Trees and Seas and the People Floating Amongst Them

I’ve always felt that Giuseppe Francalanza’s work is more about exploration and the manifestation of images than traditional depiction or painterly performance. And after several European presentations with VinVin from Vienna, the Italian artist is now making his NYC solo debut at Chapter NY, introducing his uniquely volatile way of observing and representing life.

A small suite of works on canvas and paper introduces Francalanza’s signature way of constructing hazy vistas in which his protagonists dissolve into fields of color and light. Mixing graphite and charcoal directly into the oils gives the work a distinct, sullied appeal while also limiting the paint handling. But the limitation comes with benefits, as remarkably vaporous, frail imagery often disperses across the gritty, tactile, dense surfaces.

In clear contrast to the plume-like figures, the surrounding elements have sharper, harder edges. Threads or wires, blades of tall grass, trees, and sea horizons, painted in the same earthy ochre palette as the protagonists, seem to trap and suspend them somewhere between holding together and coming apart. In that sense, these elements serve as grounding features, pulling the almost abstract visuals into the figurative realm. With their softly modeled figures set against moody, receding landscapes, the works recall classic Italian Renaissance scenes, only seen through foggy glass.

The exceptionally soft, hazy transitions between colors and tones, along with the elimination of hard lines within the figures, make the scenes feel even more precarious and vulnerable. Fading into their environment in a dreamy sfumato mist, the protagonists are bathed in radiant atmospheric light. Rather than being lit by a single source, Francalanza’s figures seem to glow from within, emphasizing the work’s ethereal quality. With arguably “heavy” material carrying such light images, the images feel less executed and more allowed to surface through a process that fuses the artist’s intuition with how the materials respond. —Saša Bogojev