
Prize"Tokyo" (May 2011).
Giulio Gasparotti, Siro Perin, Gabriele Turola, Giovanni Lombardi, Anna Soricaro, Elizabeth Lorenz, Umberto Marianelli,
Giuseppina Scotti, Clorinda Ruzzi, Tommaso Paloscia, Paolo Pisani, Mirella Violi, Antonio Branca, Rossano Marzocchi and
others reviewers have written about her.
Italian
Español
still remaining faithful to figurative art, she has invested her works with symbolic meanings. And the places have become more
and more places of the spirit, ways for an articulate reflection on life, on the actual sense of life.
So Maremma, Maremma of today, of the sunflowers, simple and vital and luxuriant, but also the ancient one, that bitter one of
marshes, Maremma with its wide skies becomes a vision of her life and roots. Desert, in its hard, naked essentiality, alludes to
the encounter with ourselves: an encounter which goes beyond appearances and common places. And also sea such mutable,
such charming and elusive painted with its scale of light and shadows. As life. And then deeper and deeper into sea depths:
liquid search of what is in the depths, beyond the actual knowledge of ourselves, in that fascinating and multiform essence that
is our subconscious. Everything flows. As seasons picked in flowing time, in growing pale of colors reproduced with basic colors
pure or blended in complementary colors red-green, blue-orange, yellow-violet, white-black. Few colors, always the same, but
they produce emotions ever new and new, quivering emotions. The fundamental elements of her painting are a strong sense of
color and a true love for light that always breaks forth to animate her work. It is more special the clever lightness of touch she
unites the silky softness of oil colors with the rigidity of the steel spatula. So it is that be born contrasts or strokes of thick, dark
color standing out on dreamy atmosphere. And shapes, in their essentiality and immediacy, become more and more three-
dimensional and clear as we distance ourselves from painting. Lately her expressive feeling induces Laura Ferretti to imbue
with emotions that make poetic her landscapes moving in nuances or evocatively lost in the mist. Contours disappear, shapers
turn into allusions, secret atmospheres alluding with marks that don’t tell. A new spiritually appears, timid, through hiding and
rarefied charm of colors.It is different the azure thread that, along the years, produced some works, result of a deep, punctual
and personal search, both on the religious side, both on the expressive one.The first sacred representation is an ”Assumption of
Our Lady”, an Altarpiece that breaks with the expressive canons of tradition. The event, pervaded by a modern religious
sensitivity, is narrated through manifold spaces invaded and joined by the light, through an essentiality that excludes any merely
decorative element. Her altarpiece representing “The Assumption of Our Lady ” is placed in the 16th– century Sanctuary of Our
Lady of Charity in Seggiano (Gr). Other sacred works follow, backwards, the drama of “Our Lady at the foot of the Cross”,
altarpiece placed in the ancient Church of Mercy in Grosseto. After a “Nativity”, essential, but under a jubilation of stars. The
theme of the faith in everyday life is expressed in “Love's flowing around “. The work “And the Word is made flash” has brought
the message of the great mystery of the God who becomes man for love and, at the same time, that of the great significance of
the yes said by the Maid of God.”The smile of Mary” is a work connected with Medjugorie messages and the Gospa redeeming
sharing. Besides this Marian cycle, we find the works “Thinking about the Holy Shroud” and the XII Station of the Cross, titled “
The Dead of Jesus – Euthanasia”, a painful Way, provocatively updated, born of famous Venetian paiters will who invited the
Tuscan painter to realize the project together them. The Way is placed in San Pietro Orseolo Church in Venice-Mestre. “Deep
roots: the Etruscans and their world” (title of the travelling exhibition) arises out of her love for Etruscan people and their culture.
It is a pictorial project realized in a very original way. The every day life of this ancient people, so modern and mysterious, lives
again in front of our eyes, coming out from their tombs, guided by a spiral that joins together fragments of objects or tomb
frescos and statues up to reproduce the entire subject in the first square. Among her exhibitions we remember the main ones: at
the Gallery Pascucci in Grosseto, at Umbria Expo Arte in Bastia Umbra, at the Pignatelli Palace in Rome, at the Ghibellino
Palace in Empoli (Florence), at Piccolomini Palace in Pienza. On March 2000 she presents her exhibition, titled “My journey into
the colors”, at Bechtel Inernational Center of Stanford University in California.In April 2001 Laura Ferretti is on display at
"Arketipo", an International Exposition, that takes place at the Castle of Este in Ferrara.In December of the same year she is on
display at the 2nd Biennal Exhibition of Sacred Art that takes place in the Crypt of the Cathedral in Pienza. Since January 2002
she is working at a pictorial project about Etruscan Civilization. It is a rich and articulate work so as to make alive and updated
this ancient people and his culture. It forms an organic nucleus for an exhibition on display in Italy and abroad titled “Deep
roots: Etruscans and their world”. Painting by Laura Ferretti makes a very good impression on stranger specialists of this field
so the painter begins a continuative co-operation with important galleries abroad, like "La Mostra Gallery" in Cardiff
Wales(U.K.). On March 2004, the painter takes part in the opening exhibition of the Welsh gallery, La Mostra Gallery, together
with the four painters selected to represent Italian Art in the United Kingdom. On June of the same year “La Mostra Gallery”
organizes an important art-exhibition, titled “Tuscan landscapes between dream and reality”, for the artist. Laura Ferretti
conveys her warm affection for her land and also the charm, the dreamful atmosphere you may find in Tuscany through her forty
paintings on display.Her work gains the favor of the many visitors. Laura Ferretti shows her pictorial project about Etruscans
and their world from 2nd to 28th October 2004, in the Archaeological Museum in Grosseto. It is the first leg of the travelling exhibit
titled “Deep roots: the Etruscans and their World”. Twenty-five paintings narrate Etruscan love for live. At the side of these
works, landscapes painted with palette-knife show foreshortenings of Tuscany. Land and sky out of the time. In October,
paintings by Laura Ferretti are on display in a very glamorous and defined Golf Club in Cardiff. At the end of October she takes
part in the Manchester Art Show, England.
