Leonardo Pellicanò: Painting as Exploration and Discovery

Leonardo Pellicanò (Rome, 1994) is a painter-explorer who uncovers signs and traces across his canvases, often mounted on the reverse side. His works feature faint figures, glimmers, architectural hints, and landscape hypotheses that resemble ancient graffiti brought to the surface. He considers a painting finished when it surpasses his intentionality and gains independence, creating a mutual gaze between artist and work. Influences include Antonio Mancini, medieval imagery, Merlin James, and Guglielmo Castelli. Titles serve to expand the painting's meaning, offering a suspended state and alternative perspective. Pellicanò sees painting as a contemplative counter to the abuse of visual culture and technological speed. He builds a fluid working apparatus that plays with fragility and creates unusual relationships with exhibition spaces, such as juxtaposing small oil paintings with large diluted works to alter spatial perception. He studied at NABA in Milan under Adrian Paci and at ECAL in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he felt valued despite the school's focus away from painting. He has since moved to Paris, citing the need for radical detachment to appreciate his origins. The interview was conducted by Saverio Verini and published in Artribune Magazine #64.