Isabella Staino: Tarocchi at Vino Vero Venice

The contemporary art project ‘Vetrina’ inaugurated its second cycle of presentations in February 2024. After exploring the broad theme of nature through the site-specific works of the first nine invited artists, the focus has now shifted to the theme of activism, exclusively involving women artists who are enterprising and provocative in different ways and who have always, in their works, provided space for a proactive reflection on the contemporary world. The 2025 exhibition programme was inaugurated with “Night Eyes” by Mariana Hahn.

For Vetrina#14, Vino Vero has invited Isabella Staino (Florence, 1977), a visual artist who explores the tension of the feminine, the symbolic resonance of the animal world, and the power of the dreamlike. Her work stands out for its intense and deeply personal use of colour, her painting often taking the form of narrative, in a continuous dialogue with literature, memory, and vision.

The artist unveils a new series of works on paper titled “Tarocchi – Ciò che il bruco chiama fine il maestro chiama farfalla”, inspired by a personal tarot reading. For many years, due to a progressive loss of eye-sight, Isabella Staino has been painting with the aid of video magnifiers – devices normally used for reading, which she has adapted for her artistic practice. This tool enables her to alternate between a broader view and a focus on details, creating a richly layered pictorial language, where her visual limitation is transformed into a perceptual and narrative experience. The resulting pieces were conceived and created specifically for Vetrina.