NOW WHAT?
Francesco Simeti’s work plunges us into a fantastic landscape in which plants and flowers envelop the space in a riot of vegetation that looks inviting but when observed carefully hides anomalies.
Extrapolated from old books on mountain flowers, the natural elements are re-purposed in oversized form, magnified to the point of transforming a possible garden into an unreal jungle.
Behind the apparent beauty appear worried eyes. These are the eyes of the animal world, which is afraid to look at what we are doing to nature, eyes that blend in with the vegetation, shadows in the darkness reminding us of our responsibilities and that we are not alone.
In Francesco Simeti’s work, a persuasive aesthetic sense conceals a deeper, more raw interpretation, a warning to our society about the environmental and social devastation we are causing and which we mask behind false appearances. It is a hidden message that we need to search out with care and that invites us not to stop at the surface.
The work Now What? is a repeating module creating a floral pattern of warm colours, a refined aesthetic sense and a precise formal construction.
Simeti was one of the first artists in Italy to use wallpaper as a stylistic device and to translate itinto a work of art.
FRANCESCO SIMETI
Francesco Simeti (b. 1968, Palermo, Italy) is an artist known for his site-specific installations, which aesthetically present enchanting scenes that reveal a more complex subtext upon closer inspection.
Public Art is a fundamental aspect of his practice, he has worked with Percent for Art and Public Art for Public Schools in NYC, the Multnomah county in Oregon and has created permanent additions to subway stations in Brooklyn and Chicago. In Italy he has worked with atitolo for the New Commissioners program and in 2021 he presented a wall covering installation at Casa Giglio in Turin.
He is currently working on a public art installation for the Los Angeles Metro.
He has had solo exhibitions at venues such as XNL, Piacenza (2022), Francesca Minini, Milano (2021), Assembly Room, New York, (2019); Open Source Gallery, New York (2017); Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Palermo (2012); and Artists Space, New York (2009). His work has been included in group exhibitions at The Withworth, Manchester (2023-2024), Pera Museum, Istanbul (2023 – 2024), MAO, Turin (2023), PAC, Milano (2022), MACTE, Termoli (2022), Magazzino Italian Art, Cold Spring, NY, (2020), Museo Civico di Castelbuono, Palermo (2019), ICA Singapore (2017), Palazzo Reale, Milan (2016) and Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin (2014). He has also exhibited work at the Triennale di Milano (2014 and 2013).
His works are featured among the contemporary art collections of Fondazione Luigi Rovati, Milan; Museo del Novecento, Milan; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
Simeti lives and works in New York. He works with the gallery Francesca Minini in Italy.
