On Saturday 12 October at 6 pm, on Contemporary Art Day promoted by AMACI, the solo exhibition of Antonietta Orsatti “Ora ti racconto, non c’erano solo i fiori”, curated by Paolo Cortese will be inaugurated in Rome in the independent space Lettera_E.

This is the first solo exhibition in Rome of the artist from Abruzzo. Over 30 works are on display including two-dimensional works, sketchbooks and sculptures made with terracotta, cardboard and pinstriped fabric.

The exhibition focuses on her original way of narrating stories depicted on different kinds of support. In creating her tales, the artist depicts a thread of ideas inspired by finding fragments of paper, or by memories and suggestions that emerge in her dreams. Anything acts as a starting point and a source of inspiration for her. With a curious childlike spirit, Orsatti freely interprets her narrative thread that unravels through fantasy, imagination and the timeless memories of her childhood.

Her creative impetus, however, is punctuated by rigorous geometric constructions that give balance to her works. Orsatti’s numerous albums with drawings, sketches, collages and even just single sheets (often objets trouvés) of all sizes are filled with her reinterpretation of fairy tales linked to local tales and folklore. She uses unconventional materials with fascinating ease, such as cardboard, to create theatres and sculptures.

Orsatti experimented with organic shapes and figures, shaping perforated bricks when they were still fresh and fired them in the kiln that belonged to her husband’s family.

Among the works on display, 4 large cones made of completely historiated pinstripe fabric stand out. The artist explains that they reminded her of the conical wrappers used in her father’s pasta factory to sell pasta, in the post-war period.

The exhibition, created in collaboration with Gramma_Epsilon Gallery in Athens, is part of a project dedicated to women artists who have worked independently, often far from the art market, and is accompanied by a catalogue edited by Paolo Cortese with a presentation by Alfredo Accatino, an expert on Outsider art.