Venice Art Biennale: ECC Palazzo Mora

A couple of weeks ago, I had gone for a walk in Cannaregio area of Venice to visit some of the collateral art exhibitions of Venice Art Biennale. That included a visit to the art exhibition in the European Cultural Centre (ECC) in Palazzo Mora.

In this post, I want to present 15 artworks that I liked most in the art exhibition in ECC. The image on the left is a sculpture titled "Soleil" and it is part of an installation by Donna Isham, which you can see below at number 10 in this post.

This is the third part of my visit-diary to art events in Cannaregio area of Venice. You can also check the first and second parts of this diary at the links below:

Venice Biennale: Art in Cannaregio Part 01

Venice Biennale: Art in Cannaregio Part 02

Art Exhibition at ECC - Palazzo Mora, Venice

Since 2011, during Venice Art Biennale, ECC organises an art exhibition titled "Personal Structures". This year (2026) the theme of this exhibition is "Confluences". There are three venues of this exhibition - Palazzo Mora, Palazzo Bembo and Marinaressa gardens. It includes a mix of installations, paintings, sculptures and performances. Entrance to the exhibition is free and it is on till 22 November 2026.

This post looks only at the artworks presented in Palazzo Mora, which is located in Cannaregio area of Venice. I am hoping to go to visit the exhibition at Palazzo Bembo very soon.

This year's theme Confluences is inspired by meeting of rivers, looking at coming together of ideas, backgrounds and ways of thinking. It explores how personal experiences connect with shared realities.

Click on the images for a bigger view of the artworks. 

My 15 Favourite Artworks at Palazzo Mora

Let me now present my favourite artworks. It was not easy to choose only fifteen among the hundreds of artworks presented this year and these represent my subjective preferences, which tend towards kitsch and colourful works.

These are not presented in any particular order. In fact, at the end, I have written about which of these 15, I liked most!

1. Sculptures by Judith Unger, US

Judith has some female sculptures in ceramics with some gold work and design on the theme of rape, mostly in bright yellows. I have taken some of them in the image below.

I had seen similar works by Judith earlier, though they had softer hues. Her sculptures are often about women and their fight for dignity, about fighting injustice and healing from trauma.

Somehow, in my mind the bright and sunny yellow colour, does not match with the sadness and pain of rape. Therefore, even if the faces of the women in these sculptures are sad, the sculptures themselves seem to express hope and resilience.  

 

2. Paintings by G-Sim Seyeon, S. Korea

Seyeon has some mixed-media artworks on canvas, titled "We shared a moment". They are hypnotising, looking like erupting fireworks or some cosmic explosion.

G-Sim or Seyeon Kim as he is known as, is a south Korean artist based in Osaka Japan.   He describes his work as focusing "on capturing microscopic "moments"—vanishing instants that appear and disappear in the blink of an eye". 

Many of his early works explored exploding fireworks, while recent series depict crashing ocean waves and coastal waters. Thus, this year in the Venice Biennale, he seems to have gone back to his fireworks inspired art.

Each of his canvas is big and I could have stood there and looked at it for a long time. Unfortunately, the image can give you only a glimpse of that feeling.

 

3. Painting by Kaoru Shibuta, Japan

It is an acrylic on canvas artwork titled "Ochatsumi days". The artist says that he has picked up the invisible and harmonious sounds of Ochatsumi (tea-picking) in a tea garden - the rustle of the leaves, the wind, atmosphere of the fields - into a visual composition.

Thus, this artwork can be imagined as the musical notes of sounds in the visual language of the artist. Perhaps this means that he has synesthesia, which is a neurological condition in which senses have cross-connections, so that sounds can be perceived as colours.

Shibuta was born in Hokkaido, and is now based in Kagawa, Japan. He synthetically transforms music and natural sounds into paintings, like this work.

In terms of simplicity and a child-like sense of beauty, his artworks remind me of Mirò. 

4. Woven and Printed Fabric Painting by Desmond Beach, US

The artwork has two young black women standing close, leaning and supporting each other, against a colourful background with a layered surface of fabrics, which are expressing ancestral archives. It is titled "The Quiet Between Us".

The artwork includes a digital painting on jacquard woven fabrics, which have been stitched together by hand and by machine. I appreciated that the fabric was woven with Jacquard, a weaving shuttle first developed and used in Schio in the late 1800s, whose name is celebrated in our Jacquard gardens.

Desmond is an interdisciplinary artist, professor and researcher with a PhD in art and media.

 

5. The Mixed Media Sculpture by Martha Russo, US

This artwork has mainly ceramics, but it also includes paper-clay, glaze, wood, metal, polyurethane foam and paper, to create a mass of writhing snake-like tentacles forming a rough cube. It is described as "the ancient earth-bound substance embracing the precarious - extending into space, flirting with gravity and pulsing with fiction". 

This artwork is titled "Nomos - Venetian Cube".

