Lou Reed's sisters - Ilaria Grin

The exhibition we just outfitted at Casa Là Farm Gallery is a tribute to everyone who defend his personal creativity against the human and geographical context in which he operates. As you probably know, we are proud to be in the middle of nowhere, or better, at one hour by car from everything. This didn't impede us, and it will never do, to exhibit valuable artists and to gain the interest of many visitors who are more and more captivated. This is a good example: recently we hosted an appreciated florentine artist; his exhibition in our lost gallery was visited by circa 200 people, whereas his solo show in Siena had only 2 visitors.

Ilaria Grin is 30 years old, she's from Brescia and she's easy, funny and kind. She loves her works and she's not obsessed with the anxiety to sell them here, now and at any cost. As she confessed to us, she both loves and hates to be apart from her artworks. Her style is essential, precise, we cannot find flaws or adjustment. In her bold paintings, with its damask-like backgrounds, we have eccentric and beyond time ladies, but also elements who have nothing to do with conventional logic, as for example the prompter fish, so similar to the Douglas Adams' Babel fish, or the chemical formulas of luciferins (substances which are also produced by fireflies), which seem casually put on the background, but are instead an implicit message which break the unflappable attitude of the depicted lady (who has a firefly in the hollow of her hand). Ilaria's style reminds me the one of Northern Europe illustration, with its cold colors, crazy hairstiles and frozen movements, which make the depicted ladies similar to wax statues.

The portraits serie, of which we could exhibit only a little part, is more easy to explain and express very well the different moments in life and the consequent feelings of portrayed women. I particularly appreciate the one with the writing Perché mi hai svegliata? (why did you wake me up?). This piece is very colorful, and speaking about Ilaria's work, the more colors, the more troubles. She explained us that the more her girls have blushed cheeks, the more they are embarassed or suffering. Here the lady's blue hairs bring us in a dreamy and painful dimension, and her lazyness reminds us the atmosphere of some songs of Velvet Underground earlier albums(Venus in furs among all). Ilaria's paintings depict only women, but one: we don't have it in our exhibition, but visitors who want to see it in the flesh can go and visit the artist at her studio in Brescia.