SARHTORI - Italy

CONTACT: info@sarhtori.com

Despite man . . Spring goes on

Every story lasts forever

to arrive - oil on canvas cm 100 x 70

oil on canvas cm 80 x 40

The right balance

....everyone down on the ground D

oil on canvas cm 70 x 70

mixed media on wood 100 x 100 cm

Sometimes today . ... feels like yesterday

....all down on the ground D

oil on canvas cm 70 x 70

His Biography and CV

A special estrangement of vision builds images as meticulous and sharp as they are paradoxical and unsettling.
The faces painted by Sarhtori offer constant contradictions of meaning, situations and forms multiplied and echoed within an alienating, artificial dimension and – for this very reason – even more immanent and vivid.
The representational line lingers in the folds of the human soul, unsure whether to yield to a refined sense of anguish – never banal or mannered – or to an ethereal contemporary melancholy, the direct evolution of a spleen that shuns the mediocre emptiness of thought without second thoughts.
The practiced and ongoing chromatic inversions, the hallucinated abyss of faces without a gaze, the vanity of spirits with a thousand shades and countless offshoots seeking the approval of their own silent suffering, all of this makes Sarhtori’s painting a peculiar hypothesis of will: the enigma that holds the image is a true challenge to man’s ability to think himself “beyond”, “ultra-physical”, directed within a multiverse that “unlimits” imagination through the infinite mirror of ideas.
The presence of the title – by no means accessory, but foundational to the very nature of the painting – becomes the indispensable textual part for the construction of a true “visual rebus”, a total and open work in which the word makes the image more accessible, or – reciprocally and without interruption – the image proves even more incongruous and inadequate to intuition before thought.
The strongly aggressive character of Sarhtori’s painting, expressed in a movement of tortured, anguished form/colour, based on unreal, visionary tonal accords, does not disperse within the canvas its own focus, a sort of hierarchy of iconological values that lets the viewer’s attention converge on the space where the secret held by the painted face is fulfilled – and revealed: to conceal the mystery in order to prove its existence.

Alberto Gross
Art Critic

Critical Writings

The artist SARHTORI, always drawn to the visual arts, from an early age channels his hyperactivity by drawing everywhere and at any time of day. After finishing high school, in the early eighties he produced, entirely by hand, stickers for friends’ cars and motorbikes. In 1988 he enrolled in and attended a painting course at the Milan branch of the Accademia Bolognese, creating several works on paper. Then, for various reasons, he moved away from the art world until, in 2001, he developed a passion for sculpture and made a number of wooden works. One of these, titled “PEACE”, stands in the Mayor’s Office of Camparada (MB) as the winner, in 2004, of a competition organized by the Asca Association. Also in 2004, he turned to painting, producing his first oil paintings. He met a friend of his father, the painter Salva (Salvatore Brambilla), who encouraged him to continue and would later invite him to take part in his first exhibitions in Arcore, alongside other artists including:
Pietro Calloni, Ernesto Caglio, Lucio Boscardin (the father of CIAO, mascot of Italia 90) and Maestro Clemente Mazza (a highly regarded painter from Vimercate, who uses colours he creates himself, with entirely natural elements). He met the painter—and later friend—Guido Poggiani, with whom he took part in several group shows, and thanks to whom, in 2009, he entered the national competition “Coffee and Art”. He won 1st prize and, finally, thanks to this success, in January 2010 he staged his first solo show in Milan, at the events workshop “Archi Gallery”, presented by art critic Lidia Silanos. Still with Poggiani he joined the Art & Farm event, painting 2 of the 24 cows in reduced format. He took part in group exhibitions in a few Milan galleries, including New Ars Italica and Sassetti Cultura. He met the artist Mike Ciafaloni, creator of “The Tree of Life” (a monumental work visible in a wing of the San Donato Polyclinic, 33 metres long), and thanks to him—who viewed and appreciated his work—he held a solo show in May at the “Le Cornici” Space in Peschiera Borromeo. From 21 October to 11 November, another solo show in the premises of Art Caffè Savona in Milan, where he exhibited 9 works on 60 x 80 canvases, part of a series of 11 paintings titled “Alphabetical”. He was selected by the cultural association Guizart and included in the Mondadori Art Catalogue no. 46. During this period, however, an important turning point occurred. He began using the stage name SARHTORI and, fascinated after witnessing a performance by the artist Dario Ballantini, he steered his paintings toward a more instinctive and immediate gesture. Thus were born the first faces without eyes—faces that reflect unease, joys and sorrows, in short emotions and states of mind.
2011 opened with a group show in Milan: “Invisible Cities” (from Italo Calvino’s book) at Sassetti Cultura, a historic venue in the Isola district.
He participated as a guest in a group show at the Galleria degli Artisti in Milan, and in another group show titled “Orpheus and Eurydice – Souvenir from the Underworld”, curated by Lucilla Trotta and Emanuela Torri, again at Sassetti Cultura. From 5 March to 2 April, a solo show with LIVE ART at FEEL GOOD in MILAN with 15 works on display, organized by the cultural association Guizart. From 16 to 28 April he arrived in Salento thanks to the group show “Colours in Concert” at the Stomeo Gallery in Martano (LE).

