Michela Ghisetti’s oeuvre resembles the stages in her own life. Each group of works, whether abstract or representational, reflects her own biography and emotions, while at the same time casting a glance at art history and philosophical topics. With crayons as a medium, she expresses her inner dialogue in a way that shows her intensive analysis, particularly in her large-format works and highly detailed portraits – an analysis that takes her to her physical and mental limits where they are then resolved. The works in her series Magic Threads were influenced by her trip to Morocco in 2015, where she became aware of the structures of carpets with their numerous richly colourful threads and fringes. Using crayons on a wooden surface, she then took meticulous care to weave those threads and fringes into a resplendent network of lines.

— Magdalena Koschat

Michela Ghisetti’s oeuvre resembles the stages in her own life. Each group of works, whether abstract or representational, reflects her own biography and emotions, while at the same time casting a glance at art history and philosophical topics. With crayons as a medium, she expresses her inner dialogue in a way that shows her intensive analysis, particularly in her large-format works and highly detailed portraits – an analysis that takes her to her physical and mental limits where they are then resolved. The works in her series Magic Threads were influenced by her trip to Morocco in 2015, where she became aware of the structures of carpets with their numerous richly colourful threads and fringes. Using crayons on a wooden surface, she then took meticulous care to weave those threads and fringes into a resplendent network of lines.

— Magdalena Koschat

The language of our hands – their symbolism and gesture, their dual function of manual skill and spiritual connotation – is inextricably linked to our individual lives as well as bearing witness to all of human existence. In many cultures, hands are seen as the reflection of the soul. Michelangelo’s fresco The Creation of Adam shows God passing on the spark of life with this right hand to Adam, who receives it with his left. Beyond the Christian story of creation, certain Indian cultures believe that the soul leaves the body as a result of severe trauma or pain and returns via the left hand once the pain has been overcome. Michela Ghisetti’s Betagte Hände (2010) depicts two hands that have found their way back to one another and are holding on tight, symbolising the reunion of the soul and the body, and the time that had to pass until the pain was assimilated.

— Magdalena Koschat