Martha's biography is very inspiring. A world-class athlete and a hockey player, she suffered a career-ending injury in 1984.  An year later, in 1985 she did her BA in developmental biology and psychology. However, the injury changed the way she looked at herself and her role in the world. She began studying fine arts in Florence, Italy and did a master in fine arts in USA. She is involved with Artnauts, a socially and politically aware art collective and teaches at the in the Art and Art History Department of University of Colorado Boulder and at the College of Engineering and Applied Science

6. Paintings by Demi Padua, Philippines

This artwork includes some acrylic paintings on canvas. Its figures remind me of the steampunk costumes.

Demi is a painter, multimedia artist and a graphic designer.  Born in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines, he was interested in becoming an artist from his childhood. His paintings bring together his experiences in theatrical production and design with visual arts.

He says that he uses layers of printed material as a collage over his paintings and shows peeling away of those additional layers to unmask his real identity, without fear of perception.

That sounds like conflicting ideas about about his gender and sexual identity, but I am not sure if he means it in that way. However, this understanding adds a sense of sadness and wistfulness to his figures. 

 

7. Paintings by José Moñú, Spain

José Moñú is an artist from Zaragosa (Spain). His artworks are acrylic paintings on canvas in bright colours. Entering in this room, felt like entering a room with deforming mirrors, where can laugh at our faces and bodies. 

He is known for his large-format, boldly coloured acrylic works featuring people with deformed, dynamic, blurred, or melted heads, which has been described as abstract expressionism.

 

8. Artworks by Vasily Klyukin, France

In this exhibition, Vasily has created some artworks by placing plywood and polycarbonate on a surface and painting them with varnish paint and acrylic to create giant puzzle-art.

His subjects are not immediately clear. For example, in the image on the left, you can see the woman with the baby, a familiar figure of Madonna with baby Jesus.

He explains his approach to art as "Demetricizm" - an art revealing the force-lines from which form is born. Originally from Russia, Vasily is based in Southern France and Monaco, he is a visual artist, sculptor and architect.

Vasily is also known for a digital design project called “Designing Legends,” which has been published as a book of imaginary architecture.

9. Ceramic Art by Lara Bohinc, Great Britain

Lara is a Slovenian-born artist, based in London UK, who creates functional ceramics in a variety of materials including stone, metal, glass and wood.

Her three artworks shown here are titled seabed vase, marine vase and trap vessel. There have been created as part of the theme work called "Shared Streams", with materials that seem to suggest a state of flux and flow.

She runs the Bohinc Studio in London, which works at the intersection of furniture, functional sculpture, and material research.

10. Installation by Donna Isham, USA

This installation paired together a diptych of paintings with a ceramic sculpture. The two paintings are - "She never left" defined as a fractured portrait and "I found it at the curio shop", while the sculpture is titled "Soleil", exploring the fluid boundary between figuration and abstraction. 

I could see the connection between the woman in the sculpture (it can be seen at the top of this post) and the painting on the left, but was not sure of how the two linked with the second painting. However, it was the one artwork that seemed to express the idea of "confluence", the theme of this exhibition. 

On her website, Donna has written, "I am an expressionist artist driven by a desire to uncover and communicate the hidden human spirit. Working across painting, sculpture, and immersive paintings ... works are created in collaboration with my husband, musician Mark Isham, extending the emotional and psychological dimensions of my visual practice through sound and animation." 

11. Artwork by Fintan Whelan, Ireland/Germany

The giant abstract artwork with mixed media on canvas has beautiful swirling colours. He is the only artist in the exhibition, for which no country was mentioned. I checked and found that he is of Irish origin and now lives in Germany, but has exhibitions all around the world, so probably feels like a citizen of the world. Appropriately, this work is titled "Earth's Abundance".

 

12. An Art-Science Collaboration by Shizuku Takahashi & Geraldine Ondrizek 

This beautiful work brings together a science author from Japan and an art professor from Oregon, USA. They both look at the journey of a single human cell as it develops.

Shizuko Takahashi has written a book titled, "Becoming you: A Journey From a Single Cell" and Geraldine Ondrizek has made a seres of 12 paintings to illustrate part of that journey.

The image below presents the steps from 2 to 5 of that journey and are titled 2. A world in a grain of sand; 3. The intricate you; 4. One cell; and, 5. Passing down.

Dr Takahashi is a Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics. Her interest is in exploring the ethical boundaries and clinical practices of technologies like oocyte cryopreservation (egg freezing) and prenatal screening. At the same time, she is also an accomplished children's book author and illustrator. 

13. Marble Sculpture by Pablo Damian Cristi, Italy-Argentina

The marble sculpture is titled "Angel without wings".

I loved the way he has used marble to represent the clothe covering the figure, covering her face like a translucent veil, torn in places like her knees.

Using a solid surface like marble to represent a soft fabric, has a long history in art, but still every time, I see something like this, it makes me pause.

Pablo has written on his instagram page that he likes using historical sculpting techniques to push the boundaries of contemporary sculpture. He is engaged in creating a monumental sculpture of Christ carrying the cross, inspired by the two sculptures of Michaelangelo on this theme. 

