Showing - Piera Gulli - Fargility - Adam Street - London

Last night, Arts Beyond, the enterprise that looks after such talents as photographer Anouk van Tetering and painter Marie Guerlain, presented ’Fragility’ by Piera Gulli at Adam Street. The Sicilian-born artist’s works are essentially childlike and unpretentious. However, although these are simple looking paintings, the messages that Gulli endeavors to present are more than apparent. With around ten paintings on show at the exhibition, two particular pieces stood head and shoulders above the rest; ‘Longing’, that depicts a girl demurely resting her head in the crook of her arm, and ‘Return to Innocence’, a small work, which is far from innocent. Ironically, in its distracting name, the piece is well entitled. Portraying a girl sucking her thumb, her pose appears innocent enough. However, there’s something quite disturbing about the work. Her hand is a little too red, giving a raw, aggressive impression. Yet her expression is brash. It's also fearful. And that’s terribly human – because we’re all brash in our fear or, indeed, vice versa. Unsurprising, this is something that's quite difficult to do depict on canvas; it's no small thing to reveal two opposing emotions as one.