Charlie Davoli is born in Singapore 39 years ago. By a strange twist of fate, at the age of 6 he returns to his father’s homeland in a small town of Salento’s peninsula in Italy.
The encounter of this two cultures so distant from each other bears a richness that is manifest in Charlie’s vision, in his acts and in the strong sense of balance of his compositions: the duality of this early matter and form doesn’t generate a polarized scape of differing and parallel substances but rather a display where one mirrors into the other.
Immersed in a lively and creative context, Charlie Davoli is part of the band Studiodavoli up until 2006, together with fellow musicians Matilde Davoli, Gianluca De Rubertis (Il Genio) and Giancarlo Belgiorno. The band will release two official records and gain widespread recognition in the Italian indie music scene. Even after the band’s break-up, music will remain a strong source of inspiration in Charlie’s life. He is an attentive collector of the visual corollary that is carried along with the acts of various musicians. From the visionary album covers of Pink floyd, to the communicative art of Warhol with Velvet Underground.
Indulging his curiosity and need to research new art forms, Charlie starts filtering his imagery through a simple yet highly communicative media: Instagram. He is chasing the moments when an equilibrium of shape and detail forms in the short window of his iPhone snapshots, thus creating an immense archive of subjects, forms, colors and movements. The creation of a new dreamscape happens at a later stage in the concept: thanks to his pool of images, the editing process is then almost immediate through the use of apps like PsTouch, iDesign, Superimpose, MatterApp e Mextures.
In his compositions, visual paradox recalls mathematical places where the sum of the parts captures and engages the watcher through the subtle interference of universal geometries and deceiving perspectives: “My influences are a chimerical blend of the metaphysical imagery in De Chirico with a love for Bauhaus geometry and the pop culture of Warhol and Lichtenstein … all with the addition of some sci-fi retro”. What is definitely showing through Charlie’s work is a sense of the depth and magnitude of the sea reflected in the skies of earth’s hemispheres.
Bio gently curated by Beatrice Bianco at CAMP Design.