On the painting of Giorgio Petracci

If painting still respects a logic that legitimizes its practice and existence in our hyper-saturated civilization of the image, it is its ability to break the representation, to open a crack on the slippery LCD surface behind which reality takes shape and action, a crack that even if it was imperceptible, has permanent and incisive effects, destined as it is to open more and more. And it’s just around the idea of the crack that Giorgio Petracci—painter, designer, craftsman of abstraction—has developed for years his research; cracks, his own, that open up onto words so much material as they are imaginary.

The crack as a wound on the flesh, the crack in the atmosphere around the earth globe, the crack on the screen of a smartphone, the crack on the outer wall of a building beyond which one cannot see the interior though but that it envelops the spectator into another space-time dimension. Painting as a system of vision thus becomes a tool for measuring the relationship between the human body, the cosmos and the psyche, where the bloody wound is the equivalent of a galactic explosion but only to the point where the brain can read it as such. After that, there is only the vacuum.

Having so naively entrusted representation to the digital technologies and being no longer able to portray it freehand, it is as if reality itself retraces back the various liquid-crystalline phases and decomposes in front of our eyes, a sort of big bang backwards: from an HD image that could be enlarged pushing the index up and the thumb down, to the primordial origin of the universe when space was crossed by invisible gravitational waves, just like those that seem to push Petracci’s matter out of the canvas, investing the spectator and slowly transforming the surrounding reality into a vacuum.

Francesco Spampinato (art and visual culture historian)

BIO

Born in Fermo, Italy, in 1974. Lives in Bologna from 1994 to 2001 during his university studies and works in the archeology department. This last experience brings him closer to the old images and the magnificent artistic work of the Etruscan populations. Terracotta, gold and their incredible geometric shapes.

In 1996 he creates and integrates the artistic collective « XY » and begins his first artistic experiences in Bologna. A series of exhibitions of the collective will take place in a dedicated space in the city center.

At this moment he also discovers the work of an artist, Alberto Burri, who marks his experience. His research will focus more on the possible interactions between color and matter.

From 2001 to 2002 lives e works in London, England, exhibiting at the Artbank Gallery and then at the Ap-Art Gallery.

Then he moved to France, Paris. He starts a collaboration with the world famous fashion house for who will work for several years. From 2008 to 2010 he lives in Milan and is part of the interior design and merchandising office of the same house.

Back in Paris in he decided to devote himself to painting.

Currently he is represented by Le sentiment des choses gallery in Paris, Grège Gallery in Bruxelles, Takeuchi fine arts in Kyoto and Sugarlift in New York.

Current exhibition:

2023 – « Prospettive divergenti » / CartaVetra Gallery/ Firenze/Italia /Solo show /9th Nov to 30th Dei

Exhibitions:

2023 – « Le temps révèle » / Eglise de Molezon/ Molezon/France /Solo show /July 1st to July 14th

2023 – « Interludes » / Studio Prairie Gallery/ North Caroline / US / Group show / June 15th to July 15th

2023 – « Échos éthérés – when dreams embrace wood and paint » / Galerie Grège/ Bruxelles / Duo show / June 8th

2022 – « Wind » / Galerie Grège/ Bruxelles / Solo show / November 17th to December 10th

2022 – « Geometrie variable » / Isis Expo / Paris / September 13th to Septembre 18th

2022 – « Tender Meeting » / The Prairie / USA / June 18th to July 25th

2022 – « ADRIATICO » / Le Sentiment des choses / Solo show / March 17th to April 17th / Paris

2021 – 2bnonprofit / Dotfiftyone Gallery / Miami, Floride

2021 – Le Sentiment des choses / 5, rue de Debelleyme / Paris

2020 –  « En absence de gravité » / Solo Show / Galerie de l’Oeil vert / Paris / à partir du 5 septembre

2020 – « Ce qui se fit » / Group show / Galerie Grès / Paris

2020 – Les Sentiments des choses / 5, rue Debelleyme Paris / Now

2020 – Galerie Grès / « Etre pluriels » / Paris / actuellement

2019 – Curieuse Galerie / Paris / « Variations autumnales » / 16 november to 28 december

2019 – Pôle artistique « La Fonderie » à Fontenay-sous-Bois / France – 20, 21, 22 septembre

2019 – Pôle artistique « La Fonderie » à Fontenay-sous-Bois / France – 24, 25, 26 may

2019 – « Antipodes » – Curieuse Galerie, 25 rue de Chanzy – 75011 Paris –  16 may 2019 – 6 july 2019

2019 – « Solide state » – Modern Shapes Gallery – Antwerp, Belgium – from 20 april

2019 –  » Les Hivernales » – Galerie Grès, 9 rue du Pont Louis Philippe – 75004 Paris – 24 january to 14 february

2019  – « Fibres » – Galerie atelier l’Oeil Vert, 12 rue Léopold Bellan – 75002 Paris – 12 january to 16 february

2018 – Galerie Grès / Paris / France

2018 – « Traversés » – Curieuse Galerie  / Paris /France

2017 – Le Génie en liberté (Curieuse Galerie) / Paris /France

2017 – « Traces » – Curieuse Galerie / Paris / France

2011 – Galerie Fin d’avril / Paris / France

2002 – Ap-Art Gallery / London / UK

2001 – ArtBank Gallery / London / UK

1997 – Galleria Xy  / Bologna / Italy

1996 – Galleria Xy  / Bologna / Italy

Prize:

2021 – SNBA – First Prize in painting category