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ARS GRATIA ARTIS

Maria Grazia Focanti

Italian painter

www.arspedia.com

Copyright: All texts, works, images, videos, sounds and photos are protected by law. Therefore they are intended for exclusively Personal - Educational use and cannot be used nor published without explicitly requesting authorization via email from the artist who will evaluate the specific case from time to time.

Biography

Maria Grazia Focanti was born in Jesi,   lives and works in Monsano (An),   where he attended the Cuppari Technical Commercial Institute and the State Artistic High School   Mannucci of Jesi.

In Urbino at the “Carlo Bo” University we are   graduated in 1992 in Sociology and then later attended a painting course at the Academy of Fine Arts in Macerata.

In recent years she has tried to deepen some techniques such as: material painting, video art, performance, the precious technique of watercolor and acrylic etc.. .

He has participated in several collective and personal exhibitions in various Italian cities.

Upon invitation he illustrated some publications.

His works are in public and private collections.  

Critical Note

The aim of the artist from the Marche region is to arouse emotions using colors and signs .

Bright colors in which greens, oranges and blues predominate. Even the darkest colors are illuminated by white spots that resemble light.

The synthetic figures proposed remind us that   we are light beings, made of the same material as our dreams .   Called to live our miracle, navigating the complexities of life.

We are small, fragile, faced with space, with the universe, but we are endowed with intelligence. We are aware of our fate. Man, as Pascal recalled, is a "thinking reed"

Space , shapes and presences allow you to go further. Beyond the limit of the human, where reality and fiction meet.

The puzzles , the transparencies , the filamentary brushstrokes , the flat geometric figures and the omnipresent star evoke suggestions and convey physical sensations that become psychic effects: a force that moves the soul of the artist but also that of the user.    

The circle, the square and the triangle: they are the geometric figures that convey the geometry of reality. Harmony is present in creation, in the celestial vault, in the depths of the sea but also within bodies.

The presences conveyed by flakes, newspapers or primordial figures move upwards, entering and exiting the canvas. They have a direction that goes beyond time and space. Humans know how to experience amazement, they know how to read creation and the presences that inhabit space.

The creative process is a " therapeutic " process.

Starting from the concepts, reflecting and dissecting the various declinations we arrive at interiority. The creative path is   a work of introspection , capable of generating new connections.

Works of art can generate a productive comparison of meaning.

The emotions felt, especially when they are strong and painful, generate meaningful responses.

PRESENZE EDUCANTI NELLO SPAZIO DI MARIA GRAZIA FOCANTI

                                                                                   MÈTA  – CORPORIS

works by Carlo Iacomucci and Maria Grazia Focanti

April 17 – May 7, 2025

Palazzo Bisaccioni  – Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Jesi

The exhibition, promoted by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Jesi and curated by Sara Tassi (Vice President of Fondazione CRJ), aims to offer a further space for reflection on contemporary art through the works of Carlo Iacomucci and Maria Grazia Focanti.  

Despite the stylistic and expressive diversity of their production, the pictorial souls of the two artists reflect a correspondence with the theme of the becoming of corporeality.

The physical space of the exhibition is defined and divided into two separate but contiguous environments to emphasize and enhance the pictorial identity of each and to establish an artistic counterpoint, a symphony in two movements, a lyric in two stanzas.

The theme of the exhibition is encapsulated in the very title Mèta – corporis, which associates two terms of different nature and etymology: mèta derives from the Greek μετά which means, among the many possible meanings, "beyond", while corporis, which derives from the Latin corpus, more intuitively means "body". The entire expression can be translated in various ways but the most identifying one is beyond bodies, recalling by sound and meaning the term metamorphosis, a topos of literature since antiquity and an inspiration for art of all times. 

Translating the Greek meaning to current usage, the exhibition path is in fact divided in half, in a spatial balance where each artist can express their own identity and creativity. The body is the subject of the paintings on display, emerging from a gestation that attempts to freeze the becoming of the artistic gesture in a completed form. 

The approach of the figure to the human, the memory of the corporeal element that becomes other than itself and beyond itself, makes the work of the two artists particularly fascinating and evocative.  The painted figures are positioned beyond bodies because the appearance of the form detaches from mimesis to land in a new version of the human, through an artistic metamorphosis that allows the bodies to express themselves beyond the apparent canon. 

