Deborah and her Infatuations
Introduction of the Artist
Review by Stefano Benedtti in La Nazjon, November 4, 1985
ArtSpeak Magazine, New York, April 1997
ArtSpeak Magazine, New York, May 1997
Gallery & Studio Magazine Vol.7 No.3 2005
Gallery & Studio Magazine Vol.7 No.4 2005
As a painter Deborah Lee Galesi is fundamentally instinctive. This is of great importance for an understanding of how all her formal education and her private studies always find themselves caught up in the impetuous current of her improvisation - expert, ever changing, unpredictable; an improvisation that is at times almost magical in the formal solutions proposed. Her instinct is of the kind that is nourished by reveries that might almost be catalogued, judging from the recurring symbols, often invoked to justify visionary episodes that exist, and are revealed with a sort of symbolic strength in the works of this painter. There is an alternation of simple situations and complex conjugations, amply documented visually in the cycles which express it. After the sacral myth of the Unicorn, her infatuation with the Etruscans, which are of considerable calibre, it is now the turn of the Egyptian civilization which has penetrated her latest works in obscure symbols or evident signs of stylistic retrieval. We have here no other than just one more of the many "magical" moments in which Deborah, as if possessed each time by parapsychological phenomena which evoke buried civilizations, confronts and relives situations and episodes with the enthusiastic participation of a "presence" perceived. In a recent self-portrait of great beauty the painter has managed to maintain the physiognomical reality while endowing the figure with the Egyptian characteristics of an "interior" nature that reveal surprising bonds with a remote world to which, in this moment of artistic exaltation, she feels bound by ancestral bonds. Frequently the artist is inspired by tales or poems which stimulate her gifts, imagination, and lead her into adventures of parallel and cyclical excursions into the area of protohistory is evident; as when the lines of a poem written for Deborah exhort her: "if you wish you may run with me / beyond the ruins of time / beyond the eyes of the Gods/ to the staircase of the stars..." However, obvious as it may be, this is the area of operation Deborah prefers after much thought and critical analysis. Keeping at a distance from the contents, one then seeks elsewhere new moments and conditions, capable of suggesting more likely parameters where we prefer to dwell. For example, on the portraits, or thoroughly observe some of the "still lifes" which may elude the tempest of symbologies furnishing lucidly the concrete measure of aesthetic value. These things are singularly high.
Tommaso Paloscia
Introduction of the Artist
These are realistic sceneries with beings projected from spiritual dimensions, and from a very deep meditation receiving the meaning of silence and solitude. These messages were purified by talent and Art. Even the faces of the portraits with their intense expressions transport us away from everyday life to a mythical level. By observing her work, one is awakened by a magical force which expands to the environment. There is human sympathy without racial differences, faces that vigorously manifest beauty, mountains that climb to a revelation above, referring to natural instincts, and the absolute intensity of a sweet moment. As the life flows, Deborah Lee Galesi hums melodies which are kept inside and on the canvases, transcending time. Her colors offer the fullness of a day. The canvases are rich with all light being replenished by the equator of dusk' s memory. The arguments are those absorbed by experiences and infinite creativity. The truth moves from authenticity to beyond, becoming possibly surreal. Her language unites, and brings us together. Deborah's tonal values and justly carved drawing abilities are to not hesitate or be distracted, thus, without neglect. Everything converges to one point in the present and infinite. The thought is manifested by figure and color, concrete and suggestive: a giant transparent butterfly, a mystery or a Chimaera' , pure as ivory. Her work is an expression of a woman on the surface of a painting surrounded by chromatic values going beyond the horizon to our founders, Etruscans and Egyptians. Allowing all sensivity to enter, Deborah sees history, life, and global issues. She is a figurative artist respecting true icons in her contours. This form is expressive without limits or conditions. It is enough to look at her work to know her talent has no end. These important chromatic values are pleasant as an adventurous quest, speaking to our Soul's light, and transporting us to a whirlpool of poetry.
