Vanni Cuoghi's 'The Invisible Sun' at Studio Museo Francesco Messina

At the Civico Studio Museo Francesco Messina in Milan, a former church turned museum dedicated to the Sicilian sculptor, Vanni Cuoghi (Genoa, 1968) presents 'The Invisible Sun. La terza dimensione del disegno.' The exhibition features dozens of large ink drawings of crows, evoking the building's WWII bombing damage with dreamlike levity. Cuoghi, a storyteller of the third millennium, also displays three-dimensional maquettes and dioramas in the basement, drawing from comics, folk iconography, and 19th-20th century illustration. These miniature theaters recount popular tales of crime, Jewish and Eastern stories, and nativity scenes, often set against vintage Milanese postcards. The drawings contrast with Francesco Messina's sculptures from the 1960s and 1970s, creating a dialogue that revitalizes figurative tradition. Director Maria Fratelli opened the museum to such meta-linguistic comparisons.