Michele De Lucchi on Drawing, Color, and His Naples Exhibition

Michele De Lucchi, born in Ferrara in 1951, discusses his return to drawing after months of chainsaw-carved wooden houses. In an interview at his studio in Angera, he explains that drawing helps him reconcile his roles as artist, architect, and designer. He prepares multiple colored paper grounds simultaneously, leaving drawings unfinished to keep thoughts open. For his exhibition in Naples, he presents fifty mixed-media drawings and small wooden houses called 'casette delle pezzentelle,' hosted at the Church of Santa Luciella ai Librai during Edit Napoli. The houses are intentionally small to be transportable in the afterlife, offering shelter to abandoned souls. His recent palette shifts from the acidic pastels of his Memphis period to warm, full hues, which he likens to homeostasis—a search for balance in a world marked by war and fear. De Lucchi's relationship with Galleria Antonia Jannone, introduced by Ettore Sottsass, spans decades; the gallery, with Studio Trisorio, supports this exhibition. Drawing, he says, is a therapeutic act that taps into the subconscious, allowing him to explore personal and collective memory. He compares it to his father's nocturnal carpet weaving. The interview captures him working in his studio, listening to Chopin, and reflecting on the creative process as a way to follow a falling leaf without knowing where it lands.