{"id":15892,"date":"2026-02-03T17:20:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/?p=15892"},"modified":"2026-02-03T17:20:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:20:47","slug":"artwork-of-the-month-february-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/?p=15892","title":{"rendered":"Artwork of the Month \/ February 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abitare la soglia<\/strong> (Living on the threshold)<\/span><\/em>
\nRoberta Cavallari<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>2025
\nOil on canvas
\n70 cm x 100 cm<\/p>\n

Roberta Cavallari\u2019s canvas \u201cAbitare la soglia\u201d (Living on the threshold) shows a furnished room that opens onto a river landscape due to the absence of a back wall. It is painted in a realistic manner in bright colours. The chosen picture section allows a glance at the left wall, a part of the ceiling and the floor of the interior space. By the opening of the back wall the exterior becomes visible. A river flows through lush green meadows. Trees are lining the grass. The bent course of the canal leads the eye to several buildings in the background; two towers and pointed roofs are recognisable.<\/p>\n

However, the passage between inside and outside is blurred. Herbage enters the room. Thus, the armchair at the right edge of the chamber stands almost in the green. The pale blue sky above the countryside scenery is reflected by a cloud picture, which recalls Ren\u00e9 Magritte<\/a><\/span>\u2019s paintings. Also the rest of the furnishing is remarkable. Besides a flowering plant pot stand two plastic containers, seemingly cleaning products. Two water plastic bottles are on the floor. Though, the most striking object is a central positioned blue golden carpet. By its colours, the star in the middle with an ornament, which could be a calligraphed \u201cA\u201d it reminds an oriental rug.<\/p>\n

Despite the proliferating herbage in the interior space, the fitment shows the human intervention. In the enclosing rectangular architecture, there are objects produced clearly by civilisation. The flower grows in a pot, drinking water is conserved in bottles, cleaning products witness of cleanliness or even environmental pollution. Besides the hint to handicraft, the carpet incorporates the rigour of geometry and rationality. Moreover, it functions as the in the title included threshold. With its sharp edge it separates the room – an expression of human-made space – from nature.<\/p>\n

The cloud picture goes even further. If it is not read as painting, to indicate artistic creation, it could represent the in nowadays omnipresent computer monitor and with that technology. Does the displayed object even refer to the cloud as data storage? However, the digital depicted cloud underlines the difference to the real outside sky and is an allusion to the distance between reality and its representation.<\/p>\n

But, besides the sky, do we really see wild nature outside? The course of the river points to the architecture in the landscape, a settlement; the trees may be the product of breeding and the grass cultivated as animal feed. Even the river itself is, for the artist, artificial and refers to the long tradition of canal construction in her native region Emilia<\/a><\/span>, Italy. We are in the Anthropocene, in which human intervention is pervasive on the whole planet. The \u201cA\u201d in the carpet could be a hint to this.<\/p>\n

How fragile the balance between civilisation and nature is, is demonstrated by the increasing flooding in the Emilia and many other regions of the world. Men invaded nature and nature regain its space. We are living on the threshold of this precarious equilibrium.<\/p>\n

The painting style and the depicted objects refer to a realistic representation. However, by this unusual arrangement, Roberta creates a surreal scenery. Herewith, she refers to the eponymous art movement<\/a><\/span> or even to magical realism<\/a><\/span>. Though, her content is not inspirated by dreams or phantasy, but from the world around, which seem at present to be surreal.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiving on the threshold\u201d is currently on view in the exhibition \u201cFrancesco Contenitore di Pittura<\/span><\/a>\u201d at the gallery Studio Cenacchi<\/a><\/span> in Bologna (until 28 February 2026).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Roberta Cavallari<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born in 1975 in Ferrara, Italy, Roberta Cavallari studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna<\/a><\/span> from 1994 to 2001. In 1999\/2000, she participated in a one-year student exchange in Germany and frequented the Wei\u00dfensee Kunsthochschule Berlin<\/a><\/span>. After her degree at the Accademia, she made a teaching qualification for Drawing, Art History and Art Education at the University of Bologna<\/a><\/span>. Later, she joined a two-year specialist course in photography. In parallel, she graduated as master \u201cThe Craft of the Arts\u201d at the MAMbo<\/a><\/span> in Bologna. Additionally, she made an internship as assistant at the studio of Francesco Jodice<\/a><\/span> in Milan.<\/p>\n

