Gianfranco Meggiato’s sculptures appear to be made of a crystallized, liquid substance and the space that penetrates them is their one and only protagonist. Exactly as it happens on misty days in the Venetian lagoon, where water blends into the sky and it becomes impossible to see the thin line that separates the two elements. His latest works also have a typically Venetian impalpability and ethereal quality, in which the material almost dissolves, fusing into space and light.
When he looks at the works of the great masters of the past, he is attracted to the spatial interpenetration of Calder, the relationship between inside and outside of Moore, the spiritual essentiality of Brancusi, and the biomorphic sculptural quality of Arp. His sculptures recall the brain and muscles under strain, and often at their heart is a gilded sphere, which acts as a sort of imaginary point of arrival. It lies beyond black parts that metaphorically represent the course of our life, which may at times be dark and intricate, but which is always essential to achieve inner advancement.
He likes the contrast between these dark parts and the brilliance of the mirror-polished bronze, which gives a unique, warm light which he feels helps conveying his formal and spiritual research. He does believe that there is a form of spirituality that goes beyond particular religions and draws on an energy of which we are all an integral part: the energy within us, which conveys a universal message that permeates all cultures.
And it is towards this that my works strive: the overcoming of all cultural and religious barriers in order to attain true essence. Art must once again give us hope.