14. Artworks of the Orleans Gallery, USA

I loved the Jazzy vibes of these artworks from the New Orleans gallery which include works of different artists.

The artists include the following - Andrew LaMar Hopkins, Karen Ocker, Michie Cooper, Adam Trest, Joe Mustachia, Tony Bernard, Jen Morgan, Kloe Donley and Morgan Gray. Each of these artists have so much work on their Instagram pages, to which I have given links and you can spend hours looking at each of them.

 

15. Sculpture by Tim David Trillsam, Germany

The bronze sculpture is titled Bruchpilot, and has a nude sculpture of a man with a pilot-cap worn in the first world war period, and he has wings on his arms.

Tim expresses the fragility and resilience of the human form in his sculptures, that have elongated forms similar to those developed under the Mannerism movement.

His own typical touch is added in the oversized hands and feet of his sculptures.

Take a look at his website and his Instagram page, he has some very interesting artwork there.  He describes his artistic journey as "he seamlessly weaves classical sculpture education with a distinctive creative identity honed at prestigious art academies". 

In The End

I hope that you have enjoyed looking at the 15 of my favourite artworks from the European Cultural centre's art exhibition for the Venice Art Biennale 2026. If you are in Venice before 22 November 2026, find time to visit it - it is free and has a lot of beautiful art to inspire and give joy to you.

Let me conclude this journey with a Chinese artist, whom I did not include in the above fifteen but I had liked - Zhu Na. Zhu Na is a contemporary artist, actress, and pop singer from Mainland China, and her artwork is titled "My grandmother's Qipao".

Qipao is supposed to be a traditional Chinese dress, but the green dress worn by the girl-sculpture below does not look like one - may be it means that even traditional dresses could look very modern?  

If you have to choose one artwork among all those presented above, which one would you choose? I am not able to decide between Fintan Whelan, José Moñú and Kaoru Shibuta.

***** 

 

Venice Biennale: Art in Cannaregio 02

At the Venice Art Biennale, I visited some collateral events in Cannaregio area close to the Santa Lucia Venice railway station. You can also check the first part of this visit-diary, in which I visited 3 such events.

This second part of my visit-diary looks at the art-exhibitions at Palazzo Donà delle Rose and the International Graphic School. Both these exhibitions can be visited free till 22 November 2026. In addition, it mentions the Jesuit church Santa Maria Assunta.

 

The above image is from the Indonesian pavilion at the International school of Graphics in Venice. You can click on all the images of this post for a bigger view.

The third and last part of this diary is about the art exhibition in Palazzo Mora, the European Cultural Centre.

1. San Donà delle Rose Palace

This Palace located at 5038 Fondamenta Nove is hosting an exhibition called Fissures of Light - Diaspora: Dissonances in F# minor, including a group of artists from Guinea Equatorial. (Left: All the artists taking part in the exhibition at this palace)

The exhibition site includes different rooms and halls spread over 2 levels.

I am presenting some of the artworks which I liked in this exhibition, starting with a couple of artists from Guinea Equatorial.

Armando Abel Dyangani Mega, Guinea Equatorial: I will start with the artworks of Armando, whom I met and spoke to at the exhibition. He said, "I was born in Bata city where I studied initially and later went to Malabo. When I was 22, I came to study art in Salamanca, Spain. Since 2013, I live in Malabo in Guinea Equatorial." 

In the image below you can see Armando Abel Dyangani Mega with two of his artworks from this exhibition.

 

Fernando Nguema Medja, Guinea Equatorial: Fernando was a self-taught artist, who

learned sculpture from his uncle sculptor Antonio Edu, and he did carvings of traditional instruments, Balele masks and other arts of Fang tradition.

He lived for some time in Gabon, where he learned from Gabonese artist Obiang Djang. He died in 2008, when he was only 45 years old.

The image presents one of his artworks in the exhibition, which has a colourful traditional sculpture of the Fang people of Equatorial Guniea. 

Ibou Ndoye, Senegal: Born in Dakar, Senegal, Ibou is known for his mixed media art work and paintings. His art is known for the "perplexed faces" of street people and emigrant lives.

Ibou's grandmother was a tie-and-dye artist and his mother a dressmaker. Perhaps, that is why his artwork in this exhibition were painted fabrics, reminding about his background.

 

He graduated from the Fine Arts School of Dakar and spent time in Paris, France, before moving to the United States. He works with glass windows, canvases, carpets, and found objects. His work blends Senegalese traditions with modern abstraction to tell stories of everyday people and cultural identity.

Yasna Kohlbrenner Koko'Ya, Switzerland:  Originally from Basel (Switzerland), Koko'Ya wants to give voice to the voiceless through her art. 

 

She has presented her artworks in exhibitions in different parts of Africa including Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo. Many of her artworks presented in this exhibition also had strong African influence, such as the work shown in the image.

