The latest exhibition at contemporary arts hub Centro Pecci in Prato is causing quite a stir as “explicit content” signs have been affixed to the walls. The talent of Annapolis-born artist Louis Fratino remains indisputable, despite the furore surrounding his monographic show, Satura, curated by Pecci’s director Stefano Collicelli Cagol.
jQuery(document).ready(function(){ galleryBlock(); });
Continuing until February 2, 2025, a number of the 60-plus artworks were inspired by time spent in Rome, Milan and Genoa, and in particular along the Tuscan coast, where the Mediterranean light blended with reading the verses of Sandro Penna, Patrizia Cavalli and Pier Paolo Pasolini as well as Mario Mieli’s homosexual writings. Charged with homoeroticism, Fratino tackles the great themes of painting head on, challenging the validity of portraiture, landscape, the nude and still life in the 21st century based on his penchant for 20th-century Italian artists such as Filippo De Pisis, Mario Mafai, Costantino Nivola, Felice Casorati, Carlo Carrà, Fausto Pirandello and Guglielmo Janni.
The title of the exhibition refers to the Latin Satura Lanx, a serving platter piled high with the first fruits of the season as an offering to the gods and, yes, the literary genre. In Italian, it simply means “being full” and here ascribable to the rich colours, broad textures and diverse media explored in the artist’s oeuvre.
Household settings and tender scenes of everyday queer life aside, there’s no escaping the eroticism in Fratino’s exquisitely crafted works.
Kudos, we say, to Pecci for diverting such an internationally respected contemporary artist from the Venice Biennale to Tuscany.
The post Up close + personal: Louis Fratino at Centro Pecci appeared first on The Florentine.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
