Oreste Zevola is one of those artists who manages to make us live the present with nostalgia. On Thursday, March 13, an exhibition of his was inaugurated, ten years after his death, in the spaces of “Al blu di Prussia” in Naples, and the participation was such that it made his world shine even more on the walls. Zevola is a unique artist in his genre, the son of that art generated by intimate necessity and not for showcase or profit.
Oreste Zevola, portrait
Despite the many people present and the clamor of the great occasions, it was not difficult to perceive the magic of his representations. Seventy, in fact, all tempera on canvas, all created between 2000 and 2014, plus a video art work, entitled Inanimés, created in Paris in 2004, with text by Jan-Marc Dimanche, the narrative voice of Anny Romande and animation by Francis Lachance.
Oreste Zevola, “The Remainder of Nothing”, 2004, tempera on canvas, 29 x 23 cm. Ph courtesy Archivio Oreste Zevola
Zevola has this enormous ability to stop time, to awaken our inner child, to make us live every single drawing in the most genuine way. It is not difficult to imagine him in his studios located between Naples, Bomarzo and Paris, playing seriously with art and with what it means: the best way to tell oneself in depth. And then living in a transversal way the emotions, the contaminations and the encounters with the world of cinema and theater, which enrich even more an artistic message made of collectivity, that which so frightens the egocentric contemporaneity.
Oreste Zevola, “The Remainder of Nothing”, 2004, tempera on canvas, 22.5 x 41 cm. Ph courtesy Archivio Oreste Zevola
Oreste’s modus operandi is marked by the rituality of gestures, by colors that are not bright but clear, which outline a thin and invisible line of demarcation between reality and dreams; a bit like when we were children and were told fairy tales and that “once upon a time” did not seem so far from the immediate. There is no distinction between the imaginative and the real: his world is completely suspended, within which various universes and identities interact: fairytale, philosophical, human, vegetal, animal. All participate in the narration with marked temperament, but without ever overwhelming the other. In his works there is poetry and elegance, a sense of balance and sublime imagination, much of what is missing in the disenchantment of our increasingly difficult existences.
Oreste Zevola, “Anomalien”, 2007, tempera on canvas, 23 x 12 cm. Ph courtesy Archivio Oreste Zevola
It is sad to recognize that his hometown, chosen until the end among the many in which he lived, has forgotten, over time, the importance and depth of this immense artist, whose works struggle to find a definitive physical and emotional location. Being able to benefit from Zevola’s art would mean nourishing certain ugliness, filling ancestral and provincial voids, still being able to imagine a better world.
Oreste Zevola, “The Remains of Nothing”, 2004, tempera on canvas, 16×10 cm. Ph courtesy Archivio Oreste Zevola
A round of applause then to the organizers of this celebratory exhibition, who had the ability to remind us of him, in the most authentic way, through the meeting of friends, curious, artists, experts and less experienced. It seemed like being at a party, affectionate and exciting. The feeling was that of having Oreste among us, perhaps smiling, with his dog, and the desire to return home soon to draw, in his own way, what was happening. Home, in a certain sense, he returned: Naples (perhaps) will understand how much we still need him.
Rita Alessandra Fusco
Info:
Oreste Zevola
curated by Maria Savarese
in collaboration with Archivio Oreste Zevola
13.03.2025 – 09.05.2025
“Al Blu di Prussia”
via Gaetano Filangieri, 42 – Napoli
www.albludiprussia.com
is a contemporary art magazine since 1980
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