Tales from the Last Days
A Solo Exhibition by Lorenzo Tonda
20.09.24 - 19.10.24
“In this series of works, I focus on the human figure and its passive interaction with the unsettling force of the wind. The elements in each painting are few but prominent: bodies, trees, clothes, clouds and hair - all of which convey the obsessive presence of a fierce wind that animates the scenes and torments the figures. Everything is unified by a muddy, barren terrain that, in the first painting ‘gives birth’ to a group of figures.”
Lorenzo Tonda, 2024
Before our eyes, dramatic scenes of cosmic cataclysm unfold in windswept terrains. Imposing, sculptural figures dominate the foreground of Tonda’s paintings, vividly capturing the push and pull of an invisible force at work. Lorenzo Tonda draws his inspiration for the title of his exhibition “Tales from the Last Days” from the renowned Apocalyptic fresco cycle created by Luca Signorelli between 1499 and 1502 in the Chapel of San Brizio at Orvieto Cathedral in Umbria, Italy. Like Signorelli, Tonda commits his attention to the bodily expressiveness of the human form. Tonda’s meticulously detailed works that depict events of perseverance, turmoil, upheaval, destruction and defeat, serve as a powerful reflection of contemporary humanitarian crises.
“Overall, the figures and scenes evoke the feeling of toys or action figures—the characters are objectified, and their realistic features are combined with a strong stylization towards a toy-like appearance. The intention is to represent a kind of circularity in the experience of life, which in most cases, involves being born, living, and dying in the place destined for us, constantly tormented by external forces. The clothing, deformed by the action of the wind and revealing parts of the body, represents culture and customs, which dress us from birth, constantly torn between covering us and being swept away. The creation of this series was influenced by the constant flow of recent information from ongoing war zones and the inevitable empathy for those who find themselves overwhelmed by brutal, uncontrollable forces, reduced to a state of nature symbolized by the wind—a wind that recalls Dante's Inferno, eternally blowing among the damned.”
Lorenzo Tonda, 2024
His paintings and sculptures tell a story, starting with an echoing of Signorelli’s “Resurrection of the Flesh” in which Tonda’s figures similarly emerge from the earth only to be reabsorbed by the ground at a later stage. Will these figures succumb to external forces, or will they adapt and triumph over these challenging environments? In addition to the influence of Renaissance masters, Tonda is also inspired by the sculptural figures of Gustav Vigeland at Vigelandsparken in Oslo. Both Tonda’s paintings and 3D sculptural works emphasize the protective bond experienced between mother, father and child as they highlight the resilience of these relationships and importance of humanity.
Lorenzo Tonda was born in Fiesole, Italy, in 1992. He completed his high school education at Liceo Artistico Leon Battista Alberti in 2011 and graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti in 2017, specializing in oil painting and fresco. Tonda soon explored the world of 3D graphics, integrating this new medium with his traditional pictorial practice. He has painted several notable murals over the years. Tonda created the first public artwork, in the form of a mural, in the city of Trencin, Slovakia, commissioned by the city art museum Gallery of M. A. Bazovsky. In 2022, with support from the Municipality of Florence, he continued to make a significant impact with his art and painted a mural for a city park in the San Jacopino district.
The exhibition presents 13 new works, featuring both paintings and sculptures.
Tales from the Last Days
A Solo Exhibition by Lorenzo Tonda
20.09.24 – 19.10.24
Opening reception: Friday, September 20th, 17.00 – 20.00
Artist Talk: Saturday, September 21st, 13.00
Contact the gallery at [email protected] or tel.+ 45 33 33 93 96 for more info
Installation Images
