Pencils Exp14 2018

Alfio Giuffrida gives us these two upright pencils, rendered with flat colour planes of lime green and hot pink, like some oversized cartoon stationery. I see the artist playing with the push and pull between flatness and illusion, maybe he's thinking of Léger and his tubular forms, or even Pop Art. Giuffrida stacks ordinary objects on these pencil platforms, like a still life for the digital age. A plate, a vase, a sponge, all rendered in a restricted palette of ochres, reds and browns. Look at the orange squiggle leaning against the white pot on the left. It's such a great form and a colour accent that gives the whole structure some rhythm! I wonder what Giuffrida was thinking when he chose these objects and arranged them in this way? Perhaps he was questioning the relationship between representation and reality, inviting us to see familiar things in a new light. All painters riff on each other, you know; Giuffrida is joining a conversation that goes back centuries. His playful composition and bold use of colour makes me think about art as a process of endless reinvention.