Rosa Mundi (Chiara Modica Donà dalle Rose), Italy: Rosa has grown up between Venice and Palermo (Sicily). She has studied art at Venice, Strasbourg and Paris. In 1993, she developed the Neo-Spatialism approach to art, following the pioneering work on Spatialism (use of space) by Argentinian-Italian sculptor-artist Lucio Fontana. According to Neo-spatialism, time does not exist but is only a human perception.

Light is a key element in the artwork created by Rosa. She does experimental installations, sculptures, paintings and photography, in a rich visual language. Over the past few years, she works mainly with marble, wood and terracotta. 

Her works in the exhibition include a double-sided Pinnochio, a marble sphere and a suitcase, shown in the image. She has created the Donà dalle Rose foundation. Her website provides more information about her.

Fulvio Merolli, Italy: Fulvio studied art in Rome and in Carrara. Since early 2000s, he is involved with an artistic collective called M'Arte Scultura. 

He is known for his monumental works displayed in public spaces as well as, for sacred spaces, especially in the Carrara marble.

In this exhibition, Fulvio has three artworks, all three in Carrara marble. The image below shows his artwork of a swimmer and the waves of water, all created with marble.

 

Martin Emschermann, Germany-Italy: Martin was born in Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany, studied art in Carrara, Italy and since 1990 lives in Palermo (Sicily, Italy), where he works as a sculptor. Over the past decades, he is known for his series of works on different themes.

For example, you can see his amazing sculptures of children made with iron and polyester resin and in partially maiolicated terracotta in his portfolio on his webpage. 

In this exhibition he has a few terracotta sculptures of children playing with soap bubbles that are absolutely amazing.  

2. The Jesuit Church

Coming out of the Donà delle Rose palazzo, I briefly stopped outside the Jesuit church dedicated to the ascension of St Mary (Santa Maria Assunta), which was originally built in 1128, while the present church building is from 1728.

At the top of the church is the marble sculpture of St Mary with the angels by Giuseppe Torretto while the front façade has the statues of the 12 apostles. Built by the crusaders, this church has many beautiful artworks including a painting by Tintoretto.

I was in a hurry and did not have the time to stop and visit the inside of this church. After the church my next stop was Palazzo Moro, but I am planning to write a full post dedicated to it, so I will proceed straight away to my last stop in Venice on this visit - the international school of Graphics in Calle Seconda del Cristo.

3. Indonesian Artists at the International School of Graphics

The first image of this post at the top shows one of the installations by an Indonesian artist, made like a well, that was supposed to collect rain water and whatever other materials wind brought to it.

The Indonesian exhibition was structured around an imaginary journey of Datu Na Tolu Hamonangan, the archivist of Harajaon Pusuk Buhit kingdom in 15th century Indonesia, from Lake Toba, to west Sumatra, to Malacca, passing from India and Egypt and reaching Venice. Incisions of different Indonesian artists are presented in this exhibition to depict this journey.

 

For example, the two images (above and below) are artworks of Agus Suwage using different materials and techniques such as linocut, water-colour and tobacco juice, present the journey in the east and in India.

 

The next image has oil portraits of imagined people he met during the journey and are by Ristyo Eko Hartanto.

 

In the End

I want to conclude this second part of my visit-diary with details of a sculpture by Martin Emschermann, that I liked very much.

 

The next, third and last, part of my visit diary  focuses on the artworks in Palazzo Mora. You may also like to read the first part of this diary to other art events in Cannaregio.

*****

Venice Biennale: Art in Cannaregio 01

Venice Art Biennale 2026 was inaugurated in May, but it was so hot during this summer that I kept on postponing my visit. Now, the temperatures have come down but I am troubled by knee pains.

In the end, I thought that I will go to see some of the collateral art events in Cannaregio, near the Venice Santa Lucia railway station, as it does not need too much walking.

Venice Art Biennale and most of the collateral events will be on till 20 November 2026. 

This is the first part of my visit-diary to collateral events of Venice Art Biennale in Cannaregio area of Venice. 

The image on the left shows the Church of Abbey of Compassion, my first stop on this Venice art-walk. (You can click on all the images for a bigger view) 

All the places that I visited during this visit had free entry. 

1. Art at the Church of Abbey of Compassion (Chiesa dell'Abbazia della Misericordia)

I started my walk with this ex-church (image above) that is used frequently for art exhibitions and events. The old church has a big hall with a beautiful ceiling painted in blue with stars.

There are two artists in this hall - Patty Toro Ribbeck from Santiago in Chilli and Keiko Yamagiwa from Tokyo, Japan.

Patty Toro Ribbeck 

Patty studied art in Florence. She explores the themes of identity, intimacy and sensuality, especially in terms of femminine sensibility through accessories made with ceramics. Originally trained as a designer, she teaches decorative ceramic painting and glass modelling.

 

Patty showed me a box with tiny ceramic works (image above) in different shapes that she had prepared for use with her work. She explained that the first step is to prepare these ceramic pieces, which she then colours and fixes them with a second oven-heating, and then uses them for making her art works.

