You can say that Cynthia Verri’s life in the arts was written in the stars. She was born in Urbino to American parents, across the street from where the Renaissance master Raphael used to live.
She studied at different art schools in the USA and Italy, where she married a man from Padova. A citizen of the world, she moved between Italy, USA, North Africa, the Middle East and without finding a place of permanence.
Currently she spends her time between the hills of Pescara, a trullo in Puglia and an apartment Algarve, in the south of Portugal.
Her interest in art in all its forms has been a constant throughout her life. A fascination for painting, ceramics, furniture restoration, fashion, and design have followed her throughout her travels, at one point driving her to open up an artistic clothing boutique in Venice.
The discovery of Algarve as a winter refuge, and time spent in the atelier of Rosa Pereira, has allowed Cynthia to re-explore her interest in painting.
Landscapes of Padova
Cynthia has a strong interest in Padova, which happens to be the birthplace of her husband Bruno. She lived there for many years, mainly in via Santa Sofia. She lived close to the historic tavern Nane della Giulia, one of the oldest establishments in the city with tables that have been in use since the 1800s.
Padova has always been a point of reference, with its classic vistas, Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta, to the Salone della Ragione where the famous Horse by Donatello stands. Underneath the Salone and under its porticoes are the Bar dei Osei and the stand of the Folperia, famous for its boiled octopus.
There’s you can find Caffè Pedrocchi, the Town Hall in Palazzo Moroni, the medieval tower of la Specola. These are all seen through a very personal lens, with strong colors which are not found in the chromatic texture of the city. Notably, there is an absence of human figures, or if there are they appear more like ectoplasms rather than people, as if the city were inhabited by ghosts.
The urban landscapes by Cynthia Verri appear like images lost and returned by the fog of time. They appear like the yellowed and faded pages of a vintage weekly magazine. In these urban visuals Cynthia distinguishes herself by an almost evanescent lyricism, finding her way through thick and intricate weavings of a city, as if they were metaphors of the paths of life. Her work is full of memories, and as she remembers her days in via Santa Sofia we catch glimpses of this past life.
Verri conceives the formation of images as an articulation of elements, such as how cities appear through time. There exists in her work an internal continuity, a line that passes through visual and conflicting variables. It concludes with the same charge of invention and personality that characterized the artist at her early beginnings years ago.
Conclusions
The artistic adventure of Cynthia Verri has been a constant process of refinement on her experiences in life. Her existential sentiment, her poetical transfiguration of her past, the desires for her future, her nostalgia for periods of infancy, the emotion of a new world, the desire to always be in a new place where she’ll feel uncomfortable anyway.
The poem by Giorgio Caproni called “Ticket left before not leaving” is a good description of her.
Cynthia Verri manipulates painting with the soul of a dreamer. Each canvas is a conquest of speed and a way to penetrate unknown visions. They revisit places, moments, people long gone or who have disappeared, and yet they still live within us.
The pleasure of invention, the finding of a relationship between form and color, and the necessity to say something positive and honest. Those are the fundamental elements of her paintings, which do not hide behind tricks of the trade or latest trends.
You could say she makes paintings which are born out of the fantastic. Amid all our doubts and problems, we cannot renounce the feeling of pleasure when we dream.
This is modern artwork, especially the landscapes as the lack of people conveys unique apprehensions and restlessness of our time.
It’s a realist body of work that adorns itself in fantasy to chase a dramatic, ruthless, fleeting reality.
Because when we speak of nature we speak of tears and blood.
(translated by Daniel Zilio)