Sabrina Aureli, an artist recommended by Pedone Association, merges photography with architecture, design, poetry, mythology and alchemy, turning shots into dreams
Sabrina Aureli’s works can give the viewer not only the image captured by the artist’s gaze and digitally edited, but also and more importantly a comprehensive effect that is delicate and evocative. The dazzling Mediterrenean light idealises space while complementing the woman who is looking out to the sea’s millennial blue.
—— Marco Rebuzzi, Art Critic and Conservator of Mantua's Diocesan Museum "Francesco Gonzaga"
The Sailing Boat – An infance history 73 x 93 cm 2024
“My work is intimately tied to the world of dreams” Sabrina Aureli explains. She is an artist recommended by Pedone Association for her refulgent digital work, boasting a distinctly interdisciplinary vocation.
Born in Rome in 1965, at a very young age she becomes fond of the visual arts and music. Ten-year-old Aureli enrolls in an oil-painting course by a religious-fresco master, ending with receiving Rome’s Young Artist Prize. Later on, she studies at the Cogno Associati Centre and obtains a master degree in Visual Communication Sciences.
Holidays 95 x 120 cm 2021
After graduation, Aureli starts working for an advertising agency, counting among its important clients famous fashion brands, design studios and nonprofit organisations. As an art director, she leverages her know-how in graphic design, video-making and related professional fields. Aureli frequently cooperates with writers, film-directors, architects, composers, illustrators, photographers, designers and software developers.
The Terrace 70 x 70 cm o 50 x 50 cm 2022
Sabrina Aureli’s works have been exhibited in different nations, e.g., Italy (in Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan, Desio etc.), U.S.A. (in New York City, Los Angeles and Miami), France (e.g., in Paris), Japan (in Tokyo), Mexico (in Oaxaca), Poland (in Łódź) etc.
When Poets Dream Of Angels 73 x 93 cm 2021
Sabrina Aureli is an artist recommended by Pedone Association also considering her participation into many high-level exhibitions, among the most recent ones we remember for their importance two 2023 exhibitions (Sanremo Arte EXPO and Venice PRO Biennale), both presented by art critic Vittorio Sgarbi.
2023: Aureli and Sgarbi posing before Light.
Sabrina Aureli received many prizes, e.g.: 2nd prize at the International Collective Exhibition of Contemporary Art Ecologically organized by the Art Center of Castel Gandolfo (Rome) as part of the event Riambientiamoci 2022; Winner Fine Art Professional Award in Creative Quarterly 65, 2021 and Fine Art Professional Honorable Mention in Creative Quarterly 63, 2020; Teodorico Award for Art and Culture, Ravenna, Italy.
Lady on a balcony 97 x 87 cm 2020
The Salon d’Automne jury selected Aureli’s work for the October 2021 annual exhibition on Champs-Elysées, Paris and publications in the Press Release and to exhibit at the Museum National Art Center of Tokyo in 2022, in collaboration with the Club of Friends of Europe and the Arts and the French Embassy/French Institute of Japan, within the framework of an event organized by the Japan International Artists Society.
Leaders in New York Award, April 2024
Examples of Sabrina Aureli’s work can be found in a number of publications, such as the International Yearbook of Contemporary Art “Artisti ’24” published by Italy’s main publishing house Mondadori; the General Secretariat of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s newsletter. The aforementioned yearbook is of the utmost importance, as its scientific committee reunites Italy’s main art critics.
The International Yearbook of Contemporary Art “Artisti ’24”
Sabrina Aureli explains the origin of her artistic creativity as such: “I started by exploring drawing, then oil painting, and finally computer design programs, before becoming interested in photography, a medium that allowed me to develop my personal technique, and to create the atmosphere of my work. It works with metaphysical resonance, preserving magic and mystery…”
Dolce vita 93 x 120 cm 2020
Sabrina Aureli manipulates original photographs with the aid of the computer. She pursues a metaphysical style, expressing “reality” in a subjective fashion. As she puts it: “A «better living in the world» is possible thanks to the imagination and reverie, in the infinity of inside and outside”. Her works appear decidedly placid, as the human figures populating them, sometimes contritely solitary sometimes lively raptured, are always superhumanly tranquil.
