Matricola 1 (2025) Original Mixed-media Painting by Alessandro Materazzi

Matricola 1 is an original abstract painting born from a very personal memory of Milan.

For five years, I worked in a pub in the city, a place that became an important part of my everyday life. These two paintings are a tribute to that period and to the environment that accompanied me through those years.

Rather than painting the place literally, I wanted to preserve the colours, atmosphere and sensations that I associate with it. The turquoise and blue-green background is crossed by layers of white, black and yellow calligraphic gestures, creating a visual rhythm that feels both structured and spontaneous.

The circular forms introduce another kind of rhythm into the composition. They remind me of repetition and routine, while the improvised lettering breaks that regularity and brings movement into the surface.

I work without preparatory sketches. Each gesture responds to the one before it, allowing the composition to develop intuitively. The marks resemble fragments of an unknown alphabet, but they are not intended to be read or translated. They are a way of transforming memory into gesture.

Matricola 1 is therefore not a portrait of a place, but a portrait of a period of my life.

The work can be displayed on its own or paired with Matricola 2, creating a diptych in which two canvases hold different fragments of the same memory.

Materials used:

Acrylic and Spray

Details:

• Mixed-media painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 54 x 66cm (unframed)
• Ready to hang
• Signed on the back
• Style: Expressive and gestural
• Subject: Abstract and non-figurative