「 Embracing the Orient and the Occident 」
Cross-Cultural Exhibition of European and Asian Leading Artists
Embracing the Orient and the Occident is a century-spanning artistic feast, bringing together the works of prominent artists from Italy, France, and Japan. Featuring oil paintings, prints, wood-based colleges, and more, this exhibition captures the dynamic fusion of diverse cultures, offering a unique dialogue between Eastern and Western art as it evolves through time and space.
These works not only reflect the individual expressions of the artists within the shifting tides of history and society but also delve into the intricate and profound relationships between culture, identity, and time. From the refined techniques of Western classical oil painting to the minimalist elegance of Eastern prints, each piece embodies the artists' distinctive interpretations of the world, infused with deep contemplation.
About Artist
Giuseppe Ansovino Cappelli (Italy)
Giuseppe Ansovino Cappelli is an Italian painter, architect, and professor at the University of Rome. Active since the late 1970s, he has participated in successive waves of Italian art and published critical works such as On Form and Before Rome · After Rome. His practice explores the tension between abstraction and figuration through symbol, structure, and memory.
Cappelli’s art builds a bridge between reality and imagination. He approaches painting as a form of critical reflection, using collage, materiality, and imagery to deconstruct the established order—and to reclaim, through the fractures of our time, the transformative potential of art.
His work has been exhibited in various prominent art spaces throughout Italy, notably at Palazzo Bisaccioni (Jesi), the Museum of Paper and Watermarks in Fabriano, and A.A.M. – Arte e Architettura Moderna in Rome, among others.
Antonella Catini (Italy)
Antonella Catini was born in Pisa and is currently based in Rome, where she also earned her degree in architecture. Her academic background deeply informs her artistic sensibility, blending spatial awareness with a strong focus on visual and material experimentation.
Catini’s work is characterized by the physicality of color and surface. She constructs visual metaphors through layering, fragmentation, and interruption—exploring emotional and spatial dimensions. Her recent projects delve into themes of urban landscape, movement, and perception, while also extending into sculpture, digital art, and graphic media.
Her work has been widely exhibited in Italy and internationally—including Germany, France, the Netherlands, the UK, Turkey, Japan, Russia, China, and more. She has presented numerous solo exhibitions such as Strati di senso, Passaggi, and Flussi. Her pieces are regularly shown in institutional venues and featured in art publications and catalogues.
Jean Criton (France)
Jean Criton (1930–2022) was a prominent French painter and draftsman, born in Paris and later residing in Cluis-le-Château. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he met key artistic figures such as Bernard Réquichot and Dominique Dacherel.
Criton was closely associated with the narrative figuration movement, yet his work remained deeply rooted in broader currents of modernism—including Fauvism, Cubism, and Art Informel. His paintings are marked by structural rigor and expressive force, often portraying surreal mechanical forms, fragmented anatomy, and imaginary architectures. His later years saw a gradual evolution toward geometric abstraction, where refined perspective and material minimalism challenged perception and space.
Criton received the Grand Prize at the 1963 Paris Biennale, affirming his standing within the French contemporary art scene. His works are housed in major public collections, including the Fonds national d’art contemporain and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. As an artist whose practice traversed figuration and abstraction, emotion and geometry, Criton remains an important voice in the visual narrative of postwar European art.
Masuo Ikeda (Japan)
Masuo Ikeda (1934–1997) was a prolific Japanese artist whose practice spanned printmaking, painting, sculpture, ceramics, illustration, film, and literature. A true polymath, he brought a narrative sensibility and expressive vigor to every medium he touched.
Ikeda’s works—especially his prints—are celebrated for their surreal, dynamic compositions and introspective themes. His interdisciplinary approach and bold visual style established him as a leading voice in postwar Japanese art.
In 1965, Ikeda became the first Japanese artist to hold a solo exhibition at MoMA in New York. His works are housed in major institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian, and the Art Institute of Chicago. He also received the Akutagawa Prize in 1977 for his novel Offering in the Aegean, and is honored by the Ikeda Masuo Art Museum in Nagano.
As you journey through this artistic odyssey, you will witness a century of artistic observation and interpretation, discovering the ways in which culture evolves and endures over the course of history. With a variety of creative approaches and conceptual expressions, the art on display transcends geographical and cultural boundaries, revealing boundless imagination and intellectual depth.
Artworks
Giuseppe Ansovino Cappelli
l'Origine du Monde, 2023
Collage on wood
Diameter: 120 cm Depth: 1.5 cm
In l’Origine du Monde, Cappelli overlays a geometric constellation of black wireframe cubes on a circular surface composed of fragmented collage material—maps, diagrams, and textual residue. The strict geometry hovers over a layered terrain of urban references and cartographic detail. The work reimagines the idea of “origin” not as a single mythic point, but as a shifting grid of cultural codes, spatial systems, and constructed knowledge.
