Barbara Bartolomei - Under the skin

Under the Skin — Homage to Erwin Olaf
Oil painting on canvas. Sold without a frame: the frame visible in the photo of the painting hung on the wall has been added for purely illustrative purposes.
In this painting, an intimate and powerful dialogue with Erwin Olaf's photography is established, capturing the iconic pose and then transfiguring it into a radically new context. The work steps away from the two-dimensionality of the original photographic reference to delve into territories of perception, the body, and visual illusion. Removed from its original environment, the subject floats in an abstract non-place, where the body becomes pure phenomenological expression, a porous boundary between the inner world and the external space.
On the shoulder, the floral details of the tattoo appear almost fused with the flesh itself, treated with a painterly delicacy that contrasts with the magnetic force of the gaze directed at the viewer. The face, charged with enigmatic fixity, interrogates the observer, making them part of a suspended moment. It is a work that investigates what lies beneath the surface, transforming the formal composure of photography into a disquieting, profound, and exquisitely painterly visual experience.
I am a professional painter and teacher, trained at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts. My artistic research moves in a suggestive balance between the mastery of traditional Renaissance techniques developed at the Sacred Art School of Florence and a conceptual inquiry into visual perception and the philosophy of images. Through an intense and accurate figurative language, my works explore the subtle boundary between tangible reality and the inner dimension.
The painting is finished with an final, non-toxic protective varnish.
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