Sguardi (Gazes)
2025
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Sguardi (Gazes) is an autonomous chapter within the series Promesse (Promises), originating from the painting I tuoi occhi blu mi guardano fallire, ancora (Your blue eyes watch me fail, again). Through six oil and charcoal paintings on canvas, the series explores the gaze as a site of memory, projection, and confrontation.
The series unfolds as a chronological journey from the places of my childhood to the present. Within the reflections in the depicted eyes, figures, episodes, and fragments of experience emerge, revealing how our self-image is shaped through memory and our relationship with others.
The gaze thus becomes the point at which observer and observed exchange roles, generating a dialogue in which each contributes to redefining the other. Within this space of mutual recognition, questions arise about vulnerability, belonging, and the construction of the self.
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L’appartamento (The apartment) 2025
oil and charcoal on canvas 60 x 60 cm 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches
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L'appartamento (The apartment) portrays the apartment building where I grew up, reflected in my mother's eye. The painting transforms a familiar place into a space of memory.
The house no longer appears as a simple setting from the past, but endures as a symbol of the dissolution of expectations, the erosion of affection, and the weight of the family narratives that shape us.
La morte delle margherite (The death of the daises) 2025
oil and charcoal on canvas 60 x 60 cm 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches
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La morte delle margherite (The death of the daisies) originates from a childhood photograph reflected in my grandmother's eye: my sister and I as children, captured in an affectionate gesture. That familiar image re-emerges in a different form, where memory confronts the passage of time.
The reflection becomes the place where what once was and what can no longer be recovered coexist.
La sfortuna del quadrifoglio (The misfortune of the four-leaf clover) 2025
oil and charcoal on canvas 60 x 60 cm 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches
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La sfortuna del quadrifoglio (The misfortune of the four-leaf clover) depicts my car after a road accident I had in 2018 caused by alcohol abuse, reflected in my aunt's eye.
The reflection does not simply bear witness to the event, but explores the weight of the familial and social gaze, and the complex relationship with addiction—not only to substances, but also emotional and behavioural dependencies.
Lingua lunga (Big mouth) 2025
oil and charcoal on canvas 60 x 60 cm 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches
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Lingua lunga (Big mouth) depicts a departing train reflected in the eye of an old friend. Having grown up in a small town, we believed that somewhere else we would find a more authentic life.
We never boarded that train: out of fear, out of comfort, or perhaps because we came to understand that changing places is not enough to escape ourselves.
The title, deliberately ironic, refers to the way time diminishes the illusions of the past, turning them into a bittersweet smile.
Il mio bravo ragazzo (My good boy) 2025
oil and charcoal on canvas 60 x 60 cm 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches
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Il mio bravo ragazzo (My good boy) portrays the moment I prepare for work, seen through the eye of my girlfriend.
This everyday gesture becomes a reflection on the process of domestication imposed by society: the transformation of the individual into a disciplined, predictable, and productive cog within the system.
The title, both ironic and provocative, suggests the docility with which we often accept predetermined roles, surrendering parts of ourselves in order to conform to collective expectations.
Un intimo sconosciuto (An intimate stranger) 2025
oil and charcoal on canvas 60 x 60 cm 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches
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Un intimo sconosciuto (An intimate stranger) is a self-portrait reflected in my own eye, symbolising an ongoing search within myself.
The painting concludes the Sguardi series and emerges from a confrontation with the events depicted in the previous works, while simultaneously questioning their significance. In a life that unfolds as an uninterrupted succession of events, I ask myself how much weight those moments truly carried, and how much of that weight was assigned by my own gaze.
From this tension between meaning and insignificance emerges a distance that makes the reflected image appear almost unfamiliar. It is within this dissonance that the search for an elusive identity takes shape.