The Circolo degli Artisti di Varese kicks off 2025 with an exhibition that serves as a great source of inspiration for me. It is a "Homage to Lucio Fontana" exhibition held at the Sala L. Fontana in Comabbio (Varese).

 

Fontana was an Italian artist and sculptor, and the founder of Spatialism.

Renowned for the cuts he made in his canvases, he revolutionized art by breaking the pictorial surface to explore the space beyond the canvas itself.

 

With his cuts, he did not intend to destroy the canvas, but to transcend it. He sought to move beyond traditional painting, transforming the artwork into an open space that light and the gaze could pass through.

 

I had never thought about it before, but in this particular work of mine, I have tried to express that very same principle. It is a previously unseen piece—almost a prototype.

I have never published or displayed it before. Perhaps it was waiting for this very occasion to reveal itself to me, too.

 

Created on a 50x50 cm sheet of Plexiglass, it originated in my mind as a double-sided work. And now, that is exactly what it has become: it will be displayed in a white frame and positioned like a sculpture, allowing it to be admired from both sides.

 

It represents a natural evolution of the gesture that made Fontana unique. No longer a surface to be wounded in order to reveal what lies beyond, but a material that is already permeable—ready to let the light pass through.

 

The vibrant blue hue vibrates against the transparency without completely covering it; the color is interrupted, opened up at the center by a white strip that slices it in two. An opening that is not merely emptiness, but breath, depth, and possibility.

Just as Fontana’s cuts allowed space to enter the painting, here the transparency of the Plexiglass ensures that the work is not a boundary, but a passageway.

Color does not enclose, but welcomes. Light does not merely rest upon the surface, but passes through it. And the gaze does not stop, but moves beyond the surface, pushing further.