Arco Gallery is pleased to present An Alchemy of Matter, an exhibition bringing together two artists who create contemporary paintings with the surfaces and spirit of ancient art.
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Arco Gallery is pleased to present An Alchemy of Matter, an exhibition bringing together two artists who create contemporary paintings with the surfaces and spirit of ancient art.
Gregory Kitterle’s paintings merge the figurative and the abstract in dreamlike environments that feel at once surreal and timeless. His mastery of techniques dating back to the Renaissance gives his surfaces a layered, tactile presence—glazings, metal leaves, and fresco-like textures that seem centuries old—yet his light is startlingly alive, cutting across the surface with dramatic intensity. These enigmatic spaces suggest inner transformation, where symbols and forms are endlessly reconfigured.
Orazio De Gennaro, born in Sannio near Pompeii, works directly with elemental matter. Using marble dust, lime, sand, and fire, he creates canvases that feel unearthed, their surfaces echoing the aura of ancient frescoes—suspended between splendor and catastrophe. Infused with the volcanic soil and Mediterranean light of his homeland, his paintings embody both fragility and resilience, offering a vision that is archaic and immediate at once.
Placed in dialogue, Kitterle and De Gennaro emerge as ancient souls with contemporary visions, artists whose works carry memory and renewal, opening surfaces to the past and to the unknown of the present.
Gregory Kitterle (b. Boston, 1954) is an American painter who crafts oneiric paintings by using timeless techniques reminiscent of Pompeian fresco and seventeenth-century masters.
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Gregory Kitterle (b. Boston, 1954) is an American painter who crafts oneiric paintings by using timeless techniques reminiscent of Pompeian fresco and seventeenth-century masters.
He grew up amidst the dark purple-blues and greens of New England, which are at once serene and disturbing (having given rise to both Hawthorne and Transcendentalism), and this sense of unquiet transpires into his work. Kitterle was educated under the method of the Abstract Expressionist Hans Hoffman, and his experience at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts contributes to his mastery for layering historical influences with contemporary perspectives.
His textured surfaces possess the polished, luscious appeal of traditional fresco, guiding the eye across irregular forms and blending painterly expertise with a deep respect for history. He is based in Longmeadow, MA.
He writes: “My work stems from my interest in how the eye leads and is lead. The majority of how and what one sees is fragmentary and laced with ambiguity.”
Orazio De Gennaro (b. Benevento, 1957) began his artistic career in Italy as a sculptor. When he moved to New York in 1983, he transitioned to painting, but the importance of a tangible physicality remained central in his art.
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Orazio De Gennaro (b. Benevento, 1957) began his artistic career in Italy as a sculptor. When he moved to New York in 1983, he transitioned to painting, but the importance of a tangible physicality remained central in his art.
De Gennaro creates his oil pastels with wax, marble dust, and pigments, applying them on a thick impasto of lime and sand to achieve a texture at once tactile and sensuous that has the tangible presence of a sculptural piece. Among his most notable works is a monumental 27-foot abstract landscape he created for the lobby of the landmark Knickerbocker Hotel in Manhattan. He is based in Brooklyn, NY.
He writes: “The elements of my land - the light, texture, shadows, color and the actual materials themselves - earth pigments, lime, marble dust - have formed the essence of an inner landscape and have become a reference point for my work.”
