Roberto Floreani proposes for his first solo exhibition in the capital, curated by Marco Di Capua, about twenty site-specific works, confirming the feature that wants him to devise a distinctive project for each individual exhibition.
The artist has decided this time to devote himself completely to celebrating the city that is his host, christening his project Rome. This is a simple homage only on the surface; in reality Floreani, in more than 30 years of activity in Italy and abroad, has always decided in his studio the underlying theme that would then determine the nature of the project: the exhibition sites would then host what the artist had conceived elsewhere. In this case, however, exactly the the opposite: the city of Rome is the reason and the purpose of the project. A true tribute to the city, which contains at the same time other elements to be noted: Rome is the place of memory, of the
historical tradition, of classicism, of beauty, of the most exclusive Italian-ness. In a word it is the essence of the various themes already addressed by the artist, including memory, already a point of starting point of many of Floreani’s projects: from the one from back in 1989 (Itineraries of Memory) to the one of ’99 (Memoria) made for the great exhibition at the Stelline in Milan, after Warhol, Kounellis, Baselitz and Matta; but there are also the idea of the deep stratification of the territory, of the earthy dominants, the search for beauty, compositional harmony, all themes that have always been always present in his research. The works in the project thus contain the more recent ones already admired in the solo room at the Venice Biennale in 2009, or in the Alchemicals of the very recent exhibition at MAGA in Gallarate.
The main component of all the works stems from the precious elaboration of the material pictorial, made exclusive by Floreani, in the dozens of skillful stratifications that convey the viewer toward a final result that is more often than not astounding in quality and measure, declined in its infinite combinations, enhanced by the presence of a pictorial matter that is at once pulsating and meditative same time, illuminated by the chromatic accents that enliven the earthy surfaces.
The exhibition is presented first at the Galleria Russo venues in Rome and then in Milan and hosts in the catalog a critical text by Geminello Alvi.
