The Bonioni Arte Gallery of Reggio Emilia participates in the Contemporary Day with the personal exhibition of the Reggio Emilia artist Walter Guidobaldi, aka Wal, known and appreciated in Italy and abroad for his ironic and surreal works, including Pop Art, New new and return to painting.

The title of the exhibition – I dreamers of turnips – pays homage to a fundamental exhibition in the artist's career, curated in 1993 by Renato Barilli at the Civic Museums of Reggio Emilia. The project of the Bonioni Arte Gallery is therefore in ideal continuity with this exhibition, proposing a concise excursus through the artist's production of the last thirty years.

Curated by Ivano Bonioni with a critical text by Alessandro Gazzotti, the exhibition includes around forty works including glazed terracotta sculptures and oil paintings on wood, together with some unpublished works dated 2023 and 2024.

«In distilling the essentiality of the ghosts of Mediterranean culture and beyond – writes Alessandro Gazzotti – Wal makes mythology, religion, classicism and “today's myths” interact; his works are lit by the contrasts between the Dionysian energy of the colors and the Apollonian whiteness of the enamels. In fact, at the origin of this language there is not only a way of being and feeling the arts, but also a generous and satisfying taste for matter, for colour. A tactile and playful pleasure made of ceramics, smooth and brilliant enamels, and a metaphysical, ideal and Mediterranean light that emanates from all of his production."

«The project – explains gallery owner Ivano Bonioni – was born from a relationship of great esteem and friendship. I have known Walter Guidobaldi for over forty years. Before opening the Gallery, I actually made creative molds for artists. Through that activity, I got to know many authors and became fond of their research. The transition to collecting was rapid, as was the idea of ​​opening an art gallery together with my son Federico. Wal is always present in our activities, from collective exhibitions to art fairs. The time has now come to set up a personal exhibition, to present to the city the results of innovative research, capable of drawing on the past, reading the present and imagining the future."

Wal, alias Walter Guidobaldi, was born in 1949 in the small village of Roncolo di Quattro Castella (Reggio Emilia), where he still lives and works.