wizzard890:

andreasmroberts:

Nicola Samori (b. 1977). Italian.

Neo-Baroque??

Nicola Samori is fucking incredible. He works out of Italy, and he’s managed to nail the style of the Old Masters: his exhibitions contain everything from beautiful Baroque saints to Flemish still lifes — all painted now, in the modern era, in his studio. And that would be amazing in and of itself, but his work is so much more than simple reproduction. See, once he’s finished with a painting, or once he’s adapted one that’s been previously created, he takes a scalpel to it, a spatula, or a square of sandpaper, and begins to peel it apart. He flays painted skin right off his subjects’ bones.

Sometimes the “destruction” of the images asks the audience to think about what, exactly, the painting communicates when it’s whole. Other times it adds a strange level of corporeality to religious works, or gives portraits a darkly spiritual dimention they never had before. 

He’s said in interviews that he views the layers of paint on the canvas as analogous to the muscle and tissue of the human body, and that by wearing it away, he changes the identity of the paintings themselves.

Dark and sometimes chilling as it is, I think his work is genuinely brilliant, and he’s one of my favorite living artists.

(Long story short, here’s his website, go check it out!)

“The tale of a girl who sustained horrific burns to almost all of her body trying to save her mother from their burning home has been attracting much sympathy in China of late.

The 13-year-old girl was playing on the roof of the Henan province building she called home, when a fire broke out in her 2nd storey residence.

Knowing her mother was ill and bedridden, she rushed home to save her, ignoring the burning building around her.

Unfortunately, just as she arrived a gasoline can stored in their residence ignited,  engulfing her in flames.

Despite 95% burns to her body she was rescued from the building alive, and has clung to life for the 20 days since the accident.

With tragically predictable pathos, when she regained consciousness in hospital, her first act was to ask after her parents.

One of the hospital doctors treating her has reportedly paid for the 20,000 yuan cost of her treatment so far, although it is not clear what her future prospects are.”