Paper, Rhythm, and Forms in Motion
Profile and Background
Riccardo Gusmaroli was born in Verona in 1963 and lives and works in Milan. His artistic research has found paper to be one of his preferred materials, through a practice that combines manual gesture, modular construction, and chromatic sensibility. Paper, a light and everyday material, becomes a tool to investigate rhythm, balance, and movement. The artist develops compositions in which simple elements, repeated and transformed, generate articulated visual structures.
Paper as Material
Paper is folded, rolled, layered, and organised into regular units. Repetition does not produce absolute uniformity: each element retains subtle variations, while the whole constructs a dynamic texture. The material remains recognisable and maintains a fragile dimension, yet its formal organisation lends it visual solidity. Gusmaroli exploits the contrast between the lightness of the material and the complexity of the composition.
Vortices and Spirals
Among the most recognisable motifs in his work are spirals, vortices, and circular configurations. These forms suggest movement and concentration, as if the surface were traversed by a centripetal or centrifugal force. The composition can evoke maps, galaxies, waves, or trajectories, without directly describing any natural phenomenon. The reference remains open, allowing the viewer to recognise diverse analogies, thus maintaining the work within an abstract dimension.
Colour and Rhythm
Colour contributes to organising the visual rhythm. Chromatic sequences, alternations, and contrasts make the structure legible and accentuate the sensation of movement. In some works, the artist uses materials and papers from different contexts, introducing variations in tone and texture. The repetition of modules creates order, but the flow of the composition avoids rigidity: the rhythm expands, pauses, and resumes, producing a dynamic balance.
Research and Exhibitions
Gusmaroli has presented his work in solo and group exhibitions in Italy and abroad. His research has progressively expanded through the use of different materials and supports, while maintaining the centrality of modular construction. The artisanal dimension of the process is an integral part of the result: each element requires a repeated and precise gesture, and the whole retains the memory of this sequence of actions.
Critical Reading
Riccardo Gusmaroli’s work is situated between abstraction, process art, and decorative sensibility, without fully coinciding with any of these categories. Paper is a common material, but through folding and repetition, it becomes a structure capable of suggesting cosmic and natural phenomena. The work invites observation of the relationship between part and whole, rule and variation, lightness and density. Its strength derives from the ability to transform an elementary gesture into an articulated visual system open to interpretation.