Giuseppe Ansovino Cappelli
Mitologia I, 2023
Wood
82 x 82 x 3.5 cm
In Mitologia I, Cappelli constructs a dense pictorial field populated by stylized creatures, expressive faces, and fluid hybrid forms. Working exclusively in black and white, the artist orchestrates a visual labyrinth of totemic figures and symbolic fragments. The rhythmic arrangement of curved lines and gridded geometry invokes both ritualistic composition and modernist abstraction. Tthe surface is charged with kinetic tension and narrative ambiguity, suggesting a world that exists between memory, myth, and subconscious gesture.
Giuseppe Ansovino Cappelli
Mitologia II, 2023
Wood
82 x 82 x 3.5 cm
In Mitologia II, a dense network of black linear structures fills the surface, interwoven with human figures, animal motifs, and fragments of words and signs. The central presence of a horned face and multiple textual elements suggests a field of psychological tension and cultural referencing. Here, writing and drawing cohabit a shared space of memory and symbol, evoking a mythological cosmos shaped by coded gesture and graphic vibration.
Giuseppe Ansovino Cappelli
Mitologia III, 2023
Wood
82 x 82 x 3.5 cm
Mitologia III draws visual inspiration from Henri Matisse’s La Danse, reinterpreting its modernist energy through a dense black-and-white network of abstracted figures, interlocking lines, and ornamental grids. The composition transforms rhythmic movement into a layered mythology, where symbolic bodies are suspended in flux. Lines vibrate between figuration and code, suggesting a ritual of visual memory that pays homage to art history while asserting a personal visual lexicon.
Jean Criton
Abstraction, 1960
Oil on lacquered paper mounted on canvas
74.8 x 104.9 cm
Created in 1960, Abstraction demonstrates Criton’s masterful handling of movement and form. Broad, sweeping brushstrokes collide with sharp, angular lines to form a dynamic, high-tension composition. Accents of deep blue disrupt the monochrome rhythm, injecting lyrical contrast into a field dominated by gesture and force. The painting reflects Criton’s exploration of abstraction as a vehicle for physical energy and expressive liberation.
Jean Criton
Abstraction, 1960
Oil on paper
52.5 x 75.5 cm
In this painting, a spiral of luminous lines emerges from a dark surface, forming a field of energy suspended between motion and stillness. The layered gestures evoke a sense of internal rhythm and spatial resonance. Through tonal restraint and repeated circular movement, Criton composes an image of meditative intensity and formal clarity.
Jean Criton
Abstraction, 1960
Mixed media
52.5 x 75.5 cm
In this work from 1960, forceful diagonal strokes intersect with a dense lattice of incised lines, suggesting motion, resistance, and rupture. Against a deep, earthy ground, the layered media generate a sense of collision between speed and stillness. The vivid cobalt accents punctuate the surface like sparks in a darkened field—brief and electric.
Antonella Catini
Green, 2021
Acrylic on canvas
80 x 150 x 1.5 cm
In Green, Catini immerses the viewer in a semi-abstract landscape rendered through rapid, gestural marks and chromatic abrasion. The palette, dominated by earthy greens and fiery reds, bursts from a textured base and dissipates into light. Directional brushwork and energetic scratching activate the canvas, evoking windblown grasslands, psychological terrain, or memory in flux. The work is both a visual environment and a surface of symbolic inscription.
Antonella Catini
Paessagio Urbano, 2017
Oil on canvas
70 x 70 x 4 cm
In Paesaggio Urbano, thick applications of crimson, ochre, ivory, and black are layered, scraped, and disrupted to form directional fields of visual motion. Interwoven rhythms suggest echoes of walls, shadows, and fragmented streets, while bands of exposed light create depth and atmospheric tension. This is a sensory field, which defined by rhythm, compression, and emotional flow.
Antonella Catini
Solorosso, 2015
Oil on canvas
100 x 100 x 2 cm
Solorosso is an intense chromatic field dominated by deep reds and textured blacks. Built through gestural strokes and palette knife interventions, the surface becomes a terrain of emotional vibration. Blocks of pigment overlap, revealing traces of excavation and construction. The result is a silent yet forceful visual rhythm—a red space charged with symbolic density, spatial ambiguity, and a distinctly contemporary pulse.
Antonella Catini
Impermanenza, 2019
Oil on canvas
150 x 100 x 2 cm
In Impermanenza, Catini evokes a shifting landscape suspended between light and rupture. Smears and scratches of white, red, and violet intersect with silhouettes of figures emerging from a darkened ground. The vertical composition pulls the viewer upward through a cascade of energetic marks, toward a luminous, almost dissolving sky. The painting is a meditation on impermanence—on transience, thresholds, and the blurred passage between the visible and the unseen.
Masuo Ikeda
Hommage à Picasso
Lithograph on paper, 1981
65 x 48.3 cm
Hommage à Picasso by Masuo Ikeda is a bold tribute that reflects his playful yet sophisticated dialogue with Western modernism. Blending surrealist composition with expressive linework, Ikeda reinterprets Picasso’s imagery through his own cross-cultural lens. The work stands as both homage and reinvention—highlighting Ikeda’s unique position between East and West in postwar art.
Get in touch.
For further information about the artists, available works, purchase inquiries, or collaboration opportunities, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re happy to provide detailed materials and discuss how these pieces may become part of your collection or exhibition program.