Regenerations

From 30th August to 12th October 2025, the exhibition Regenerations [Rigenerazioni] will be open to the public, featuring the painting, sculpture, and photography of Erminio Tansini.

This is the sixth stage in the series “Forms, Matter, Colour” [“Forme, materia, colore”], which has been touring various parts of Italy (Emilia-Romagna, Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont, Tuscany, and Venetia).

Hosted at Hotel Bellavista in Anacapri, on the Island of Capri, the show is accompanied by captions and short critical texts, drawn from previously published writings by Marina Arensi, Tiziana Cordani, Dragana Kostić, Kevin McManus, and Giorgio Segato.

It offers a curated selection of oil paintings on panel, photographs, and wooden sculptures, reflecting the breadth of Erminio Tansini’s creative vision.

Under the patronage of the Municipality of Anacapri, Regenerations is curated by Davide Tansini and coordinated by Francesca Gaido.

Regenerations presents a selection of works painted between 2008 and 2016 (some previously unseen), which can be interpreted through the themes of informal abstraction, light, matter, and colour.

Since the mid-1990s, after a long period focused on figurative art, Erminio Tansini turned to informal abstraction; works no longer bound to recognisable forms, but driven by the expressive relationship between matter and colour.

In these works, light and shadow rise from the impastoed textures: dense bodies adrift in expanses of colour, or in restless swathes and molten currents, evoking the raw essence of primeval landscapes.

At first glance, familiar shapes seem to appear; on closer inspection, however, rhythms, sequences and unexpected overlaps reveal themselves, becoming more meaningful the more the viewer feels drawn in.

The use of light is central to Erminio Tansini’s creations (mainly oils on panel or canvas): a light that is both life force and harmony, sought and shaped from its source, and finally embedded in the surface of a painting.

Since 1991, Tansinian works have been exhibited in Belgium, Germany, and Italy, and since 2018 they have been at the heart of the travelling photographic series “Re-framings” [“Ri-quadri”], staged in Austria, France, Italy, the Principality of Monaco, the Republic of San Marino, Slovenia, and Switzerland.

Regenerations presents a type of wooden sculpture that Erminio Tansini has been creating since the early 1990s.

Much of the wood comes from the Ligurian and Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, particularly Cinque Terre, the Lunigiana area and the Nure, Taro, Tidone, and Trebbia valleys.

Although he began creating these works over thirty years ago, they did not make their exhibition début until 2017, when Erminio Tansini took part in the 57th Venice Biennale.

These Tansinian creations are characterised by jagged, sinuous or tangled lines, and by forms that may be light and delicate or heavy and imposing. They are also based on clearly perceptible dynamisms and tensions.

The works become models for bronze castings and encourage the viewer to perceive familiar forms in seemingly random shapes (pareidolia).

Erminio Tansini’s sculptural work is deeply rooted in the themes of recovery and regeneration.

The wood does not come from felling living trees, but from trunks and branches swept down by landslides, carried along by currents and smoothed by water and stone.

The artist gathers and selects this material on riverbeds and beaches. He then regenerates and assembles it, preserving as much as possible its unique natural character.

Following the Venice Biennale, Erminio Tansini’s wooden sculptures have been displayed in solo exhibitions: Visions [Visioni] (May-June 2018), Concrete Illusions [Concrete illusioni] (May-June 2019), Real Imaginary [Immaginario reale] (June-September 2020), Memories [Memorie] (October 2020-January 2021), Unusual Places [Luoghi insoliti] (August-September 2021), Itineraries [Itinerari] (September-December 2021), and Weaves [Intrecci] (June 2022).

Since 2018, they have also been the focus of the travelling series of photographic sets “Elusive Shapes” [“Forme sfuggenti”], staged in Austria, France, Italy, the Principality of Monaco, and Switzerland.

The photographs selected for the Regenerations event were taken on the sets of the travelling projects “Elusive Shapes” and “Re-framings”, devoted respectively to Erminio Tansini’s sculptures and paintings.

