The Art of Antonella Trovarelli – Creation Through Chaos



Author Information

Jytte Holmqvist, Lund University, Sweden

Abstract

This paper gives voice to bold and experimental Italo-Argentinian Antonella Trovarelli. Most recently artist in residence a Abra Espacio contemporary art gallery in San José, Costa Rica, her professional trajectory has taken her from strength to strength. Breaking ground while at work at Museo C.A.V. La Neomudéjar in Madrid, Trovarelli has made an indelible impact creating in her designated studio in the Associations Lab section of former brutalist and cutting-edge regional contemporary art space Zapadores/ Ciudad Del Arte Museo Siglo XXI; a politically activist, visual accompaniment to the Neomudéjar avant-garde art center in the vicinity of the Atocha railway station in an obscure part of Madrid proper. The provocative pieces at transfixing Zapadores contrasted starkly with the notion of art as beauty. Rather, covering an expansive art space that has since ceased to exist, were works that hurled us back to Spain’s dark Francoist past. Images of executed soldiers, and torture victims shocked into silence. Audiences were reminded of the brutality of a regime that haunts Spanish citizens to date. Trovarelli, in turn, engages with identity and migration politics through abstract, primitive and anthropomorphic figures that verge on the grotesque, challenge the viewer and leave room for interpretation. This paper argues that Chaos is needed for a creative spark to fly and draws on Stewart Elliot Guthrie’s anthropomorphic theories pondering what role animal symbolism plays in Trovarelli’s art, if her skeletal figures can escape their liminal space in the existential margins, and what diasporic message is conveyed through her art.


Paper Information

Conference: IICAH2026
Stream: Arts - Visual Arts Practices

This paper is part of the IICAH2026 Conference Proceedings (View)
Full Paper
View / Download the full paper in a new tab/window


To cite this article:
Holmqvist J. (2026) The Art of Antonella Trovarelli – Creation Through Chaos ISSN: 2432-4604 – The IAFOR International Conference on Arts & Humanities – Hawaii 2026 Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 95-106) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2432-4604.2026.8
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2432-4604.2026.8


Comments & Feedback

Place a comment using your LinkedIn profile

Comments

Share on activity feed

Powered by WP LinkPress

Share this Research

Posted by James Alexander Gordon