 

For the exhibition in Venice, she has taken eye-glasses and converted each of them as an artwork by adding and fixing the tiny ceramic pieces in different shapes and colours to each frame (3 examples shown above - click for a bigger view). Thus, each of her artwork looked like a pair of eye-glasses expressing a specific femminine personality.

Keiko Yamagiwa 

Keiko is from Japan and she went to an art school in London, UK. Over the last years she is experimenting with performance-installations in which two persons enter a space created by a translucent black sheath and play with inter-relationships and intimacy created in that space. She experiments with locations and different shapes of the sheath, in which the spectators add an additional layer of relationship as they look at them from outside.

 

More recently, she has also experimented with these performance-installations by involving hundreds of persons covered under enormous black sheaths. In one such performance, she showed the picture in which the participants had raised their hands to hold the sheath in what seemed to be synchronised movement, without Keiko or anyone actually guiding this process.

You can see some of the Venetian experiences of these two artists, including some where they partecipate in each other's art on their Instagram pages - Patty & Keiko. 

2. Fallani Venezia Screen-Printing Workshop 

The Fallani Venezia workshop on Calle Lunga Santa Caterina, on my way to Fondamenta Nuova was not a part of Venice Biennale but as I was walking, I saw some beautiful prints inside and went inside to look at some of them.

It was an opportunity to talk to its owner Gianpaolo Fallani (in the picture with an artwork of Dario Fo) and learn about Serigraph Printing or the Silk-screen printing. It is a specialised way of making artistic prints. Gianpaolo explained to me that the first step is artist makes an artwork and brings to the workshop. A digital copy of that artwork is first made and a silk-screen (actually now they use a synthetic tissue instead of silk) is stretched and fixed on a wooden frame. Then a film with parts corresponding to each colour designed in black are put in front of the tissue-screen and exposed to strong light, so that the exposed parts become hard and the black parts remain soft, which is then washed. Thus, through this complicated process the silk/tissue screen is prepared with that artistic design which is then used make prints.

Gianpaolo explained that during the times of his father Fiorenzo Fallani many famous Italian artists such as Renato Guttuso, Salvatore Fiume, Emilio Vedova and Fabrizio Plessi, used to come to this workshop for their printing. Even today artists come there for their specialised printing. During my visit, he was busy working on an artwork made by an American artist. He also hosts artists for art-residencies so that they can find out the artistic possibilities of this screen-printing techniques. The webpage of the workshop has a large number of known names from the contemporary art world, including Gianpaolo Fallani himself.

In 2018, Gianpaolo Fallani received the Maestro d'Arte e Mestieri award (MAM - Master of Art and Crafts award) and his screen-printing laboratory is part of the "Diffused Museum of Paper and Prints" in Venice.

3. Fondamenta Nuove Theatre - David Cerny

My third stop was the Theatre, which is hosting an exhibition of the artworks of the Czech artist David Cerny.

Born in a family of artists in 1967, David studied art in Prague. He has won numerous awards including the most promising young Czech artist in 2000. In 2001, he launched a non-profit for contemporary art called Meetfactory and in 2017 he started Black n' Arch an architectural studio for innovative approaches to architecture and design. Apart from being an artist and architect, he is active in the areas of cinema and music.

He has different art works in the theatre, for me among them the most striking are three works -

(1) A sculpture of American President Donald Trump, sitting on a multi-coloured chair made of Lego-like pieces, his head bowed down, looking sad and thoughtful. He is shown wearing a half white and half dark suit, with one white shoe and the other dark, with his trademark magenta tie. 

(2) A wax sculpture of a dead man, lying on the floor among scattered pieces of glass, his eyes unseeing and open. Like Trump, he is also shown half real, with flesh and colours, and half white coloured mannequin.

 

(3) A film about the chimpanzee holding a human thigh bone and using it to playfully hit on other bones, including many skulls lying scattered in an area. It was as if a child was playing at the scene of a massacre.

All his different artworks are visually very striking and in a way disturbing. For example, looking at the man lying dead surrounded by broken glass, with his glazed eyes, looked so real that I was shocked.

In The End

This is the first part of the diary of my visit to art-events in Cannaregio area of Venice.

The second part will deal with some more smaller spaces, similar to the ones presented here, while the third part will be dedicated to the artworks in Palazzo Mora, the European Culture Centre.

The Venice Art Biennale is much more than this - apart from the numerous country pavilions which require an entry ticket, there are many other collateral events in other parts of Venice, which have free entry. My only problem is that I might need a knee-replacement to be able to look at all of them!

 

The last image of this post (above) has an overview of the hall hosting the David Cerny's installations. 

***** 

An Unusual Venice - Giorgio Schirato

Yesterday, on 4 September 2026, a new photography exhibition was inaugurated at the Toaldi Capra palazzo in Schio. The exhibition has works of a young Venetian Giorgio Schirato. 

