Bio
Pierangela Garau is an Italian artist born in Ozieri, Sardinia (Italy) in 1974, and currently lives and works in Minneapolis (Minnesota).
She received her Master of Arts in Painting in 2008 from the Fine Arts Academy of Brera in Milan and her Master of Design in Visual Design in 2019 from the New Academy of Design in Verona.
Member of NEMAA (Northeast Minneapolis Art Association), she is part of the vibrant community of artists at the Northrup King Building, where she owns and operates her studio.
Her work encompasses many mediums and various tools, including acrylics and oils on canvas, watercolor, charcoal, pastels, and inks on paper.
She also has extensive knowledge of digital design. Over the last years in Italy, she has worked as a surface pattern designer in the textile industry.
Pierangela has been involved in the most important national shows as the 113th Minnesota State Fair exhibition, Minneapolis and the Art North International 30, Hopkins.
Statement
I have always been interested in figurative art, portraits, and self-portraits as a form of self-analysis and exploration of the human being. In recent years, my interest in Sardinia traditions, ancient cults, and rich cultural heritage has increased.
Fascinated by masks and ancient pagan rites, I started to study their characteristics and meanings, and for this reason, I decided to work on a big project about the traditional Sardinian Carnival, “The Masks series”.
This became an opportunity to study the origin of the ancestral need for which men of different cultures and at different latitudes of the world feel the need to wear a mask, to transform themselves into something else, different, a magical and divine entity.
In 2019, I visited “Mamumask”, an international mask festival in Mamoiada, a region in the heart of Sardinia, which provided an opportunity to collect material for my project through images and information about the various masks, materials, shapes, colors, symbols, and sounds. I was amazed to discover the wide variety and diversity of masks from towns so close to each other, as well as their long connection to the natural cycle of life and death, and their ancient and archaic origins.
The origins of the Sardinian carnival date back at least 3,000 years and have undergone, over the centuries, influences, transformations, and cultural exchanges with the numerous peoples who arrived from overseas.
Moreover, my passion for textile design led me to explore traditional women’s costumes, the sumptuousness of brocades, the refinement of lace, and the richness of goldsmith tradition. As with masks, the variety of costumes is immense, and every city, no matter how small, proudly preserves its tradition and identity.
I primarily work with acrylic or oil on large canvases, but I also use watercolors, pencils, and charcoal on paper to create my works. Each painting, watercolor, or drawing starts from one or more of my photos. Usually, the work begins in my vision of what I have before my eyes through the camera’s filter.
My work aims to share and make known my culture of origin, through elements that have a strong anthropological value and a mysterious charm that induces the viewer to stop and look, and reflect.
