I certainly don’t need to introduce you to the artistic history of Carmine Rezzuti: Rezzuti is an artist who has known how to express himself over time with refined genius and a profound and symbolic iconographic narrative. His choices have always traversed the imaginative realm, both when he has worked on site-specific experiences and when everything was born spontaneously in the silence of his studio, imagining spaces to contaminate and places to traverse with flair and originality.
Carmine Rezzuti, overview of the exhibition “…At Night” at the Frame Arts et Artes Gallery in Naples. Photo by Rita A. Fusco
There is something primitive and apotropaic in Rezzuti’s works, something that belongs to us, an intimacy that transcends. Since his beginnings in the seventies, the tangible aspect of his narrative has always been the ability to trace new stories through something already existing: an elsewhere that is apparently simple and disarming. In his work there has always been play and contamination, a desire to experiment but, above all, to encounter the other, whether it be a forgotten feeling or an artist to confront. This is the case of his partnership with Quintino Scolavino, with whom Rezzuti worked hand in hand not physically, but with soul and friendship. Countless exhibitions have seen their paths dialogue, precious anecdotes that never fail when something important is built. Worth remembering, above all, are the two exhibitions together: in 2012 “Pompeiana” at MANN (Archaeological Museum of Naples) and “Concert for Strings and Blades of Grass”, in 2016, at PAN (Palace of Arts of Naples). These two artists have managed to give us something priceless: the authenticity of encounter and narrative and a sincere listening.
Carmine Rezzuti, “Woe to Those Who Approach”, 1979, various techniques and materials. Photo by Rita A. Fusco, courtesy of Frame Ars et Artes, Naples
And then the numerous group exhibitions – above all the participation in the XXXVIII Venice Biennale, in the Italy pavilion, together with Gerardo di Fiore, Aulo Pedicini, Gerardo Pedicini and Errico Ruotolo – which remind us that messages become more intense when we share them, that diversity, of languages and emotions, enriches the spirit when we can choose in whom to mirror our inclinations. On December 17th, a new exhibition was inaugurated in the spaces of the Frame Ars et Artes gallery, entitled “…At Night,” curated by Paola Pozzi and Brunello Nardone, presented with a critical text by Gabriele Frasca, who knows well Rezzuti’s artistic exuberance and whose penetrating pen has once again been able to accompany the creativity and thought of the artist.
Carmine Rezzuti, “In the Dark”, 2000, acrylic on canvas. Photo by Rita A. Fusco, courtesy of Frame Ars et Artes, Naples
The formats become smaller compared to those Rezzuti has accustomed us to over time, with the exception of some works: those on the walls are works born during sleepless quarantine nights in 2020, when outside the streetlights were turned off and the unexpected fear of something unknown accompanied our days. It is not difficult to imagine Rezzuti, in the penumbra of his studio, playing once again with life, with the symbols that have accompanied his existence as a man and as an artist. The colors are less bright, but the forms transcend spaces, break down boundaries. It is a visceral three-dimensionality; we can perceive the cry of some depicted beasts and the delicacy of other juxtapositions in the presented collages. The process is always the same: placing the past alongside the present, whether it be a piece of colored wood or a drawing outlined on paper at another moment. What changes each time is the feeling that drives the hand, the need to express that specific instant. Being able to recount pain with lightness, the loss of someone important, but also memory.
Carmine Rezzuti, “How scary”, 2002, acrylic and grease pencil on pressed cardboard. Photo by Rita A. Fusco, courtesy of Frame Ars et Artes, Naples
And we are there, with our state of mind, welcomed and rejected, depending on our predisposition. We try to enter on tiptoe, in religious silence, to be able to fully experience the essence of what has been generously given to us, to be able to lose ourselves without inhibitions, as we did when we played as children. One cannot fail to recognize Rezzuti’s ability to make something personal universal: trying to soar through the air like that seagull displayed in a corner, ready to take flight toward unexplored and mysterious horizons. Stumbling upon ourselves, as when we absentmindedly sort out our thoughts. It happens at night, when everything appears clearer to us, in the restlessness of breath and in the truthfulness of certain answers that we probably would never have been able to hear in the clamor of day.
Rita Alessandra Fusco
Info:
Carmine Rezzuti, “…At Night”
curated by Paola Pozzi and Brunello Nardone
critical text by Gabriele Frasca
17/12/2025 – 14/01/2026
Galleria Frame Ars et Artes
corso Vittorio Emanuele 525, Napoli
www.framearsartes.it
is a contemporary art magazine since 1980
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