NERI

into a dilation of time and space. Dots, quick signs and chromatic
boldness battle it out to define the space, challenging nature
and poetry for the restless search of the works’ formal solution.
Colors explode, lights shine, shapes go wild like millions of fires
that rise to the sky to take the light of the moon, and the red of
the autumn leaves, of the maples and fires majestically burst out:
at times one has the impression that this lyrical tension cannot
be expressed by visual prototypes, but only music and a sudden
burst of light-color can reveal the sound of this dizziness. Neri,
thanks to his gestures, builds a relationship with life, evolving
the way of seeing beyond aesthetic expression into a fantastic
condition of privilege. But once again he doesn’t look outside, but
inside. Inside his origins, inside his being, choosing the ideal gesture,
the ideal shape, between proportions to contradict, colors to
exhibit, words to suggest and oneiric signs to sublime. In making
art Giovanni Neri doesn’t make any concessions to style, to the
needs of spectators, but the firm and patient pursuit of the sign
seeking the chosen surface expresses the search for something
that is there and exists. Often there isn’t even a story to tell, and
we are taken directly inside the image modling the technique
to the expressive necessity of the vision. Kant said: «An artist
creates because he has to, not out of knowledge».
With the construction and deconstruction of the forms
that free themselves of their function of expressing a concept,
the gestures of the artist represent an arrival point, a definition
per se of the form with suffered attempts to recognize an interior
and parallel reality. In this way a poetical dimension gushes
out, in which space, movement, rhythm, light and vibrations
are elements referable to objective emotional spaces of an
oneiric vision, in which, once again, the sign is never entrusted
to pure instinct but to a creative and structured need. In this
phase of his work Giovanni Neri wants to make us believe the
stimulating and at the same provocative idea that making art
means entering the anarchy of an absence of structure. But
on the contrary, these works full of light and color take us to
a concrete vision of today’s world, in which the artist is well
familiar with the assimilations that derive from the different
cultural exchanges he has encountered during his personal
and creative evolution. He proudly declares that in any case
art, even today, always remains the only existential segment
between human hope and poetry.
And so, if the artist thanks to his work tries to overcome
the two faces of reality or of fantasy using desecrating or artificial
procedures, all this will reflect better on the growing and
contemplative or even participatory interest of the observer,
with a meaning and content that are a challenge for his creative
spontaneity. And so he’s aware that the marvel of human
creativity is one of the principles of knowledge and that if we
stop amazing ourselves we run the risk of not knowing.
«Art is to the spirit what bread is to the body; through
art we find oneness with a transcendental entity,
breathe its rhythm, and absorb the energy we need
for spiritual renewal».
Faust, J.W. Goethe
19