Enrico Minguzzi between human and nonhuman on display at Giovanni Bonelli's in Pietrasanta

At the Giovanni Bonelli Gallery in Pietrasanta, a solo exhibition by Enrico Minguzzi (Cotignola, 1981) entitled Fragile Creatures opened on April 26, 2025 and can be visited until June 8. Curated by Sole Castelbarco Albani, the exhibition aims to be a profound exploration of the possibilities of matter and form, in a constant dialogue between natural and artificial, between what emerges and what remains hidden.

Minguzzi’s work is distinguished by a singular approach: the artist never imposes his will on the canvas, but rather listens, letting the images themselves manifest themselves. The pictorial surface thus becomes a living organism, capable of responding, opposing and revealing itself according to its own rhythm, to which the artist gives life in its fulfillment. It is in this delicate balance between intention and the unexpected that the radical authenticity of his pictorial gesture is rooted. Minguzzi defines his process as an open dialogue with matter, where images take shape almost without his knowledge, often deviating from the initial thought. “I go along with what happens,” he explains, emphasizing how in this conscious abandon a space of truth opens up, where the work stops being mere representation to become a living presence. The creatures that emerge from the canvas, “still lifes” that, as Minguzzi says, are not really either nature or death, are suspended in time: not fixed, but perpetually in a state of mutation. They vibrate with a vitality originating in the constant tension between what is manifested and what remains concealed. Each of Minguzzi’s works is an act of openness, a dialogue with matter and with a thought that changes form, grows and reveals ever new layers of complexity.

A distinctive feature of his practice is the idea of painting as erosion: an act that does not destroy, but restores. The removal of layers becomes a vital act, capable of resurfacing what had been hidden, of reuniting the visible with the invisible. This continuous tension between hidden and revealed infuses his works with an unstable but profound vitality. Removal is never an end in itself, but creates new energy, allowing the images to live and grow. Like masks that, while concealing part of the face, reveal an even deeper and more mysterious soul, Minguzzi’s works speak a layered language of references, presences and absences.

The exhibition Fragile Creatures also explores the concept of the hybrid as a source of beauty and innovation. Minguzzi’s creatures are new, evolving species generated by the contamination of nature and human intervention. His sensibility does not merely observe this process, but explores it to the point of making it the focus of a reflection on the possible future trajectories of our reality. The works do not tell a dystopia, but propose a near future in which the hybridization of technology and nature becomes the key to our evolution. In his imagery, artifice does not annihilate nature, but rather enriches it, becoming an extension of it. Contamination becomes an aesthetic and creative resource: a search for balance between seemingly opposing elements, a new harmony that generates unexpected forms of beauty. It is not just a matter of commenting on the alteration of natural cycles, but of inviting the audience to reflect on how disparate elements can merge to generate new vital orders.

In this incessant interplay between matter and form, Minguzzi’s works are configured as places where beauty arises from the mixing, breaking down and recomposing of visual and conceptual components. His sculptures, born of the same creative tension as the paintings, seem to want to detach themselves from the canvas to conquer a three-dimensional space. Matter takes shape and relates to its surroundings, imagining a future in which the sculpture itself becomes part of a living ecosystem.

Minguzzi envisions the possibility of his sculptures transforming over time: works destined to be invaded by vegetation, to become contaminated, to evolve in symbiosis with the natural environment. This project, still under development, reflects his idea of art as a living organism, as something that does not end in the creative act, but continues to grow and change, just like biological creatures.

This vision does not stem from a rigid conceptual approach, but from a natural evolution of his artistic process. Each of Minguzzi’s works seems suspended between being just born and the possibility of endlessly evolving. His creatures do not belong to a definite time: they live in an eternal present, in a state of potential continuous becoming. The reactions they elicit in the audience are visceral, oscillating between the fascinating and the uncanny. Within these familiar yet alienating forms lies something profoundly human, something that touches us but at the same time remains elusive. This is not simply an invitation to wonder, but to a deeper reflection: a confrontation with the invisible, with the unknown, with the most enigmatic part of nature and ourselves.

In Enrico Minguzzi’s work, reflection on nature and its future transformations is implicit, never openly stated. There is no denunciation or militancy, but a discreet invitation to meditation. His art leaves room for a personal and multifaceted reading, soliciting questions rather than offering answers. The nature Minguzzi recounts is neither romantic nor idyllic: it is a vibrant, unstable nature, always in the process of becoming. It is a nature that surprises and disquiets, just like its fragile and powerful creatures, ready to live in a world that is configured as an inextricable interweaving of the real and the fantastic, human and nonhuman, life and death.

With Fragile Creatures, Enrico Minguzzi therefore wants to give the public and collectors a glimpse of a possible future, where the hybrid is no longer seen as a deviation, but as an inevitable next step in our evolution.

The exhibition can be visited Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and 4 p.m.-8 p.m. For information visit galleriagiovannibonelli.it.

Enrico Minguzzi between human and nonhuman on display at Giovanni Bonelli's in Pietrasanta

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