Vitriol 2015

Roberto Ferri painted “Vitriol” with oil paint on canvas, using muted greys and browns. You can almost smell the linseed oil, right? I love how the painting feels timeless and contemporary all at once. The surface is so smooth it’s hard to believe that it was made by hand. Except, if you look closely at the woman’s back, you can see the way the paint is dragged to create the illusion of flesh and muscle. Ferri’s clearly got control, but he’s letting the paint do its thing. The snakes that coil around her arms, they're not just snakes, you know? They seem more like ancient wisdom being physically embraced. Like Caravaggio, Ferri is interested in the drama of light and shadow, but here it’s softer, more melancholic. He's looking to the past while wrestling with something deeply personal, the kind of thing that art’s been dealing with forever.