Curses, spells and other magics

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WHAT’S ON

Jun 2026 - Jan 2027
artist-in-residence at Centro Pecci and Casa Masaccio for SUPERTOSCANA project

21.01.27 - group show at Centro Pecci

Projects and exhibitions

WEAVINGS

I CARRY THE FOREST INSIDE
batik and eco print on silk

CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF A VOICE
ceramic sound sculptures

MUTAFORMA
Papier-mâché sculptures

ERBARI
batik on silk

FOREST REVERIE
works on paper

CURSES, SPELLS AND OTHER MAGICS
duo show with Elisa Bertaglia (2024)

NOTES FROM ANOTHER WORLD
solo show (2023)

SITE SPECIFIC WORKS

PAPER SCULPTURES

Limited Editions

Inner Maps, 2025
Textile series
Available here

Rivedere la foresta, 2024
Limited Edition Print

Surreal Landscapes, 2023
Limited Edition of scarves

BEATRICE SPADEA
b.1995
Italy

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Beatrice Spadea’s practice explores the intersections of imagination, perception, and memory, investigating how these dimensions shape our experience of the world. Her work moves through spaces where dream, fantasy, and poetry emerge, opening reflective and alternative perspectives.

Her earlier works engaged with shared natural and cosmic symbols, which formed the starting point of her research. Over time, her focus has shifted toward a sensory crisis and a growing estrangement from the natural world, and how this disconnection shapes inner life and perception. The forest often appears as a central presence, understood as both a physical and psychic space of renewal, coexistence, and resonance.

At the core of her current practice are textile works developed through batik-dyed silks and hand-assembled pieces on a loom. Through slow, process-based techniques, she explores themes of identity, transformation, and voice, allowing forms to frag- ment, shift, and reorganize. Ceramic sculptures and sound operate in dialogue with the textile works, extending the investigation of resonance and presence. Through these materials, she seeks to awaken perception and build an imaginary ecosystem where matter and sound reconnect us with the living world.

Solo

(2024)The Portal of Timeless Dreams, temporary public installation, Via Borgonuovo 1, Milan

(2023) Notes From Another World, solo show, Galleria Martina Corbetta, Giussano, MB

(2021) One Step Closer to the Sky, solo show JC Gallery Mayfair, London - England

Selected group exhibitions

(2026) Move your hands, Galleria Civica Ezio Mariani, Seregno MB
(2025) Seamspells, Forci Art Foundation, Tenuta di Forci, Lucca, LU
(2025) Mondi Sottili, Studio DeTales, Milano, MI
(2024) Curses, Spells and Other Magics, di Elisa Bertaglia e Beatrice Spadea Galleria Marti- na Corbetta, Giussano, MB
(2022) Roots Of Day, group show, JC Gallery Mayfair , London - England
(2022) C.R.A.C. Crepe, Rotture, Alterazioni e Cicatrici, group show Artiglieria, Contemporary Art Center, Torino, TO

Awards

(2023) ArtPrize 2023, group show, Grand Rapids, Michigan, US
(2022) Combat Prize 13° Edition, group show, Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori, Livorno
(2021) Arte Laguna Prize 15° Edition, group show Arsenale, Venezia
(2020) Winner of Nice&Fair Contemporary Visions Paratissima, Torino

Residencies

upcoming: (Jun 2026-Jan 2027) artist-in-residence SUPERTOSCANA at Centro Pecci (Prato) and Casa Masaccio (San Giovanni Valdarno)

(2025) Forci Art Foundation, Textile Art residency, Tenuta di Forci, Lucca

Education

(2015-2018) Bachelor’s Degree in Painting, Three-Year Program – Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera

Last Updated 04/02/2026

view from Curses, Spells, and Other Magics (2024)
with Elisa Bertaglia, curated by Martina Corbetta

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Curses, Spells and other Magics—the two-person exhibition by Elisa Bertaglia and Beatrice Spadea curated by Martina Corbetta—is an exhibition that places in dialogue two artists similar for their practices and researches, but distant for their personalities.

Beatrice Spadea in Curses, Spells and other Magics approaches new themes, originated from her previous artistic research close to dreams and dreamlike visions often harmonized by the natural landscape. Now, these projections speak of nocturnes and fantastical worlds, where in the evening mystery, amid fading lights and emerging shadows, a universe of infinite possibilities is born. It is precisely where the vision is limited that the imagination takes shape.
The night with its veil of mystery shapes known realities as a landscape of spiritual perceptions meeting fantastic worlds. Night is the gateway that opens to imagination, but also to memory and oblivion. It is the nourishment of myths, legends and chimeric creatures that inhabit the darkness.
It is precisely the night that fueled Spadea‘s desire to explore unknown worlds populated by exotic plants and mysterious creatures, where during the day these beings remain hidden from the light and at night reveal their presence.

Metaphor for transformation. Spadea was inspired by medieval herbaria and bestiaries, in which the known world was ordered and classified, resulting in fantastic creatures inspired by nature of pure invention. Jurgis Baltrusaitis’ work Fantastic Middle Ages stimulated the artist’s imagination, plunging her into the medieval mythological world where heads emerging from intertwined branches created a mystical aura, a space between witchcraft and magic, esotericism and science fiction. Reverie of the Forest—a series of works made in graphite on layered Japanese paper representing branches—is the connecting point between the previous research and the current study. Now the branch is no longer the most obvious presence in the work, but the background, the nocturne, where the flat, disorienting color hints at an endless perspective. From here, mysterious flora, medieval herbaria and fantastic creatures explore the space and populate Spadea‘s works.