Michael Peddio - PATHS OF SURVIVAL - XL

Directly from the Michael Peddio Studio, painted on original cotton canvas and unique specimen, mounted on a wooden frame, ready to hang. XL dimensions: 80 cm height, 120 cm width, thickness 4 cm. Unframed. Signed on the back. Execution technique: oil painting and mixed media on canvas. Shipped with BRT-DHL-UPS or similar. Hand-signed certificate of authenticity included in the shipment. Artwork dimensions: 80 cm x 120 cm x 4 cm. The work was exhibited in 2024 at Galleria ArtEkyp - MODENA. Work published in the catalog.

PATHS OF SURVIVAL - According to the critique at Galleria Reart: This Michael Peddio piece, created in 2019, fits into the artist’s exploration of the rupestrian imaginary, developed through a contemporary reinterpretation of primitive markings. The painted surface becomes a dynamic space where animal figures are not static, but traverse space in precise and recognizable trajectories. The lines of movement, built through rhythmic sequences of shapes, suggest migration, escape, or a search for survival. It is not a traditional narrative representation, but a visual system that recalls humanity’s early attempts to organize the world through signs. The black figures, essential and repetitive, evoke the language of wall paintings, yet are placed in a completely contemporary color context. The color, free and layered, breaks the rigidity of the historical reference, projecting the work into a current dimension. Drips and textures create depth and movement, as if time itself runs across the surface. The composition balances chaos and direction, instinctive gesture and visual control. The work suggests a collective energy, a shared tension among the elements present. One perceives a continuous flow, a need to advance, to traverse space. In this work, the artist’s desire to reinterpret primitive language and transform it into a contemporary visual structure emerges clearly. A piece that unites memory and movement, instinct and construction.

Michael Peddio: My free expression is not confined by a predefined idea, but conveyed through color and form as the sole instrument, a return to a primordial form of art. The absence of drawing is, for me, a prerogative of the indeterminacy of the work at its birth; as in life, and especially in the times we live in, there can be no certainty of outcome for any situation. My painting evolves from the white canvas toward an unpredictable ending. For me, there exists only the acceptance of art as an unpredictable and uncontrollable process.

Michael Peddio took his first steps as a child, inspired by his father Riccardo, a painter. The turning point comes around 30 years old, thanks to a meeting with master Teobaldo Cattini, a Reggio painter of the Macchiaioli school, who opened the doors to painting. A great source of inspiration and strength from the former boxer. In 2012, meeting artist Barbara Nicoletto, his current partner, opens the door to his second artistic season and artistic maturity. Between 2013 and 2014 painting begins to take on an inner meaning. Figurative begins to yield to introspection. Inner strength takes over and the canvas becomes a slit, with the years passing, increasingly void of filters, increasingly free of reticence in showing one’s I. Strength and weaknesses are shown without shame. The man is naked, without masks.
In April 2016 he is noticed by critic Daniel Buso and, together with his partner Barbara Nicoletto, he exhibits in: The Museum in the Window, Bipersonal at Museo CA’ DEI CARRARESI in Treviso, a highly important location rarely granted to emerging artists.
In 2018 Michael Peddio reaches artistic maturity. His paintings are free from conditioning, expressing with harmony and beauty all the raw reality the artist wants shown. We find strength and harmony. We find positivity even in tragedy. We find beauty.
Also from 2018 we see the artist collaborating with Galleria REART, opening to the art world and interacting with other artists on the national scene. We see him exhibit and curate shows as well. He founded, together with artist Barbara Nicoletto and Giorgio Ferretti, the movement of the Chromatists. They gather in a Factory, a place of dialogue and work.
In 2020 the meeting with Angela Lazzaretti, owner of Radium Artis Gallery, is, for Michael Peddio, a great source of dialogue with the national art world. The exhibition in Pietrasanta at Radium Artis Gallery was his debut in the art world that counts, at 46, giving him the visibility his works deserve.
In 2021 the meeting with critic and curator Alberto Navilli opens a further evolutionary step, seeing his art grow ever more along a path of increasingly raw and uncompromising spontaneity.

Most significant exhibitions for painting works:
2007 - Torre Orologio – Group show - San Polo D’Enza
2014 - Talking About Art – group show in Camogli at Art Gallery
2014 - Solo Exhibition in Comunita’ Monte di Portofino
2014 - Madonna dei Gotti – group show curated by the Municipality of Camogli - Liguria
2015 - Le mers e le Mond Lontains - Solo show at the Municipality of Campegine
2016 - The Museum in the Window – Bipersonal at Museo CA’ DEI CARRARESI in Treviso
2017 - Galleria REART – Christmas group show
2018 - Reggia di Rivalta, Group show at Palazzo Ducale, Rivalta
2018 - Group show at Villa Castello La Tenuta di Caccia in Regnano
2018 - Arte Fiera di Padova exhibiting for Galleria REART
2019 - 500 Leonardo Forever – Leonardo Centenary at Tecnopolo – Reggio Emilia
2019 - ArtParmaFair 2019 – Parma Art Fiera exhibited at Galleria REART
2019 - CHRONOS – Tripersonal, at Galleria REART in Reggio Emilia
2020 - Pietrasanta - Galleria Radium Artis - Solo show
2021 - I Quattro Elementi – Galleria Radium Artis – Tripersonal – San Martino in Rio
2024 - EXIT - Galleria ArtEkyp - Tripersonal - MODENA
2026 - EARTH - Galleria REART - Solo show - Reggio Emilia

Bibliography

2019 – CHRONOS Catalog of Works curated and reviewed by Dr. Giuseppe Berti
2021 - I QUATTRO ELEMENTI edited by Dr. Alberto Navilli
2024 - EXIT – Show Catalog – Modena