His images of Venice are about stillness, where the silky smooth water and gentle pastel colours become frozen in a dreamscape. You see a city that still has the magic of Venice, but is different. Some of his other pictures, catch the light in such a way that makes you see something which otherwise you would not have noted. It is a beautiful exhibition.

After the inauguration, I had a brief talk with the photographer Giorgio Schirato (GS), which is presented below. If you are in or around Schio, do not miss this exhibition. If you can't come to the exhibition, take a look at his webpage and his Instagram page to have an idea about his works.

You can click on all the images for a bigger view - these Venice images are by Giorgio Schirato and are protected by copyright.

Talking With Venetian Photographer Giorgio Schirato 

 

SD: Tell me about yourself

GS: I was born in Treviso and when I was three years old, with my mother I went to live in Venice, and I grew up there. We were not in proper Venice, since we lived in Lido island for the first 20-25 years of my life. Only when I joined the famous Venice art school, Academia delle Belle Arti, then I shifted to proper Venice. There, I was sharing a house with some friends.

I had chosen the area of sculpture, as my focus in the art school. While I was studying it, I knew that actually I really wanted to do photography, I was already passionate about it. In the end, photography became my preferred way of creative expression.

Probably because I prefer expressing myself through things that are quick and making sculptures had become a kind of suffering for me, because they needed months of work. So slowly I started experimenting with photography. I like all the different ways of artistic expression, including painting, but I chose photography because I liked it the most.

However, instead of photo-documentation, which means documenting what you see around yourself, I always try to express something extra through my photography. For example, I can use the light - such as using a torch at night to obtain a specific effect that I want. Or by using long exposition times, so that the day-landscapes start looking different - they become a kind of aseptic, clean, smooth.

I am moved by a desire to see and interpret Venice as something which I feel inside myself. I want to absorb the beauty of our Venetian landscapes through stillness and in these kind of photographs, I want to avoid the human presence, so that I can focus on the essence of the place.

I want to express something which is different from the usual images of Venice. Therefore, I am not looking at the well-known city landmarks, instead I want to show you the glimpses of something, which you wouldn't see when you are here.

SD: On your website there are some folders showing different series of photographs, for example there are some showing silhouettes. You want to talk about different kinds of your work?

GS: My poetic photography, if I may call it that, can be grossly divided into 2 main types:

- first is the contemplative and experimental kind of images, where I use colour-photography, I study the site and then plan them to get a specific effect;

- the second are my images in black and white, they have a more graphic impact, through them I try to capture the moment, so these images are more immediate, less planned.

 

I capture both these kinds of images with the help of a tripod, but I try to vary other factors, such as the light, to get a specific effect. My images are not a representation of the reality, they are my interpretation of it. 

SD: How long you have been doing photography?

GS: This exhibition is showing the artistic part of my photography, which I have been doing now for about 25 years. It started as a passion when I was in high school.

At the same time, I am also a professional photographer since 2012, where I do specific kinds of photographic services. You can see examples of some of these works on my website.

SD: In these last 25 years, how do you see your evolution as a photographer-artist? 

GS: I have changed over the years, also because of the professional work that I have done. My professional work brought me in contact with a large number of persons, especially artists with their own ideas and long experiences, and interaction with them gives me new ideas and suggestions into my work. Some of those persons have influenced me as an artist.

 

However, my search to find my way of being a photographer, has been more through silence and interiority, and not so much through describing or discussing with others.

There are days, when I am inclined towards black and white photography, other days when I am more contemplative, and I look for specific effects, and finally there are some days when I just do not feel like clicking any pictures. When I wake up in the morning, I know that day, what kind of work I am going to do. There are days when I can see things that are not visible on other days, it may be something to do with my focus, concentration and inspiration, because it requires me to look beyond what my eyes can see.

It can also depend upon the light of that day. One day, the light may be such that I can't see anything special. On another day, the light may be such that even a simple thing looks different and has a more fascinating impact. One has to train oneself to really see, to discover the surroundings.

 

There are some days when I wake up with a desire to capture people and action. On other days, I just want to walk around in my city, to get inspiration for an idea, then I try to express it in the way that I feel it inside me. It is all about sensations and feelings.

SD: Do you also plan and set-up things to create a particular kind of picture?

GS: I prefer working with what is already existing and not create an artificial effect. I also don't create particular effects in post-production. All the effects that are there in my image, they come from working with my camera.

Even if we are living in the digital era, I try to think as if I am working with an analogical camera-film. Thus, I don't click a lot of pictures, I prefer clicking pictures as a gift, only a few and well thought-out clicks. And, I prefer limiting the use of technology in my work.

 

This is also a kind of rebellion against digital world and there are some persons who prefer using analogical film.

SD: What is the value of photography in a world where millions of tourists click millions of pictures every day, with their mobile phones?

GS: With the social media, the significance of images has been lost. Our ideas of beauty and ugliness have been turned upside down. Thus, even for this, one needs to go back to the older ways doing things, to think and reflect more and to have less anxiety about missing something by clicking a large number of pics. Today we are just bombarded with images.

