”Satura” is the primary solo institutional exhibition devoted to the work of the American artist Louis Fratino.

Curated by Stefano Collicelli Cagol, Director of the Centro, “Satura” is as a part of Centro Pecci’s Tuscany on the Centre annual programme. This exhibition follows the critically acclaimed presentation of Fratino’s work in a room of Adriano Pedrosa’s “Stranieri Ovunque—Foreigners All over the place,” sixtieth Worldwide Artwork Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia.

The Latin phrase “satura” refers to “Satura Lanx,” a banquet platter full of various fruits meant for the Gods, an idea from which a literary style descended—one that’s characterised by quite a lot of types. In Italian, “satura” actually means “saturated” or “crammed.” Each Latin and Italian acceptations resonate effectively with the subject material and formal feast of Fratino’s artwork. Presenting sculptures, over 30 work and greater than 20 drawings and lithographs, Satura at Centro Pecci is an intensive investigation of Fratino’s oeuvre, bringing collectively works from the final decade with new and up to date developments within the artist’s various apply.

The exhibition presents twelve new work of various scales. These new works enrich Fratino’s photos with lavish scenes, landscapes, nonetheless lives, home tableaux, portraits and intimate moments. Permitting additional perception into such themes because the reclining nude, household portraits, nature, erotism and intercourse, the work develop motifs which have lengthy been current, even in Fratino’s very early works. Dealt with every time otherwise, these topics represent a recurrent supply of inspiration for Fratino and his investigation of the illustration of magnificence. Alongside the collection of works, eight sketchbooks might be displayed, with a purpose to enable guests to delve into the artist’s apply, exhibiting particularly how drawings underpin and encourage Fratino’s closing compositions.

The exhibition brings to the fore the pervasive entanglement between the artist’s apply and Italy. Italy has supplied Fratino with a variety of matters, photos and sensitivities: bridging relationships, impacts, and landscapes, and main finally to replicate upon his artwork. The works in “Satura” draw inspiration from Twentieth-century Italian artists together with Filippo De Pisis, Mario Mafai, Costantino Nivola, Felice Casorati, Carlo Carrà, Fausto Pirandello, and Guglielmo Janni. He’s impressed as a lot by the nation’s immersive landscapes—together with in cities like Roma and Milano—as by the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, the place the Mediterranean lights and wealthy greenery tangle along with his in-depth cultural analysis on the nation. References to poems by Sandro Penna, Patrizia Cavalli and Pier Paolo Pasolini; and essays by the Italian homosexual activist Mario Mieli—resound all through this presentation, and Fratino’s wider oeuvre.

On the event of the opening, a book by Mousse Publishing was revealed, growing an iconographic equipment that casts a light-weight on the relationships between Italy and Fratino’s sculptures, work and drawings, with newly commissioned essays and contributions by students of artwork and queer idea.

Curated by
Stefano Collicelli Cagol

at Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato
till February 2, 2025