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Lorenzo Puglisi is one of the most original contemporary Italian painters, capable of tackling the history of sacred art with secular and modern resourcefulness, looking at ancient painting without using quotations or mannered anachronisms, but inventing a unique and innovative way of painting.

Each of his paintings comes from an ancient work by a great Master of the 16th and 17th centuries (from Leonardo to Caravaggio, from Titian to Goya) but the iconographic source never prevails over the emotional or gestural one. On dense and impenetrable black backgrounds, faces and hands mixed with white color and chromatic matter emerge, in a play of light and darkness of profound psychological intensity and drama.

The exhibition, organized by the Mauritian Academy in collaboration with Atrium Cultural Association, consists of 14 works, including 8 paintings on canvas, 2 paintings on wood and 4 on paper, all unpublished and created in 2024, created for the exhibition at the Ex Church of San Sebastiano in Lecce.

The themes concern the Crucifixion, the Pietà, the Great Sacrifice, the Annunciation, In the Garden of Olives, subjects the artist investigated at length and whose structure is taken from the typical altarpieces of Renaissance and Baroque painting.

Contemporary painting meets ancient painting precisely on the terrain most favorable to it, the space of the sacred and religion, which in Puglisi's hands become new ways of thinking about the relationship between the individual and spirituality in the modern era.

Among the works created, one is destined to enter the collection of the Diocesan Museum of Lecce, while another was inspired by a portrait of Saint Peter in prison attributed to the painter Jacopo de Ribera and preserved in a private collection in Lecce.

The bilingual catalog (Italian/English), in addition to the introductory text by the art critic Marco Tonelli, presents an unpublished interview with the painter on the founding themes of his poetics, such as the sense of art history, spirituality, the relationship between light and shadow and the relevance of painting in the contemporary era as well as a rich critical anthology on the artist's work.

EXHIBITION INFO

TITLE: Lorenzo Puglisi

LOCATIONS AND DATES: 28 September /27 october - Lecce

OPENING: Saturday 28 september h. 18.00

Curated by Marco tonelli

Opening hours: Monday to Friday h. 11.00/12.30 and 16.00/19.00
Info: ph. (+39) 335 406539

Art in the Embassy - Contemporary Italy in Vilnius

curated by Guicciardo Sassoli - Daniele Crippa - Manuela Valentini

Vilnius, 3rd october 2024

7:01

The exhibition Art in the Embassy: Contemporary Italy in Vilnius is organized by the Embassy of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute in Vilnius, as part of the initiatives planned for the Italian Contemporary Art Day.

The October 3rd, 2024 launch event is hosted in collaboration with the 15th edition of the International Art Fair ArtVilnius (October 4-6, 2024).

The group exhibition has been curated by Guicciardo Sassoli de' Bianchi Strozzi (Nuova Artemarea Association), with Daniele Crippa and Manuela Valentini, and aims at promoting Italian contemporary art in Lithuania featuring a selection of 45 works by 42 renowned artists, from the 1950s until today.

Most of the artists are also contributing to the collection of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (Farnesina Collection).

Thank to this exhibition the Embassy will become an Italian art museum in the heart of Vilnius.

The Embassy headquarters is located inside the building where the Embassy stood at the beginning of the twentieth century Vilnius Electricity Company, surmounted by a sculpture of Elektra to symbolize the entry into the new era of light.

The building shines again today thanks to Italian art as a language of universal dialogue

ARTISTS ON EXHIBITION:

Carla Accardi, Franco Angeli, Gianni Asdrubali, Matteo Basilé, Renata Boero, Davide Bramante, Enzo Cacciola, Giacomo Maria Cavina, Bruno Ceccobelli, Sabrina D'Alessandro, Nicola Evangelisti, Flavio Favelli, Tano Festa, Salvatore Fiume, Omar Galliani, Marco Lodola, Giacomo Manzù, Elio Marchegiani, Bruno Munari, Enzo Nenci, Luigi Ontani, Francesca Pasquali, Achille Perilli, Concetto Pozzati, Luca Pozzi, Lorenzo Puglisi, Mimmo Rotella,
Pietro Ruffo, Germano Sartelli, Mario Schifano, Daniele Sigalot.

CREDITS:
Title of the exhibition: Art in the Embassy. Contemporary Italy in Vilnius
Headquarters: Italian Embassy in Vilnius, Zveju g. 14, Lithuania
Inauguration: 3 October 2024
Promoted and organized by: Italian Embassy and Italian Cultural Institute in Vilnius
Coordinated by: Nuova Artemarea Association
By: Guicciardo Sassoli de' Bianchi Strozzi with Daniele Crippa and Manuela Valentini
Light Design: Filippo Erasti
Graphics and photographs: Ren Jingge
Transport: Citi Forwarders srl; Overdriveart Srl
Technical Sponsor: Big Broker Insurance Group S.R.L. Ciaccio Art Division

Lorenzo Puglisi

curated by Marco Tonelli

Lecce - 28th september 2024

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