Staged in Austria, France, Italy, the Principality of Monaco, the Republic of San Marino, Slovenia, and Switzerland, the series have so far completed 237 stages (108 for the wooden and bronze works, 129 for the paintings), spanning Auvergne–Rhône–Alpes, Basilicata, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Gorizia, Grisons, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardy, Marche, Piedmont, Provence–Alpes–Côte d’Azur, Ticino, Tyrol, Tuscany, Trentino–Alto Adige, Valle d’Aosta, and Venetia.

In each shooting, Erminio Tansini’s works are temporarily staged and photographed in striking locations such as castles, rivers and lakes, cliffs, fortresses, historic gardens, grand old buildings, woodland glades, mountain huts, strongholds, archaeological sites, mountain passes, and stately homes.

Like Tansinian sculptures, both photographic cycles revolve around the theme of regeneration. Most of the chosen locations for the photographic shoots are not normally associated with or suitable for cultural events, but “Elusive Shapes” and “Re-framings” reclaim them as artistic spaces.

In these settings, natural and architectural backdrops merge visually with the works at centre stage, yielding images that reveal unexpected perceptions of both the locations and the sculptures and paintings, capturing them through the lens and crystallising them in the camera’s memory.

The photographs can be experienced on multiple levels; following the instant recognition of familiar shapes in chance forms (pareidolic approach), the viewer can move into a broader, more intricate, and ever-shifting emotional landscape.

Images from “Elusive Shapes” and “Re-framings” have been presented in Erminio Tansini’s solo exhibitions Paths of Impressions [Percorsi d’impressioni] (Juny-August 2018), Unexpected Perceptions [Percezioni inattese] (September 2018), Concrete Illusions (May-June 2019), Shifting Appearances [Mutevoli apparenze] (July 2019), Mirages [Miraggi] (August 2019), Visual Sensations [Sensazioni visive] (September 2019), Real Imaginary (June-September 2019), Memories (October 2020-January 2021), Unusual Places (August-September 2021), Weaves (June 2022), and Unexpected Insights [Intuizioni impreviste] (October 2022).

Place;
Anacapri (Naples, Campania – Campanian Archipelago), Hotel Bellavista (10, Via Giuseppe Orlandi – Monumento area)

Dates;
from 30th August to 12th October 2025, opening hours 10 A.M.-7 P.M.

Patronage;:
Municipality of Anacapri

Telephone;
(+39) 3 4 9  2 2 0 3 6 9 3 (Davide Tansini)

Website (Hotel Bellavista);
www.bellavistacapri.com

Admission;
free. The exhibition is accessible to visitors with reduced mobility

Alpes cottiennes · Alpes maritimes · Alpes-Maritimes · Alpi Cozie · Alpi Marittime · Alpi retiche · Alpi Sarentine · Appennino Tosco-Emiliano · Arte tansiniana · Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes · Blue Island · Bobbio · Bolzano – Alto Adige · Bozen – Südtirol · Canton Ticino · Cantone Ticino · Castelvetro Piacentino · Eastern Liguria · Eastern Riviera · Friaul-Julisch Venetien · Friûl-Vignesie Julie · Furlanija-Julijska krajina · Goriziano · Isola Azzurra · Italian Riviera · Levante Ligure · Lombardia · Lugano · Maritime Alps · Maurienne · Modane · Monegasque Riviera · Nure Valley · Principauté de Monaco · Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur · Riviera di Levante · Riviera Ligure di Levante · Riviera monégasque · Sarentine Alps · Sarentino · Sarntal · Savoie · South Tyrol · Tansinian art · Tansinian painting · Tansinian photography · Tansinian sculpture · Taro Valley · Tidone Valley · Tende · Travo · Trebbia Valley · Val di Taro · Val Nure · Val Taro · Val Trebbia · Val Tidone · Valnure · Valtaro · Valtrebbia · Valtidone · Veneto