For their upcoming exhibition, “On the Border” featuring Carlos Donjuan and Marta Sesana, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea in Milan paired up two artists with unconventional approaches to figurative painting. The border the title alludes to is not a cultural or geographical one — though Donjuan grew up between Mexico and the US and Sesana is from Italy — but rather, an aesthetic boundary, or lack thereof. Both artists paint from the imagination, creating colorful characters that reference the cartoons of their youth (and graffiti culture, in Donjuan’s case) as well as art-historical tradition. But both artists’ approach is painterly rather than illustrative, rendering these imaginary figures with expressive brush strokes that allow the colors to run. Take a look at our preview of “On the Border” before it opens on February 13.
Carlos Donjuan:
Marta Sesana:
