Cristina Vergano~Figure of Speech~at Woodward Gallery

Monday, 07 August 2006 09:51

New York City - Cristina Vergano depicts an intriguing world where creatures, both human and animal, inhabit pastoral landscapes or rich interiors.  How they have arrived at these places, she gives no indication, only implying in their serene demeanors that they now exist there, as in the classical tradition, solid and firmly planted for all time.  On exhibition from 14 September to 4 November, 2006.

In “Figure of Speech,” Vergano introduces rebuses, word puzzles, into her paintings, adding another tantalizing layer of meaning to works already dense with allusions.  Letters of the alphabet dance across a visage or balance on foliage forming words that create statements or pose compelling questions.

Gazing directly at viewers from their richly symbolic surroundings, Vergano’s subjects invite us to decipher them as we would ancient scriptures or relics from lost civilizations, hoping to discover life’s meaning in their beguiling countenances and the words integrated into their portraits.  Strikingly open, she lays bare her heart in these works, in a sense all self-portraits, while also displaying her vast knowledge of history and myth more obviously now than ever before.

A self-trained artist from an artistic Italian family—her father was an architect, her grandfather a painter—Vergano currently works on her paintings full time in a New York studio.  But, as she notes in an interview, "My work has no connection with the present, where I am, or what is around me.  My paintings are in their own world . . . I always want my art to look like something from another time." 

Since the late 1980's Vergano had had numerous solo and group exhibitions—most in the New York area, with others in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Miami.  Her awards include "Best of Show" at the Oconee Artists Exhibition VII (1989) in Atlanta and honorable mention at "Anthropology in Art: A Viewer's Perspective" (2000) in New York.

She was educated at the International School of Milan, the Liceo Classico Cassini, and the Universita di Genova (MA in art history, 1980).  Upon leaving her native Italy she lived in Orlando, Florida, and in Atlanta before settling in New York during the mid-1990's.

Woodward Gallery located in the heart of SoHo, specializes in beautiful, contemporary aesthetics.  The emerging and mid-career artists represented by Woodward Gallery offer a dynamic variety of unique paintings, sculpture as well as limited edition prints.  And, if the old masters are more your preference, you will also find blue-chip artists from Picasso to Warhol available here as well. 

Visit Woodward Gallery at : http://www.artnet.com/woodward.html