OGGETTI SMARRITI

Alex Pinna

29/01/2019 – 29/03/2019

In 2019, BABS Art Gallery inaugurated Alex Pinna’s first exhibition dedicated to jewels, entitled Lost Objects. Different from the 2025 exhibition, the distinction lay in style and materials: gold, silver, bronze, and ebony wood gave substance to his wearable sculptures. What remained constant, however, was the artist’s stylistic signature: slender figures, reduced to the essential, stripped of empirical traits, whose postures embody universal states of mind so universal as to resonate with the individuality of each person. Although the characters in his works are silent and contemplative, the titles that accompany them are borrowed from boisterous pop songs. His artistic and existential enquiry is always veiled in irony, reminding us that life should not be taken too seriously.

A series of jewels depicts a composed, almost hieratic seated figure, with disproportionately long legs stretching downward: it appears pensive, and in turn invites reflection. Yet we do not know what it is thinking: the artist neither tells us nor suggests it, and it is precisely here that the fascination of his art resides. Its expressive strength lies in what remains unsaid, in the aura of mystery surrounding his figures. His works reach out to the viewer, posing a question that calls for an answer. The artwork, therefore, requires participation; it is fulfilled only in the gaze of the spectator, and it is within this dialogue that the Lost Objects find their dwelling.

For Alex Pinna, art is communication direct communication that does not need to be explained to be understood. The alphabet he employs is that of the body, in its various forms and postures. The language of the body does not require the mediation of words, concepts, or narratives to be grasped. Words, in this case, can serve only one purpose: to invite us to look.