ROMOLO DEL DEO - The Tree of Life Which is Ours - Recent bronze sculpture.
TATIANA DEL DEO - Documenting Romolo Del Deo’s Creative Process - photographs.
CYNTHIA PACKARD - The Space Between the Breath - Recent paintings.
ROMOLO DEL DEO and TATIANA DEL DEO
Berta Walker Gallery is proud to announce the unique honor bestowed upon sculptor Romolo Del Deo of being invited to participate in the Venice Art Biennial exhibition “Personal Structures” presented by European Cultural Center (ECC), Venice, Italy, in collaboration with the International Venice Biennial. Romolo Del Deo and his wife, photographer Tatiana Del Deo collaborated while Romolo was creating this unique 14’ tall bronze sculpture “The Tree of Life Which is Ours”. She photo-documented this huge and exciting undertaking. Romolo Del Deo’s exhibition at Berta Walker Gallery will include a number of sculptures and maquettes created during the process of completing this unusual commission. All the sculpture is being cast in Italy soon to be shipped to the United States just in time for the exhibition.
ROMOLO DEL DEO
Romolo Del Deo was inspired by the fact that Venice is a coastal city with great artistic legacies imperiled by sea level rise. With a nod to both environmental science and myth, this existential threat is woven into “The Tree of Life Which is Ours.” The fourteen foot unique bronze sculpture references the phenomena known as Ghost Forests appearing when large sections of coastal woodlands are killed by salt seeping into the ground water. Remains of the dead trees wash up Outer Cape shores. Del Deo harvests them, incorporating their spectral forms into bronze. The other element present in the artwork is drawn from the myth of Daphne, the goddess of moving water, rivers and canals. She epitomized the freedom of flowing movement but was transformed into a tree, forever rooted to her place. She chose that to escape the unwanted attentions of Apollo. Like Daphne, humans have lived without consideration of consequences. Like Daphne we too have to make hard choices in order to avoid catastrophic fates. We are rooted into this earth, metaphorically and literally. We may give up some freedoms and thrive or we may die. Del Deo's sculpture has always been about transformation. His fragmented and distressed classical figures, beautiful and elegiac in their brokenness are images that examine the bridge between the past and present, between what lasts and what falls away, what is transformed in the process of art making, what begins anew. Writing about a recent exhibition at Berta Walker Gallery, Cate McQuaid, Art Critic of the Boston Globe, aptly discussed Del Deo’s sculpture when she wrote: "Sculptor Romolo Del Deo puts a contemporary spin on classical forms. He mixes up bronze casts with dune sand and driftwood. Many of the works look like the shed skins of ancient Greek statuary, thin, torn, and catching dirt. The texture is gritty and scumbled with the artist’s marks. In Del Deo’s works, beauty erodes, but the erosion itself is captivating.” A native of Provincetown, this is the second time Del Deo has been invited to participate in International Biennial exhibitions. In 2015, Curators of the Florence Bienniale selected three important works from Romolo’s Podium Series — life size bronze figure abstractions on elevated stands. Romolo was then invited by the Archdiocese of Florence to participate in the international ecclesiastical art exhibition, “Se Fece Carne”, installed in the famous Basilica de San Lorenzo, on view through January 9, 2016. Dr. Melanie Zefferino, Curator, G7 of Art, Florence, Italy wrote: “With the lyricism of his sculptures, characterized by an evocative play of matter and void, Romolo Del Deo is protagonist of a poetic synesthetic synergy. It is his unique method of working that creates the unusual effect of time, and makes the artworks look like they were excavated from some ancient underwater archaeology site. They are poetic and ethereal in their appearance, but green in their creation.”
