Review written by the journalist and art critic Marina Arensi, and published in the culture page of the daily newspaper “Il Cittadino” of Lodi and South Milan – May 27 th 2010.

The sacred womb, in Da Ponte St, the “ Mother Earth ” seen by Daniela Loi.

One of the production elaborated in the pre-nuragic Sardinia , also with the purpose intentionally artistic, is represented by the figurines of the “ Mother Goddess “. They are almost always female figures of small dimension, probably conceived like a sacred representation of the Earth seen as creator of life, and in which womb all return to be contained. We find them, in their stylized iconography, in the Daniela Loi’s paintings exhibited until 2 nd of June at the Oldrado da Ponte Gallery, in Lodi . The space managed by Ambrogio Ferrari deepens the path of the artist from Cagliari, already hosted in various collectives, exhibiting 20 works moving between symbol and significance in the direction of a recovery of ancestral values from the culture of origin, those substantially related in every civilization , but asserting themselves tangible presences in the harsh and insular nature of Sardinia. For Loi is a discourse that gathers the physical elements of a primordial epic, first of all the earth, but also the vegetable world collected in the fibers of the ropes and wovens crossing through the canvases, or the metals from the depths of the soil, in a tribute that becomes for herself author a regenerator of energies and memories. The dominant presence of the “ Mothers “, small flat shapes essentialized in terracotta clay and oxidized copper, gives sense to the large surfaces made of the lacerated raw canvas or load matter, marked from colors and traces absorbing many artistic experiences of the twentieth century, first of all the adventure of the informal : messages of a self that in the consistence also physical of this metaphorical space finds the condition for express oneself. The “ Dea Mater “, the “ Rupes Mater “ or the “ Terrestris Mater “ are every time protagonists of a work placeable in the furrow of narration originate from myth and legend, and the thread and the ropes crossing through the canvases like trajectories of astral maps interweaving dialogues alluding at the time of orality and images, and what preceded it. It is the thread, also enveloping the earth of the sculptures, that drawing this vital geography, and not by chance : Daniela Loi has acquired in her education and training the hand-crafted knowledge of yarns and combines the her pictorial activity the creation of personal collections of wovens, textiles structures and clothing. There will be also her artworks, in the edition of “ Naturarte “, wich will start next June. In the same time at the FrancoAngeli University Bookshop, at the space of the University of Bicocca in Milan, along with other historical artists of the Ferrari’s Gallery, like Kikoko, Paola De Luigi and Ivan Carella.

Marina Arensi.