On Wednesday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m., Gianluca Sgherri ’s exhibition, which can be visited until Jan. 21, 2026, opens at Trattoria 4 Leoni in Florence, the penultimate event of the Fotografia - Tracce Fiorentine review, curated by art historian Anna Maria Amonaci and promoted by Stefano Di Puccio, owner of the restaurant and a longtime promoter of cultural initiatives in the Oltrarno area. Dedicated to six photographers linked to Florence by birth or training(Franco Cammarata, Lorenzo Bojola, Massimo D’Amato, Lapo Pecchioli, Gianluca Sgherri and Mario Strippini), the project aims to explore the relationship between the gaze and the territory, according to the curator’s idea that interprets traces as imprints left by a place on the artist’s sensibility. The exhibition is inspired by Vasari’s conception that the form and light of a territory determine the style of its artistic schools. With Sgherri’s exhibition, the cycle introduces a novelty: the presence of a painter who considers photography as a parallel and complementary language to painting. This perspective opens a reflection on the boundary between the two disciplines, where drawing, geometry and contemplation converge in the same vision.
“It is not by chance,” Anna Maria Amonaci points out, “that among the artists of the past Gianluca Sgherri cites Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca, the former for the perspective precision of his geometric scenarios, the latter for the sharpness and simplicity of the colors, juxtaposed together in a, I would say, densely plastic way. Among his contemporaries he looks, on the other hand, at Lorenzo Bonechi and Salvo, both active in the late 1980s, essential, terse in drawing, far from magmatic painting.”
In the Florentine exhibition, Sgherri presents a selection of recent works that mark a return to photography after a long pictorial journey. The works, in continuity with the Universo project created for the MudaC Project Room in Carrara, reveal his desire to investigate the language of photography as a tool for synthesis and reflection. The images, characterized by a silent and measured tone, express the artist’s tension to order chaos through form, to find a balance between construction and contemplation. In them coexist the rigor of drawing and the lightness of light, in a dialectic that reaffirms the centrality of the Tuscan gaze, capable of combining analysis and harmony. The current review continues that tradition of dialogue between art and everyday life, interweaving the memory of place with contemporary artistic research. The last appointment of the cycle will be dedicated to photographer Mario Strippini, with an exhibition scheduled from January until March 15, 2026.
Born in Fucecchio in 1962, Sgherri trained at the Liceo Artistico and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. He made his debut in 1990 at the Galleria Marsilio Margiacchi in Arezzo and, starting in 1995, experienced a period of intense activity in Milan, collaborating permanently with the Cannaviello Art Studio. In the Lombard capital he presented numerous solo shows between 1994 and 2012 and participated in group exhibitions alongside artists such as Marco Cingolani, Daniele Galliano and Pierluigi Pusole. His works have also been exhibited at Galleria In Arco in Turin, Fabio Sargentini’s L’Attico in Rome and Lucio Dalla’s No Code in Bologna. He has also participated in major exhibitions such as Ultime Generazioni (XII Quadriennale d’Arte in Rome), Arte italiana. Last Forty Years. Iconic Painting (GAM Bologna), Prima linea. The New Italian Art (Trevi Flash Art Museum) and Arte Italiana 1968_2007. Painting (Palazzo Reale, Milan). Parallel to painting, Sgherri has developed a photographic language based on formal rigor and light research. His images are distinguished by geometric construction and compositional essentiality: the landscape is not naturalistic representation, but mental space, a place of balance between measure and emotion. In each shot, the Tuscan tradition of drawing emerges as an underlying structure, transforming reality into a thoughtful and harmonious form.
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| Gianluca Sgherri's photography at the 4 Lions in Florence |
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