Artworks

Anchovies

ANCHOVIES

“Creating schools of anchovies was automatic for me. While working on it, I discovered that the Ligurians feel like anchovies; They only want those!!”

Starting from gyotaku icongraphy with concise clean lines, Elena mastered the dynamic beauty of the anchovy in its natural world.

The anchovies chase each other in swirls that seem catapulting the viewer into the sea as if you can feel the fish slipping through your fingers.

« With Elena's impeccable placement of shadows and curves, her compositions are unbelievably three dimensional, distorting the static placement of classic Gyotaku. «

This extreme versatility allows for a great variety of different compositions.

Forming a “puzzle" like scheme, each unique placement of every anchovy seem to dance in the shadows of those above it, sparking a sense of music or dance.

Without a doubt, Elena has made the Gyotaku Levante brand a sensation Ligurian worldwide amongst the narrow niche of Gyotaku and exported all over the world.

Tutti i Gyotaku di acciughe sono già venduti.

Contact me for commissions and to create customised artworks.



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Compositions

COMPOSITIONS

The compositions include different species printed at different times and, possibly, in different places.
Mediterranean border are not binding and, sometimes, animal kingdoms might be mixed to recreate real or invented marine scenes.

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Jellyfish

JELLYFISH

During the anchovy season it happens that some jellyfish remain at the bottom of the anchovy box. The fishmongers keep them aside for the artist who can then recover them to make gyotakus.
The thin tentacles of the Pelagia noctiluca arrive in the studio broken; they are, therefore, painted freehand after the printing phase.
Like anchovies, jellyfish compositions are dynamic and elegant. Their difficult availability makes them even more precious.

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Common species

COMMON SPECIES

They are gyotaku of those Mediterranean species that are commercialised and, therefore, easy to find.

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Uncommon species

UNCOMMON SPECIES

Collaboration with universities, research institutions and fishermen has resulted in gyotaku of hard-to-find species.

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Takuseikai

TAKUSEIKAI

Takuseikai (translated as correct printing method) is the direct color method created by Master Masatzu Matzunaga in the 1960s.
This procedure involves careful preparation of the fish placed on a support and posed using a system of needles and threads, and then colored following a very precise pattern.
Three different colors are created: Kyo (dark color), Tyu (medium color) and Jyaku (pale color).
These three colors have a precise location on the surface of the fish, and are then blended with the help of the brush. The different liveries of the fish species are painted directly on the fish, leaving the eye as the only part to be painted on paper.

The artist went to Osaka in April 2023 from Master Matzunaga and other masters together with some members of the Gyotaku Art Europe Association to learn the Takuseikai technique from Master Matzunaga, who passed away in July 2023.

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Unguja

UNGUJA

In 2022 and 2023 the artist was involved in the Samaki Art Project of the Turkish NGO Umutsensin initially to teach the gyotaku technique to a group of forty women from the island of Tumbatu in Zanzibar, subsequently to talk about the project and this art during the exhibitions dedicated to the project.
During the Zanzibar period the artist made impressions of various tropical species, which are, in fact, the pieces of the Unguja collection.

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To view my artworks in the studio
via Dante Alighieri 3, 16033 Lavagna (GE), Italy
call me on +39 3283118598 or send me an e-mail

Elena Di Capita
Via Modena 1 - 16033 Lavagna (GE) ITALY
P.IVA 02617290990

Elena Di Capita © 2023 all right reserved.

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