Sicilian landscapes

Giuseppe De Luca's memories at T.O.'s Mittica Gallery

Toronto's Mittica Gallery, newly located in the hub of Queen St. West across from Trinity Bellwoods Park, has decided to invest almost exclusively in Italian artists. As difficult a mandate as that may seem, they are currently attempting to launch a show from someone within the contemporary Italian art scene every second month. This month - direct from Italy - are new works by Giuseppe De Luca, a native of Syracuse, Sicily and the colours they invoke resonate with the transition into autumn happening here now.
De Luca's landscapes and figures have their own characteristic slant propelling the viewer into an almost immediate nostalgia for the past. For De Luca, this act of remembrance makes specific reference to his childhood days in Sicily - as these are the colours and scenes of farmers and fisherman with which he was surrounded in his youth; but they also speak to previous, pre-industrial civilizations, where the romance of rural community was at the core.
It was a fascination with archaeology that heavily influenced De Luca's style. While he was a student at the Institute for the Arts in Siracusa, Italy, De Luca had the opportunity to study the Greek monuments of the city: its Doric temples, the Greek theatre, the Classical and Hellenic sculptures. He then paid regular visits to the Museum of Archaeology and the ancient sites in the Iblean Region - rich in harbours, salt lakes ad farms in places such as Akra, Ortigia, Ibla, and Barocco of Noto. In these very specific tributes to a beloved homeland, De Luca's palette of tans and opaque white, variations of rust, and impressionistic glow of light - could be a tabula rasa onto which any viewer can project his or her own memories.
"They are very personal colours", explained the 60-year-old artist. "I use these colours because they are the colours of my memories, of daydreams. I paint not what I see but what comes to mind from years ago. That is why the subjects seem overwhelmed by the dust of time. I see them through the filter of time which keeps slipping by. It's about the sadness of things I no longer have and things which are almost achieved but have gone by too quickly and which I haven't had time to enjoy more deeply. By painting these memories I tell myself I can still possess them today."
De Luca's most recent collection focuses on a figurative series of old docks, boats, and shipyards which could be reminiscent of Canada's east coast, but which are intentional allusions to the "historic profession" of fishing that has become emblematic to Sicily. Layered thick with paint, his technique is almost one of abstraction in simplicity - cumulative and elegant; blurry and yet formative in its subject matter - De Luca's paintings represent the moment when one squints one's eyes to remember - a person, a place, a custom.
Peering into a De Luca painting is like looking down into a river in order see the forest behind you - something of a murky inversion, yet remarkably accurate in tone. In his trademark honouring of "the simple life", De Luca achieves such calm canvases. They are a moment of deep breathing in an otherwise crazy urbanity.
Aside from his great success as an artist, De Luca is renowned as a family man, a good father, and an unconditional support for his two children - both artists of one kind or another. Corrado De Luca, who lives in Toronto, has recently directed a documentary entitled Parkdalian about Iner Souster, which chronicles the day to day life of the Parkdale artisan. It will be shown on Bravo! later this month. u
Giuseppe De Luca shows at Mittica Gallery, 903 Queen St. West, until October 30. For more information call 416.703.3800.

Publication Date: 2004-10-24
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=4549