“I never have a specific story in mind when I start a painting. I try to stay as far away as possible from a narrative approach to avoid falling into anecdotes. What really interests me is to capture an atmosphere, a tone, to understand the colour of a moment. Finally, explaining the initial idea of a painting is almost as complicated as trying to tell someone about a dream you had. It’s defined more by the sensations related to it than by the narrative.”
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ntoxicatingly surreal and atmospherically uncanny, I'm just behind what I am (2020) is an irresistible example of Diane Dal-Pra’s sense of the absurd. Challenging the norms of how one perceives visual identity in the modern age, Dal-Pra explores the relationship between disguise, concealment and the inherent tensions implicit in the genre of portraiture. Alluding to several references from the history of art, the work of the young artist manages to combine a mastery of mannerism with the power of a surrealist evocation. Playing on the ambivalent role of the garment as a device for concealment and revelation, the ballooned figure of the present work slouches atop a chair entirely subsumed by materials of varying textures, a bright red mask concealing the space in which a face might be revealed.
Exhibited at the artist’s Acqua in bocca exhibition in 2020, the artist’s first solo show with the Galerie Derouillon, works from this series refer to the Italian injunction to keep a secret. Alluding to the myriad secrets we ourselves keep everyday, the face, the eyes and the hands of the present work - the most expressive and often divulging aspect of one’s physical appearance - are hidden from the viewer. The relationships we have with the objects we gather over the course of our lives are essential for the artist, so much so that they swallow the bodies to reveal new contour lines. These garments, painted with delicate complexity on the part of Dal-Pra, transform into a second skin between the individual and the observing world. Following on from two critically acclaimed solo exhibitions in Paris in London over the course of 2022, Dal-Pra’s work is currently included in LGDR’s Rear View exhibition, the inaugural group exhibition for the gallery’s New York flagship where she is being shown alongside modern masters including Félix Vallotton, René Magritte and Francis Bacon.
「我開始作畫時從不會有具體的故事。我會盡我所能避免採用敍事手法，以免跌入虛構情景的陷阱。我看重捕捉氛圍和格調，了解一瞬間的顏色。最後，解釋畫作的原意就如同向他人訴說夢境一樣困難。比起敍述，它更著重感覺。」
《我 在我身後》（2020年作）是黛安 · 達爾普拉其中一幅瀰漫迷人荒誔氣氛的作品，洋溢令人不能自拔的超現實和不可思議的氛圍。達爾普拉挑戰現今世代人們看待現代視覺身份的常規，探索偽裝、隱藏和肖像畫流派中隱含的內在張力。達爾普拉雖然年輕，但她的作品借鏡藝術史上一些傑作，成功地駕馭風格主義和超現實主義，並將兩者融合。作品巧妙利用服裝隱藏和顯露身體特徵之間的矛盾，畫中氣球般的主體慵懶地坐在被不同材質所包裹的椅子上，鮮紅色的面具完全掩蓋主體的臉容。本作於達爾普拉2020年在德魯永畫廊舉辦的首個個展 〈Acqua in bocca 〉亮相，此系列作品意指意大利的保密禁令。作品隱藏了主體的臉容、眼睛和手，即一個人的外貌中最具表現力和最容易洩露情感的方面，讓觀眾無從窺探，暗示我們每天皆隱藏無數秘密。藝術家認為我們與生活中收集的物品之間的關係非常重要，其重要性足以吞噬主體並打造新的輪廓線條。達爾普拉用心細描的複雜服飾轉化為個人與外在世界之間的第二層肌膚。繼 2022 年在巴黎和倫敦舉辦兩場大受好評的個人展覽後，達爾普拉的作品目前於LGDR畫廊舉行 的《Rear View》展覽中展出，這是該畫廊紐約旗艦店的首個群展，同場亦展出多位當代藝術大師的作品，包括費利克斯．瓦洛東、雷內・馬格利特和弗朗西斯・培根。