The powerful and wise gesturality of Iacomucci contrasts with the calm and serene conduct of Focanti. The decisive and scratching hand of Iacomucci defines the female body as the recomposition of a primordial chaos, whose pivot is the sign that, after defining the drawing underlying the painting, deconstructs the figure, renaming with color a new metamorphosed cosmos: it is an anatomy of the negative that works by covering the preparatory sign, so that the material nature of the body-gesturality emerges.

Focanti's pictorial vision is the opening to a dreamlike world in which the phenomenal data merges with the symbolic one. The approach of forms and colors to the recognizability of nature contrasts with spurious elements that appear and linger on the canvas: in particular, the face becomes a synecdoche of the body, a part for the whole, a profile rooted in the space that surrounds it in a pantheistic metamorphosis of the human. 

On the occasion of the event, the exhibition catalog will be presented, where twenty works by each artist have been included, the same ones set up in the exhibition. The texts in the catalog are by Sara Tassi and Patrizia Minnozzi. 

 The inauguration will take place on Thursday, April 17 at 5:30 pm with a presentation of the artists by the curator of the exhibition. The exhibition will be open to the public with free admission, every day from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm and from 3:30 pm to 7:30 pm, according to the opening hours of Palazzo Bisaccioni.

FONDAZIONE CASSA DI RISPARMIO DI JESI

PALAZZO BISACCIONI

Piazza Colocci, 4 - Jesi Tel. 0731/207523 www.fondazionecrj.it info@fondazionecrj.it

A tear in space, 2024, acrylic and textured on canvas, cm. 40 x 30

Wonderful comparison, 2024, acrylic and textured on canvas, cm. 40 x 30

IMPOSSIBLE MATTER – ARTIST SHOWCASES - 

SAVONA 4 APRIL 3 JUNE 2025

The renowned painter from the Marche region, Maria Grazia Focanti, is exhibiting in Savona as part of “Vetrine d’Artista”, at the local branch of BPER Banca Savona, corso Italia 10.
The exhibition will be open from April 4, 2025 to June 3, 2025, with the opening on April 4 at 10 am.
The event is curated by Dr. Silvia Bottaro, president of the non-profit “Aiolfi” Association, Savona, and art critic.
BPER Banca has granted, through Dr. Silvia Bottaro, the use of some display windows located in the building of its main office in Savona.

Maria Grazia FOCANTI - born in Jesi, after graduating in sociology she attended a painting course at the Academy of Fine Arts in Macerata. Her artistic “philosophy” is to evoke emotions, even reflections, with a very sensitive and original palette with bright colors (vivid and lush greens, blues referencing the color of lapis lazuli, oranges which in heraldry denote strength, honor, and generosity). Her style is free, in the chaos of everyday life: with the color “savoy” she makes us lose ourselves in infinity, chasing, it seems, dreams, even in enigmatic metamorphoses, both as an artist and as a person.

We are therefore faced with a symbolic universe, with a kind of visionary creativity aided by a varied technique using white and colored chalks, dense, condensed pigments, organic materials (coffee powder combined with turmeric), because her works are also engaging from a sensory point of view: a non-place full of transposed wonders and incinerating disturbances, anxieties. Human profiles, at the bottom or top of her works, float in very colorful atmospheres, with blinding lights and shadows, with references to the gentle hills of the Marche, to the clear skies and the Adriatic Sea, it seems, in a kind of pedagogy of respect for oneself and for the nature where one lives and works.

 

S.B.

ON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2024, it will be possible to visit, in Monsano, the atelier of the Painter Maria Grazia Focanti, where the exhibition "Dreaming Presences" has been set up.

The event is part of the CONTEMPORARY DAY

promoted by AMACI – ASSOCIATION OF ITALIAN CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUMS with the support of the

GENERAL DIRECTORATE FOR CONTEMPORARY CREATIVITY OF THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE.

The Contemporary Day is the major event that since 2005 has brought contemporary art to the general public.

Promoted by AMACI – Association of Italian Contemporary Art Museums, the Contemporary Day is realized with the support of the General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture and with the collaboration of the General Directorate for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Now in its twentieth edition, the Contemporary Day will, as always, involve museums, foundations, public and private institutions, galleries, artist studios and spaces throughout the country, showcasing the vitality of contemporary art in our country. Again this year, to encourage and enhance the widest possible participation, the event will maintain a hybrid and physical format.

