Essenza (2022) stands as perhaps the most emotionally charged work in Stefano Contiero’s practice, a three-year odyssey from single sketch to profound exploration of creative obsession and release. Originally conceived as his Art Blocks genesis project, the collection’s extended development even spawned Rinascita (2021), before Contiero recognized that algorithmic art demands a different relationship to completion: not perfection, but acceptance.
The 444 works pulse with gestural intensity reminiscent of Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning, yet filtered through algorithmic processes that become both tool and tormentor. Energetic vectors sweep across textural fields, offering infinite refinement while demanding eventual surrender, synthesizing the fragmentation techniques of Frammenti (2021) with urgent personal expression. This echoes Process Art traditions where work serves as record of time and creative struggle made visible, while touching Romantic notions of artistic suffering and transcendence.
The collection embodies a fundamental paradox: algorithms extend revision to infinity, yet this endless possibility risks creative paralysis. Contiero’s statement “if you truly love something, you need to learn how to set it free” transforms from personal confession into broader commentary on generative practice. Here, perfectibility seems algorithmically achievable yet remains perpetually elusive.
Released through Art Blocks in September 2022, Essenza represents both culmination and liberation, completing a creative arc that began with the spontaneous breakthrough of Rinascita (2021) and documenting the full spectrum of algorithmic creative experience.