ExHIBIT

RAFAEL SOTTOLICHIO
« Traces d’empire »

CHILI

CARRÉ 150 (Cabaret G. Aubert)

RAFAEL SOTTOLICHIO is a painter and muralist based in Montreal. He has been painting since 1996. He approaches painting through image and representation. The themes he explored in recent years have included identity, the relationship of the individual to the public space, the violence of human relationships and more recently, issues related to immigration and our relationship to territory. In this series, the artist is exploring the historical relationship between art and power. He has created paintings that offer more than a vehicle for dominant values and that, ultimately, speak of freedom. Working in a realistic style and from photographic sources, SOTTOLICHIO confronts the realities evoked in paintings by juxtaposing them, by making them strange, by constructing a poetic arrangement meant to trigger a reflection. No specific historical empire is targeted in this project, theoretically inspired by the book Empire (2000) by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt¹.

Érick d'Orion, visual art curator

1 Excerpts taken in part from the artist’s website

Rafael Sottolichio, Mutations no 6, 2019, Acrylique et gouache sur toile, 30 x 20 cm