CENTRO PECCI exhibitions

LOUIS FRATINO

Satura

Curated by Stefano Collicelli Cagol

26.09.2024 – 02.02.2025

Opening 25.09.2024

In September 2024, the Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato, Italy, will present Louis Fratino. Satura; the first solo institutional exhibition dedicated to the work of the American artist Louis Fratino. 

Curated by Stefano Collicelli Cagol, Director of Centro Pecci, Satura will open on September 26, 2024 and continue until February 2, 2025, as part of Centro Pecci’s Tuscany at the Centre annual programme. This exhibition follows the critically acclaimed presentation of Fratino’s paintings in a room of Adriano Pedrosa’s Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, 60th International Art Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia. 

The Latin word ‘satura’ refers to ‘Satura Lanx’, a banquet platter filled with diverse fruits intended for the Gods, a concept from which a literary genre descended – one that is characterised by a variety of styles. In Italian, ‘satura’ literally means ‘saturated’ or ‘filled’. Both Latin and Italian acceptations resonate well with the richness, subject matter and formal feast of Fratino’s art. Presenting sculptures, over 30 paintings and more than 20 drawings and lithographs, Satura at Centro Pecci will present a thorough investigation of the artist’s diverse practice, bringing together works from the last decade with new works in different media. 

The exhibition brings to the fore the pervasive entanglement between Fratino’s practice and Italy. Italy has provided Fratino with a wide range of topics, imaginaries and sensitivities: bridging relationships, affects, and landscapes, and leading ultimately to reflect upon his art. The works in Satura draw inspiration from Twentieth-century Italian artists – Filippo De Pisis, Mario Mafai, Costantino Nivola, Felice Casorati, Carlo Carrà, Fausto Pirandello, and Guglielmo Janni –; the immersive experience of its landscapes, cities such as Roma and Milano as much as the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, where the Mediterranean lights and voluptuous greeneries entangled with his in-depth cultural research on the country, inspired by his Italian ancestors; poems by Sandro Penna, Patrizia Cavalli and Pier Paolo Pasolini; and essays by the Italian gay activist Mario Mieli.

On the occasion of the opening, a book by Mousse Publishing will be published, developing an iconographic apparatus that will cast a light on the relationships between Italy and Fratino’s oeuvre, with newly commissioned essays and contributions by scholars of art and queer theory.

The exhibition Louis Fratino. Satura contains sexually explicit images, viewing is recommended for an adult audience.

Louis Fratino (b. 1993, Annapolis, MD) received his BFA in Painting with concentration in Illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD (2015). He is a recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Painting, Berlin (2015-16) and a Yale Norfolk Painting Fellowship, Norfolk, CT in 2014. Fratino is currently featured in the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Stranieri Ovunque—Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa. His work is included in the collections of The Baltimore Museum of Art, MD; Christien Sveaas Art Foundation, Oslo, Norway; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Metropolitan Musem of Art, New York, NY; RISD Museum, Providence, RI; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,  NY. Fratino lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Cover: Louis Fratino Blowjob and Moon, 2019. Collection of Richard Weiss, Sidney. Courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York. Photo: Jason Wyche