Gabriele Picco's 'Carrying a Cloud' Exhibition Opens at Lungarno Hotel in Florence

Italian artist Gabriele Picco (born 1974 in Brescia) presents his solo exhibition 'Carrying a Cloud' at the Lungarno Hotel in Florence, curated by Valentina Ciarallo. The show focuses on Picco's recurring cloud and sky motifs, featuring mostly new works across sketches, drawings, sculptures, and writing. The exhibition opens with a modified 1964 cream Fiat 500 D model carrying an oversized cloud on its roof rack, parked in the hotel lounge. Picco's poetic universe blends dreams, memories, and childhood nostalgia, exploring oxymoronic relationships between life and death, dream and reality. The clouds appear as mystical, evanescent forms or naive, childlike figures, with ironic references to art history from Fontana to Chris Burden and popular culture. Picco also breaks the fourth wall by placing small birds on painting frames and drawing directly on gallery walls. The artist announced a new social installation titled 'Pasticceria Italia' for the upcoming Miart fair, addressing Italian identity with provocative irony.