WOMAN
Emilia’s universe is made up of hyper-real and colourful worlds, immediate and instinctive, in which every work is a heartfelt narrative, a vivid story that transcends judgement and social constructs. Through black lines and a whirlwind of colour, she captures with her brush the people and things around her, fearlessly depicting happy tales and unsettling mysteries. Not all words need to be spoken; after all, some are simply drawn. African fabrics and toucans, daisies in her hair, prickly pears, earrings and musical notes, words, silences: stories.
We are all there in Emilia’s portraits—our desire to finally cast our gaze far and wide, to seize life by the scruff of the neck and embrace joy and the unexpected, the riddles that death poses to us when, through the cracks in a mirror, it whispers: tell me, Life, do I exist or do I not? Tell me, my Life: woman and man together, Great Mother who encompasses all and gives all. Lying there dreamily, curvaceous beyond fashions, beyond spaces and the unspeakable. Sly Mother, rooted and engaged, immediate and ancient, ever-present mother, Madonna of the crumbs.
When they tell you there are things we cannot do, remember that it is not true, Woman.
(text by Cristina Carlà for Emilia Ruggiero’s ‘Woman’ project)
EMILIA RUGGIERO, born in Mesagne in 1979, graduated from the ‘Edgardo Simone’ Art School in Brindisi in 1998 and went on to study Cultural Heritage Conservation at the University of Lecce. She graduated with first-class honours in 2006, with a dissertation on cultural heritage legislation, focusing on the legal framework for contemporary art. The period following her graduation was marked by her participation in numerous training courses in the cultural, tourism, archival and library sectors. Over the years, she has continued her own research into painting, developing various projects. She has collaborated with various organisations in the cultural sector, helping to organise a number of projects.
The works on display are for sale. For further information, please enquire at the Nuvole ticket office or the Castello Volante bookshop.
