Palermo 2004/05 Hybrid Sketches - Canvas Print

Artist Cosimo Palermo 's sketches reveal a surreal, almost visionary imagery, drawn with a ballpoint pen on plain paper. The lines are sometimes quick, instinctive, as if the artist were following a mental flow rather than a precise plan.

Upper part

• A sinuous and ambiguous figure, which seems to oscillate between an organic and an architectural element.

• A surface reminiscent of a table or suspended plane, above which are cloud shapes and a small black sun.

• On the right side, a vertical structure similar to a wall, with features that recall a door or a passage.

• Below, a net, a fabric or a ground marked by cross-hatchings.

Lower part

• A small “imaginary city” made of irregular, crooked buildings, animated by lines that seem to give them a character of their own.

• In the center, a schematic skyscraper, wedged between deformed and almost animated houses.

• On the right, a face-building, a sort of urban totem: thick eyebrows, empty eyes, a wide-open mouth from which a long street-tongue emerges.

• Below, a hill crisscrossed by paths, tiny figures, and a few patches of vegetation, as if that surreal world were inhabited by people searching for direction.

The whole is spontaneous, halfway between a doodle, a dream and an architectural satire.