Paolo Tarelli (1990, Italian/British) is a visual artist currently based in the Netherlands, with an education in traditional painting.

In a world where we are surrounded by inanimate matter, he is driven by the idea that objects possess a greater agency which always shifts away from human perception. Particularly, he feels compassion toward artefacts as their only value is related to their function. By considering the consequent trash derived from our use of them, his work focuses on reconsidering objects by investigating the visual relationship between their form and pictorial qualities.

The inspiration comes from everyday situations where objects take over his attention. They can be ornaments, decorations, items, tools, disposable objects or any replaceable components. Moreover, the combination of shape and purpose is what makes the object fashionable and functional, and consequently, he questions how to transfer these qualities pictorially. His research thus focuses on the perception of objects and the exploration of how their unconventional representation can reveal new meanings behind everyday situations.

He works with painting, photography, and mediums which have mostly two-dimensional formats, for their frontal qualities and the illusion of a three-dimensional perspective they can create. Specifically, through painting, he founds the materiality of which the world he sees is made. In this way, Paolo creates a link with the object to establish a personal dialogue and grow awareness of the variety of values we can attach to objects. 

In his practice, Paolo takes inspiration from mass-produced objects often considered cheap or low-quality designs. The outcomes, which appear as visuals, seek to reveal a personal point of view to grow awareness of the variety of meanings we can attach to those objects. Phone Holder is an introspective dialogue with a phone holder. The two parts of the installation relate to the dualism of seeing and perceiving: in one there is the object, in the other a cluster of images, which arise from the perception of it.

Abstraction focuses on the process of painting and the meaning of abstract for the artist. The objects considered are a stool, a pillar and a trash bin which were a constant presence during Paolo's master's program. By camouflaging their shape, painting it and creating a clay sculpture from the image on the painting, he wants to abstract those objects aiming to show their primitive form which is not affected by any ideas of functionality.