Where Paintings Embrace: Jilan Wu’s First Solo Exhibition at A PICK GALLERY

A PICK GALLERY is pleased to present Where Paintings Embrace, the first solo exhibition at the gallery by Jilan Wu, an artist selected as part of the Premio Combat 2024, whose jury included the gallery itself. The exhibition opens on Tuesday 4 June 2025 and will remain on view until 28 June, showcasing a series of new paintings on canvas, along with a selection of ceramic works being presented for the first time.

Jilan Wu, Due donne III, 2025, colla di pelle di coniglio, pigmento, olio su tela, 100x80 cm

Jilan Wu’s pictorial practice is marked by an intimate and sensitive approach to human relationships, explored through a visual language that bridges personal memory and universal emotion. Born in 1990 in Gui Zhou, China, and now based in Bologna, the artist creates a visual space where intimacy blends with ambiguity and melancholy is infused with tenderness.

The works on display feature a layered, vibrant, and sensorial painting style dominated by warm tones — reds, oranges, and pastel pinks — that illuminate the surface with an inner light, evoking memories, dreams, and desires. Particularly in the Abbracci series, there is a visceral expression of the need for contact and closeness, emerging from lived experiences of distance and separation. Wu’s more recent pieces also reveal a richer materiality in her use of colour and a stronger narrative tension.

Jilan Wu, Una donna IX, 2025, ceramica, 25x39 cm

The introduction of ceramics marks a significant development in the artist’s practice, bringing in a three-dimensional aspect that retains the tactile and bodily qualities of her work. These fragile, irregular forms highlight gestures, voids, and the inherent vulnerability of human connection.

Drawing on influences from Chagall, the Fauves, and the contemporary sensibility of Yoshitomo Nara, Wu constructs a deeply personal visual universe in which the body becomes a medium for expressing the imperfect beauty of relationships.

Where Paintings Embrace

4 – 28 June 2025

Jilan Wu

A PICK GALLERY

Via Bernardino Galliari 15/C, 10125 Turin

Tuesday-Saturday 3.30-8 pm

https://apickgallery.com/

"Senza difese. La strada a venire": inaugurated the solo exhibition of Francesca Bertazzoni at A+B Gallery in Brescia

Opening on Thursday, February 20, at A+B Gallery was the exhibition Senza difese. The Road Ahead by Francesca Bertazzoni (Bologna, 1977), an exhibition that came about as part of the awarding of the Special Gallery Prize at the 2023 Combat Prize.

His research takes shape from an intimate and deep-rooted bond with the road, a silent but indispensable companion, which offers itself as a space for listening, a trace of passages and a narrative in the making. Walking, stopping, observing, collecting: each element of his work derives from the experience of the journey, from contact with matter, from the memory deposited in places.

Francesca Bertazzoni, AUTORITRATTO. LA PRATICA #3, bitume su feltro e spray acrilici, 76x61 cm, 2024

Bertazzoni adopted walking as an artistic practice in 2020, when the limitation of movement spaces transformed the street into a territory of research and resistance. Since then, walking becomes an expressive device, a path from which signs, materials, encounters and memories emerge. In an exclusive dialogue with the asphalt - a liminal and mutable space, the place where the work is generated - Bertazzoni walks against the grain, follows the roadway line, absorbs its visual grammar and returns a plastic language. The white line becomes guiding element and boundary, margin and protection, director of his going. The path becomes a sedimentation of experiences and a collection of traces: materials such as bituminous sheathing, cold asphalt, felt, spray and gold are layered in the works, composing a material archive that feeds on the direct experience of the path and the objects and elements Bertazzoni retrieves from his past and his family history.

The exhibition will be on view until March 15, 2025 at A+B Gallery (Corsetto Sant'Agata, 22, Brescia) on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 3 to 7 p.m., or by appointment.

For information: gallery@aplusb.it / Instagram: @aplusb_gallery

Museo della Città di Livorno and Museo Giovanni Fattori - Granai di Villa Mimbelli to Host the 16th Edition of the Combat Prize

Two prestigious museums will host the final exhibition of the eighty finalist artists of the Combat Prize, from June 28 to July 12, 2025. The selected works will be exhibited at the Museo Giovanni Fattori – Granai di Villa Mimbelli and the Museo della Città di Livorno, which houses a valuable permanent collection of contemporary art. This dual-venue will provide a multifaceted perspective on Livorno’s cultural landmarks, fostering a dialogue between past and present, tradition and innovation.

Pino Pascali - Il Grande Rettile - Museo della Città di Livorno

With the announcement of these new exhibition venues, registrations are now officially open for the 16th edition of the Combat Prize, an international competition dedicated to promoting and enhancing contemporary art.

The Prize aims to map out the trajectories of both Italian and international artistic landscapes and document the transformation of artistic languages. By doing so, it seeks to capture the most dynamic and unexplored energies of contemporary art.

The grand prize of €10,000 has been confirmed and will be awarded by the jury to one artist among the eighty finalists. Additional cash prizes will be granted for each competition category.

The Special Gallery Prize involves the selection of one finalist artist—independently of the jury—by five leading contemporary art galleries. The selected artist will receive support to develop a new collaboration, which will culminate in a solo or group exhibition during the 2025/26 season in a dedicated independent space.

The Poliart Prize has also been confirmed, providing support for the production of an artwork by one of the finalist artists, selected by Poliart, a leading company in the processing of expanded polystyrene.

Museo civico Giovanni Fattori - Granai di Villa MImbelli Livorno

IThese special prizes aim to foster meaningful dialogue between art, business, and local communities, which is essential for promoting and raising awareness of contemporary artists.

AWARDS FROM THE 16TH EDITION OF THE COMBAT PRIZE

• €10,000 – Prize Winner of the Combat Prize

Category Awards:

• €1,500 – Winner of the Painting category*

• €1,500 – Winner of the Sculpture & Installation category*

• €1,500 – Winner of the Photography category*

• €1,500 – Winner of the Graphics category*

• €1,500 – Winner of the Video - Performance Art category*

*The winning artwork will remain the property of the artist.

• Gallery Prize – A solo or group exhibition in the 2025-2026 exhibition season

Special Prizes – Collaboration with five galleries and an independent space

• Special Poliart Prize – The company, a leader in expanded polystyrene processing, will support the production of a work by a selected finalist artist

Application Deadline: April 30, 2025

For more information: info@premiocombat.it

https://www.premiocombat.it/register