From an article by Franco Ruinetti ("Praxis", Italy 1996)
ArtSpeak Magazine, New York, April 1997
A herd of elephants convenes at the tip of Manhattan Island, which has grown preternaturally grassy. Meanwhile, in the water down below, a school of dolphins romps with characteristic playfulness. In the background, a huge orange balloon rises above the skyline, beyond which a metaphysical landscape stretches as far as the eye can see. This is just one of the remarkable visions in "Romanticism Mystique," the current solo show of Deborah Lee Galesi, at Montserrat Gallery, 584 Broadway, from April 1 through 19. Galesi is a highly original postmodern surrealist with a meticulously detailed style. Her technical proficiency allows her to make the most far-fetched visions palpable and thoroughly believable, but it is her imagination that makes her an extraordinary artist. It seems Galesi has a direct pipeline to her dreams. She is therefore able to evoke entire worlds of wonderment. In another intricate composition, a unicorn and a feline creature cavort in a setting that appears to be an enchanted forest. Overhead looms a huge yellow moon containing a cameo-like human face. Such a vision suggests an alternate world, fully peopled by fairytale characters of the artist's own invention. In order to understand how Galesi's vision has evolved over the years, one must view her work retrospectively. In earlier paintings, such as "Escape from the Labyrinth," she combined ecological and spiritual themes, showing idealized male and female figures and a procession of deer in an Edenic area of white light, juxtaposed against a silhouetted skyline, set against a vibrant sunrise. In another magnificent painting entitled, "There is an Eagle in Me," Galesi depicted a proud Native American figure within a semi-abstract composition resembling a mandala. She is truly a New Age Artist in the very best sense of the term, combining Mystical, Spiritual, and social themes within a single canvas to achieve a wholistic synthesis that transcends narrow art world concerns. The Universality of her vision comes across with special clarity in a painting such as "The Key to Eternity." A guru-like figure - perhaps a shaman or wise man - levitates against a cosmic expanse, peering into a weighty tome in which a female face that appears to be a self portrait is partially visible. Within the same circular format, we see two Michelangelo-esque hands, a silhouette of a unicorn and various other intriguing symbols that suggest a host of hidden meanings. Galesi's paintings are so rich in esoteric symbols that one could spend hours deciphering and interpreting them. In other pictures, the Artist employs ancient Egyptian motifs as integral compositional elements, along with surreal, desert-like landscape spaces, graceful female nudes, figures in exotic costumes and, of course, unicorns - a favorite recurring symbol. She employs the iconology of popular culture just as readily: "Deborah's Hero," is an enchanting portrait of Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer in Walt Disney's "Fantasia," and "That's All Folks," another fantastic picture of a luminous white face streaking across the sky at the end of a rainbow named for the Warner Brothers cartoon catch phrase. She has a seemingly endless pictorial vocabulary of images and phrases that have personal meaning tor her, and she does not hesitate to combine them freely to create truly astounding visions. Unlike those of many other contemporary surrealists, Galesi's visions are relatively benign. Her work suggests an upbeat realm where magic is as ordinary as rain. Looking at her paintings and drawings one is transported out of one's daily cares. The world of current events and brash newspaper headlines vanishes like smoke. Although Galesi is a Fine-Artist, rather than an illustrator, her work has qualities in common with the fantastic books of Maurice Sendak. Her oddball slant on the world enables gallery goers to revert to the early joys of childhood, even as they appreciate her pictures for their impressive aesthetic qualities. For one, thing she is a superb colorist with a knack for combining just ihe right hues to bring her fantastic scenes vividly alive. Her compositions are equally masterful for their ability to make a coherent image from so many diverse and incongruous sources. It seems perfectly logical in one of her paintings for all manner of creatures to coexist as harmoniously as in Edward Hicks' "Peaceable Kingdom." Yet she is by no means an innocent or naive artist. Quite the contrary, her work displays a consummate sophistication particularly in her draftspersonly abilities, which are the single most important element in getting her pictures across. She draws beaulifully - be it a human or animal figure, a landscape or architectural structure - blending all of the disparate elements of her compositions into a harmonious whole, making the picture succeed splendidly in purely visual, as well as imaginative, terms. Deborah Lee Galesi is a unique talent whose work stands outside the contemporary mainstream for its singular vision. Although she can be classified loosely as a neo-surrealist, her work is basically unclassifiable, for she takes her inspiration not from art historical sources, but from the deeper, far richer well of the human psyche. She is a dream weaver whose pictures speak to us all on a level far beyond fashion and the fleeting aesthetic tendencies of the moment. Her visions are destined to endure for as long as there are receptive viewers with keen intellects and open hearts.