TATIANA DEL DEO
Tatiana Del Deo matches a modern eye to old world aesthetics to create compelling photographs. During the past three “Covid years”, Tatiana Del Deo delved more deeply into her photography, studying with internationally renowned documentary photographer, Julia Cumes who is based on the Cape. Tatiana has been active not only in collaborating with Romolo in his studio, but with her father-in-law Salvatore Del Deo, in his studio. Tatiana Del Deo's career spans diverse worlds and cultures. Born and raised in Vilnius, Lithuania during Soviet rule, she emigrated to the USA to learn about fashion and commerce. In 2001, working with editors at Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue she helped introduce Moscow to western high fashion. Her transformative work led to an extended partnership with the groundbreaking Italian Stylist, Aldo Coppola. Always deeply invested in philanthropic work, she organized the restoration of the historic 17th century Temple of St. Theodore at Nkitsky Gate and in 2009 she began a series of cultural exchanges with India, Nepal, Thailand and the Kingdom of Mustang, which led to a large format book, the Forbidden Kingdom of Mustang. In 2013 she met Romolo Del Deo,and together they have been collaborating on a variety of projects both here and in Europe.
CYNTHIA PACKARD
Berta Walker Gallery is delighted to present a second vignette exhibition for Cynthia Packard following last year’s large Introduction’s exhibition when she joined the Gallery. Her figurative and abstract works are ethereal, translucent, and deeply spiritual. “The artist is guided by a talent unafraid to reveal passion and vulnerability,”Born in Florida, Packard grew up in Princeton, New Jersey. She studied sculpture and art history graduating with honors at the Massachusetts College of Art. She then moved to Provincetown in 1981, connecting deeply with her artistic roots. Her Great-grandfather Max Bohm, who arrived in Provincetown in 1915 at age 45, became one of the leading forces in the art colony, along with Charles W. Hawthorne, Edwin Dickinson, and E. Ambrose Webster. On arriving in Provincetown, Packard spent five years studying drawing with Fritz Bultman, a renowned abstract expressionist who studied with, and enjoyed a life-time friendship with, Hans Hofmann. Today Packard acknowledges the diverse stylistic influences of impressionism and abstract expressionism that guide her brush, as practiced by Fritz Bultman, her great-grandfather and her mother, Anne Packard, a renowned landscape artist.A Cynthia Packard painting may start from a live model, flowers from her garden or a boat lulled by the waves. An overall textured canvas may at first sight appear purely abstract, only to reveal with further viewing, the movement of seagulls returning at dusk, or a figure emerging from the canvas. Light flows and brings alive the atmosphere around them. The works are bold, yet innocent, edgy, and deep. “The figures in her paintings routinely seem caught in the act of moving from one dimension to another, the body made fugitive with light”, wrote poet Melanie Braverman. Art writer Deborah Carr writes that Packard’s paintings “explore paradox and contrast; consider moody interiors and verdant spaces. She juxtaposes graceful curves and sharp edges, dark contours and amorphous boundaries. The viewer of Cynthia Packard’s [painted] world realizes that remaining aloof from her powerful images is not an option.”Painter, sculptor, and art teacher, Cynthia Packard has taught at FAWC, Castle Hill, PAAM, and privately in her studio. She has exhibited widely and is included in museums and significant private collections. The Provincetown Art Association and Museum presented Packard in a huge overview exhibition several years ago; this past winter, Cynthia’s paintings were on view in a one- person show at Yale. A Mother of four, Packard is an athlete, holds a black belt in karate, and does yoga on a daily basis. Several dogs Keep her company in her studio.In her interview with Susan Blood of the Provincetown Banner, Cynthia shares thoughts about being an artist: “You will always be seeking. You will always be struggling. You will have these wonderful moments, and once you have them you have the responsibility of doing it again! There’s a battle going on in here. There's a battle and then it's ecstasy...I say talent is fearlessness, stamina and discipline. I feel right now that I am alive, and I have been given a gift, and I am painting like I have never painted before.” Melanie Braverman, poet, novelist, teacher, writes: “Cynthia Packard's .... paintings are translucence embodied.” Entering the artist's studio is like entering one of her paintings. Every surface is covered in paint....Walls are completely lined with paintings of varying sizes and palettes, ‘wed’," notes Braverman, “one to another by virtue of an ecstatic intensity that makes her subjects, whether still life or human, appear to be morphing from the inside out.