2025 - Galleria Gagliardi, San Gimignano
Galleria Gagliardi is pleased to announce that on Sunday, 16th March 2025, will be inaugurated the solo exhibition by Luca Freschi "Appunti di un viaggiatore silente" (Notes of a silent traveller) at its space in San Gimignano (SI), which will end on Sunday, 13th April.
The exhibition and the critical text are curated by Stefano Gagliardi.
For Luca Freschi, the past and the present are not separate entities, but parts of a continuum in a journey that transcends physical space to enter the dimension of the soul. Each of his creations carries a fragment of history, a memory that waits to be revealed among memories, emotions and reflections; hence, works that have an extraordinary evocative power: looking at them, one is pervaded by a sense of nostalgia that is not only regret for what has been, but also recognition of the intrinsic value of the past. In this exhibition, the artist addresses themes deeply rooted in the human experience, exploring the dualism that is almost always present in the circular unfolding of our existence: (re)birth, life and death, beauty and decay.
Unfortunately, beauty is ephemeral and the transience of form is an inescapable reality. In order to capture this transience, the artist often resorts to the symbols of the VANITAS theme, such as the skull of the memento mori, cut flowers, triumphal processions: he does this with great realism and with the comfort of the CALCO ceramic technique. We are in front of a cycle of works designed to narrate dimensions where life and death compete for the primacy of becoming, while in reality they are inseparable and interdependent: their interaction is the basis of the eternal cycle of nature.
However, Luca Freschi seems to suggest, with the works entitled CARIATIDI, that while human beings are destined to fade away, the intellectual and artistic contributions of mankind endure through time: in a way, it is the baggage that accompanies us and which, by cherishing it, allows us to reconstruct an everlasting beauty that celebrates both the past and the present. The Caryatids are born from the skilful superimposition of casts, figures and vases: they rise in apparent fragility, yet reflect a surprising totemic power; they tell perfect stories that tell other stories, contexts of diversity and belonging to weave a fabric of shared memories and identities. They stand out for their unique combination of ancient and modern elements, creating a harmonious fusion of forms and concepts: with their meticulous superimpositions, they evoke a sense of movement and evolution, while maintaining a solidity that contrasts with their apparent delicacy.