Lorenzo Puglisi at the Italian Cultural Institute in New York

The first solo exhibition by Lorenzo Puglisi in New York will open on January 17 at the Italian Cultural Institute on Park Avenue (on view until February 15). Painting in New York, curated by art critic Guicciardo Sassoli De Bianchi and inaugurated by the Institute's director, Fabio Finotti, features a selection of works created specifically for the event during the artist’s stay in the city. On view until February 15, the exhibition highlights the artist's iconographic vision and unmistakable style. Puglisi’s powerful and evocative figures emerge from dark backgrounds—an aesthetic that has brought him widespread recognition in recent years. His mysterious subjects, defined by distinctive brushstrokes in white and red tones, make their debut in the United States. Lorenzo Puglisi, who lives and works in Bologna, has developed a pictorial practice marked by the extensive use of black to create a backdrop of total darkness. From this darkness, bursts of light emerge, defining volumes, faces, and parts of the body—an exploration of the essential elements of representation, rich with references to the history of painting. In recent years, his artistic research has focused on large canvases referencing masterpieces of the past. His self-portrait has been added to the collection of the Uffizi Galleries, selected by director Eike Schmidt. The work is now part of the group of 255 pieces (ranging from the 1400s to the present) displayed in the newly installed twelve rooms of the Florentine museum, inaugurated on July 10, 2023.