Flora effimera | Pino Pandolfini
ATHENS PRINTMAKING ART CENTER – PANDOLFINI & SIATERLI C.N.P.P. presents Pino Pandolfini’s solo exhibition Flora effimera at ETCH INK art space from September 27 until October 26, 2024. The exhibition features recent etchings in dialogue with prints and paintings made in the late 1970s, bridging together different periods of his artistic work. The artworks and the themes are based on an experiential archive of promenades and an ephemeral anthology of botanic material of the Greek flora, collected during excursions to coastal areas of the Greek countryside. The exhibition unfolds as a handcrafted botanical diary that is constituted through experiential walks, nature observations and artistic gestures, revealing the key reflections, the transitions of gaze and perspective, as well as the transformations of visual language in the representation of themes across the years.
In his early etchings of botanical content made between 1974-1980, the focus is on minimal and extended forms reminiscent of clusters of branches and tree trunks, as well as complex nexuses of hybrid plants in intricate, pulsating arrangements. Similar themes are explored in the paintings of that time. With references to earlier etchings, Pandolfini picks out and isolates details of imprints from botanical compositions, which he then blows-up and transfers onto large-scale paintings of vibrant colors, soft textures, fluid forms and surrealistic elements.
In the recent series of prints which he started in 2020, his interest revolves around the fragile and delicate forms of plants. Slender yet resilient, they follow the arbitrary flow of the wind; bowing, resisting and responding to the spontaneous natural motion and force that the air has upon them. It is in this organic rustling that the artist unveils the entropy of time and the poetics of the fleeting moment, in an attempt to capture and convey its rhythm, motion and impression through the imprint. With a combination of techniques, first founded on the direct imprint of leaves and plants onto the matrix and then on the intellectual and creative mediation of the artist in processing the materials, Pandolfini reclaims the energy of his initial ephemeral encounter with the landscape and the Greek flora.
Just like a fellow wanderer/artist, he thoroughly observes nature and intuitively collects fragments, natural findings and tangible snapshots of materials. In the physical form of plants he rediscovers the inherent simplicity and plainness of nature, while in their imprint and painted representation he unravels the potential of reinscribing a poetic context to the original encounter. Pandolfini’s images of hybrid plants can be perceived as memorabilia of a journey, evidence of ephemeral encounters with the earth, exercises of acquaintance and reconciliation with the temporality of landscape and body, as well as poetic sites of reflection and contemplation.
Short bio
Pino Pandolfini was born in Gambettola (Forlì), Italy in 1947. He began studying and working in the printmaking and sculpture studio of the artists Mario and Carlo Leoni in 1967. He completed his studies with a degree in Painting from the Bologna School of Fine Arts in 1973. In 1977 he was established in Greece and together with the artist Dimitra Siaterli they founded the “Athens Printmaking Art Centre”, a workshop dedicated to printmaking and graphic arts, taking on art publications, prints, workshops and exhibitions of printmaking in collaboration with artists, organizations, galleries, art institutions and museums in Greece and abroad. His oeuvre explores all kinds of art, including experimental methods with various materials and techniques, as well as large-scale installations and sculptures both indoors and outdoors. He is a co-founder of the ATHENS PRINTMAKING ART CENTER – PANDOLFINI & SIATERLI C.N.P.P., a non-profit cultural organisation committed to organizing printmaking exhibitions in collaboration with Greek and international artists, at art space ETCH INK in Athens (Greece). From 1974 up to this date, he has presented a considerable number of solo exhibitions and has participated in group shows, art events and publications locally and internationally. His works are part of private and museum collections.
Exhibition text: Vassia Magoula, Art historian – Museologist
The exhibition is supported by the Ministry of Culture, under the auspices of the Italian Cultural Institute of Athens.
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ETCH INK art space
Argyroupoleos 16 str., Lycabettus, Athens, Greece
Opening
Friday 27 September 2024, 18:30 – 22:30
Dates
September 27 – October 26, 2024
Opening days & hours
Wednesday – Thursday – Friday 17.00 – 21.00 & Saturday 11.00 – 15.00
English 
Greek