Jacopo Pagin: Fata Morgana

In Italian folklore, mirages that alighted on the sea’s horizon at dawn or dusk were believed to be the work of fairies or witches. They were named Fata Morgana after the Arthurian character of Morgan le Fay, who was said to conjure these castle-like visions in an attempt to lure unwitting sailors to their deaths. Fata Morgana has often been seen as an artistic inspiration. Appropriately, fata, the Italian word for fairy, is deceptively close to fato, meaning fate or destiny. In its name, the mysterious phenomenon takes on the weight of literature, myth, and even art.

In the work of Italian painter and multimedia artist Jacopo Pagin, the phenomenon of the Fata Morgana is closely tied to techniques of artistic creation. Using color palettes evoking the liminal moments in which day and night bleed, Pagin’s new body of work takes these mirages and the myths it suggests as a catalyst into the exploration of painting's role in the concepts of time, nothingness, and the illusion.

The figural subjects of Pagin’s canvases are both objects and humans, are psychedelically rendered, operating as amulets and archetypes through which a kaleidoscope of artistic history can be perceived. They bend in crepuscular angles, reminiscent of the optical phantasmagorias seen on horizon lines. Murano glassware–a common subject in Pagin’s paintings– are rendered as surreal self-portraits, barriers, or portals into other realms, their airy, limpid forms themselves reminiscent of a visual illusion. His human forms conversely evoke earthy feminine archetypes that speak to a larger historical and aesthetic progression. In I am a Dwarf on Eva’s Shoulders who looks back to You from far away , a tessellated vision of Eve and the serpent swirls around itself, a classical form made kinetic, while An Unfathomable Abyss showcases Pagin’s virtuosic ability to seamlessly meld classical painting conventions into a single image.

Fata Morgana highlights the influence of many different aesthetic avenues, including glam rock, occultism, surrealist photography, and the stereotypes of Hollywood present and past.Throughout its wide-ranging subject matter, Pagin’s razor focus on color and composition cuts straight through. Fata Morgana is an exploration through the indefinable and chimerical compositions alighted on the expanding and generous horizon of Pagin’s canvases.

Jacopo Pagin has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Make Room in Los Angeles, CA, USA and the Pavillon Southway in Marseille, France. Recent group exhibitions include: Uncanny Depths (2022) Centre d'art de la Cité Radieuse (MAMO), Marseille, France; Machines of Desire (2022) at Simon Lee Gallery, London, UK;The Views (2022), Moskowitz Bayse in Los Angeles, CA; I Dwell in Possibility, SPURS Gallery, Beijing, China;Manta Rei (2022), Materia Gallery, Rome, Italy;Anima Mundi, Abbaye de Saint-Victor, Manifesta XIII, Marseille, France;  and Art Brussels 2022 with Make Room, among others.  Pagin’s work is a part of the public collection of the Zhi Art Museum in Chengdu, China. His work has been written about in such publications as Artnet, Office Magazine, and Art Viewer, among others. Pagin lives and works in Brussels.