Vertigo is a series of paintings by Milan-based artist Fabio Giampietro of an urban landscape seen from a dizzying height. The vertigo inducing perspective is presented as a monochromatic, often sepia-toned, image with the brilliantly composed lines of the surrounding architecture centering in on a comparatively small patch of concrete ground. In this manner, the images give the sense of free falling.
There’s something altogether freeing, exhilarating, and absolutely frightening about Giampetro’s paintings that evoke a similar reaction to the adrenaline pumping photography of Tom Ryaboi (who actually tipped us onto Giampietro’s work). In some instances, the artist even includes speckles of dots, shadows of people filling the streets, reminding the viewer of a whole world down below in this imaginary metropolis.
