Maurizio Tangerini’s third solo exhibition at Studio Cenacchi (8 October – 12 November 2022) reflects the continuous evolution of his artistic research.

For decades, Tangerini has been known for large-scale works depicting urban landscapes, both historical and contemporary. During the pandemic, he internalised that period through the creation of small, refined watercolours, initiating a more intimate reflection on nature and its details (Momenti dilatati, 2020).

The present exhibition stems from that phase and features eleven acrylic works.

“There is not a single thing in the world that is not mysterious,” wrote Jorge Luis Borges in Atlas. Tangerini seems to take this idea as a point of departure for the evolution of his landscape painting.

Moving beyond the light and rarefied watercolours, the artist introduces a shift in perspective. The viewer is no longer invited to enter the landscape and enjoy its beauty. Instead, the acrylic works encourage observation from a distance, prompting an analysis of the transformations occurring around us and an interrogation of the landscape’s mystery.

Through a restrained palette of blacks, greys and minimal colour, Tangerini evokes — often through imagined places — the processes by which the environment attempts, not always successfully, to reclaim its dominance over human traces.

Yet his work does not offer a superficial or conventional critique of human impact. Rather, it invites a deeper inquiry into our relationship with nature. The underlying intuition is that only through a full understanding of this relationship can we improve both the landscape and our own lives.