The first Roman solo show by Tommaso Ottieri, entitled The function of black, curated by Marco Di Capua is a journey through the suggestions and coexistence of black and light. The exhibition consists of about twenty works in which the artist represents urban spaces, views, bridges, streets, theaters and churches of Paris, London, Venice, Madrid, Naples and New York as they emerge from the night darkness through the lights of the cities, the gold of the churches and the seductive illuminations of the theaters.
“I like to paint cities at night – underlines Ottieri himself in the catalog – At night everything changes: black is no longer shadow but becomes again the outline we used to define light”.
In the works of the artist of Neapolitan origins, light is obtained with the use of many colors, especially with purplish brown tones for the darks and ocher yellow for the clear ones, mixed with translucent bluish or reddish resins; while black, the artist’s favorite, is created by mixing, through ancient and complex procedures, smoky black and ivory black with a purple lacquer.
The result, of great expressive and emotional quality, is the majestic representation of opulent, historic and at the same time modern buildings and urban landscapes, painted in shades of red, blue and yellow ocher.
