Geometry Has A New Perspective

Perspective, illusion and architecture. These are the elements of the work of the Swiss artist Felice Varini. He creates big, colorful, illusionary shapes by painting different surfaces in distinct levels, which, if seen from one unique perspective, suddenly converge into one image, a geometrical and well-defined shape. Varini works in situ choosing an interior or exterior landscape for his artworks. The perfect vantage point to watch these big-sized geometries is the eye level, usually a spot along a route from a place to another. As soon as we move from the central vantage point, the perspective vanishes and the image breaks into a series of colorful traces over buildings, walls, statues or any surface. Architecture is the main background of his drawings and once the installation is removed, the canvas remains untouched and unaltered.

These kinds of interventions remind me of the work of another artist, the Italian Rub Kandy. In one of his projects he looks for abandoned spaces, such as old factories in the suburbs, to paint over pieces of walls and floors, that, if looked at from the right angle, create precise images. Even if the scale is smaller, the idea of perspective-sensitive shapes still looks very good. Anyhow, thanks to the monumentality and the greatness of the illusion created by his work, Felice Varini has no contending.