Slasky - Made In Europe

Made in Europe (Ratto d'Europa)

• Artist: Slasky (Italian, born 1972)
• Original matrix: Francesco Podesti, Il Ratto d'Europa (1852)
• Technique: Digital art / Contemporary graphic elaboration (Neo-Urban Classic)

In Francesco Podesti's nineteenth-century academic painting, the Phoenician princess Europe is seduced and abducted by Jupiter, who for the occasion has transformed into a pure and majestic bull, a classic symbol of fertile strength, divine vigor, and forward thrust.

In Slasky's destabilizing digital reinterpretation, the mythological narrative undergoes a drastic and bitter formal declassing: the noble divine animal disappears, replaced by a plump inflatable spotted cow, equipped with obvious air valves and a conspicuous udder.
This iconographic slippage turns the work into a sharp geopolitical and cultural satire:

The inflatable cow as simulacrum: In these dark and complex historical times, the animal no longer represents the proud and untamed primal power of the mythic bull that founded a continent. It becomes a beach toy, hollow and fragile, a metaphor for an exhausted Europe, lacking a spine and reduced to a mere object of serial consumption or a bureaucratic shell.

The invitation to react: The figure of Europe, laid on the back of this raggy structure, maintains Podesti's neo-classical, august pose but appears tragically anachronistic. The work visually denounces the state of art and politics today, suggesting a strong conceptual contrast: where contemporary Europe passively allows itself to be dragged by an artificial market (the cow), it should instead lift its head, rediscovering its identity dignity and the original proactive strength of the bull.

Slasky’s pop and urban aesthetics thus act as a short circuit: the jarring contrast between the perfection of Italian classicism and the plastic inflatable apparatus exposes the structural weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and immobility of the old continent.

Giclee on Hahnemühle 350gsm + certificate of authenticity

« Art is not about representing new things, but representing them with novelty »

Slasky is a renowned Italian artist whose works have been exhibited in solo and group shows internationally.

The artist has the ability to fuse classical artworks with contemporary digital art techniques. With his neo-urban classic style, he combines tradition and modernity, bringing the protagonists of the original artworks into contemporary social and artistic environments.

Upcoming Exhibition

FACE 2 FACE

March 5th
Laundry Studios
2 Warburton Rd, London E8 3RT
UK

Latest Exhibitions

Tokyo Open Art | Art on Loop Exhibition
Venue Address
3 Chome-20-18 Jingumae, Shibuya,
Tokyo 150-0001,
Japan

Parallax Art Fair
Kensington Town Hall
Hornton Street
London
W8 7NX

2024
Solo Exhibition
CONTEMPORARY VENICE
Palazzo Pisani-Revedin
S. Marco, 4013A , 30124 Venice, Italy
ARTLAB
Benjamin Eck Gallery
Munich, Germany

2021
Mia Fair
The informazioni Photography Art Fair Italy
Milan, Italy

ST-ART, STRASBOURG 2021
25 - 28 NOV. 2021
PARC EXPO STRASBOURG

SM'ART AIX-EN-PROVENCE, 2021
14 - 18 OCTOBER 2021
BOOTH 123A

2021
Mia Fair
The informazioni Photography Art Fair Italy
Milan, Italy

Lausanne Art Fair
Beaulieu Lausanne
Booth 59
Swiss

Lille ArtUp 2021
Lille, France

StreetArt//UrbanArt
Legnano, Italy

2020
Woodward Gallery
WashYourHands Exhibition
New York City, NY

RedSheep Gallery
Work in Paper
Stockholm, Sweden

2019

Wopart Art Fair 2019 / Centro Esposizioni - Lugano, Swiss

Lang Leve Rembrandt
Rijks Museum Amsterdam