Georgina Spengler

In Georgina Spengler’s works, the boundary, despite its clear definition, often tends to exceed the perimeter of the canvas, so much so that in the exhibition, the artist presents a work whose support is doubled, allowing the painting to expand and rest upon its own core, where the large plant motif has ample space for new developments and ramifications. The chromatic harmonies she achieves are certainly not random: not with that balance of complementary tones and combinations, nor with that choice of backgrounds and textures that differ from one another. Thanks to the artist, who masterfully controls its secrets, oil painting fully and effectively plays all the roles it is meant to play, including glazing.

It is a medium that creates worlds in which ethical suggestions and cultured references contrast and blend, converging in a harmonious, visually pleasing whole. Spengler constructs intricate plant paths, allowing bodies that are only apparently foreign to float among sumptuously ornamental forests. The duality is there, but it remains barely perceptible at first glance, only to then take over the entire surface, imposing itself as a supporting element even in our memory. It is as if the artist wanted to generously nourish us with grace, only to then lead us to the realization of the inevitable reality—sometimes even monstrous—that inexorably lurks there, threatening it.

Georgina Spengler’s biographical and creative journey is rich in experiences and extends geographically to the places that have shaped her sensibility: Europe, with its Greek and Austrian roots and studies in Holland and Paris; the United States, where she lived and trained for a long time; and then Rome, which welcomed her and sealed her profound knowledge of painting.

Her Greek roots are there: in Vitruvius’ legend of the Corinthian capital, while her Austrian origins lie in the almost scientific rigor of research and execution that lie behind an apparent spontaneity. The compositional construction comes to life from references to William Morris and Anglo-Saxon culture: cutouts recovered from the stratigraphy of another century, without any antiquarian intention, but brought back to an original chromatic freshness, completely immersed in our time, in the midst of its ethical and ecological contradictions.

Behind these confident brushstrokes, there is no mere repetition, quite the contrary: there is careful research into botanical and animal species at risk of total extinction, a practice that over time has generated a veritable iconographic and scientific archive that the artist draws on with acquired awareness. For us, it is a warning that transforms our approach once again, enlivening it to a greater extent and placing it within a horizon of preservation. While alluding to humanity’s self-destructive negligence, the artist joyfully reminds us of abundance: the Pandaisía of the exhibition’s title. An overflowing cornucopia that spreads generously across the canvas, while at the same time showing dense hatched clouds, almost like ancient engravings, chromatic drips that change the rotation of the support, suggesting other perspectives or releasing ‘still’ living beings onto the surface. The horror of the present bursts in with planes ready to drop loads of death on areas ravaged by never-ending wars, and Spengler, with the elegance of her spirals and jagged petals, offers no illusions but works to rescue us from lies, reminding us of what we are about to lose through suicidal and senseless choices. What’s more, she shows us what we should all continue to desire strongly: the vital survival of what nourishes humanity.

Georgina Spengler’s artistic vision extends beyond the horizon of her canvases: not only does she use an ancient medium of expression, managing to be fully present in her own time, but her works also manage to convey both protest and joie de vivre. Her invitation to Pandaisía is open: we will feel like guests in a place halfway between Wightwick Manor and the welcoming courtyard of a Greek island, where the knowledge of the hands, especially female hands, has always been more than just a skill, an art of meditation and celebration of life, to be savored with eyes wide open to the world.