Landscapes

In the dark Forest expresses a dark mood, the title refers to The Divine Comedy by Dante: In the middle of my life, in a dark forest I lost my way...

The landscapes in Tony Mafia’s work are dreamscapes, private places he shares with us, an escape from or dive into an oppressing reality. Nothing is literal or straightforward realism even if in some paintings or drawings the Flemish Polder or the Arizona desert and mountains are easily recognized as a setting, even individual rock formations that have a story, a name or nickname. Although captured in the solidity of paint and sure brushstrokes these dream spaces are often enigmatic, ethereal yet forceful.


In European culture the landscape being painted is unconscious, doesn’t know, nor react. The viewer places himself outside of it and feels him/herself to be separate from it. Tony rather ‘portrays‘ a landscape because he the painter is part of the landscape and in constant interaction with it. The landscape is alive and on the canvas or paper. It speaks to the viewer and expects those that listen when they walk, run or rest in it.