I feel that it is better to click as few pictures as possible, which means you have thought about each one of them. If you are clicking thousands of images, then it is easy to find one good picture among them. I think that it is more important to click a few, with some good ones, because that requires self-reflection, reasoning and becoming more aware of our surroundings. If you are in contact with the reality around you, you use your capacity for observation.

SD: In terms of AI and your work as a professional photographer, what do you think?

GS: I see it as a potential problem, especially for the images used for advertising. Instead of taking models, professionals, you can create a set and people out of nothing and thus, for the advertising-sector I think that it is going to be a problem.

At the same time, the vast diffusion of digital images has created a greater sensibility among the people towards photography. Since the canons of beauty and ugliness have been turned upside down, some aspects of photography continue to need professionals. For example for making portraits. Sometimes persons come to me for portraits even if they can very well click their own pictures, because they are looking for a specific impact on the social media, so they want a professional.

SD: Have you also done photography for films or videos?

GS: I have done the still photography and backstage for some documentary films, to document everything that happens during the filming and in the backstage.

SD: Thanks Giorgio for taking the time to talk to me.

In The End

Giorgio Schirato's photo-exhibition titled "The Lessons of Water - 450 Years From Titian Till Today"  (Le Lezioni dell'Acqua - 450 Anni Da Tiziano Ad Oggi) is on at Palazzo Toaldi Capra in Schio till 13th September 2026 and can be visited on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, entry is free.

 

I loved his images of Venice, like this image above, where time seems to be standing still and it looks like a dreamscape. I also love his cityscapes where he captures fleeting moments that seem to open the world like a hyper-reality, letting us see things that we would not have seen.

All the images (except Georgio's) in this blogpost are from Giorgio Schirato's website and are protected by copyright. 

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Renaissance Art & Giovanni Bellini

The renaissance period introduced the ideas of three-dimensional depth, realism, perspective, colour-tones and light in paintings, based on new understandings from different sciences such as anatomy, physics, mathematics, geology and natural sciences occurring in that period.

This post focuses on the evolution of a renaissance period artist through 11 paintings on the theme of "Madonna and child Jesus". The artist is Giovanni Bellini and all the paintings are from the Accademia museum in Venice.

The image below is that of a telero (huge painting covering an entire wall) started by Giovanni Bellini in 1515-16, left incomplete due to his death. (Click on the images for a bigger view)

The Bellini Bottega in Venice

In that period, the artists worked in Bottega or workshops, where the master artist had many apprentice and helpers. Jacopo Bellini, Giovanni's father, was a renowned Venetian artist in Venice. One of Jacopo's famous works is a tall mosaic inside St Marks basilica in Venice, known as "Mosaic of Visitation".

Giovanni Bellini, also called Giambellino, was born around 1930-35. He is considered as one of the great masters of early Venetian renaissance art. Giovanni had learned the art from his brother and father, was also influenced by his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna, as well as other artists. Giovanni played an important role in developing the ideas of "tonality" in art, ensuring an overall tone for the painting and a smooth passage of tones in different parts of the painting.

Before presenting his art-works, let me briefly introduce the Accademia museum of Venice, where you can admire the originals of all the paintings presented in this post.

Accademia Museum

This museum hosts some of the masterpieces of renaissance period art by maestros like Tiziano (Titan), Tintoretto, Canaletto, Tiepolo, Hans Memling & Hieronymus Bosch. It is situated close to the Accademia bridge (orginally called Ponte della Carità, inaugurated in 1854). If you like renaissance art, do not miss visiting this museum during your visit to Venice.

The building hosting the Accademia museum today, was once a convent and a church (Santa Maria della Carità church).  Under Napoleon's rule in late 18th century, the religious persons from the church and the nearby convent were sent away. In 1807, the old Accademia museum was shifted in those buildings.

Giovanni Bellini's "Madonna and the Child" Series of Paintings

Bellini made a series of paintings of Madonna with the child Jesus. Let me now show you 10 paintings from that series present in the Accademia museum, so that you can appreciate his evolution as a painter.

There is an 11th painting at the end of this post, from his series on the theme of Pietà.

1. From 1448

I am not sure how old was Giovanni when this painting was made and how much did he actually contribute to it. The madonna of this painting does not look very young. Baby Jesus, sitting on a parapet, is holding an apple in his left hand and two fingers raised showing his dual (human and divine) nature. Madonna is expressionless while the child has a knowing expression, much wiser than his age.

2. From 1455

This painting was done when Giovanni was about 20 years old. It is simpler with fewer colours compared to the first one. The baby wearing a black dress, looks younger but still has a knowing expression while he holds his mother's chin with his hand.

3. From 1470

When this painting was done, Giovanni was 35 years old and clearly it is a more mature work, even if it not an oil painting on canvas like the others. Madonna seems to be lit by the light, with a blue sky behind her. Her face has a serenity while looking down at her sleeping son, lying nude, his hand hanging down, almost like a glimpse of the future awaiting them. There is a sense of three-dimensionality, proportions and perspective in this work.

