T293 Rome
T293 is pleased to present The Tail End of the Tale, an exhibition of new paintings by Italian born, London based artist Patrizio Di Massimo.
When does reality end and fantasy begin? Are the two dimensions strictly separated? Looking at Patrizio Di Massimo’s new body of works, the answer can’t be taken for granted. The Tail End of the Tale, Di Massimo’s fourth solo exhibition at the gallery, navigates both dimensions, exploring the domestic while opening to surreal windows.
The paintings presented in the show often depicts the household environment, its interior details and contrasts: from the joyfulness of family moments, to the difficulties of parenting, from physical intimacy, to extraordinary viewpoints. Each of these perspectives finds a correlation with the choice of color palette, where particular tonalities emphasize specific psychological states.
The exhibition is titled after one painting: The Tail End of the Tale. Here the artist portrays his own family as members of a famous child story, becoming a little mouse, a fox and an owl. On the same sofa, the artist’s wife Nicoletta is sleeping, exhausted (The Price of Motherhood) showing a hidden aspect of parenting. Parenthood is a key theme in the show, and the artist doesn’t only represent his own experience, but plays homage to parents friends and fellow artists, as featured in the painting titled Angry Birds.
Succeeding a long, discontinued period of confinement, the chosen stories are connected to the familiar environment, and inevitably to its complex systems. The temptation to surrender to internal monsters can be felt, but it’s not the solution. The presence of windows in most of the paintings, such as Blue room or Flat 2, 164 Peckham Rye, are positive escapes to this restricted reality and it is Di Massimo’s suggestion to look out and try another perspective in order to reconcile with ourselves and our beloved ones. The exhibition borrows its title from the homonymous expression meaning “the end of the story”. If the story comes to the last page, as The Tail End of the Tale suggests, perhaps it is time to start a new book.