Pontone Gallery is proud to present Matteo Massagrande, Into the Light, his paintings of sumptuously-rendered spaces evoking a powerful sense of human presence and the passage of time.
A classical heritage and deep knowledge of Renaissance masters informs his practice. He has a profound understanding of perspective. These paintings are not directly-observed recordings of actual spaces, but composites, deliberately assembled from particular references. He manipulates the rules of perspective to introduce subtle distortions and exaggerations that heighten the psychological impact of these scenes.
Massagrande proposes a balance between melancholy and optimism. This principle of harmony extends across the entirety of his production, both the technical and conceptual. He has explicitly stated that he is searching for the harmony that underpins humanity and the possibility of regeneration through allegiance to the tenets of great art. These paintings express and bring that idea to life.