Leo Taffarelli 

After his studies he attended the Academy of Venice under the guidance of Carmelo Zotti. During the years 60s of last century he was attracted by the painters of the American abstract expressionism, especially De Kooning, Rothko, Pollock, Sam Francis. Already during those years, he started to abandon the classical canons of painting in order to experiment new ways of expression which were characterized by figurative deformations which accompanied him till the informal revolution of the 90s. Work commitments, although important, had little influence onTaffarelli’s artistic vitality who, every time he could concentrate himself and enter into contact with brushes, spatulas and new materials, was able to create involving works. It crops up from his works a certain impetuousness which gives free play to contrasts of colours, of materials, of lights and shadows: these contrasts are a clear consequence. of an innate irreverence toward social conventions. They let you guess a need of purity, a natural rejection of falsehood and corruption by the human being, but also a deep love for nature and animals: love which is increasingly suffering from the spreading environmental degradation which is dragging humanity into the abyss from which man cannot go out because of the blind, senseless and selfish race for money and ephemeral values of power. These subjects are evident in Taffarelli’s works, that is why his paintings are titled “falls, explosions, cracks, crevices, polluted aquariums, fossils, ruins”. At the end, his paintings are spaces dedicated to the increasingly worrying social disintegration. But we cannot forget the theme of the war which is shown by means of biceps of exhumed figures or faded graffiti on wasted walls. This is not all: in some paintings related to children, family and couples there are signs of hope expressed by brighter and more intensive colours. 

The figures related to the lyric footprint have left to be purely objective signs in order to become folds, masses, cuts, colours and untied overblown. These effects are obtained by means of different materials like clay, mortar and sand blended with various resins, paper, plastics, rags, but also various types of waste, bound together by personally tasted adhesives. The results are astonishing primordial bodies that become involved forms of fresco or plans hatched from scenic trails and graffiti sublimated by delicate glazes or variegated colours which can be caught inside cracks of bas-reliefs. Taffarelli shows a not previously meditated freshness but a gestural drawing that fosters the highest poetic vein. The style is magnetic, irreverent and always surprising.
To give a sequential order of Leo Taffarelli’s artistic activity is almost impossible: ups and downs with sudden changes of goals were a maxim of his life and his works clearly reflect this attitude. His works which were the result of an intense research of means and materials have always been appreciated by critics and clients who followed his evolution and this is the reason why he has found a place near the most brilliant names of the modern Italian artists.