Light, earth, water, heat: elements at the origin of life and which find their own representation in the works of Franco Beraldo exhibited on the occasion of the Origine exhibition at the Spazio Lazzari in Treviso. In the works exhibited here, light materializes in intense and lively colour. Beraldo creates oceans, lava rivers, rocks, glaciers, sunsets, water sources and color galaxies. They are internal landscapes that reflect the external ones, in a game of references that range from self-knowledge to that of the world.

“Occhi di Luna” (“Eyes of the Moon”) is instead the sculptural installation by the Benevento sculptor Antonio Ievolella. These rounded shapes represent loaves pierced in one point, a sort of metaphorical eye turned to the sky and which connects them with the rest of the world. Their shape also recalls that of a maternal womb but in a universal key, summarizing the generation of the generation of life and an artistic interpretation of the concept of origin (“Origine” in Italian).

Franco Beraldo was born in 1944 in Meolo, a small town in the Veneto countryside. When he was still a boy, he moved with his family to Mestre, where he currently lives and works. For his
artistic training the meeting with the painter Guido Carrer was important and his travels in southern Italy and especially his long stays in Sicily were fundamental. He began his artistic activity in 1965, participating in competitions, reviews, personal and group exhibitions, receiving numerous prizes and awards, including the Burano prize for painting in 1981. In 2015 the Municipality of Padua dedicated an anthological exhibition to him at the Altinate San Gaetano Cultural Center. In 2018 the Venetian Civic Museums dedicated the exhibition “Homage to Franco Beraldo” to him at the Candiani Center in Mestre.

Born in Benevento in 1952. After studying at the artistic high school he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples. In 1976 he went to Milan to teach at the art school. Two years later he moved to the art school in Padua, the city where he established his residence and studio. The first solo show dates back to 1987. In 1988 he took part in the XLIII Venice Biennale. An exhibition and a great sculptural work date back to the nineties: the anthological “Il Grande Carro” in Padua, divided into seven large sculptures installed in the city, one of which is donated to the Civic Museums, and the imposing complex of the Rio di Ponte San Nicolò cemetery. The large fountain for the square of Voltabarozzo dates back to 2009. In 2014 he exhibited the imposing “Ghirbe” in Naples,
then re-proposed in Padua and now positioned in the new university complex in via Venezia.

ORIGINE – FRANCO BERALDO + ANTONIO IEVOLELLA
SPAZIO LAZZARI – TREVISO
01.03.2021 – 30.05.2021