ArtSpeak Magazine, New York, April 1997
ArtSpeak Magazine, New York, May 1997 Deborah Lee Galesi: Fantasist Supreme
Deborah Lee Galesi mingles imagination and reality in a pecullarly unique manner. She is capable of evoking any number of subjects convincingly, yet relies for the most part on her inner vision to provide her paintings with the qualities that make them unusual and compelling, particularly in the contest of the contemporary scene. Galesi is an unabashed fantasist, given to none of the fashionable irony that afflicts so many Artists of ther generation. She paints from the heart and is not afraid of going out on a limb in terms of the subjects she chooses. Thus, it is not at all unusual to encounter a unicorn or any number of other mythological creatures in her canvases, along with winged humans, flying porpoises, giant flowers, symbolically uprooted trees and any number of other fascinating figments of a seemingly limitless imagination. That she is a superb colorist and draws beautifully makes her surreal visions all the more compelling. Dedicating many of her paintings to her father, an important figure in her life who died in an airplane crash, Galesi plumbs the depths of consciousness, summoning up imagery that appears to spring from a trance-like state of meditation; classical faces that take root in spidery trees set against fiery orange skies; monolithic male and female figures that rise out of rivers and lakes in mysterious landscapes; nocturnal moonscapes where fanciful beings convence mysteriously as those of Odilon Redon, seemingly engaged in otherworldly rituals; fanciful mergings of human and animal figures thst seem strangley logical within the context of her own rarefied inner realm. Galesi has a gift for making even a relatively straightforward landscape magical, imbuing every subject that she paints with a poetic atmosphere that transcends the limitations of the natural world, even while respecting its innate beauty. She is a contemporary shaman who can evoke the supernatural in an ordinary setting or make an extraordinary setting seem down to earth, simply by painting it so convincingly. Deborah Lee Galesi is a rare and precious Artist, devoid of cynicism and wholly in touch with her instinctual self in a manner that is quite rare in the modern world. One can only wonder who and where she has been in previous incarnations, for she summons up worlds apart as though in possession of some special knowledge that eludes the rest of us. To enter a gallery filled with her paintings is to take magical journey beyond the boundaries of everyday life, and one can only be grateful to Galesi for sharing her exalted visions with us.
ArtSpeak Magazine, New York, May 1997
REVIEW BY STEFANO BENEDETTI IN LA NAZJONE, 4 NOVEMBER 1985
The exhibition concentrates almost entirely on impressions produced by Etruscan Art and sites. Deborah Lee Galesi, an American from Paterson, New Jersey transplanted to Florence to gather her roots, the classical stimuli and antique modules, her Italian lineage, acquiring the practice of the Academy in direct contact with the places as expressions of that culture. Her works have a great consideration and deep attraction for the portrait. There is an energetic encounter between the Anglo-Saxon culture of symbolic and visionary Impressionism and the Italian and Mediterranean that is bound to drawing and form. It is synthesis of distinct cultures that have left signs on every stone of history.Galleria Spinetti, Firenze, Chiasso degli Armagnati November2 to 20