Irene Rezzonico
Irene Rezzonico was born in Aachen, Germany in 1946. In 1954, she moved with her family to Frankfort and spent part of her childhood and adolescence at a boarding school. From 1961 to 1963 she studied drawing. In 1965 she decided to immigrate to Italy so as to complete her studies and to begin her artistic career. In 1980s and 1990s, a long stay in Arizona enabled her to come in contact with the history and culture of the Hopi Indians. Her subsequent works, drawings and sculptures were profoundly influenced by this experience. The artist was especially struck by the relationship that this tribe had with nature, its great respect for other living creatures and the divine value attributed to plants and animals. Returning from this long journey, Rezzonico abandoned her mannered painting and began to paint in a completely personal way, giving shape to paintings with a strong chromatic energy and emotional intensity. The artist’s works have always reflected the problems of minorities beginning with a cycle of works dedicated to the Hopi, then proceeding to an interpretation of the world of the deaf, as well as tackling themes related to violence and finally the theme of protecting nature. In particular, this last theme has given rise to a cycle of glass-paste sculptural works of natural subjects – plants and animals, often exotic but above all at risk of extinction. A work of indictment and hope that has the mild and long-lived armadillo as its favorite subject and symbol of this battle; gentle and long-lived, it is very important to the balance of the ecosystem in which it lives but is defenseless against attacks by man, in spite of the strong shell that characterizes it.