Virgin Mary with the Holy Infant 73 x 93 cm 2021
From a thematic viewpoint, Sabrina Aureli’s works feature the following elements:
– the sky, as a symbol of overcoming and infinity
– the water (sea or swimming-pool), as a symbol of vitality and the original uterine refuge
– the clouds, as a symbol of change and instability
– birds and angels, as a symbol of the link between Heaven and Earth
Additionally, as it is stressed by the artist herself, Aureli’s works contain a few abstract components：“Flight, dream and freedom permeate each of my creations. And love, the door that opens to poetry and to the fantastic world.”
Birth of Venus 80 x 80 cm or 50 x 50 cm 2020
Sabrina Aureli classifies her own work into seven series, presented in the following:
– The Poetics of Space
– La Chambre Claire
– Memories of Rome
– Blue Note
– Sacred and profane
– Love
– Lost Generation
The Poetics of Space
In The Poetics of Space Sabrina Aureli describes dreams sharing common traits: indeed, each work shows some kind of situation within which souls enjoy happiness, elegance and peace.
Lux aeterna 73 x 93 cm 2020
Works of this series are characterised by a “two-level” composition, that is, background and spectator are separated by inhabited architectures whose users, preferably naked, do not seem brazen or vulgar, but rather so pure as to appear even hieratic.
The Bathers 2 73 x 93 cm 2020
In all The Poetics of Space‘s works there is either a sky or a sea above or around the buildings, as to symbolise infinity and freedom. The reason for this is that Sabrina Aureli believes that dream may help mankind to transcend its essence, liberating its soul.
Immortality 86 x 73 cm 2023
The architectural elements portrayed by Sabrina Aureli in this series feature clear geometries, having sturdy walls and sharp angles. Such spaces are both austere and comfortable. The represented scenes, dreamy and carefree, set the hardness of the artificial environments against the softness of the bodies inhabiting them, surprinsingly resulting in a perfect harmony.
Between Water and the Sky 80 x 80 cm 2020
La Chambre Claire
La Chambre Claire draws its inspiration from Roland Barthes’s 1980 essay by the same name. In this series Sabrina Aureli depicts scenes of grim mystery, setting human figures in dark and gloomy environments, showing them as decadently frustrated.
Siracusa 73 x 93 cm 2020
Children, the protagonists of two works from this series, are guided by their own liveliness and curiosity to explore desolate sceneries filled with menacing uncertainty.
Self-Portrait 80 x 80 cm 2021
In some works of La Chambre Claire the idea of a guiding light is expressed; however, here what shows mankind its path is not the sun but the moon, hence it is not possible to foresee whether what lies at the end of the path is good or evil.
Transfigured Night 86 x 73 cm 2021
Memories of Rome
In Memories of Rome Sabrina Aureli draws her inspiration from her hometown; nevertheless, it is not her own memories on display, but those of some great personalities of history or the arts, e.g. Marcus Aurelius, Federico Fellini, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Albert Camus. In their memories Rome emerges as caput mundi, narrated by Aureli by visions the merge mythology with ancient and modern architecture.
Adrian’s Memory 80 x 80 cm 2021
In some of this series’s works they are shown both humans and more or less exotic animals (camels, dromedaries, horses, elephants, lions, tigers etc.), with a special place for the Capitolin Wolf, obviously.
The Capitolin Wolf 86 x 73 cm 2023
Sabrina Aureli aims at changing Rome into a metaphysical environment; therefore, Memories‘ shown parts of Rome are conceptually psychological impressions, despite their figurative realism.
The Heart of Rome 170 x 200 cm 2021
One may thus conclude that such a “mnemonic” Rome’s architectural pieces in the first place may not be intentionally related to the physical city but rather to a dream version of it.
La Sapienza, University of Rome 80 x 80 cm 2023
Blue Note
The Blue Note series centres on nostalgia, drawing its inspiration from sad jazz melodies. The colour blue, which in Anglophone nations symbolises sadness, permeates most of this series’s works.
Blue Note 73 x 93 cm 2020
However, from time to time, Aureli expressed nostalgia lacks sorrow, thus resulting in images that, while belonging in this series, are not dominated by blue.
Calm After the Storm 80 x 100 cm 2021
Another kind of nostalgia in Blue Note reveals itself neutral in its indifference, depicting aloof outcomes and complex moods. In this kind of work on the one hand blue abounds, on the other it is light and shade that stand out.
Midnight bath 86 x 73 cm 2020
Sacred and profane
In Sacred and profane the two concepts cohabit, and are to be intended as follows: “sacred” is of course whatever pertains to (Catholic) religion or (classic) myth, but also, perhaps even more intensely, all that transcends this world, meaning those things mankind cannot explain, those mysteries that one venerates for their power while admiring them out of a sublime sensation; on the contrary, “profane” is (etymologically) whatever lies outside the temple, the non-sacred.