Thanks to the support of the General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture and the collaboration with the General Directorate for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Contemporary Day will renew the involvement of the MAECI diplomatic-consular network composed of Embassies, Consulates, and Italian Cultural Institutes, and will extend abroad from Sunday, October 6 to Saturday, October 12, 2024, encouraging the participation of AMACI Directors at events organized by the Farnesina's foreign network and by organizations active in the relevant countries.

As in previous editions, the event will maintain several activity hubs, all with free admission: an ad hoc program by the AMACI associated Museums, initiatives developed in collaboration with the MAECI foreign network, the involvement of the Contemporary Places network promoted by the General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture, and proposals from participating entities. A very rich calendar of events that highlights the widespread network of organizations promoting the various contemporary languages on the national and international territory.

The event is supported by the General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with the General Directorate for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and under the patronage of UPI Union of Italian Provinces and ICOM Italy.

To book a visit to the atelier: (mariagrazia.focanti@gmail.com)

the dialoguers, 2024, acrylic 30x24 by Maria Grazia Focanti

Maria Grazia FOCANTI

• SABATO 12 OTTOBRE 2024 sarà possibile visitare, a Monsano, l’atelier della Pittrice Maria Grazia Focanti, dove è stata allestita la mostra “Presenze Sognanti”.

PRESENZE EDUCANTI NELLO SPAZIO DI MARIA GRAZIA FOCANTI

On Sunday 14 April at 4:30 pm, the Massimo Ferretti Library in Chiaravalle will host the opening of Maria Grazia Focanti’s solo exhibition, “Educating Presences in Space.” The show will run until 4 May with the following opening hours:

Monday to Thursday: 9:30 am–12:30 pm and 3:00 pm–7:00 pm

Friday and Saturday: 8:30 am–12:30 pm

Sunday: 5:00 pm–7:00 pm

———

Maria Grazia Focanti graduated in Sociology from the University of Urbino “Carlo Bo” and later attended a Painting course at the Academy of Fine Arts in Macerata. She has taken part in numerous group and solo exhibitions across Italy and, by invitation, illustrated several publications. Some of her works are held in public and private collections. In recent years, she has explored techniques such as matter painting, video art, performance, watercolour and acrylic. She currently lives and works in Monsano (Ancona).

———

In Focanti’s paintings, vibrant colours burst forth to illuminate a chaotic, multi-hued space in a true exercise of free style. Human profiles emerge against riotous backdrops—immersed in landscapes rich with pleasing hues—reflecting the artist’s innermost world. Even amid blurred and formless contexts, her canvases reveal a woman who is at once profoundly spiritual, yet strong and determined.

Faintly sketched female figures and ethereal shapes drift in space; human profiles hover high in the sky among clouds or rise from the earth, set within rainbow-coloured scenery that evokes gentle hills or rolling waves of deep blue.

You sense relationships between lines, forms and shades—like a game of Chinese shadows—where masculine and feminine, day and night, sun and moon alternate, harmoniously balancing extroversion and introversion, Yin and Yang. In this balance of shapes, space itself becomes a means of communication. By interacting with both artist and viewer, it serves an educational role, fostering growth and constructive, empathetic relationships—and positioning the artist as mediator between environment and humanity.

The eminent pedagogue Maria Montessori believed that true health lies “in the liberation of the soul.” Her educational programme includes studies in many fields, among them art, guiding the child’s journey from the sensory plane to the abstract. In Focanti’s work, too, we find a harmonious universe of curves and spheres, shifting planes, movement and colour—expressive tools that create spatial depth and forge a bond with the cosmos, where infinite space fills the void of earthly existence. The artist offers a magical moment in which her canvases’ colours meld into a multidimensional stage—a tangible expression of a creative process that is simultaneously therapeutic, spiritual rebirth and propaedeutic to life and joy.

For M.G. Focanti, art is a privileged realm in which to refocus educational-pedagogical reflection on the issues of “substance” and “form,” where inspiration, contemplation and spirituality become the culmination of wisdom, truth and mystery, integral parts of a formative methodology.

Warm regards,
Patrizia Minnozzi

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Maria Grazia Focanti

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Maria Grazia Focanti

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Contact the Artist

mariagrazia.focanti@gmail.com

It operates in Monsano (AN) a stone's throw from Jesi

+ 39 347.3560930