Silvia Papas

“The role of woman in society’s relation to luxury and consumerism, plays a large role in my artwork. With these concepts in mind, you’re allowed to truly understand and grasp the spirit of my female figures.”

Fresh, lively, and vibrant are just a few words to describe the lavish works of Italian artist, Silvia Papas (B. 1969). After completing her studies at the Fine Art School of Padua during the late 80s, she focused on her fields of stage sets, posters and fashion, and creating clothing collections for men and women. 

The visual inspiration provided by Fashion, Fine Art, Pop Art, and that evocated by the artist’s frequent trips to the United States, gave rise to the aesthetic line underlying her pictorial research which she has devoted herself exclusively since 1993. (Read More)

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From her early works, her canvases, ever attractively and colorful, have portrayed seductive female figures, witnesses of a modernity in which they play a leading role. Following a phase in which the human element was set aside in favor of nature, the artist veered from sharp acrylic backgrounds to more severe tones, foreshadowing a development towards more complex, “hazy” subjects. Spectrums of greys, and a tendency towards monochrome, now underlie the perpetual seductive action of the artist’s subjects, revealing a sense of restlessness, of obsessiveness. Their glittering existence gives way to an unexpected solitude and dependence.

 Papas’s women symbolize the dazzling avant-gardism of a society destabilized by its wellbeing. The symbols of consumerism, and the ideological contrasts arising out of alienation, leave visible traces among the sidewalks and walls of contemporary cities, which act as the background to figures that, however, retain their power to fascinate. 

Between 2002 and 2004, together with Ekatherina Savtchenko, Marika Lang and Kana Otofuji, Papas gave life to the “4 Women Group,” an all-female artistic group stylistically marked by multicultural exchange, which has held a series of exhibitions in Italy and abroad. In Papas’ most recent visions, the frenzy of contemporary life in big cities, their streets taken by storm by glittering cars, dashing motorbikes and bustling crowds, fully assimilates the human element, giving rise to representations which, though marked by the artist’s particular formal methods, gain greater extensiveness and spatial depth, while also exalting the rhythmical beat of her palette. The painter’s work, through the uninterrupted attention of major sector players, is the subject of growing interest from the public and from international critics.