Paesaggi Italiani (2024), Ondo spazio, Pistoia

Sandwiches, cityscapes, church interiors, stolen portraits, and food leftovers crop and bring into focus some of the elements of Copelli’s Italian landscapes, guiding us from Caserta to Reggio Emilia in an exploration of the Italian provinces. Like photographs, these images capture moments and fragments of everyday life which, though rooted in specific contexts, echo a shared cultural identity. Via Imbriani sotto la pioggia in Naples is not much different from Via Imbriani in Milan, in Florence, or in Bologna; the lavish details of Santa Caterina a Formiello and the tired visitors of Santa Felicita are sights one might expect to encounter in other churches across the peninsula; the Peroni beer on Matteotti bridge (Peroni (Ponte Matteotti; Bologna)) could just as well be found on the bridge crossing the scrapyard of Via Cesare Battisti in Pistoia; and like the Neapolitan diners in La cena or the scene in L’ultima luce, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where the artist encountered them. Even when
faced with clearer references, such as archaeological sites or monuments (Cerveteri; La nostra fine), the familiarity and geographical specificity blur together.
The works on display, like all Copelli’s recent artistic production, respond to a documentary impulse that drives the artist to select subjects, scenes, and situations that exude reality, even from a painterly perspective. His painting style draws back to a Dutch tradition of optical painting, that prioritises observation and representation: the sincerity of the subjects — like sandwiches, pastries at the bar, or the deli woman (Panino; Paste; Il banco dei salumi) — is reflected in a democratic painting style that portrays what it sees while embracing compositional freedom. Copelli depicts intimate scenes (Festa; Righe), portrays street subjects (Silvio), uses empty bottles as vanishing points (Peroni (Ponte Matteotti; Bologna)), and turns miniature-souvenirs into architectures (Cattedrale). In this way, he seems to revive genre scenes — intended as representations of everyday social and private activities — and reinterpret (or perhaps just update?) the traditional genres of still life, portrait, and landscape painting.
Paesaggi Italiani narrates a fragmented yet unified Italy through the familiarity of its settings. The exhibition invites us to reflect on the construction of a shared imagination, based not only on the peculiarities of each individual place, view, or subject, but also on their universal nature, capable of evoking shared feelings.