We look forward to our first presentation with the Milan/Basel-based artist Nicolò Bruno, on view until 12 December, 2024.

NASTRO ADESIVO

Nicolò Bruno

Nicolò Bruno’s first solo show in Cagliari represents a significant moment in his artistic development, presenting a complex and layered reflection on the themes of intimacy, queer love…

Even the title, Nastro Adesivo, leads to different interpretations and becomes a central metaphor for understanding Bruno’s creative process. Cellotape is not just a physical material, but here it takes on the symbolic meaning of a link, a connection between the images and thoughts that inhabit the artist’s mind. The tape, with its ability to unite fragments, represents the very act of assembling images, emotions and memories in a single visual discourse. This way, Bruno’s painting is configured as a sort of associative and dreamlike journey where the real merges with the imaginary, creating a fluid and polymorphic overlapping of elements. The works exhibited at Galleria Macca reveal a growing interest in the human mind’s ability to create images through the superposition and juxtaposition of visual thoughts. In this phase of his career, Bruno seems to want to explore the brain mechanisms that make it possible to create memories and inner images, in an incessant dialogue between experience and imagination. The figures, landscapes and objects that populate his canvases seem to emerge as fragments of memory that mix together, giving life to a visual narrative that transcends the depicted scenes…

The central theme of his work is his exploration of intimacy, eroticism and male love, expressed through a queer sensibility. His paintings often address delicate and profound issues related to the representation of the male body and emotional and sexual relationships between men. In these works, eroticism is never presented in an explicit or superficial manner, but rather as an intrinsic and intimate element, which manifests itself through subtle gestures, glances and bodily details that allude to a deep emotional and physical connection. The fluidity of the representation of these themes suggests that – for Bruno – eroticism is not only a question of physical attraction, but a process of discovery and self-acceptance. The male figures in his works seem to be suspended between desire and vulnerability, in an ambiguous space where love is intertwined with identity… As in a dream, Bruno draws on his personal figurative archive, which combines elements of real life with memories, desires and fantasies. The result is a hybrid pictorial language, which invites the viewer to embark on an exploratory journey through the various layers of the work, in search of hidden connections and meanings.

[Efisio Carbone, ISRE – Settore Musei; Honorary Director, Museo MACC, Italy]

BIO

Nicolò Bruno (Milan, 1989; lives and works between Basel and Milan) graduated in painting and visual arts from the Naba in Milan in 2012, and got his MFA in painting at the Fachochschule Basel Nordwestschweiz in Basel in 2015. He collaborated with Fiorucci Art Trust in London and Milovan Farronato, Milan Pride, Vinyl Factory … and contributed to the foundation of the F84 collective, and Milan Method. His work was exhibited and published in Italy and abroad, and Bruno participated in various international residences and prizes (finalist – VideoInsight Prize in 2022; finalist – Combat Prize in 2020 …). Selected as one of the best Italian emerging artists in 2021 (222 emerging artists to invest on, 2021, edited by Cesare Biasini Selvaggi; published by Exibart), his works are part of private and public collections, in Italy, Europe, the United States and Mexico. 

Credits: all photos by Stefano Oliverio, courtesy Galleria Macca