Piero Pompili's 'Uomini e no' at Bianco Contemporaneo in Rome

The Bianco Contemporaneo gallery in Rome presents 'Uomini e no', a retrospective of photographer Piero Pompili (born 1967), from January 18 to February 22, 2025. Curated by gallerist Rossella Alessandrucci, the exhibition spans 30 years of Pompili's career, featuring over 35 photographs that deliberately exclude his famous boxing subjects. Instead, it focuses on his relationship with Rome through works like 'A mia madre' and 'La figlia di Iorio', alongside still lifes, architectures, and portraits. The images, predominantly black-and-white with some color, emphasize the tragic everyday, amplified by the square format of his Hasselblad camera. The show includes a limited-edition artist's box of 50 copies containing 56 photographs, with texts by Antonio Calbi, Antonio Franchini, Andrea Iezzi, and Roberto Simeone. Pompili describes the exhibition as his 'great inner navigation', opening with a self-portrait with a knife to his head paired with an image of his mother's legs. He cites his upbringing in the Borghesiana district as formative, where he photographed car carcasses that resemble etchings. His mentors include Enzo Siciliano, who published his first work in 'Nuovi Argomenti' in 1993. Pompili's first exhibition was 'Obiettivo Borghesiana 85' in 1985 at Centro Otto in Borghesiana. He considers his aesthetic a 'modern classicism', influenced by painters like Piero della Francesca, Mantegna, and Michelangelo.