{"id":4314,"date":"2026-02-03T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=4314"},"modified":"2026-02-03T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T19:00:00","slug":"bruno-pontiroli-tests-the-boundaries-of-familiarity-in-his-uncanny-wildlife-paintings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=4314","title":{"rendered":"Bruno Pontiroli Tests the Boundaries of Familiarity in His Uncanny Wildlife Paintings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pontiroli-1.jpg\" alt=\"Bruno Pontiroli Tests the Boundaries of Familiarity in His Uncanny Wildlife Paintings\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cImagine a world based on a different logic; a universe comprised of the absurd and paradoxes,\u201d prompts <a href=\"https:\/\/brunopontiroli.fr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bruno Pontiroli<\/a>, whose paintings explore the sometimes grotesque tension between the familiar and the uncanny.<\/p>\n<p>The artist is known for his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/tags\/bruno-pontiroli\">absurdist paintings<\/a> of animals with overly long legs, contorted bodies, or myriad mutant-like heads or limbs. They\u2019re often set amid woodlands or meadows evocative of 18th- and 19th-century academic landscape paintings or depictions of formal hunts. Instead, both domesticated and wild animals graze as normally as they would without dozens of heads or udders attached in unnatural places around their bodies.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1749\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pontiroli-5.jpg\" alt=\"An absurdist painting by Bruno Pontiroli of a grazing cow with udders all over its body.\" class=\"wp-image-469087\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cDe mal en pis\u201d (2025), 70 x 80 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There\u2019s something inherently disturbing about an elephant with a body cloaked in trunks or a giraffe with multiple heads and limbs jutting out in all directions. Despite their bucolic settings and generally calm or curious demeanors, as if nothing is amiss, Pontiroli\u2019s paintings evoke a slight sense of dread. What have we done to cause this?<\/p>\n<p>See more on the Pontiroli\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/brunopontiroli\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2684\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pontiroli-2.jpg\" alt=\"An absurdist painting by Bruno Pontiroli of a giraffe with other giraffes' heads sticking out of its body.\" class=\"wp-image-469084\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cLes cous mont\u00e9s\u201d (2025), 130 x 97 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2280\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pontiroli-8.jpg\" alt=\"An absurdist painting by Bruno Pontiroli of a giant horse growing out of a smaller horse amid a natural landscape.\" class=\"wp-image-469090\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cLe trotteur\u201d (2025), 80 x 70 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1605\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pontiroli-7.jpg\" alt=\"An absurdist painting by Bruno Pontiroli of an elephant with trunks all over its body.\" class=\"wp-image-469089\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cIl trompe son monde\u201d (2025), 130 x 162 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2472\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pontiroli-4.jpg\" alt=\"An absurdist painting by Bruno Pontiroli of a giant bear growing out of a smaller bear amid a forest landscape.\" class=\"wp-image-469086\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cJo\u201d (2025), 100 x 81 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2687\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pontiroli-3.jpg\" alt=\"An absurdist painting by Bruno Pontiroli of a giraffe with other giraffes' legs and heads sticking out of its body.\" class=\"wp-image-469085\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cL\u2019un dans l\u2019autre\u201d (2025), 130 x 97 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2407\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pontiroli-6.jpg\" alt=\"An absurdist painting by Bruno Pontiroli of a pig with numerous pig heads all over its body.\" class=\"wp-image-469088\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u201cCopains comme cochons #2\u201d (2025), 60 x 50 centimeters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/members\">Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/2026\/02\/bruno-pontiroli-absurd-animals-paintings\/\">Bruno Pontiroli Tests the Boundaries of Familiarity in His Uncanny Wildlife Paintings<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/\">Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cImagine a world based on a different logic; a universe comprised of the absurd and paradoxes,\u201d prompts Bruno Pontiroli, whose paintings explore the sometimes grotesque tension between the familiar and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}