1990s Chris Mangiaracina “Giotto’s Tower” Encaustic & Oil on Lucite

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Powerful and evocative original artwork titled “Giotto’s Tower” by Chris Mangiaracina, created in 1994. This striking mixed-media composition is executed … Read more Powerful and evocative original artwork titled “Giotto’s Tower” by Chris Mangiaracina, created in 1994. This striking mixed-media composition is executed in encaustic and oil on lucite, a medium that enhances the work’s depth, translucency, and layered visual complexity. The composition presents a procession of abstracted, figure-like forms rendered in expressive, gestural brushwork, juxtaposed with architectural vertical elements suggestive of Giotto’s Campanile. Earthy tones of ochre, cream, charcoal, and muted reds combine with translucent passages, creating a sense of movement, ritual, and historical reference. The lucite support allows light to interact dynamically with the layered surface, emphasizing texture and dimensionality. The reverse retains its original gallery label from Heim America at Fisher Island Gallery (Florida), identifying the artist, title, medium, date, and original gallery price. The work is also signed and dated on the stretcher verso, confirming authenticity and provenance. A rare and highly compelling example of Mangiaracina’s figurative-abstract work from the 1990s, ideal for collectors of contemporary American art, encaustic works, or architectural and narrative abstraction.

BIO:
Mangiaracina’s work shows the influence of postmodern artists whose landmark paintings in the period following Abstract Expressionism reaffirmed the possibilities of representation by championing the motifs to be found in banal objects – flags, targets, coffee cans, letters, numbers, maps. This subject matter became the new genre and drew interest to both the artist’s motivation and the creative process. Mangiaracina’s playful fascination with process and the use of alternative materials, such as metal rather than canvas, never overshadow his reflections on and his reaction to life. The paintings begin with a series of tiny drawings where we encounter, always in new combinations, iconic images, recurring themes, and visual metaphors. These, together with the assertive painterly quality of his work and his ability to reinvent himself in each new work allude to his profound personal engagement. His paintings express his virtuosity and an uncommon attachment to meaningful outcomes (as elusive as they may be in art) and poetically express the earnest conviction that, despite our tenuous existence in an imperfect and unpredictable world, there can be transcendence, redemption and even grace. Chris earned an Associate of Art degree from Miami-Dade Community College in 1979 and his Bachelor of Art degree from Barry University in 1992. He has had twelve important solo exhibitions and his work has been included in many group exhibitions, including the important exhibition in 1990 Twenty-Five in Miami in Miami, Florida. His work is included in major museum collections and he has been the subject of numerous critical essays.

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Measures:
36.0" w x 1.25" d x 48.0" h / Inches

In good Vintage condition with typical wear / marks consistent with age.
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