Breath of colour

Selected works by the artist on show in a sensorial and spiritual journey.

From 4 to 30 June 2021, the Fondazione Stelline in Milan hosts the exhibition ‘Respiro del Colore’ (Breath of Colour) by artist Marison Ray, curated by art historian Alessandro Vezzosi, with the collaboration of Claudio Guida and Agnese Sabato.

Since childhood, Marison Ray has approached drawing as if it were an innate gift. Her journey into design began at a very young age, starting in Turin and eventually taking her as far as Japan, a country that profoundly inspired her. She traveled the world, absorbing powerful and vivid impressions, such as the raw intensity of Spanish bullfights – dust, blood, and violence – elements that she ultimately translated into expressions of power and dynamism in her work. Marison’s art invites deep reflection, encouraging viewers to explore its underlying motives, characters, and meanings. After an initial glance from afar, her canvases draw us closer, compelling an almost immersive experience. As we approach, we find ourselves enveloped in the textures, layers, and resonances of color, where the very breath of the hues intertwines with the explosive energy of the painting.
The exhibition showcases a selection of Marison’s works from the past seven years: 16 large canvases (2×2 m), 7 smaller ones, and several preparatory studies on paper that unveil her creative process, from the initial spark of inspiration to the full expansion of color.
The display also includes significant pieces from earlier periods, starting with Ritratto della Madre (Portrait of the Mother), which she views as the origin and “celestial essence of life”; Passioni (Passions, 2006), a painting created in collaboration with Ezio Gribaudo; and Dittico (Diptych, 2009), with its luminous colors transcending inertia through the interpenetration of dynamic, vital gestures.
The exhibition marks a clear departure from her works of the 1990s, when Marison portrayed mysterious, solitary figures gazing skyward, defenseless against the world and the violence of urban life – a period that culminated with the catastrophe of the Twin Towers in 2001. In her current work, figures of existential drama have given way to pure, boundless creative invention.
Titles in Marison’s work often serve as decipherments (Spiral of Energies) or as hints to the original concept, which evolves until it nearly loses its figurative essence (Bull in Eden). Her painting becomes an alphabet of gestures and abstract signs, a macrocosm encapsulated within the microcosm of the canvas – a place that holds the ultimate essence, the secret, and the perception of the inner world.
The creative process unfolds like a rhythmic breath, charged with energies, emotional involvement, and vital sensations, as the painting waits to be completed. For Marison, “there is nothing more exhilarating than revealing the soul on a blank canvas.” Yet the painting itself, which often feels perpetually in progress, challenges her to decide when to stop. What begins as an original intuition takes form in sketches – the spark of an idea – before expanding with increasing complexity into the dynamic momentum of her large canvases. As the painting reaches its conclusion, the breath intensifies, the heartbeat calms, and the journey of creation finds its resolution.
Colour is the soul’s expression, born from the instinct of creative fury. Marison’s use of acrylic paint, with its rapid drying time, perfectly aligns with her swift execution and allows for continuous transformation of her work. Through layering and reworking, she crafts an incessant narrative of thought, where signs and colors evolve in harmony with her artistic impulses.
Her compositions evoke a sense of musicality, counterpoint, and rhythm, where colours embody breath and vitality. Her favored palette reveals expressive and symbolic dominants: the fiery red of blood and flame; the deep China blue and luminous India yellow, evoking sky, sea, earth, and sunlight; and pure white, introducing elements of contrast and clarity. These hues flow and embrace each other, forming a vivid interplay of emotion and meaning within her work.

For Marison, paintings are her own children. Each painting is a living creature, in a quiver of sensations on the canvas, generating magic. Her paintings are dreams that transform halfway through the work, following the programmed instincts of reason and the unconscious. For her, painting is a complex mission – a gift that demands intellectual rigor and an anxious drive to achieve an ideal outcome. While Marison paints for herself, she also feels a profound responsibility to society: to share emotions and create connections through her work.
Her painting is a dynamic flow of brushstrokes, a meadow of colours spreading across the canvas in explosions of energy and animated trajectories. Each piece reflects her passions, which are marked by struggles and conflicts, ultimately seeking enlightenment. For Marison, each work must be completed through a combination of transcendent will and inevitable fate, emerging as the fruit of a primary concept and its subsequent metamorphoses. She believes she has been imbued with astral energy, overcoming a dark period in her life through a deep dialogue with her spiritual side. Her work reflects a commitment to the preservation of human life and nature, underscored by a profound respect for creation. She sees herself as a devout warrior, striving to bring meaning to life through her art.
Her stage name reflects the light of the sea and the sun, while also nodding to one of her inspirations, Man Ray. The artists she admires are as diverse as her own work, revealing the coordinates of her artistic roots and shaping the multifaceted texture of her aesthetic vision. From Tintoretto and Paolo Uccello to the Impressionists and the Orientalism of Van Gogh and Gauguin, from Picasso to Kandinsky’s exploration of spirituality, Klimt’s opulence, Cy Twombly’s gestural abstraction, and the contemporary practices of Jenny Saville and Marina Abramović, Marison’s influences span centuries and movements, shaping a unique and deeply personal artistic language.

The exhibition, coordinated by Claudio Guida, is brought to life with the technical support and collaboration of CPA Service and is accompanied by a catalogue available in both print and digital formats, produced by Teca Edizioni.

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