“The Last Dream Before Birth”, Inès Di Folco’s first New York exhibition, presents canvases with luminous passages that evoke intergalactic atmospheres. Elements of glitter and sand make up her creatures, which are saturated with wispy flecks that seem to gently illuminate them from within. For example, the warm, soft tones of Pablo & the roses (all works 2023), reminiscent of Picasso’s Rose Period paintings, depicts an orange face emerging from a field of black flowers. The flora and the figure are enveloped by a hilly landscape composed of incomplete textures evoking a primordial world. Washes of hand-mixed pigments are left to pool and puddle – such moments loosen the gap between subject and surface.
Oasis Tunis nods to Matisse’s idylls. A single figure, pierced by an angelic apparition hovering before them, appears in the foreground of the composition, hypervigilant. UFO style cloud formations glow pink against a color field backdrop of fiery variegated reds. More mischievous than demonic diabolo, a work painted in sooty grays and inky blues. The small, tightly cropped subject is mostly featureless except for its slightly yellow lips and nostrils – perhaps evidence of the beast’s acidic spirit.
One has the impression that Di Folco’s subjects emerge naturally from the painting. Certain passages echo moments in the history of art or in the artist’s own life, but summoned from the depths of his subconscious. Di Folco invites us to experience the thrill of discovery as she discovers the otherworldly inhabitants of her numinous realm.
