Paolo Ceribelli

1978, lives and works in Milan. Self-taught, he began his artistic career by experimenting with different painting techniques. In a constant search for balance between aesthetics and concept, in 2006 the creative turning point with the Soldiers cycle determined what today has become his stylistic code, the collage of plastic toy soldiers. Through the use of colored toy soldiers and other small elements, obsessively aligned on the canvas that form geographic maps, circles and ranks and other highly plastic installations, he reaffirms the geo-historical presence of a constant and dominant thought of war, seeking to weaken its distressing presence with the fantastic transfiguration of the elements linked to the battle such as soldiers and tanks wisely used as if they were strokes of color. In 2016 with the urban installation Barricades, which lays the foundations for a new expressive cycle, the artist investigates the concept of “limits” and through the use of anti-tank barricades and color, begins a new path of dialogue with the viewer. Paolo Ceribelli has participated in exhibitions in international museums and galleries including Museo della Permanente – Milan, Museum of the State Archives – Rome, Logitech Art Project – Los Angeles, Palazzo Te – Mantova, Italcementi Art Project – Bergamo, Apart Festival international of contemporary art – Alpilles Provence, VIII Biennale of Soncino – Cremona, Lumar Foundation – Brussels, Castello Visconteo – Musei civici di Pavia.

The turning point in my artistic career was in 2006 when I found the plastic toy soldiers, having played with them as a child I was immediately shocked by their intrinsic meaning.Why do children play with an object that represents war was the first question I asked myself.I try to demolish the boundaries that exist between the form and its conceptual content with the idea of ​​ennobling the toy soldier, through its reuse. “Paolo Ceribelli”

There is a gesture in the manipulation of the material – and above all in the arrangement of the toy soldiers on the canvas – to which the artist gives great importance, because in this “doing” each structure takes on a meaning and each spatiality embodies variations of values. Paolo’s works are plastic, three-dimensional and go beyond the classic frontal fruition to be experienced in visions from multiple points of view, whether they are understood in the optical or conceptual sense; interesting is the bird’s eye view from above, essential for understanding the construction of the Gestalt and their right proportion. In this case I like to recall one of the laws of Gestalt (coincidentally the law of common destiny) which affirms the tendency to perceive as belonging to a single object the things that move together, at the same time and in the same direction: the masses Taken as a whole, they assume a single identity. Identity given in this case to the armies that move and concentrate on Paolo Ceribelli’s paintings and that vary, from work to work, in their distribution and density. “Cristina Trivellin”