MARCO RONGA
WEB ART GALLERY
ABOUT THE ARTIST...
Short biography
MARCO RONGA
Architect by training, he teaches Drawing and History of Art, self-taught artist since boyhood.
Since 1993 he has exhibited in Padua, Venice, Vicenza, Trieste, Rome, London etc. It has been a partner of LondonArt.co.uk for about twenty years.
Marco Ronga's works address the themes of the portrait and the human figure and the suggestions of the architecture of the city and the landscape. Portraits of places, landscapes of bodies. The places are rendered with the "Fauves" colors of an emotional relationship, loading the color of the expressiveness of the Mediterranean light: the "genius loci" emerges in an unusual psychological portrait, often far from the more oleographic images of more or less known places. Instead, the bodies are perceived as volumes and are captured in moments of dream abandonment, emotionally absent, as observed objects, not as active subjects. They build the space by themselves, in silent choreography, without the need to oppose the background of the landscape. Another central theme of painting is the face that continues to hypnotize the author's thoughts: the intensity of the looks and expressions becomes a possible key to the soul.
Marco Ronga approached painting as a boy and he is self-taught. He kept the same curiosity of the beginner even in sculpture, trying the manual skills with various materials. He graduated in architecture and teaches Design and History of Art in a high school in Padua.
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"Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee calls back the lovely April of her prime" William Shakespeare
Two women side by side, mother and daughter in an emotional wrestling match
The simple clothing and manner of the two emphasize the authenticity of everyday life, real life, which is emotionally involving.
The older woman on the left is talking while her daughter listens, without enthusiasm; lost in thought? Is she receiving advice which is important for her, a confidence, or is she getting the usual telling off, a metaphor for the generation gap?
The relationship is ambiguous and made all the more dramatic by the strong contrasts in chiaroscuro.
For the artist Marco Ronga, architect and member of London Art, light and shade are a fundamental means of expression, along with attention to detail and speed of execution which is favoured by the artist's choice of fast drying acrylics
In the work Tra madre e figlia (Between mother and daughter) the oblique light that comes from the window creates sharply defined shadows and at the same time focuses attention on the essential elements in the scene.
It slides over the skin of the two women highlighting the signs on their bodies left by existence, a neo-expressionist sensitivity which lingers on details without pity. However, Ronga avoids photographic detachment and goes beyond the exclusively visual dimension to reach the indefinable field of emotion.
It is here that we have the talent of the artist in interpreting the lesson of Caravaggio in light of the modern vision of reality and sentiment. Ronga gives spice to everyday life with works that avoid the self-satisfaction of the American Hyperrealists and the extravagance of Pop-art to obtain a more silent metaphysical atmosphere.
Marco Ronga has bravely chosen a classical genre, the portrait, rejecting all criticism that pigeon holes it in the "old" and "already seen". His work aims to restore dignity to the human being, in particular to every face that is devalued by the homogenization of images and the banality of the spotlight.. The faces in his pictures never have the air of being just anyone, but actors, characters moved by the most intimate "stirrings of the soul". The artist pushes his investigation into the realms of psychoanalysis and physiognomy, to something between what Leonardo defined as the mechanics of the sentiments and their effect on the expressiveness of the flesh. It is the expressive power of the body which is explored and exalted against all types of alienation, madness and disease. The paintings of Ronga invite us to reflect on what can still be saved: our souls, and not just in the religious sense of the word. In the silence of his canvases we seem to hear the famous phrase "Know Thyself - and thou shall know all the mysteries of the gods and of the universe". Instead of instigating resignation, the artist invites us to celebrate the beauty and dignity of life. In the painting Tra madre e figlia, it is not just the light from outside that makes the figures emerge from the darkness, but the figures themselves which seem to possess their own pulsating light. Thus the young woman in the centre of the scene extends her bare arm towards a dynamic emptiness, full of possibility about to be realized.
In order to fully understand the works of Marco Ronga it is important to be aware of the deep and passionate love for human beings and the universe of emotions in which he is a careful explorer. Looking deeply into his works, we find this mysterious but fascinating world, which is dear to him and where colour is the instrument of liberation. Francesca Rizzo, Art Critic