Marika Grassano, born on December 30, 1989, in San Severo, Italy, and now residing in London for over a decade, is making waves in the world of art. Splitting her time between her home country, the UK, and Cologne, where her grandparents live, she embarked on a unique journey from volleyball to art.
After discontinuing her volleyball career at the age of twenty-three, Marika relocated to the United Kingdom, where she now lives and works. In parallel, she continued to express herself through drawing and painting, ranging from pencil and Bic pen comics to abstract experimentation.
A recent turn of events led Marika to participate in public events after her paintings had already adorned the homes of acquaintances and friends.
Collective Recognitions
In a significant recognition of her talent, Marika’s painting titled “Fire” was selected for the International Art Prize “Dante Alighieri” on July 7, 2021. It was exhibited at the Palazzo Borghese in Florence and featured in the artistic catalog “Art Now” number 3 for that year. She received the artistic plaque “Dante Alighieri.”
- In 2021, Marika’s painting “Inferno” was chosen for the 1st Visual Art Review “Lucera Città d’Arte,” organized by the cultural association Daunia&Sannio, held at the municipal library of Lucera (FG) from September 12 to 18, 2021.
- On June 4, 2022, her painting “Fire” secured third place at the Literature, Photography, and Fine Arts Prize “Creatività Itinerante” in Rodi Garganico, FG.
- In 2022, Marika was among the selected artists for the exhibition project “Darteweek” in Lecce, from July 7 to 14. Three of her works, “This is the war,” “Fire,” and “I giardini di marzo,” participated in the “Imago” Exhibition, held at the prestigious Palazzo Turrisi. Her works received acclaim from art critics Claudia Presicce (Gruppo Il Messaggero) and Antonio Viannei. These works and the critical reviews are featured in the “Darteweek” Art Catalog.
- In 2022, her painting “The war” was part of the Collective Exhibition “Biennale delle Arti visive Terra d’Otranto,” curated by the Academy “Italia in Arte nel Mondo.” The exhibition took place in Lecce at L’Antica Galleria “E. Maccagnini” from December 1 to 10, 2022.
- On September 23, 2023, at the invitation of the critical commission of Artexpò Gallery Milano, Marika will participate with four paintings in the Collective Exhibition in Montecarlo, Principality of Monaco, at the Sincerity Congress Hall of Hotel Montecarlo Bay. She will receive the Oscar of Creativity – Montecarlo 2023, and two of her works will be included in the printed catalog.
Publishing
Marika’s painting “Come in cielo così in terra” became the cover image for the book “Torneremo a guardare il mare – Pensieri riversi in posizione fetale,” published by Oceano Edizioni in 2021 and authored by Maria Teresa Infante.
Her painting “Fire” graced the cover of the poetic collection “Fulmine a ciel sereno,” published by Oceano Edizioni in 2021 and authored by Raffaele Buccino.
Three of her works, “Etnie – Gradazioni d’esistenze,” “Eden,” and “Nebulose esistenziali,” are part of the art-literary project “Parole che non conoscevo,” published by Oceano Edizioni in collaboration with the SOS Oncology Association, aiming to improve the care conditions for oncology patients. All proceeds will be donated to the San Marco Hospital in Zingonia and the San Pietro Hospital in Ponte San Pietro (BG).
Critique
Marika’s art, as noted by Prof. Mauro Paolo Pietro Montacchiesi, honorary academician of the “G. Gioachino Belli” Academy (Rome) and the Pontifical Tiberina Academy (Rome), is a totalizing form of art akin to the abstractionism of Vasilij Kandinskij. It resonates with Kandinskij’s “Primo Acquerello Astratto.”
Marika Grassano’s art is a manifestation of her perceptions, sensations, and spontaneity, springing from the emotions of her inner universe.
Note: The text includes excerpts from the critical note by Prof. Mauro Paolo Pietro Montacchiesi.
