Artist interview: Dora Celentano
ARTPIQ is pleased to announce the winner of this year's ARTPIQER's Painting Award: The Düsseldorf-based artist and Düsseldorf Art Academy graduate Dora Celentano, who impressed the award jury with her compelling artistic approach, her painterly play with lightness and depth as well as the topicality of her work.
We have spoken to Dora about the impact of the award on her development and the thematic background of her work
1. Why did you decide to apply for our award?
Unlike many other art prizes, the ARTPIQER's Painting Award is a very open prize that includes everything a young artist desires. Often art prizes are only linked to a residency without additional monetary support. For me, the combination of a solo exhibition, the prize money and the residency was perfect because the prize money allows the artist to work without any financial pressure.
At the Grand Award Opening at Werthalle in Cologne. From left to right: Jury member Dr. Barbara J. Scheuermann (Kunstmuseum Bonn), Oliver Struch (Founder Wertheim Cologne), Dora Celentano, Janine Wixforth (ARTPIQ), Katharina Wenzel-Vollenbroich (Founder ARTPIQ)
2. Among others you have won a residency at PADA Studios in Lissabon, a 5.000€ cash prize as well as a solo exhibition at Werthalle in Cologne. How do you think these prizes will support you in the next year?
With the prize money and the residency, I can concentrate more on my art and work with more focus on projects. Through the residency I get to know international artists and a country that will be very inspiring.
3. What do you think is the biggest obstacle for young artists in their early development?
That is a difficult question. But I think the challenge is to stay with you. You constantly compare yourself to other artists and think that you have to do it like that in order to be seen as well. In fact, there is no formular to be an artist and therefore it is important to find your own way.
4. Could you let us know a bit more about the thematic background of your exhibition "Beyond Painting" at Werthalle?
My work is about things that we consider beautiful and how our eyes are shaped by beauty. It deals with accumulation and collecting, as well as a nonsensical order, which occur visually in the patterns and rhythmic arrangements. In the exhibition, I try to make this clear by the composition of the artworks and the hanging.
Installation shot of Dora Celentano's exhibition "Beyond Painting" at Werthalle in Cologne. Photograph by Kai Werner Schmidt.
5. Would you say that your work is a direct critique of consumerism? Or do you think the desire to accumulate things and possession is somehow also profoundly human and therefore inevitable?
Both. My mother comes from a time of the new german economic boom after World War II. My dad comes from a large family from Italy where it has always been financially difficult. The contrast between ownership and want is something that runs like a thread in my family history. The contrast between the two extremes is what concerns me in my work. I think it's important to surround yourself with beautiful things. At the same time, I always get an oppressive feeling when amassing too much in my private life or looking at the effects of our consumer-driven society.
6. Where do you think your interest in fashion and advertisement originates? Were there specific experiences that sparked your fascination?
In my youth, I have always been very interested in fashion magazines like Vogue, Elle, etc. For hours I could look at photo spreads and get lost in it. Often, I glued together collages from parts of these magazines, as an envelope for poetry albums. As I got older, I came to study communication design. During this study I realized several magazine ideas but also an alternative fashion label, called "GELD" which was founded together with the photographer Heike Kandalowski. There we sewn 10 € vouchers in special packaging and sold them for 10,99 €. At some point it became clear that my interests were not in the design process, but in an artistic exploration of the subject. That's why I decided to study painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In my Professor Stefan Kürten I found someone who deals with very similar topics, the so-called "perfect world“.
Installation shot of Dora Celentano's exhibition "Beyond Painting" at Werthalle in Cologne. Photograph by Kai Werner Schmidt.
7. What do you find specifically interesting about the "translation" of the digital into analogue creative processes? Nowadays one usually witnesses more of the opposite happening.
Things that I see in the digital context are in a vacuum, without context and in a never-ending flow of images. By painting these objects from the Internet, I end this flow, letting the object filter through my body into reality, and give it permanence through the painterly process.
8. Do you have an idea where your creative practice will lead you towards in future?
I’d like to work even more with habitat creation and experiment with different materials. For example, a work is planned with the adhesive sheets that I usually used as a stencil form for murals.
9. Who is your artistic role model and why?
It's hard for me to call an artistic role model, but I immediately think of two important sources of inspiration: Umberto Eco’s piece „Name of the rose“ is a historical murder mistery with a combination of semiotics and fiction, medevial studies and literary theory. I liked the idea of archiving and disfunction of orders in this masterpiece.
Another big influence is music, because Im also a DJane and dancer. I really like big operas with syntethis of the arts like Turandot from Giaccomo Puccini.
10. If you were to paint a self portrait - which colours and forms would dominate the picture?
Somehow all my pictures are self-portraits. So I guess purple and floral ornaments would dominate the picture.
I did my BA in Painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan (2014) during which I spent six months as part of my Erasmus exchange in Paris at the Ecole de Beaux Arts.
After that, I went to London for my MFA at the Slade School of Fine Arts where I graduated in 2018.
What influence did your studies have on your art?
A lot, especially for the people that I met there. When I was studying in Brera, my teacher was Alberto Garutti who had a conceptual art background and I think this influenced a lot of the students in our class as it was more about the idea rather than the making of the work. This “philosophical” approach to art was very challenging for me at the time. I was very young and I tried different mediums to express myself while I was there without finding my thing.
I think the turning point was the Erasmus in Paris where I felt totally free, and I created a work which I am still working on right now. Finally, my MA in London was focused just on painting and that time helped me to become confident with colors.
Describe a little about your style and painting method. Your work has taken different turns over the years – how did you get to where you are today and what makes you happy with your current method of expressing yourself?
It’s true, my work has taken different turns over the years. Especially because, as I said earlier, during my years at Brera my art wasn’t about painting as it is today. I tried different mediums to express myself, and then in London I dedicated myself only to painting. After that I complete a show featuring art of mine, I have this feeling that I have finished what I wanted to say about that so I start wondering what I can improve for the next one. That’s why I see my works as an evolution - they are all linked by the materials I use, the touch they have or the colours I use, and each one speaks to a different aspect of my interests or of my life. Probably, the thing that makes me happy today is that I realized I am an abstract painter. I want my images to be open to the viewer’s free interpretation, a shape or color can be an atom or a circle. It depends on what you want to see in it and I love playing with this ambiguity. It makes the work more magical...
You recently made copper plates – how did you decide to do that? What attracted you to making copper plates?
Actually the copper plates are one of the oldest works of mine. It’s a work I originally made when I was in Paris during my Erasmus and had quiet a lot of success with. After that, I decided to move on, I almost threw it away and started making new works that had less to do with it. With that said, however, I recently went back to it with fresh eyes and I am trying to renew it by making new copper plates that will be part of my next show in Milan.
Who are some of your favorite artists that you look up to (either from the past or contemporaries, or both!) Why?
What a difficult question! I love so many of them. Right now I am into the work of Roni Horn, her series of drawings. I like the fracture lines given by her way of cutting the paper in thousands of small pieces..
What would you tell an up-and-coming artist that wants to make their art their career?
Don’t give up! Think about the work itself and how to improve it . Also, I would say listen to other people and don’t hesitate to compare your work with others. I think that the exchange with other artists is one of the most enriching things you can do for yourself and your artistic growth.
What is your plan for the future? How do you see your work continuing to grow and develop?
I can’t wait to show my new works on paper on which I am working on right now to the people . The next show will be held next winter in Milan and for that occasion, I want to bring together the works I make from the new copper plates with the paintings too. It’s something I always kept separate but now it’s time for me to give sense to both of them and finally see them together in an exhibition space.
Artist interview: Dora Celentano
