Marco Grassi | Di-Gold Experience, Toronto

Grassi is an Italian painter best known for his stunning female portraits. His gilded compositions come to us from the coasts of Capri and are imbued with the glamour and vibrancy that the Italian island is known for. Thick layers of oil paint applied with a palette knife intermingle with delicate folds of gold and silver leaf, creating gorgeous textural details. What emerges from the peaks and valleys of this unique mark-making technique are soft, sensuous female figures with doe eyes and supple lips. Grassi’s models are at once delicate and determined. His portraits, suffused with vibrant colours, carry a complex sensibility. Devoting himself to portraiture, Grassi succeeds in challenging the typical standards of his genre through abstract colour-play and directional composition.

The question of gaze is ever-present in the artist’s practice, and this becomes all the more clear when experiencing his work as an immersive body. When you step into the gallery are you a voyeuristic observer whose eyes land on unsuspecting figures, or are you the object of these women’s intense and unwavering stare? When taken as a whole, Grassi has achieved a uniquely balanced power dynamic between subject and object, it is up to you to decide on which side you will land.