In October 2004 the painter comes to an agreement with the US Gallery ArtSpreadDpt in Chicago for a lasting cooperation.
December, 17th 2004 she participate in the charity auction for the NSPCC, in Cardiff. In August, 6th -21st 2005 the travelling
exhibit brings the Etruscans on display in the rooms of the sixteenth-century Nerucci Palace in Castel del Piano with the
patronage of the commune. In Dicember, 3rd-17th 2005 the painter participates in "CENTRO D'ARTE SAN VIDAL' in Venice to
the demonstration MAGIC COLORS OF VENICE. As regards the exhibition "The contemporary Tuscan Art in Bolivia" organized
by the Tuscan Region the painter shows her works dedicated to Etruscans "Deep roots: the Etruscans and their world" in the
Italian Embassy in La Paz (Bolivia).
From September 23rd to October 5th 2006:"Deep roots: the Etruscans and their world", travelling exhibition, Luigi Sturzo Gallery,
Venice Mestre. From October 15th to 30th 2006: "Deep roots: the Etruscans and their world", travelling exhibition, Centre of
Culture, Villa Pozzi,Venice Mestre. From December 16th to January 7th 2007:Exhibition of Sacred Paintings, Luigi Sturzo Gallery,
Venice Mestre . September 22nd - October 3rd 2007: One-man Exhibit "What color might tell me..." that opens the artistic season
of the Luigi Sturzo Art Gallery in Venice-Mestre. From December 15th,2007 to January 20th,2008 “Deep roots: the Etruscans and
their world”, travelling exhibition, is on display in the Archaeological Museum“Isidoro Falchi” in Vetulonia (Gr). School-children
and their teacher had an interesting lesson of art and history together with the painter. In March14th-31st,2008 Laura Ferretti is at
the exhibition of ”The painful Way - XV provocations” at the Civic Tower in Venice-Mestre. The review AD dedicates a space to
the painter with publication of critical notes and images in October, 2008. Her painting continue to have an enticing estimation at
home and abroad. It is just arrived an invitation to put on display a one-man exhibition from the important Canadian galleria
“Galerie Gora” in Montréal. Her next appointment is “A Homage to Turner”, international event titled “Lights, emotions and
fantastic riddles” in Castle of Este in Ferrara, from February 14th - 22nd,2009. Her works are appreciated very much both by the
public and the art reviewers.
In October 2010 Laura Ferretti began a collaboration with the Foundation Guseppe De Nittis and the Cultural Center Zerouno of
Barletta.In the period December 15th to 30th, in Barletta, the artist participates in the exhibition "Between the tones of an ideal
space".The show is curated by Dr. Anna Soricaro sponsored by the Fondazione G. De Nittis.
Also in Barletta, in the period April 15th to May 10th, 2011, personal exposure "Deep roots: the Etruscans and their world."From
3rd to 15th October 2011 she exhibited at the Hiring SW1 Gallery in London, with the organization of the New Artemisia Gallery.
From 14th to 16th October 2011, the artist took part in the event "Weekend with the Arts" in the exhibition organized by the
CulturalFerrara.La Ferrara Pro Art Gallery in collaboration with Domus Turkish, is to select artists for the 6th "International
Biennial of Contemporary Art Ferrara", scheduled in 2012.
Her work "The song of the curves and lines of complementary colors" has been selected to participate in the International
Prize"Tokyo" (May 2011).
Giulio Gasparotti, Siro Perin, Gabriele Turola, Giovanni Lombardi, Anna Soricaro, Elizabeth Lorenz, Umberto Marianelli,
Giuseppina Scotti, Clorinda Ruzzi, Tommaso Paloscia, Paolo Pisani, Mirella Violi, Antonio Branca, Rossano Marzocchi and
others reviewers have written about her.
Italian
Español