Inhale/Exhale
Alga Gallery, Izola, Slovenia
8 December 2016 – 4 January 2017

curator: Nina Jesih

Antonio Per presents his second series of nudes, where both the author and models allow the viewer into their intimate worlds, which is so near and yet so far. A staple of the artist’s nudes is their strong energy of colour that overpowers the potential darkness of existence. In his first series, the author placed an imaginary mirror in front of the audience, in which they were to see the truth of their being. In addition, he showed the metaphoric progress of life from birth to death, to which he added a socially critical note and that is likewise present in his current photographs. His guide for the creation of nudes, where nudity is not of primary significance, was a wish to explore the relationships between people that then evolved into the study of the cyclical nature of the individuum. Every life begins with an inhale and ends with an exhale; the only important part is the path from one point to the other. The First Woman was punished for submitting to the will of another and we are all flung into that same purgatory. Who is the one who shall dare to speak and rise? Or is it easier to hide behind a wall of symbolism and suffer in terrible agony? Antonio Per faces these questions on a daily basis and here, he shows us his personal interpretation of the life path of an individual who must fight for his physical and mental survival. Through his photographs, we might experience an epiphany, one that tells us each man may rise like a phoenix from the ashes, if only he has enough strength and support. In this way, the author brings hope for a better time and a positive view of the world to his audience, despite the difficulties of everyday battles of the individual.
(Nina Jesih)

artist:

Antonio Per
He (Novo mesto, 1982) encountered photography by chance, but this casual glance through a camera lens quickly grew into a love for the medium. Though he began as self-taught photographer, his feeling and talent for the subject was quickly obvious in every photo he took. His beginnings are in concert photography, but nowadays he mainly explores the relationship between nudes and human emotion. With his partner, he runs a photo studio, mainly devoted to wedding and family portraits. He has been featured in several exhibitions, among them the lauded 2012 Inspiration in nature held in Litija Youth Centre. He also donated several works to the Litija Centre for Social Work. He currently lives and works in Koper, where he already introduced himself with a small exhibition in the bar SKICA, and in the beginning of 2015 in the Izola-based Alga Gallery.
http://studioperkofol.com/