“GAPscape – STATE OF ART – ITALIA” is an artistic project by Minya Mikic, original and contemporary artist who has elaborated on a personal technique developed in abstract painting on plexiglass surfaces, now applied to portraits.

Following its debut in New York in 2015, the exhibition is at its first Italian edition. The project includes the portraits of 37 excellent Italian figures, all personally involved in the realization of the work, and provides a positive image of Italy as a land of ingenuity and a forge for talents.

In time, Italian history has often been recorded through portraits of figures realized using techniques that were highly innovative for the times; Minya’s portraits put forward a modern version of this same narrative, illustrating present-day Italy using contemporary language.

The choice of the faces is a story in itself, the personal and poetic journey of the artist who in turn offers the visitor her vision of the times.

Pure pigments mixed with an acrylic paste are applied to the plexiglass’s transparent surface by the artist who views and shapes the analogies and metaphors seen into traits and colors, skillfully accentuating the gaps that make the landscape visible through the transparencies in the illustration.

The title GAPScape is thus a play on words, a neologism summarizing the artistic concept and technique used. The distinguished figures and beautiful landscapes of the Country metaphorically representing its body and soul.

For this reason the Lazio Region and the City of Rome have chosen to support this cultural project, which counts on the invaluable guide of Achille Bonito Oliva. The exhibition ideally opens the path to Rome’s candidacy as host to the 2024 Olympic Games, and is on display at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni  with the support of CONI and the Italian Paralympic Committee.

Minya Mikic is an international artist born in 1975 from a family of artists and graduate of the Fine Arts Academy in ( ex-Yugoslavia). The artist’s works have been exhibited in the United States, in Europe and in Italy, and she recently opened a new art studio in Zurich. The current show is also supported by the Swiss Institute in Italy.