The third solo exhibition by Maurizio Tangerini at Studio Cenacchi (Bologna, 8 October–12 November 2022) traces the continuing evolution of the artist’s work.

For decades, Tangerini has been known for his large-scale paintings of both historic and contemporary urban landscapes. During the pandemic, his work took a more intimate turn. In a series of small, finely worked watercolours, he began to focus on nature and its details, responding to the particular experience of that period (Momenti dilatati, 2020).

This new exhibition grows out of that shift and brings together 11 acrylic paintings.

“There is not a single thing in the world that is not mysterious,” writes Jorge Luis Borges in his travel book Atlas.

This idea seems to offer a way into Tangerini’s changing approach to landscape. Moving beyond the delicate, pared-back watercolours of his earlier work, he alters our relationship with what we see. We are no longer invited simply to enter the landscape and enjoy its beauty.

Instead, the acrylic paintings ask us to stand back and observe how our surroundings are changing. Tangerini treats landscape as something to be examined and questioned, something whose mystery cannot be taken for granted. Working largely in black and grey, with only occasional touches of colour, he creates places that are often imagined rather than real. Within them, nature appears to be reclaiming the traces left by human activity, though never completely or without resistance.

Yet Tangerini avoids the familiar narrative of humanity simply destroying the natural world. These paintings are less concerned with passing judgement than with looking more closely. They investigate the landscape and invite us to do the same.

At the heart of Tangerini’s work is the idea that a deeper understanding of our relationship with nature and the landscapes we inhabit may offer a way forward — not only towards caring for them more effectively, but towards improving the way we live within them.