Giuseppe Portella, Behind the cover ItaliaImballaggio 10/2023

Of Sicilian origins, Giuseppe Portella was born on 11 December 1962 in Novate Milanese. Completely self-taught, his techniques have gradually acquired sophistication and flair, with creative and thoughtful versatility in continuous experimentation. He creates paintings, sculptures and design works with a unique style, without ever abandoning resin, a material that makes everything eternal. The first in Europe, in 2006 he began to study the properties of luminescent rare earths in the artistic field, exploiting the natural light effects of these pigments.

His first public work, “Tiamat”, was inaugurated in 2014 in Novate Milanese, a 5-metre-high sculpture placed at the entrance to the town. He has taken part in important art fairs, as well as in many personal and collective national and international exhibitions, including his first personal exhibition at the Francesco Gonzaga Museum in Mantua in 2017, participation in the 8th International Art Biennial in Monte-Carlo in 2018 and the 9th edition in 2021, the 12th edition 2021 of the Florance Biennial and the personal exhibition at the Visconti-Sforza Castle in Vigevano in 2022.

Over to the author

Why are we on this planet? What is light? What is our earthly existence? What have ancient civilizations passed on to us? Is what we see real? In my works there is an inherent reference to symbolism and ancient geometries, but also to contemporary crop circle geoglyphs, from which I draw inspiration; they are an unknown and alien language of incredible geometric beauty and “cosmic mathematics”. I’m enthralled by the study of light that I’ve been carrying out for many years: incorporeal matter that permeates the entire universe, giving life to infinite worlds without space and time. When humanity in the future discovers the secret of light, then it will make that evolutionary leap that will lead it to other dimensions and real knowledge of the universe, space and time.

I use the spherical shape a lot in my work. The sphere is for me the micro and the macrocosm, seen in atoms as well as in planets. The sphere represents perfection, the “no beginning” and “no end”, demonstrating that birth is not a beginning and death is not an end, because all matter is in continuous transformation. (Giuseppe Portella)