Solo exhibition "Where Am I?" by Elena Greggio. Review by Peter Goodfellow

Since opening a couple of years ago, the Carby art Gallery has been a bright spark of local colour amid the dull environs of the industrial wasteland on the periphery of Aberdeen harbour.
On show at the moment is a touch of italian romanticism in the shape of Elena Greggio, a young artist from Padua.
Elena graduated in several disciplines: Architecture, painting, interior design; and you can see these influences in the 10 paintings on show.
If you can imagine Gustav Klimt and the Vienna Secession locked up in a room with the designer of 60's psychedelic album covers and a russian icon painter from the 17th century pooling their talents- this would be the result.
The painting are very singular, there is a strong female iconography common to them all. They are painted in acrylic with a flat graphic technique.
There is no texture on the surface and although technically well executed they "feel" illustrative, a factor emphasised by the narrative content.
Painted on board, no two paintings are the same shape or for that matter rectangular.
The framing is an integral part of each painting and uses metallic diamante effects and textile patterns.
The viewer might speculate on symbolism in some of the paintings, one in particular "Ipocrisia" (Hypocrisy) features a chameleon in the background - this is surely a reference to this reptile's ability to adapt its colour to any background. The subtlety of colour here could well have been applied to some of the overtly psychedelic elements in other work.
You will find references to animals, alchemy and medieval bestiary's, but be sure to look at the titles "Sognatrice", "Mezzo volto", and best of all "Giovane Apprendista, Negromante, Alchimista".
It sounds so much better than English, especially on a bleak grey day in Aberdeen.