In June he was selected by the Wikiarte Gallery, located in the centre of Bologna, to take part in the group show “The Colours of the Soul” (event broadcast by TV7 Gold). A gallery with which he began a collaboration that would last 3 years.
In the same month he took part in a two-person show with the artist Poggiani, in the art space Schizzi di caffè in Varedo (MI), with a live performance streamed on the web. In July he exhibited two works in the halls of Palazzo Bitonti in Montesano (LE), within the Salento Silente event.
In August, selected by curator Caterina Maggia, he took part in “PROPONENDO: New Proposals for Contemporary Art”, set up in Forte dei Marmi (LU). From 13 September to 11 October, he exhibited 12 works on canvas in a solo show titled Sensations, in the space Il vecchio cotonificio in Villasanta (MB), organized by the Circolo amici dell’arte.
Together with his artist friend Poggiani, from 14 to 24 December, he staged the exhibition “Liquid Expressions” at the Il Pettirosso Art Gallery in Vimercate (MB), during which he presented the project “From Waste to a Work of Art”, focused on recovering the scraps of modern society, thus concluding his first two years of exhibitions. 2012 began with two group shows: Expo Bologna 2012 at the Wikiarte Gallery and “From Mantegna’s Egg to the Present Day” at the Galleria degli Artisti in Milan. Having by then established an excellent collaborative relationship with the Wikiarte Gallery, he was brought to Florence to the Simboly Art Gallery for a group show. In April he exhibited canvas prints at the Art Loft Space in Milan on the occasion of Fuorisalone. Meanwhile his friend Guido gave an official direction to the recovery of society’s waste, launching the RIGENERART project and setting up a group show at Feel Good in Milan, in which Sarhtori also participated with the work “The Enigma of Solitude” (an installation composed of 7 acrylic-painted busts). In June and July
he returned to Bologna, again at the Wikiarte Gallery, to take part in two group shows: Love for Art and Free Space. In August he moved to Puglia, specifically Lecce, to participate in the group show “Arte Sant’Oronzo” organized by Spazio AMG. In September, together with Poggiani, Lombardo, Ciafaloni and other artists, he exhibited at Palazzo Isimbardi on the occasion of the Palio Città di Milano, an event exclusively for Milan cultural associations, and took part with a triptych in the exhibition “Apocalypse or New Era?” in the halls of the Wikiarte Gallery.
For the first time, together with two friends (Gabriela Bodin and Annarè), he exhibited 5 works on canvas in the city of Bergamo. The group show titled “Portrayed Identities” took place in the rooms of the Galgarte Gallery of Emilio Minotti. The year ended with two exhibitions in Milan: a live performance at the “House of Cultures of the World”, during the Ars Maiora event “Intuition Expression”, and a two-person show, again with Guido Poggiani, titled “Animal Undertones”, in the Sassetti Cultura space. 2013 is the year of “Artistic Sensations”, an important project in which the artist is accompanied by the Wikiarte Gallery and the Mondadori publishing house. A collaboration that led to the publication of a Mondadori Catalogue, precisely Sensazioni Artistiche. During the year Sarhtori’s works were exhibited in various shows in Bologna, Florence—Galleria Mentana—and Milan—Teatro Nuovo—reaching Arte Fiera Padova in November. The theme addressed in this period is always linked to the deepest emotions and states of mind that the artist conveys through faces without eyes, created using the oil-on-canvas technique. The project moves forward alongside other exhibitions in which the artist takes part. In June he was included in the group show Lo Specchio at the Spazio Porpora Gallery in Milan. Thanks to his sculptor friend Irma Mores, he met Maestro d’Arte Elio Lentini, who involved him in the event Pennellate di Solidarietà at the Hanbury Gardens in Ventimiglia and later in an exhibition at the Castle of Apricale (IM). In August he exhibited the work “Prisoner of Faults I Don’t Have” in splendid Venice, specifically at Cà Zanardi. In September he also stopped in Genoa in the historic rooms of Palazzo Stella, home of the Satura art gallery. There was still room for a solo show in Villasanta (MB) titled Gazes and for participation in an event in which Sarhtori presented his self-created project “Dangerous Crossing”. Everything took place during the finissage of the Intuizione Espressione competition and consisted of assembling a cross to which the word ART is crucified. A project intended to underline the fate imposed on Art in our country, while at the same time offering a hope of resurrection. Thus arrives 2014, the year in which the artist, through the exhibition of the work “Dangerous Crossing”, will spread his message of awareness regarding art and culture. In January he exhibited the entire work “The Enigma of Solitude”, taking part in the Riciclami event, also linked to the artistic reworking of reclaimed objects, organized by the Weart Gallery in Uboldo (VA). Thanks to the collaboration with Spazio Porpora in Milan, he had the pleasure and honour of exhibiting once again the work “Prisoner of Faults I Don’t Have”, this time no less than in the Loggiato Minore of PALAZZO DUCALE in Genoa. In April, with the Quadrifoglio Gallery of RHO, he was present at PAVIART, while in May he took part in: “CASSINETTART - The Paths of Art”, an event organized by the youth council with the patronage of the Municipality of Usmate Velate and Legambiente in the splendid Parco della Cassinetta, a place where works of art blend with the beauty of nature. In the same month, continuing the journey with the Rigenerart project, he joined an event of eco-creative workshops and stayed for a week at Bicocca Village, completing the installation “The Balance of the Species”. A work that would then be exhibited at the Palazzina Liberty in Milan in June.
From 7 June to 5 July he re-presented the works from the Alphabetical series (biennium 2009-2010) on the occasion of a solo exhibition: “Art from Every Side” in the premises of Metica in Paderno Dugnano (MI), supported by the ARS MAIORA Association of Milan.
On 19 July he took part in an event titled Musicamorfosi:NOTTURNI 2014, and had the pleasure of exhibiting his works in the rooms of Villa Tittoni Traversi in Desio (MB) with a solo show organized by the tireless Rita and Andrea of Spazio Porpora in Milan.
In August, thanks to the collaboration with Maestro Elio Lentini, he moved to Liguria and exhibited his works in the splendid and prestigious setting of the Castle of Dolceacqua in the province of Imperia. It is a solo show titled “States of Mind”, in which he is accompanied by sculptor Irma Mores

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