Until February 2, 2025: SATURA, Works by Louis Fratino. Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato. Open daily 10 am to 8 pm, Thursdays until 11 pm, 10 am – 7 pm. Admission: Full €10 , Reduced €7.
Centro Pecci presents “Satura,” the first institutional exhibition of up-and-coming American painter Louis Fratino (b.1993), curated by Stefano Collicelli Cagol. Consisting of 30 paintings, 20 drawings, prints, and ceramic works, the show weaves together this abundance of works into a perfectly tender, poetic world crafted by Fratino. The title of the exhibition describes accurately what the visitor perceives: “Satura” draws from both the Latin expression lanx satura, meaning a full dish of various fruits, and the italian word saturo, meaning full. And the show certainly is overflowing with artwork on the walls.
The exhibition confronts many subjects. Space is a big theme: what spaces do we come from?; what spaces do we feel like we belong in and feel safe?; what do we do in these spaces?; what do we surround ourselves with? Throughout the exhibition Fratino answers these questions, depicting lovers and loved ones in intimate and domestic spaces, framed by objects of his rich life. In many of these scenes, the Italian landscape plays a big role. Fratino is, too, interested in sexuality within his work. He asserts that depictions of queer spaces and intimacy can exist in the same spheres as family portraits. The show embraces this notion, with the male nude figures and erotic vignettes mixed in with landscapes and still lives.
Though born in Maryland, Fratino has Italian roots and has long had an affinity for the art and culture of the country, and the show is shaped by Fratino’s love for Italy. You can see this influence in works such as The Beach at Noli (2023), in which the subject lounges on a Mediterranean beach, and May (2020), a bathroom scene, decorated with shells from the landscape.. Fratino has also spent periods of time in Italy including Albisola, where he did a ceramic residency, making terracotta sculptures (some of which are shown in the exhibition). And as if the Pecci display wasn’t enough to reflect Italy’s reciprocation of this affection, Fratino is also currently showing works at the Venice Biennale.
In these spaces, Italian or not, the figures are always at peace. We see a muse of Fratino’s in almost every domestic space. In the bedroom, he lays comfortably, touching himself, or gazes out the window (The pink and green light, 2024). In the bathroom, he reads a book in the tub (Tom reading in the bath, 2020), and, bathed in warm yellow light, washes himself off in the sink (Washing in the sink, 2023). Each moment feels like a pause, it’s the moments between action that Fratino is interested in, it’s just being.
Fratino considers each part of the frame. Objects, alongside the figure, allow the viewer to understand the space even better. You and your things (2022) glows with this sense of thoughtfulness. Our recurring character lays, again, naked on a couch while the foreground is riddled with a rich tabletop consisting of books, tangerine peels, and pine cones. In his 2021 ICA Speaks talk, Fratino mentions that his interest in objects has penetrated the self-portrait, meaning that in order to go beyond simply representing himself, he represents objects that he possesses and also art objects he has made.
There is something incredibly timeless about the works displayed at Pecci, and it has to do with Fratino’s influences. He heavily references the works of masters like Picasso, in his ICA talk he discusses how Picasso is simply the “grammar” for painting, meaning that in being a painter, it is virtually ompossible to not to reference him. But it’s not just a Picasso style that we see throughout the show, there are hints of Matisse and many lesser known Italian twentieth century artists that inspired Fratino like Filippo De Pisis, Mario Mafai, Costantino Nivola, Felice Casorati, Carlo Carrà, Fausto Pirandello, and Guglielmo Jann. Outside of an art historical influence, Fratino pulls from iPhone photos, film stills, and most of all, the endless observational drawings from his sketchbook (some of which are displayed at the end of the exhibition).
Ultimately, “Satura” leaves the viewer satiated. Fratino’s wide breadth of work fills the gallery space with stories of loving and being. With such a focus on detail, the works force the viewer to pause and examine the paintings for what exists beyond the surface. Furthermore, the show is paired with a publication by Mousse Publishing, which draws more connections between Fratino’s practice and Italy but also theorizes the work with literature and poetry by writers likeSandro Penna, Patrizia Cavalli, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Mario Mieli. (Piper Begler)