PURGATORY
BY MARIKA GRASSANO
Purgatory is a condition, a process, a place of purification, or a temporary punishment. It can mean that the painter is not in a peaceful mood, is not at peace with herself, is experiencing inner torment, or is perhaps going through a problematic existential moment. The hues in this painting denote the artist’s deep-rooted attachment to the native land. The same tones are, in fact, a transference of Marika Grassano, who subliminally reminds herself that, in life, there is a need for sensuality, balance, and the need to fulfill earthly needs. It is a phase or simply a fleeting moment of transition in “Purgatory,” in a place of “waiting.” Looking at this painting, one perceives how much the essentialism of acrylic painting favors the representation of the artist’s creativity, moods, and passions, which even seem to be driven onto the canvas by her brush and not vice versa. The imprint of pigments is brilliant and evolved; it is a heterodox idea. Marika Grassano adores pure tones and everything she can build with them, imprinting her trepidation on canvas with incisive and textural painting. Marika’s demiurge inspiration is realized in progressing painting, pristine expressive communication, innovation, and an analytical, authentic, and not emulative study. The pigments are consistent, mellow, and textural and have an iridescent and structured score. At times, the pattern is attenuated, achieving an “imperceptible metaphysical relevance” and highlighting the artist’s consistent inclination to let formal progress emerge unceasingly oriented to a decidedly intimistic interpretation of art.
INFERNO
BY MARIKA GRASSANO
Hell, it means punishment and punishment, anxiety and restlessness, and difficulty. A tormenting and contradictory period. A nagging sense of guilt that the painter is experiencing in some area of her existence, probably excluding herself from public self-compassion. It is an abjured “self,” a malaise that the artist does not want to see; it is the questioning of the future. Inferno means the feeling of nonsubstantiality and lack of orientation experienced by Marika. It is her instance of totality and feminine affirmation. Her intimate “Inferno” reverberates the emptiness of a part of herself that needs the other. That, who knows, urges her to an inner, evolutionary, or intellectual journey that can fill this “void.” Irrefutable conditioning in relationships and slowness in the yearned-for legitimacy have pressed her to seek it elsewhere, opening her mind to new perspectives and a broader relational destiny with others. To accomplish this, she had to nurture a genuine sense of self, tetragonal in its essential values, even if it meant risking refusal by people who did not like who she was currently becoming. In the painting “Inferno,” the ductile versatility of acrylic allows Marika Grassano to execute extraordinary hues in strokes and steps, harmoniously allowing the transition from one pigment to another. Marika Grassano’s acrylics communicate restless emotions, incisiveness, agitation, and vivacity. “Inferno” excites cerebral and physical energy. It impulsively urged the senses and the intellect back to the current moment. In “Inferno,” the artist achieves harmony through the balance of relationships between colors and surfaces, with sharpness and vigor.
An admirable work that is an incentive to imagination is mighty passion.
MARIKA GRASSANO BRIEFLY
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Marika loves harmony and is tolerant, stubborn, and ambitious.
She is generous and pleasant yet also conscientious and intelligent.
Scrupulous and tenacious, she leaves nothing to chance.
Adversity makes her more solid.
Marika is a sober person, capable of planning her existence concretely.
She has an overwhelming urge for freedom of expression, which drives her art, with which she adopts an intuitive and experimental practice.
Material painting, indeed, is an experimental art.
For Marika Grassano, it is an attempt to overflow from the canvas and the images of traditional iconography.
She employs full-bodied and mellow pigments and fixes in the material the incisive seals of her acrylic brushstrokes to give energy and distinctiveness to the work, moving everything in the direction of a 3D image perception.
Autonomy in movement, for her, is a natural law whereby she feels fully entitled to have the ability to go wherever she wishes if she needs to do so.
Her erraticity proves and confirms this by her vivacity and impetus.
Her determination is relevant and, at times, irrepressible.
Marika’s emotional nature is vast and intense, to the point that she would always, in a utopia, want to please everyone.
When she sets her sights on a goal, she is particularly determined, with a propensity to challenge order and authority.
These are simply identifiable, at times, in her family of origin or the social stereotypes that have become established in her places of origin.
Marika has a passionate craving for mystery; intrigue seduces her, which is likely the detonator of the appeal that Materic Art exerts on her.
She lives in an assiduous Manichaeism between self-centeredness and the need to belong to the universe.