Elisa Bertaglia: The Rest
Opening Reception November 7, 6-8 PM
Exhibition: Nov 7 - Dec 6, 2025
SARAHCROWN is pleased to announce The Rest, Elisa Bertaglia’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. This new body of work is inspired by the idea of rest not as absence, but as an active practice of regeneration, and continues Bertaglia’s ongoing exploration of thresholds.
In this new series of paintings and drawings, rest becomes presence — a conscious state where stillness and the suspension of time open space for creativity, offering the energy needed for renewal. As in her earlier series Hic Sunt Dracones and The Dance, the investigation of thresholds (both physical and spiritual) remains central but here, it is expanded: threshold and suspension of time converge to frame rest as a transformative condition. In this state, stillness becomes a fertile ground. Pause holds possibility, and quiet reveals its own depth of vision.
The Rest, 2025, Oil and pencil on canvas, 35 1/2 x 25 1/2 in INQUIRE
Installation shot
The Rest, 2025, Oil on Canvas, 35 1/2 x 25 1/2 in INQUIRE
The Rest, 2025, Oil on canvas, 14 1/2 x 11 in INQUIRE
The Rest, 2025, Oil on canvas, 14 1/2 x 11 in INQUIRE
Installation shot
Installation shot
The Rest, 2025, Oil on engraved rose gold plate, 6 x 4 in INQUIRE
Leaves are growing from my body, 2025, Oil on rose gold 14 kt. 6 x 4 in INQUIRE
Installation shot
Eyes of the Madonna, 2025, Oil on 14 kt rose gold plate, 6 x 4 in INQUIRE
Installation shot
The Rest, 2025, Oil on paper, 12 x 9 in INQUIRE
The Rest (Tapinu 'e mortu), 2025, Pencil on canvas, 51 1/4 x 39 1/2 in INQUIRE
Elisa Bertaglia (b. 1983, Rovigo, Italy) earned her MFA in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice in 2009 and her BFA in Painting from the same institution in 2006. She attended multiple artist residencies including Residency Unlimited, Brooklyn (2023); Officine Saffi, Milan (2017); ESKFF at MANA Contemporary, Jersey City (2016); Atipografia, Arzignano (2016); Casa Falconieri, Serdiana (2015); and Dolomiti Contemporanee, Borca di Cadore (2013, 2014).
Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at SARAHCROWN, New York; Martina Corbetta Gallery, Giussano; Galerie MZ, Augsburg; Weber & Weber Gallery, Turin; Palazzo Madama, Turin; and Officine dell’Immagine, Milan, among others. Selected group exhibitions include the Guggenheim Museum, Venice; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Saitama, Japan; Borges Cultural Center, Buenos Aires; Bronx Museum Gala, New York; CAF Museum of Modern Art, Saitama; Villa Reale, Monza; Atipografia, Arzignano; and numerous international art fairs including Kiaf Seoul, Miart Milan, and Untitled Art Fair, Miami Beach.
Bertaglia’s work is held in public and private collections including The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation, Jersey City; Museum of Contemporary Art, Penne; City Archives of Milan; Banca Sistema, Padua; Museo del Parque Foundation, El Milagro, Argentina; and the Cominelli Foundation, Italy.
She has received recognition from institutions such as the Arte Laguna Prize (2021), Exibart Prize (2021), Arteam Prize (2015, 2016, 2017), Pattern Award (2014), and Combat Prize (2013).
Bertaglia currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, and has been represented by SARAHCROWN since 2016.