Tempi d'acciaio. Dal potenziale al crossover

Metaphysical and figurative echoes of the first half of the 20th century mixed with pop and contemporary imagery. The tension between reality and imagination, two perspectives that continue to run parallel without ever getting confused with each other, is the leitmotif of the approximately 40 works, mostly oils on canvas, included in Fabrizio Spadini’s solo exhibition, organized by Medina Art Gallery and hosted at Palazzo Merulana, a noble setting that places the artist in dialogue with the masterpieces of painting and sculpture from the Elena and Claudio Cerasi Collection, on permanent display in the palace. Between spaceships, cyborgs and chrome-plated automatons, the pop icons of media culture are in fact juxtaposed with the pillars of art history, from the Tuscan Macchiaioli to the avant-garde movements of the 20th century, with Giacomo Balla, Mario Sironi and Giorgio De Chirico among them all, in a dimensional crossover that unites different symbologies and settings in a single narrative.

Born in 1975, Fabrizio Spadini began his professional career as a freelance illustrator for advertising agencies and publishing houses, then as a concept artist in the animation and video game industry. Bringing him to the attention of the general public was the project “Oilrobots - Futuro Anteriore” presented in 2016 at Lucca Comics: canvases, plates and drawings that celebrate a marriage between the pictorial tradition of Tuscan Macchiaioli and elements of Japanese cartoon imagery, especially the series of the 1970s and 1980s. Since then he has participated in various exhibitions, events and shows in Italy and abroad, including “Deus ex Machina”, a solo show at the Belgioioso Castle in Pavia in 2021, and “Lame Rotanti”, the exhibition-event organized in 2022 by Medina Art Gallery.