Michele Simonetti [b. 1976, Firenze, Italy] lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He received his master’s in architecture at the University of Florence (2002) and moved to New York in 2014, where he expanded his interest to the intersection of architecture and contemporary art. Through a play between abstraction and representation, his painting practice explores the relationship between real and imagined worlds, personal and collective memories.
Since when do you paint and what are your favourite motives?
I started painting when I moved to New York in 2014, 10 years ago. My inspiration comes from my immediate surroundings: the corner of a townhouse, the curved edge of a rooftop, the silhouette of a skyscraper. The original urban references, however, are stripped of any specific feature to achieve purity of lines, colors, and geometries, using ample negative space and stark chromatic contrasts.
When you create a new work, how do you proceed? What comes first?
Inspiration comes first, sudden: the recognition of a moment that can be shared and create connections. Scribbles follow on different media, usually geometric abstractions, and color coding. Getting to the canvas can take hours or months, depending on how long it takes to strip the initial impulse of all the background noise, details, figures, and get it to its bare structure.
From what do you get your motivation?
Expressing and recording my emotions on canvas is my main drive. Opening conversations and having positive confrontations is the most interesting byproduct.
Your life without art would be...
…would be missing out, for sure.
What is the best art place in your city at the moment?
I find the city sidewalks to be the most intriguing [and energetic, diverse, crowded, noisy, and so forth] places in New York, and I find most of my inspiration there. Not sure if they qualify as art places, but they are for me.
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