NEW YORK, NY.- Bernarducci.Meisel.Gallery presents two solo exhibitions; new candy paintings by Roberto Bernardi entitled, Le Mie Caramelle and new cityscapes by Raphaella Spence entitled, Cityscapes: Day and Night. Both Bernardi and Spence’s paintings exemplify the juxtaposition of traditional painting with contemporary digital source material. Both artists use high resolution cameras to capture extraordinary detail, not visible by the human eye, using that information to paint some of the most detailed paintings in the world.
Bernardi’s paintings of candy present a visual aesthetic that transcends traditional realism, pushing the boundaries through his precisionist attention to light and detail. Born in Todi, he began his career restoring frescos in Renaissance Churches and Cathedrals in and around Rome, Italy. Highly influenced by the technique of Renaissance artists and Old Masters, his dynamism is seen through the interplay of light, object, and space. Bernardi’s candy paintings are still life images that remind the viewer of the ordinary. His technical execution of painting pushes Photorealism further than ever before through his use of color and perspective to attribute an innate depth to the background of his compositional structure. Bernardi’s intricacy is noted through his ability to render each candy wrapper wrinkle. In the painting entitled, Meeting (2012) Bernardi uses color to demonstrate ethereal reflections on his glassware jar, thus exhibiting his strong attention to realism.
Roberto Bernardi has exhibited worldwide. In 2009, he participated in Glass FX, Art of Glass 2 at The Hermitage Museum and Gardens in Norfolk, Virginia. He also recently exhibited in Our Own Directions: The Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel Collection at the Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation at Mana Art Center (Jersey City, NJ), (Real)ists at the Selby Gallery of the Ringling College of Art and Design (Saratoga, FL), Seeing is Believing: American Trompe L’Oeil at the New Britain Museum of American Art (New Britain, CT) as well as many others.
Both Bernardi and Spence will be included in the upcoming traveling exhibition entitled Painted Illusion: Hyperrealism 1962-2012 which will tour six major museums in Europe including the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid, Spain) as well as the Tate Modern (London, UK). In addition, the artists will be included in Photorealism Revisited, an exhibition that will travel to the Oklahoma City Art Museum (Oklahoma City, OK) and the Butler Institute of Art (Youngstown, OH) in 2013. The artists will both be featured in the upcoming publication Photorealism in the Digital Age available through Harry N. Abrams in 2013.
Like Bernardi, Raphaella Spence is highly respected as a photorealist painter in the digital age. Raphaella Spence’s La Coppia is a visual masterpiece of linear perspective. Spence’s paralleled skyline is a flawless metaphor for the infinite opportunity and experience New York offers. Her minute details add to the intricacy of the image.
The radiant colors of the city extend into every aspect of the work. Like Bernardi, her technical execution of painting adds depth and detail where the photographic image lacks.
Born in London, Spence lived in France for the first eight years of her life before moving to Todi, Italy where she lives and works. She was born in London and spent eight years in France. Her work has been featured in notable exhibitions such as The Prague Project at the Roberson Museum of Art (Binghampton, NY) and Re-presenting Realism at the Arnot Art Museum (Elmira, NY), Iperrealisti at the Chiostro del Bramante (Rome, Italy), Beyond Realism: Hyperrealism and American Culture at the Vero Beach Art Museum (Vero Beach, FL) and others.
