EXHIBITION

AN ALCHEMY OF MATTER

In Ballads of Lights, Orazio De Gennaro channels a mystical aura, creating a tapestry of hues and textures that seem to pulsate with life. The layers of lavender, sage, and muted gold blend with hints of aquamarine, resembling a landscape bathed in dawn or twilight—a place suspended between night and day. This piece shares affinities with Claude Monet’s later works, where color and light merge into abstract forms. Yet De Gennaro’s thick, tactile textures set it apart, grounding the ethereal in a robust physicality.

The surface of Ballads of Lights is alive with a dance of colors that appear to move and breathe, much like the shifting Italian countryside. De Gennaro’s method of layering pigments and applying pastels and graphite imparts a depth that feels almost geological. It invites viewers to explore its surface, connecting them to his ancestral land not through literal representation but through an emotive, textural experience that resonates with memory and place.