Mattia Barbieri
BLUMEN DE LUMINE
BLUMEN DE LUMINE - new solo exhibition by the artist Mattia Barbieri (Brescia, 1985. Lives and works in Milan), which will be inaugurated on Friday, June 13, 2025, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, at the gallery’s venue in Düsseldorf, Ackerstraße 34.
The exhibition will be open to the public until July 26, 2025, and can be visited on Fridays from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM, and Saturdays from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, or by appointment at +49 157 73718369.
BLUMEN DE LUMINE – a linguistic play combining German and Latin – can be translated as “flowers of light.” The exhibition presents a new series of works that explore the relationship between light, nature, and divinity, ranging from large-scale wooden paintings to smaller, more intimate works on copper.
In his works, Barbieri weaves cultural and spiritual references, citing the famous alchemical treatise Lumen de Lumine (light of light), which refers to the divine creator and light as the principle of all existence. The exhibition becomes a space where the flower, a symbol of beauty and vulnerability, transforms into a powerful vehicle of cosmic energy. Circular shapes and colorful stars burst forth as multiplications of light, while the flowers, with their central stamens, radiate like small expanding galaxies.
The contrast between delicacy and monumentality is one of the central themes of the exhibition. On one hand, the flower symbolizes fragile beauty; on the other, Barbieri uses the strength of painting and sculptural materials – such as cement – to accentuate the physicality of the works, highlighting the tension between the vulnerability of the subjects and the power of the technique. The artist literally carves into the surfaces of the paintings, creating incisive marks that resemble sculpture, giving a tactile and three-dimensional dimension to his compositions.
In BLUMEN DE LUMINE, the human figures – massive and powerful – are depicted as divine giants, oscillating between heaven and earth. The spatial dimension and circular movement are recurring themes that expand the visual perception, as if each painting were a wheel spinning and radiating new energy. In this context, the copper support plays a crucial role: in addition to acting as a conductor, copper becomes a magical surface, a channel that allows the energies of the subjects to flow towards the viewer, giving power to the painted forms.
