Moonkillers: Five Italian Painters Redefining Figuration in Venice

The group exhibition 'Moonkillers' at Palazzo Donà Brusa in Venice brings together five Italian artists—Michele Bubacco, Alessandro Miotti, Flaminia Veronesi, Emilio Gola, and the collective CANEMORTO—curated by Antonio Grulli. The show asserts a visceral return to figurative painting, described by Grulli as possessing an urgency not seen since the 1980s. Bubacco (born 1983, Venice) transforms photographic sources through oil, markers, and collage into hybrid works like 'The singer' (2022) and 'Mon Cheri' (2025), the latter starting from a ketchup stain. Miotti (born 1991, Marostica) explores memory and identity in portraits such as 'Hey cowgirl (Bruno)' (2024) and 'Fumatori (nella buona e nella cattiva sorte)' (2025), where bodies dissolve into marks. Veronesi (born 1986, Milan) creates fantastical, unsettling hybrid creatures in works like 'La Sirena' (2022), 'Dragolandia' (2025), and 'Conchiglie' (2025). Gola (born 1994, Milan) offers melancholic, suspended realism in charcoal and oil pieces like 'Marco' (2024) and 'Tic, tac, tic, tac, tic, tac…' (2025). CANEMORTO, a collective working anonymously, produces unique prints by intervening directly on the printing press, rejecting individual authorship; works include 'The Other Key of Basilius' (2024) and 'Mercurius or Quicksilver' (2024). The exhibition positions figurative painting as a medium of authentic urgency, blending historical avant-gardes, urban subcultures, pop references, and personal iconography.