Cristiano and Patrizio Alviti exhibit their works on the occasion of the 53rd International Art Exhibition in Venice. Curated by Philippe Daverio the show is called “Alviti Vertigo”: sculptures and paintings, it will be hosted by the State Archive in the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari complex, Cortile dei Fiorentini, from 7 June to 7 August 2009. Waiting for the Biennal opening Patrizio e Cristiano present a preview of several preparatory studies of the works on show at the State Archives, offering a great opportunity to the public. The studies are projects, notes, the means to transfer emotions, impulsivity and the pride of their creation into accomplished formations. These studies are of extreme and unbalanced beauty, since they are projections and revelation of the final awaiting result. The show includes 10 copper models and 50 watercolour paintings on paper or cardboard.

Copper models by Cristiano Alviti are part of a new series of sculptures called “I giganti” (the Giants), together with a series of preparatory drawings made with pencil, diluted cement and glued tissue paper on paper. The giants are bodies frozen by the space hosting them, being it a sheet of paper or copper. They resemble spirits that have been scratched but not annihilated, structures imprisoning amazing potentials. Giants are provocatively meant as Us – matter, psyche and tangible world – while existence is the outside, the space where the other suffocates.

Watercolours by Patrizio Alviti represent the complex world of women through the representation of nudes defined by a mix of lines, curves and diluted colours: light’s harmony and the Unknown inside each of us, shadows swallowing lines. Positions are spontaneous often involuntary, postures show feelings and moods, different aspects of the feminine nature. Each work is the snapshot of an emotion, a click in the flow of life, turning the image of beauty from something ephemeral into something permanent. Self-taught artists the Alviti brothers exhibit since 2003 only in solo shows, both in Italy and abroad, for public and private institutions. They work also on commission and they have already realized several monumental works for the city of Rome. Free from market oriented attitudes, their desire is to use their technical abilities for an independent pictorial expression; they follow uniquely their inner needs and are able to reach a fully autonomous expression. After the initial experimental phase, Cristiano and Patrizio have chosen figurative expression and classical materials following the belief that in sculpture it is impossible to deny the classic legacy. They were born in Rome, and there historical buildings constantly inspire their artistic research. Since the start their collaboration has been based on a strong symbiosis, parallel and subsidiary, by now the two artists are starting to specialize: Patrizio deals mainly with painting and two-dimensional works, whereas Cristiano works with sculpture, sometimes of great size. The show was supported by MIBAC – Directorate-General for library, cultural institutes and copyright, was produced by Galleria STUDIO MIC and organized by the association MIA – Meet in Art. The exhibition takes place in the amazing Sale Monumentali in the Marciana National Library (public entrance in the Correr Museum) from 12 February until 29 March. The show in the library is an anticipation of Cristiano and Patrizio Alviti’s multiplicity and potentials that will unfold in the Biennale show presenting 7 sculptures and 12 paintings.