Mario Raciti's 'Ricordi dell'Eden' at Oltrearte Galleria Contemporanea in Conegliano

Oltrearte Galleria Contemporanea in Conegliano presents 'Ricordi dell'Eden', a solo exhibition dedicated to 90-year-old Mario Raciti, featuring a corpus of works from the 1960s. Born in Milan in 1934, Raciti initially earned a law degree but abandoned the profession to fully devote himself to painting. His work defies easy categorization—neither abstract, conceptual, nor naturalistic—though it absorbs traces of naturalism and surrealism. Critic Roberto Tassi previously grappled with defining Raciti's style, which the artist himself describes as an attempt to capture 'the breath of wings' rather than faces and wings themselves. The exhibition includes the 1968 piece 'La testa tra le nuvole'. Critic Luca Piero Nicoletti characterizes Raciti's approach as 'dry painting', blending chromaticism and graphic marks executed in pencil, ink, or brush on canvas or paper. The 'Eden' cycle presents paradisiacal visions populated by imaginary, sensual gardens where everyday tensions dissolve. Raciti's work emerges from an interior, reasoned yet non-conceptual search, reflecting an attachment to the image as a representation of dreams rather than reality. The exhibition runs at Oltrearte Galleria Contemporanea in Conegliano.