The sixth edition of the exhibition EX opened on Thursday, May 8, 2025, in the Salone degli Incamminati at Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna. A catalogue published by NFC Edizioni will accompany the exposition, featuring contributions from curator Carmen Lorenzetti and art historian and professor Alfonso Panzetta. The show displays a selection of works by six artists: Lorenzo Di Lucido, Nicola Melinelli, Gianni Moretti, Andrea Salvatori, Vincenzo Simone, and Cristiano Tassinari. The exhibition unfolds through a labyrinthine path that delves into the poetics of the artists – former alumni of the Bologna Academy of Fine Arts – who engage in a dialogue consisting in points of convergence and divergence. Materials, techniques, content, areas of practice: a blend of knowledge and scents that recount the origins and developments of these former students. The works on display are the result of a selection carried out by the artists themselves – some of whom stack up to each other since they share a formative background under the guidance of the same mentor – and are significant and representative of their production, relaying the skills and knowledge developed since their academic training.
AA. VV., “EX 6”, installation view, ph. Martina Platone, courtesy Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
The exhibition path begins with Andrea Salvatori, who presents Terzo Paesaggio, Le Invasate, and an evocative series of twelve sculptural characters. The artist recounts an experimental and resilient creative process, involving 3D printing altered by his own intervention and an artistic restitution of the damage caused by the recent floods in the Romagna region; such employment of materials and tools speaks not only of a renovation of technique and materials, but also about a deep awareness of belonging to a specific territory and an artistic imaginary. Vincenzo Simone presents small and large-scale works imbued with rarefied visions. His four paintings Untitled (2020) – in dialogue with Salvatori’s Terzo Paesaggio -, Notturno con cappello e cesta di frutta (2020), Cercando il ricamo (2020), and I dormienti (2023) are dreamy pieces that refer to traditional genres of art history albeit immersing them in the stream of contemporary stimuli.
AA. VV., “EX 6”, installation view, ph. Martina Platone, courtesy Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
Nicola Melinelli’s works punctuate the exhibition, acting as a connective joint among his peers. The selected works – Rovescio (2016), Green House (2020) and the more recent Untitled series (2025) – span different stages of his career, yet are unified by a consistent investigation of space through painting: his art condenses ambiguous perspectives which generate illusions and fictions, thus seducing the viewer’s gaze. Cristiano Tassinari’s works reflect his leaps across materials and media explored throughout his career. In Africanella (2016), Parakeet (2018), Masquerade (2019), Bird (2021), Bird and Apple (2022), Philharmonie (2025) and Putto (2025), painting transitions into sculpture; in both expressions of his practice, Tassinari combines autobiographical elements and historical facts to problematize universal themes such as personal experience and the legacy of Italy’s colonial history and cultural stereotypes.
AA. VV., “EX 6”, installation view, ph. Martina Platone, courtesy Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
Gianni Moretti’s artworks spans both conceptual and spatial dimensions with a wide-ranging approach: Capitoli di un monumento (I–XV) and Anna – Monumento all’Attenzione (promessa), both dated 2019, spread out in space as installations and in time through their intentions. Moretti invites viewers not only to remember and repair the loss of Anna Pardini – victim of the Nazi-Fascist massacre at Sant’Anna di Stazzema – but also to reconsider how we commemorate and monumentalize sensitive historical events. Lorenzo Di Lucido showcases an interlude of his practice, employing a painting technique unusual for his oeuvre. Falena notturna (2021), Diteggiare (2021), Rumine (2021), Maggese (2022), Il distruttore (2022), and Credo che il respiro sia importante nella costruzione dell’opera e nella sua ricezione (2022) are previously unseen monochromatic works, which feed upon the gazes captured by the oil-reflected light and invite the viewer to plunge into their ploughed fields shaped by dense, muddy brushstrokes.
AA. VV., “EX 6”, installation view, ph. Martina Platone, courtesy Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
Curator Carmen Lorenzetti describes the exhibition as a way of “pushing the boundaries of art to remain within art”, that is a practice that avoids mere repetition of art history – whilst acknowledging the complexity of such act in a field saturated with constant historical references – and challenges itself to transform, chasing the present direction with due regard for the past. The selection of works offers a heterogeneity of artistic expressions – from painting and sculpture, then landing in installation and participatory public art – surrounding the viewer with sensory evocations such as the fragrance and shimmer of materials, spatial distribution, and the diverse consistencies of the works.
Ayleen Ivonne Liverani
Info:
EX6: Lorenzo Di Lucido, Nicola Melinelli, Gianni Moretti, Andrea Salvatori, Vincenzo Simone, Cristiano Tassinari
curated by Carmen Lorenzetti
8/05 – 15/06/2025
Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Salone degli Incamminati
via Belle Arti, 56 – Bologna
www.pinacotecabologna.beniculturali.it
Ayleen Ivonne Liverani, a cultural practitioner in the fields of edu-curatorship and mediation, works between Italy and Mexico and explores the art world as a space for exploration and questioning, and as an opportunity to create and narrate alternative imaginaries.
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