Raffaele Quattrone

Alberto Di Fabio

 

“Over the years Alberto Di Fabio get us used to pay attention to the different levels of perception enlarging what is small and invisible but that for this reason is not less important in our existence. Indeed quite the opposite. A "game" of perspective reversal that becomes the basis of a spiritual and moral growth. Yet the practice of Di Fabio is not only this. Already in the Renaissance within some alchemical-Christian circles it had regained strength an esoteric view of human being conceived as a microcosm in which the macrocosm reflects itself, a set of parts that form an organic and systemic whole. Those were the years of the Neo-Platonism of Ficino that had an important success and appeal in the Renaissance courts. Homo copula mundi. Man as the only being provided with an intellect that allows him to fall to the animal world, to rise to the divine world through love and beauty or keep to a balanced equidistance from both. Remember the Vitruvian Man? Leonardo’s famous drawing inscribing a human figure in a circle and a square represented the symbolic connection between the human and the divine. In any case it is an analysis that while representing that particular historical period is distant from commonly held vision and in this sense an expression of something that is hidden. With his artistic practice Alberto Di Fabio has educated us to the "occult" simply understood as something that is there but that we do not see for various reasons. His works strike us immediately for the beauty, the shape, the colors. And for this reason they are often seen as an expression of a research based primarily on form. Kandinsky had already expressed a very close connection between art and spiritual dimension. "Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul." (Kandinsky, The Spiritual in art, 1911) Therefore it is clear that the artistic research of Di Fabio more than a problem of form aims a content problem. Therefore, any reflection on the work of Di Fabio cannot ignore the systemic analysis of the various parts involved. […] Art is a bridge between materiality and spirituality that gives life to higher forms of knowledge with the aim of achieving higher levels of consciousness through concentration, meditation and contemplation. An analysis that starting from shapes and colors stimulates the mind and spirit, feeds growth and development, subverts the hierarchy between matter and spirit. In a materialistic world as the contemporary one the subversion of values ​​of Di Fabio becomes intimate, whispered never displayed. The matter no longer causes the spirit but becomes the means, the bridge by which we reach the spirit.” From the article “Energy in motion. anthroposophically Alberto Di Fabio” written by Raffaele Quattrone and published in Startup magazine, September 2016.

Alberto Di Fabio born in Avezzano, Italy lives between Rome and New York. His last solo shows include: CosmicGate, Porta degli Angeli, Ferrara (2016); CosmicaMente, MACRO Testaccio, Rome (2015-2016); GeograficaMente, MART Rovereto (2015); “Parallel Visions,” CERN, Geneva (2014); “Galassie sul Castello,” Castel Sant’Elmo, Naples (2014); “Paesaggi Della Mente,” Palazzo Clemente, Castel Basso, Italy (2014); “Dialogues,” Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London (2013); “Une Installation,” Mairie du 4 arrondissement, Paris (2013); “Realta’ Parallele,” Galleria Nazionale D’Arte Moderna, Rome (2012). Di Fabio has had six solo exhibitions with Gagosian Gallery, including Heddon Street, London (2002); Beverly Hills, California (2004); Brittania Street, London (2007); Madison Avenue, New York (2010); Athens, Greece (2011); and Geneva, Switzerland (2014).

 

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