MY GRANDFATHER WAS A LIGHTMAKER

Every family has its own legends. Those of my family are centered on the figure of my grandfather. My grandfather made his living by inventing a thousand jobs: he was a blacksmith, but also an electrician, carpenter, handyman ... In his small village of origin, before the war, public lighting had not yet arrived. He was asked to build a street lighting system, he did it. As a boy, I often fantasized about helping him in this enterprise, which would have been impossible, because he died before I was born. But I liked to imagine myself carrying these big heavy lamps between the houses and the courtyards, where, in reality, some of those that he built are still working!

Oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm, 2020.

Diagram of a city

 Oil on paper, 12 x 30 cm, 2019.

Motorcycle

Oil on canvas, 80 x 80 cm, 2019.

My grandfather died before I was born. Although I never knew him, the domestic legends that my mother and father told about him helped to create, in my childhood fantasy, an almost legendary figure. My grandfather was a blacksmith, but in the post-war period of the small Italian rural province, this meant a handyman, and in fact, if necessary he was a plumber, electrician, bricklayer, carpenter. In our country house we had for years and years, the very old and beautiful red motorcycle that he used for work. And I've always imagined him riding that motorcycle, racing from one village to another, to solve problems and rebuild a nation.

Doha, the pearl

 

These paintings are part of a series of pieces that were commissioned from the FIRST QATAR REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY. The copies of these paintings have been used for the wall decor of the rooms of the new Hilton "The Pearl" in Doha, Qatar.

This series of paintings is inspired by satellite photographs that today, with tools like Google Earth, allow anyone the virtual exploration of the planet. Starting from those real images, I rework those aerial views, inventing new codes of representation and new decorative elements. The map is distorted, deformed, altered as if it were a past memory, but something of that place is still recognizable. For the views of Doha and Qatar I invented decorative elements starting from the sands of the desert: the waves recall the ripples that the wind draws on the dunes, while the areas with "dots" are an ironic reference to the grains of the sand.

Each original painting is available for sale at the price of 620 US$ (shipping included). Contact me in case you are interested in more information about my work, the sales prices of individual works, or the availability for work on graphics.

Bridesmaid moth

 

From the series “Please do not kill butterflies”, pins and oil on paper mounted on a wood panel, 28 x 25 cm, 2016. Original sold.

Please, all these dead animals ... Of course, not every one of us can or want to become vegetarian. Sure, in some cases, maybe, the medical experimentation needs them to get results. But we really have to kill them for our frivolous activities? ... Is it necessary to have so many pink pigs die in front of a camera? Do we really need to dissect sharks in formaldehyde, to starve stray dogs tied to a chain in the corner of a gallery, or to make innocent ants go crazy in twisted tubes of plexiglas? To make these drawings, no butterfly was killed.

Memories of Malta

 

"Memories of Malta". Oil on thick paper, 50 x 37 cm, 2016. ORIGINAL SOLD.

In this series of paintings I try to blend together the architectural and monumental elements of a place or a city. It’s a bit like recalling to memory a journey made in the past: it will produce many confused and overlapping images. The title of the series wants to reclaim the idea of a fluid memory, moved like water, and confused like a mirage.

Waterlilies

WATERLILIES. 

From the series “Point me at the sky!”, oil and pencil on paper, 35.5 x 24 cm, 2012.