Paolo Ventura: 'La Città Infinita'
Opens Saturday: Painter, photographer and theater-set designer, Paolo Ventura is a man for all seasons. Alluding to Italian cinema, his new collaged and painted photos have a whiff of Alfred Hitchcock mystery. They are inhabited by solitary, trench-coated people who slip into the shadows of urban labyrinths or slump on the edges of cities as desolate as World War II ruins. Painted in the taupes and browns that Giorgio Morandi favored for his still lifes, Ventura's pictures recall also the bleak train stations, surreal arcades and skewed perspectives familiar from the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico, both fellow Italians. All in all, the Milan-based Ventura is a strange, poetic talent whose new work, "La Città Infinita (The Infinite City)" makes its Minneapolis debut this weekend. (Opening reception 6-8 p.m. Fri. Free. Weinstein Gallery, 908 W. 46th St., Mpls. Ends Nov. 14. 612-822-1722, weinstein-gallery.com.)
Mary Abbe
