Adelisa Selimbašić | More Than This

 

Developed by Fondazione Coppola and the National Museums of Bologna – Regional Directorate of the National Museums of Emilia-Romagna  in collaboration with the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, the exhibition brings together more than forty works on canvas and paper by twelve painters in the spaces of the Salone degli Incamminati at the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna. The artists—Thomas Braida, Chiara Calore, Francesco Cima, Nebojša Despotović, Jingge Dong, Beatrice Gelmetti, Chiara Peručh, Paolo Pretolani, Adelisa Selimbašić, Danilo Stojanović, Aleksander Velišček, and Maria Giovanna Zanella—share a formative experience at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, having studied within Atelier F.

More Than This offers a critical survey of what has emerged as the most significant recent “school” of painting on the contemporary Italian scene. The exhibition’s title alludes to the importance of individual artistic practice within a collaborative context grounded in attentiveness to others. It also points to the richness and linguistic diversity of the participating artists, whose painterly approaches range from surreal-inflected imagery to metaphysical overtones, from strongly emotive figuration to fluid, expansive abstraction.

 

Two central elements characterize the approach of Atelier F. The first concerns the relationship between artist and artwork, in which a constant, egalitarian, and at times fierce dialogue is encouraged. This process of attentive listening often leads to unexpected outcomes, as the image in these artists’ paintings is not the result of a predetermined or previously ordered process, but rather of an ongoing, direct negotiation. The second element is the collaborative, non-competitive method fostered by the atelier’s instructors, whereby each artist’s works are visible to all, within a framework of horizontal and continuous exchange. In this way, individual outcomes become a form of shared heritage—a true collective intelligence.