Canella's Profile

From: Italy
Joined: April 30, 2008

About Canella:

Born near Milan, Italy, in 1952, and armed with an academic background in fine arts and a brief stint as a graphic designer, Annalisa moved to Rome to start a career as freelance art director that has seen her working for the country’s main international advertising agencies. Over time she also worked as an illustrator, using various techniques such as montage, pastels, Indian ink, panton, and aerograph, to create advertising and promotional materials.
Between 1986 and 1991 Annalisa held the position of Senior Art Director and Creative Director at Publicis/FCB-MAC, where she was responsible for the design and creation of the main campaigns. In 1986 Annalisa won an international competition hosted by Twentieth Century Fox for the creation of the poster of the movie Predator. Then, in 1990 she went on to win various prizes for the creative design and creation of a commercial for SIP car phones:

-International Film Festival (Cannes 1990): Bronze Lion
-Key Award 1990 (Services)
-Spotitalia 1990: 1st Prize(Services)
-Pubblicità e Successo: 2nd Best in show and 1st Prize for its category
-International Film & TV Festival of New York: finalist award
-The Mobius Advertising Award: Certificate for Outstanding Creativity

At the same time, Annalisa taught art direction at the European Design
Institute in Rome for two years. Then, her curious nature pushed her to try
her hand at television and in 1992 she accepted the position of Creative
Director at Fininvest, where she was responsible for the design and creation
of all graphics for the company's flagship news programme TG5. Last but not least, together with two business partners in 1994 Annalisa started boutique creative agency Ensemble, where she currently works as Senior Art Director and Image Supervisor.

As an artist Annalisa therefore shares her work between the world of
communication and painting. In today's age of computers and technology, she is nostalgic and yearns for a craft, much like an artisan, and she creates
art through her mind, eyes and hands.
The works of the more recent years can be divided in two categories: the “Big Flowers”, works featuring a strong chromatic contrast, where the eye stops to focus and take in the one flower, which is deliberately given a gigantic presence. You discover the flowers' incredible or simple structures, their architectural beauty, a showcase of varying intensity of colour. In short, the “Big Flowers” series extends an invite to reading nature.
At the other end of the spectrum from the "Big Flowers" ‘reflective’ paintings, the artist offers examples of abstract art, the “Segno Gesto” or rapid, impulsive brush strokes. It is almost a physical need; the need to free the hand, without constraints, is shown in unique,
fast strokes of the brush.
In these canvasses, it is interesting to note the use of the Etruscan
alphabet as a communication tool, a sensitive projection in the past as a constant provocation in the present.