Da Michelangelo 

Editor: This vibrant acrylic on canvas is titled "Da Michelangelo" by Tano Festa. The electric pinks and yellows create a, well, very pop-art-esque take on such an iconic image! What strikes you most about this painting? Curator: It feels a bit like a dream, doesn’t it? Like Michelangelo’s fresco is trying to surface through some kind of…psychedelic filter. It reminds me that all art is essentially remixing. Festa, a true Roman, he's winking at the grand narratives, asking us if the High Renaissance can survive a splash of pop. Is he paying homage or is he being cheeky, I wonder? What do you think those black shadows behind the figures are suggesting? Editor: Perhaps a duality? Good and evil, the sacred and the profane. It could show the complexities in what we idealize. What does it mean to take such an established image and make it… digestible in a modern context? Curator: Ah, but isn’t that always the artist's dilemma? How do we make the eternal relevant to our fleeting present? I like your point on duality; the shadows, that flattened perspective—it both simplifies and complicates. And it's FUN. This piece refuses to take itself too seriously, a crucial element, I think, in good art. Editor: I never thought about approaching appropriation with a sense of humour. I usually view it with a critical lens of power structures. Curator: Right! But see how he strips down Michelangelo to basic shapes and colours? It forces us to look again, to question what we truly value. Editor: It definitely gives you a new appreciation for Michelangelo but also Festa’s commentary. I think I will think twice the next time I visit the Sistine Chapel. Curator: It makes you want to grab a brush and make something of your own, doesn’t it? It is that urge and feeling that moves the soul of a viewer.