In this series female figures are frequently portrayed, chosen from Catholicism, as Virgin Mary or Mary Magdalene, or from Greek-Roman myths, as the Nereids or Venus.
Mary Magdalene 80 x 80 cm 2020
Nereids 70 x 70 cm or 50 x 50 cm 2020
It should be noted that, surprisingly if compared to Sabrina Aureli’s usual composition of space, in this series two works lack the familiar sky or sea outlet, instead showing completely artificial environments, inasmuch sumptuous as it is suffocating. Hence in Divine Comedy the couple tries to escape.
Divine Comedy 80 x 100 cm 2021
Love
In this series love is conceived as a natural force, the most compelling for the human soul, as it can guide the spirit to its goal, more than strictness, discipline and suffering can do. Not only so, Aureli goes as far as to express that only if guided by love man can reach his goals. Specifically speaking of Love, in line with the Aurelian poetics, such goals are at the same time metaphysical and capable to save and liberate man.
Swimming Pool 86 x 73 cm 2020
In Lovers the couple is separated by draperies, but their own white is so transparent and shiny to bring about a hopeful and pacific consolation, heralding a paradise-like bliss.
Lovers (detail; whole measures: 73 x 93 cm) 2021
The Origins of Love is equally interesting, due to its distance from the common Biblical iconography: Aureli’s Edenic homage consists in her act of liberating from evil the two sexes’ original condition, in a garden of delights whose fruit is no more sin with its induced sense of guilt, but love.
The Origins of Love 50 x 50 cm 2022
True love’s strength allows man to enjoy a pacific kind of freedom not only in Heaven, but also in anthropic settings, albeit non-mundane ones, because the juxtaposition creating yin and yang (the feminine and male, black and white, dark and light etc. principles) that permeates Love‘s sceneries bestows their inhabitants an unearthly balance centred on mutual trust between the reciprocally complementary opposites.
Claire de lune, Debussy 73 x 93 cm 2020
Love’s light in Love is sometimes lunar sometimes solar, as it is from the embrace of yin and yang that life is born, it is from the harmonious fusion between opposites that everything stems forth. Therefore, Sabrina Aureli in this series describes both sharp-cornered architectures and comfortable environments shaped by curve lines.
Light 100 x 100、80 x 80、50 x 50 cm 2022
Lost Generation
Coined perhaps by US literate and collector Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), perhaps by Hemingway, the wording “Lost Generation” commonly designates those born between 1883 and 1900, i.e., First World War and 1920s’ young adults, thought of by the collective imagination as characterised by a sense of bewilderment caused by pre-war ideals’ collapse. Thus, in Lost Generation Aureli immortalises souls that are oppressed by the material world and have no hope.
A Clean Well-Lighted Place 70 x 70、50 x 50 cm 2024
From May 26th to June 9th 2024 Sabrina Aureli participates to Mantua’s International Biennale at Diocesan Museum “Francesco Gonzaga”.
Another great success for Sabrina Aureli, an artist recommended by Pedone Association: the Effetto Arte Foundation and the critic Josè Van Roy Dalì selected her work The Baccha (vide infra) for the “Artists in History” (Artisti nella Storia) Award; in addition to being published in Effetto Arte Foundation’s catalogue with a review by Josè Van Roy Dalì, the work will be screened at the prizegiving on 21st June 2024 at the Teatro Italia in Rome.
The Baccha 80 x 80 cm 2023 (from the series Memories of Rome)
2022: personal exhibition Art Photography & Multimedia Show at Łódź (Poland) Municipal Cultural Centre
Between May and July 2024, Sabrina Aureli’s art obtained even more recognition: not only was she awarded the first prize in the FINE ART AWARD CQ 75 competition, but she also took part in two important collective exhibitions.
Settembre 50 x 50 cm by Pedone recommended artist Sabrina Aureli won the first prize at the FINE ART AWARD CQ 75 2024
The two aforementioned exhibitions are:
1. The contemporary art international exhibition “Humanity” (“Umanità”), held at the Museo Bellini in Florence, Tuscany, Italy (see YT video below);
2. The international art exhibition “Woman” (“Donna”), held in the Scuderie Aldobrandini building in Frascati, Rome, Lazio region, Italy (see YT video below).