Displacement, transformation, metamorphosis, visions seen in half-waking states – these are the dominant themes in the work of Carlo Trevisan, a painter and poet who was born in Cesena in northern Italy. He went to school in Sansepolcro, the birthplace of Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca (1415-1492), and later attended the University of Pisa. Today, Carlo is based in the city of Camaiore in Tuscany.

He began to paint in 1990 under the influence of surrealism. From 1992 to 2001, he was editor of Sinopia, an art magazine directed by his friend, the painter and writer Serafino Beconi. Since 2004, Carlo has devoted himself fully to painting. His travels across Europe have allowed him to understand and operate within the world of international contemporary art.

The artist is interested in “challenging the real world”. He likes to “misname” the objects around us. Carlo plucks things out of our everyday world, places them within a fantastical dimension and attaches to them a new and memorable label.

Cow-zebra hybrids, pig and ball fusions, anthropomorphised pears, flying vespas – all of these and more are displayed against a plain, mostly blue, background. As the paintings play with logic, disrupt our routine expectations and defamiliarise the mundane, they calm us with their delicate but sophisticated sense of humour.