04/09/2025 - 29/09/2025
The exhibition, curated by Sveva Manfredi Zavaglia and Nataša Radojević, marks a significant moment in the artistic evolution of the Serbian-born, Rome-based artist, whose work is distinguished by a profound reflection on the materiality of painting and the relationship between image and temporality, establishing a gaze beyond time.
In the archaeological tradition, megalographies are pictorial cycles with monumental figures, often life-sized, such as those found in the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii. Partly inspired by the monumentality and fragility of the Pompeian megalographies, Mangov creates works that fuse matter and memory into large-scale pictorial compositions with a powerful visual presence. The core of the exhibition consists of fourteen large-scale monumental portraits, executed in oil on canvas and produced using a personal and complex technique he describes as “composite under-painting.”
Through an intense layering of pigments, the pictorial matter pulses beneath the visible surface, suggesting a hidden, living reality that eludes immediate perception. These works occupy a space of tension between abstraction and figuration; forms seem to oscillate allying definition and dissolution, inviting the viewer to a slow and contemplative exploration. Alongside the large-scale canvases, two videos document the progressive stages of the creative process. These multimedia materials offer insight into the continuous transformation of the work, underlining how, in Mangov’s vision, painting emerges as a dynamic space of ongoing change and stratification.
Critic Domenico de Chirico describes Mangov’s work as an “audacious opening,” capable of translating into intense chromatic sensations. Matter thus becomes a visual, almost geological sign that bears witness to our time, suspended between a sense of archaeological nostalgia and the dynamic energy of contemporary stream of consciousness.
MEGALOGRAFIE positions itself as a profound inquiry into the relationship between time, matter and identity. The exhibition offers an immersive experience that prompts reflection on the slow, inexorable change of perception and on becoming itself.
