There is always, upon entering an exhibition, a moment that feels automatic and somewhat ridiculous in its predictability when one asks what lies before it and what we are truly looking at as if it were still possible today to obtain from such a question a stable answer that does not dissolve at the instant it takes shape.
Andrea Capucci, “In forma di amore”, 2026, glazed terracotta, 30 × 40 cm. Courtesy Galleria Antonio Verolino, Modena
Added to this, there is an increasingly evident perceptual disturbance on the part of the viewer which takes the form of a compulsion to understand art before even looking at it as though comprehension were a preliminary condition rather than a secondary effect. With a gaze already saturated by the meanings imposed by language one approaches the works without truly seeing them and remains unable to linger before what does not immediately lend itself to translation. This barrier is more effective the more it remains invisible because it prevents direct contact with the works as they present themselves in their concrete appearing. This is not a matter of stopping at the surface but of recognizing how deeply we remain bound to a form of propositional and logical knowledge that precedes the act of looking and ultimately replaces it and this dynamic closely resembles that well known in marketing whereby one adheres only to what is already familiar and relegates to the margins everything that does not fit within a system of immediate recognition.
Fuse, “Unseen Flora CB03”, 2024, laser print on matte Fujicolor Lustre paper, 120 × 120 cm. Courtesy Galleria Antonio Verolino, Modena
In the case of the group show From Flowers to Bees at Galleria Verolino in Modena the title suggests a clear and almost didactic trajectory from flower to bee and a linear sequence that seems to promise a natural order of things and for this reason appears suspect since what presents itself as immediate is often already constructed. Once inside the exhibition space this linearity is never truly encountered and remains instead an initial trace and a promise that organizes nothing and leaves the gaze without any real point of orientation. The exhibition curated by Antonio Verolino and Alessandro Mescoli with the collaboration of Marcello Bertolla brings together seventeen artists around the idea of natural thought and this expression does not refer to nature itself or to its representation but to a set of operations through which the natural is made available and therefore inevitably transformed.
David Casini, “Fico”, 2020, brass, acrylic paint, resin, tempered glass, UV print, beeswax, 40 × 30 × 3 cm; Gregorio Botta, “Noli me tangere”, 2019, wax, pigments and natural elements, 29,5 × 19 × 2,5 cm. Courtesy Galleria Antonio Verolino, Modena
At a certain point the flower ceases to be a flower and the bee ceases to be a bee not because they become symbols but because they empty out and reduce themselves to minimal functions that set in motion a circulation of the image that never stabilizes and continues to slip from one work to another. It becomes evident that what we call nature has never been a pure given but something always already filtered and organized and the distinction between nature and culture appears as a useful but fragile simplification that holds only up to a certain point. Something nonetheless resists not as a mystery to be resolved but as friction and as a minimal resistance that remains within the works and prevents any closure while compelling the gaze to remain in motion.
Jacopo Valentini, from the series “Superlunare (Margherite)”, 2020, inkjet print on Canson Platine paper, 70 × 56 cm. Courtesy Galleria Antonio Verolino, Modena
The works do not construct a unified discourse and do not attempt to do so but proceed through juxtapositions in which drawings, sculptures, ceramics, installations, photographs and digital works coexist without evident hierarchies. In some cases the organic reference remains legible and in others it survives only as a trace and as a fragile residue already on the verge of disappearance. This continuous oscillation is what holds the exhibition together if it still makes sense to speak of cohesion and in this way the vegetal becomes structure the insect becomes system and the hive when it appears presents itself as a logic rather than as an image and as a form of organization that does not truly organize.
Info:
AA.VV., From Flowers to Bees
2/04/2026 – 9/05/2026
Artists: Zeno Bertozzi, Nicola Biondani, Giulia Bonora, Fabrizio Bonvicini, Gregorio Botta, Andrea Capucci, David Casini, Giuliano Della Casa, fuse*, Michele Farina, Massimiliano Galliani, Michelangelo Galliani, Lara Lorenzi, Enrico Minguzzi, Valentina Palmi, Jacopo Valentini, Giovan Gioseffo Dal Sole (grazie alla collaborazione con Ossimoro Galleria D’Arte)
Galleria Antonio Verolino
Via Luigi Carlo Farini, 70 – Modena
www.galleriaantonioverolino.com
Nicola Bigliardi (1995) is an art historian, curator and writer. After graduating in Economics and Art History, he is currently a PhD student in Aesthetic Philosophy at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan. His practice combines art-historical research with narrative writing, as evidenced by “Whisky & Soba” (Midgard, 2025), “Cinematics” (Postmediabooks, 2023), and “Lo spiritoso nell’arte” (Bookabook, 2021). He collaborates with art galleries, non-profit organizations, and associations, and holds lectures and conferences for museums, universities and cultural institutions.
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