22 November – 15 December 2025
L’Ariete artecontemporanea
Via Marsili 7, Bologna
www.galleriaariete.it
Entering the gallery’s first room, one is welcomed by cloudy panel paintings. Blue shades pass from dark blue – almost black – to light blue – almost white. Sometimes the colour gradient proceeds from left to right or vice versa, diagonally or from the light source outward. They seem to be sights of the sky. The sun shines through the clouds. So close to heaven!
In the second room, it seems to become even more transcendental. From a distance, one recognises golden panels, which remind early Christian paintings, where important religious figures were highlighted by a background of gold leaf, the gold ground. Though, there are no saints. On the contrary, it looks like someone has cut the canvas like Lucio Fontane. Others have black holes in the gold ground as if someone has burned or shot it. A glimpse into the Nothing!
With his two series “From the deep” and “Voids” the Spanish artist Alberto Guerrero approaches two states of the human spirit. As graduated art historian and restorer with years of practical experience, he knows about the representation of transcendental topics. As human being he is aware about the fundamental questions of existence. Here, he opposes two contrary perceptions, which could be seized by the individual excluding one or the other, consecutively or simultaneously.
“From the deep” visualises the sensation of a presence, which exceed the human categories, something mystical eternal. Religious people might identify this as God, others as a transcendental power, a potency beyond the human sphere, a supporting force. In associating a cloudlike expression to this feeling, he plays with the in many languages identical word for sky and heaven. In Spanish and Italian, it is “cielo”, similar in French “ciel” and in German “Himmel”. Considering this transcendental power as infinite, the paintings’ frames exemplify the return into reality, to the finite nature of human existence.
Even though, “Voids” seem to reflect the holy by the real presence of gold, a black Nothing attracts the observer. The pleasant environment of warm gold reflexion is disrupted. Deep black and obscurity spread out of the panel. An emotion of absence and void arises. Nothing appears to make sense. A previously assumed harmony is destroyed. Everything could be questioned. One could disappear into this nothingness, or could pull oneself out of the hole, wander across the golden ground and return with renewed energy to reality after looking into the abyss.
Alberto Guerrero’s exhibition “Of Void and Mystery” provides insights into the human soul. Two extreme perceptions collide. However, considering the beauty of the works, the visitor can appreciate the show unharmed.