4. From 1475 

Giovanni made this when he was forty. He has light coming in from upper right side, lighting up Madonna's serene and young face, while the light on the baby is more diffused. The baby has a more innocent face, and he makes the sign of his dual nature with this right hand, while his left hand grips his mother's thumb. 

5. From 1480

By now, Giovanni was 45 years old and clearly more skilled as a painter. The whole canvas seems lit by light with bright colours. The background has a light blue sky, fluffy clouds and the Euganei hills near Padua. The baby has a knowing and petulant look, as he holds his right hand in the two-fingers sign while his left hand discreetly seeks his mother's touch.

6. From 1485-90

Now Giovanni has crossed fifty years, he is recognised as a maestro. Perhaps, this means that now he can experiment and try new colours and ideas. The most distinctive change in the painting is the use of bright red colours in Madonna's gown and the heads and wings of the six cherubs on the clouds floating above. The baby seems to be wearing a modern looking night-shirt. The baby also has a more child like expression and seems to be talking to his mother.

7. From 1485-90

This is also from the same period. In this, the two have a green screen behind, the surface of the parapet is painted green, and in the background on the two sides there are two trees. The baby is nude, has a more child like expression and his left hand holds his mother's fingers. Once again the whole canvas seems to be lit by light.

8. From 1488 (With St Catherine and Magdalene)

This is a more complex work. Compared to the two women saints on the two sides, dressed in rich clothes and wearing jewellery, Madonna looks similar to the other paintings above. The baby seems lost in ecstasy. While the background is dark, the 4 figures seem lit by an external light, creating a few shadows. It seems to have clear Flemish or Dutch influences.

9. From 1490 (With St Paul and St George)

Like one above, this one also has two figures standing on both sides of the mother and child. However, this painting has much more in common with his other works - light blue sky with clouds, a red screen behind them, all the persons lit by a light coming from the left with a hint of shadows in the right side of the canvas.

10. From 1503 (With St John Baptist and a Woman)

This painting was done when Giovanni was 68 years old and it is even more complex, with a detailed urban background with the Vicentino mountains behind them - the houses have a distinct look, may be it shows the city of Bassano. Sheep are grazing on the grassy hills (click on the picture to see a bigger version for the sheep). It is bathed in light with shades of liliacs, pinks, green and light blues. Madonna has a soft and innocent expression. The skin tones of Madonna and the woman on the right seem to have the red tones associated with Titan.

11. From 1505 - Pietà with Madonna and the Dying Jesus

The last painting is from the Pietà series, and is from 1505, when Giovanni was 70 years old. The white-haired Madonna's face is etched with lines of sorrow. A dramatic touch is given by the broken tree on the left of the canvas. The background is in the shade of orange-yellow seems to show Padua with Euganei hills and Vicentino mountains behind. Once again, the whole canvas seems to be lit all over with a diffused light and few shadows. (You can click on all the images for a bigger view.)

Things I Noticed in the Paintings

I think that as Giovanni grew older and more skilled, his works assumed more renaissance characteristics - they seem more three-dimensional, more realistic, while the proportions and perspectives improve.

In most of his paintings, the Madonna has an innocent or an aloof look, she does not seem to be looking at you. I also noticed that in many paintings, her little finger seems to be bent or crooked in the middle - it does not seem very natural. Try bending your finger like that and you will see what I mean.

On the other hand, the baby Jesus has a more knowing look, creating a kind of dissonance because his facial expressions are more adult-like. At the same time, the child's proportions do not always look right. For example in painting number 10 above, the child seems to be too long. Child's ecstasy, with his eyes turning up, in image 8 also made me feel a little anxious.

I love the light and vivid colours that seem to illuminate many of his works. They lack the light and shadow effects (chiaroscuro), which would become a dominant part of later renaissance art.

I also love the tender affection between the mother and the baby, expressed in the way the boy holds his mother's thumb or touches her hand. 

To Conclude

To look at the different paintings of Giovanni Bellini in a chronological manner gives us an idea of his evolution as an artist. At the same time, it gives us an idea of how the renaissance ideas of art were evolving.

Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 and his Monalisa was painted in early 1500s. Michelangelo was born in 1475 and his frescoes of Universal Judgement in Vatican were painted around 1540. Thus, the art of Giovanni Bellini needs to be seen in the context of all the other artists, as they exchanged ideas, knowledge and techniques. 

All the paintings presented in this post are from Accademia museum in Venice. To feel their full impact, you need to look at them in the museum. For example, the sensation of light when you look at painting number 10 above is absolutely incredible. When I saw it, I was transfixed.

BTW, the Telero shown in the first image above was commissioned to Giovanni Bellini in 1515, when he had turned eighty. He was unable to finish it, as he died in 1516. It was completed many years later by another artist, Vittore Belliniano. 

I have been to the Accademia museum a few times, and every time I go there I discover new works which I had not noticed earlier!

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