by Dafne Crocella

As a young art school student in the mid-1980s, he began frequenting Naples’s most important contemporary art galleries. His painting was influenced by the “cellotex” forms of Alberto Burri and the spiritual chromatism of Anish Kapoor. At first his works were developed on a large scale out of a personal need to be physically within the space of representation. Over the years, pop elements, images, and writing entered his painting, always following the idea of “hyperrealist abstractionism.” He has exhibited in solo and group shows in Italy and abroad, particularly in London and Dublin.

With the work “Whisper,” you were selected among the 13 finalists of the Comel Award 2024. It is a piece composed of five aluminium elements featuring a photographic transfer. Can you tell us about the genesis of this work?

The work “Whisper” originates from a recording of details, a narrative of daily life or intimate moments, which aims to qualify the use of photography as conceptual art. In essence, this piece is a journey into the unconscious, a moment before and the instant after, an attraction to abandoned things, and a connection to our inner part that brings us back to dormant emotions.

The artwork is fragmented into irregularly cut aluminium plates. Have you already experimented with this modular dimension in other works? What led you to choose the irregularity of the shapes on which the photographs are transferred?

By using various sizes and alternating panels, I wanted to give the piece a broken rhythm, almost narrative, like “frames” in which figurative details—branches, insects, flowers, and feathers—become images like living beings, and as such, active and participating entities in front of the viewer.

Stella Maris

Aluminium in this piece serves as both a support and an integral part of the work because its reflective surface allows the observer to perceive themselves within it. Is this the first time you have used this material, or does it appear frequently in your work? What characteristics does it have, and how does it respond to your creative needs?

In fact, when I confront a new material, as I did in this case, it is always an exciting kind of experiment. It becomes a challenge, a study, and an endless possibility of use.

In my works, I frequently use various materials like iron, copper, canvas, wood, etc., but I had never worked with aluminium before.

In this work, we see some of your black-and-white photographs. Do you often work with photography? Do you have other photographic projects that feel somehow connected to this one?

I don’t like the term “photographic project” because I’m not and don’t define myself as a photographer. My projects are constant activities aimed at constantly reinventing a new language and seeking an active and continuous dialogue between the work, the space, and the viewer—capable of regenerating the perception of the work.

Painting is, along with photography, a technique that frequently appears in your works. Are there pieces where the pictorial and photographic elements merge?

In my work, photography is used as a pure image. My approach to it becomes manipulation, a mechanism of substitution where painting takes center stage, and photography becomes alchemy, an experiment, a physical bond between materials, an unceasing metalinguistic exploration connected to endless reflections on the possibilities of painting.

Non amo le margherite che colsi

From both a pictorial and photographic perspective, which past masters do you feel have marked your path and vision?

Without a doubt, I admired the power of Caravaggio. At the same time, in the 1980s, during my artistic formation, I looked at contemporary art, observing and drawing from great international artists who were active during that time, such as Michelangelo Pistoletto, Robert Rauschenberg, Gino De Dominicis, and many others I had the pleasure of meeting personally, including Carlo Alfano.

The 11th edition of the Comel award was dedicated to what lives “beneath the surface.” How do you feel your work has responded to this theme?

“Whisper” is a work that focuses on the relationship between space and time. The installation seeks to make visible a human being who has not hidden any aspect of their soul; on the contrary, they have used it, making it a living matter of their inspiration. The installation becomes a focus of fragmented times, a collection of assembled fragments that create a dialogue, filling the space around it.

Time slice, 2021 – transfer, acrylic, scratches on galvanized iron

In the past, you preferred very large formats. Now you are reducing the dimensions. What is the reason behind this choice? What is its communicative intent?

Smaller dimensions have allowed me to be intimate and meditative, but I am still drawn to large dimensions, with which I continue to work because of the sensation they give me of immersing myself in the work. Size, in general, represents the search for a deeply individual identity, a scenographic space where something happens. It’s like there was a contraction or an expansion of space itself.

What are your future projects?

Recently, I’ve been involved in setting up my new studio, a space of about 260 square meters with both indoor and outdoor areas. I’m starting from a new space as a new starting point for new projects—a sort of workshop that will allow me to create both small and large works that I’ve never done before and to expand my practice into other artistic disciplines.