Simon Pasini was born in Genoa in 1976. In 1984, he moved with his family to South Africa, where he began his artistic studies. Upon returning to Italy in 1992, he initially worked as a restorer, later specializing in the creation of frescoes.
He has produced numerous paintings and pictorial cycles for both public and private commissions. His works can be found in Italy, America, China, Russia, and Japan. Since 2011, his focus has shifted to what is known as “art for art’s sake,” actively collaborating with various art galleries and exhibiting primarily in Northern Europe.
Among his exhibitions and collaborations: Galerie Terbeek in the Netherlands; Mookji Art Gallery, Seoul, South Korea; Vittoriale degli Italiani, Gardone Riviera; Art Gallery Puerta de Alcalá, Madrid; Arcadia Gallery NY, USA; Galerie De Twee Pauwen in The Hague; Galerie Autrevue Heerenveen; Le Muse Cultural Promotion Center, Andria; Museo le Carceri in Asiago.
In 2023, the company Aramco commissioned him to create a commemorative painting, “Sights of Grandeur,” for the celebration of Saudi Arabia’s National Day on September 23. The artwork was exhibited at the Ithra World Cultural Center. He also participated as an artist in the documentary film “Volti d’Artista” directed by Alberto Nacci, produced for the Bergamo-Brescia Capitals of Culture 2023 event.
With a career that blends technique, experience, and artistic vision, he has been conducting plein air painting courses for the last two years, thus offering guidance for those looking to learn or refine the art of painting.
“Simon Pasini captures and freezes light The French painter Ingres (1780 – 1867) asserted that: Colour adds ornament to a painting; but it is nothing but the handmaiden’. He knew better than anyone that painters can never take colour for granted. In fact, there is generally very little left of a painting if you take out the colour. Old Masters who sublimated the chiaroscuro in their paintings knew this, and this is one respect in which contemporary artists are indebted to their illustrious predecessors. The Italian painter Simon Pasini is one of those contemporary artists who gladly stand on the shoulders of the Old Masters in order to get a better view of the boundless potential of painting. He captures the light in a masterly manner in his interiors and city scenes, in a similar fashion to his celebrated predecessors (such as the Venetian Masters Giorgione, Titian and Veronese). […]
Each brushstroke is weighed up and considered. The attention and dedication of the artist and his technical refinement are an assurance of the production of tableaux where beauty and tranquillity meet, and where the observer holds his breath so as not to disturb the atmosphere, in a supreme effort to preserve the ‘frozen moment’ for as long as is possible. Simon Pasini attaches great importance to the tone of his paintings. […]
These tones all attest to the fact that in Pasini’s painting, reality is filtered through a gossamer thin and transparent veil, or a muffled tone, that makes everything softer and more intimate. […]
Simon Pasini knows how to maximise the return on his material. He gives warmth to paint, colour and light, creating a new and original reality in the process, that did not exist until he unlocked it with his art. It is striking that he does not paint definable lines, instead preferring vague contours that represent an imaginary reality where melancholy and yearning hold sway and where the principle of ‘carpe diem’ is held high. The artist translates his own frame of mind into a form of contemporary art where the border between form and substance becomes blurred. He manipulates light and colour and moulds reality to his own will. The layered painting style is integral to the interaction between the various elements that dominate the scene as well as to the dialogue between the painter and his material. In this way, interiors, street scenes and cityscapes come into being, all bathed in a hazy light where enervating chiaroscuro effects induce sensations of colour and light. In his unique and inimitable fashion, the artist creates a poetic world alternately dominated by shrouded or evocative, passionate or placid accents. Each individual painting is a moment in time: personal observations and sensations are sublimated and preserved as timeless and unique experiences. Time stands still and life itself slows down in order to mark time for just a moment”.
Wim van der Beek
Writer, art critic, curator of contemporary art.