This background is reflected in Roberta\u2019s artistic work. Originally coming from painting, this form of expression is still important in her oeuvre. Her paintings are executed in a realistic manner, but include abstract forms and hyper-realistic components, which are often represented oversized. By assembling contrasting elements, her images recall surrealism<\/a><\/span> and magical realism<\/a><\/span>. In contrast, the subject of her drawings is the human being with its individual emotional states. The mixed media pictures seem to be a kind of synthesis. Though, the individuals become a kind of role model and real people can be found, in part surrounded by natural or surreal elements. Also, urban environments occur.<\/p>\n

Berlin\u2019s atmosphere at the turn of the millennium between dystopia and faith in the future, the numerous brownfield sites, almost next to construction areas of cutting-edge architecture influenced Roberta\u2019s artistic creation, just as currents like cyberpunk and the extension of the internet. Her works deal with social criticism, focussing on society concerns, but also interpersonal issues, whereby more emotional states have recently become more important. In all of this, her art-historical knowledge often shines through. Exemplary is the video trilogy \u201cThe Dance of Life<\/a><\/span>\u201d from 2013, where she refers to Edvard Munch<\/a><\/span>\u2019s eponymous painting<\/a><\/span> by the dominant colours of clothing. Here she thematises materialism, emotional coldness, self-determination, womanhood and age. As in other videos, performances are incorporated. Though, performances are also independent part of her oeuvre.<\/p>\n

Already during her studies, Roberta contributed to group exhibitions and had her first solo show in 1999 at the N.A.K.T. Gallery<\/a><\/span> in Berlin, which was followed by several personal exhibitions in Italy and many participations in her home country and abroad. Inter alia, her works travelled to London, Zurich, Buenos Aires and Mexico. Additionally, she was represented at numerous art fairs and was granted prizes and awards. On occasion, she teaches at high schools drawing, art history and multimedia languages. Frequently, her work is subject of publications like art magazines, newspapers and catalogues.<\/p>\n

Currently her painting \u201cLiving on the threshold\u201d is on view in the exhibition \u201cFrancesco Contenitore di Pittura<\/a><\/span>\u201d at the gallery Studio Cenacchi<\/a><\/span> in Bologna (until 28 February 2026), which is our Artwork of the Month \/ February 2026.<\/p>\n

Roberta lives and works between Bologna and Trento.<\/p>\n

www.robertacavallari.it<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abitare la soglia (Living on the threshold) Roberta Cavallari 2025 Oil on canvas 70 cm x 100 cm Roberta Cavallari\u2019s canvas \u201cAbitare la soglia\u201d (Living on the threshold) shows a furnished room that opens onto a river landscape due to the absence of a back wall. It is painted in a realistic manner in bright… (read more<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4061,4553,4594,405,4597,9,35,23,2149,4602,10,4598,4393,87,4595,4601,565,3685,744,558,4593,4371,4596,4603,4599,4600],"class_list":["post-15892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artwork-of-the-month","tag-4061","tag-4553","tag-abitare-la-soglia","tag-accademia-di-belle-arti","tag-anthropocene","tag-artwork-of-the-month","tag-berlin","tag-bologna","tag-cloud","tag-edvard-munch","tag-february","tag-francesco-contenitore-di-pittura","tag-galleria-studio-cenacchi","tag-italy","tag-living-on-the-threshold","tag-magical-realism","tag-mambo","tag-nature","tag-painting","tag-rene-magritte","tag-roberta-cavallari","tag-surrealism","tag-technology","tag-the-dance-of-life","tag-trento","tag-weisensee-kunsthochschule"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}