Francesco Igory DeianaItaly

Francesco Igory Deiana’s (b. 1986, Milan, IT) practice begins with the use of a single line. Utilizing mostly traditional media like graphite, ballpoint pen, wax pastel and latex paint, he meticulously builds works that document the performative gesture of drawing in a style that recalls both the dynamism of Futurism and the bold, stock-still structures of brutalist architecture.

Whilst the artist’s large-scale graphic drawings are engaged with the tensions of abstraction—never revealing anything too easily—they play delicately enough with motifs of the post-industrial (the sheen of a record disk, a whirring car tire, the cropped corner of a complex machine) that they produce something akin to an optical illusion, reconfiguring the structures of our world into their most synthesized geometrical essence. Navigating these symbol-like forms means paying specific attention to what makes them up: the tender intricacy of the process by which they are made. In this way, the spectator is encouraged to enjoy both the emblematic appeal of the works as well as their fine material quality.

In this new series of drawings of heads, Francesco Igory Deiana skillfully paraphrases the topic of human emotion and spirit, embracing the risk that comes from revealing an inner expressiveness previously kept disciplined in his practice. In the drawn variations of the human head, we find the symbol and matrix of Deiana’s artistic expression.

Deiana lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He has exhibited internationally, with major solo exhibitions including at OUTPOST Gallery, Copenhagen (2022), Bass & Reiner Gallery San Francisco (2022), and Cult Aimee Friberg, San Francisco (2015). He has participated in notable group exhibitions at, among others, Lightseed Gallery Tokyo (curated by Barry McGee, 2022), COLLABORATIONS by Tania and Thomas Asbæk Copenhagen (curated by Skroll New York City, 2023), and Christian Berst Art Brut, Paris (2021). His sculptural work was also featured in Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California at the Oakland Museum (2015). His work forms part of numerous private collections in the US, Europe, and Japan and has been supported through collaborations with institutions and curators dedicated to experimental drawing and contemporary abstraction.