Riccardo Angelini | RETAGGI LUNARI
From 24/09/2026 To 07/11/2026
Retaggi Lunari represents a new chapter in Riccardo Angelini’s research, building upon his previous bodies of work while opening new expressive directions. While the series I Tre Segni dell’Esistenza explored conditions of existence - Anicca (impermanence), Dukkha (suffering), and Anattā (non-self) -examining their manifestation through painterly processes, in Retaggi Lunari his artistic practice focuses on the form through which these conditions take shape.
The project consists of 33 panels conceived as a single organism. Each element has its own autonomy; yet, through dialogue with the others, it opens up new interpretations of the work, giving rise to a whole in which difference does not disrupt unity, but rather constructs it. The figures that emerge are neither portraits nor symbolic images. They are ambiguous, suspended presences, marked by an androgynous identity and devoid of any stable definition. The viewer's gaze can never definitively grasp them but is continually led to renegotiate what it sees. This perceptual instability represents one of the central aspects of the project.
The title Retaggi Lunari suggests a heritage that is not transmitted as a definitive form, but as a condition of continuous becoming. The term "lunar" evokes a reflected, ever-shifting light that alters perception rather than illuminating certainties.
The medium itself participates in this logic. In this series, Angelini uses alcohol-based and watercolor markers to build the initial structure of the image, which subsequently undergoes a phase of dissolution and material reconstruction through the application of spray lacquer. This process is not merely a technical procedure; it aligns with the core poetics of his research. Certain pigments may continue to evolve slowly even after the work is finished, giving rise to subtle chromatic variations over time. Impermanence is not merely evoked but becomes a concrete quality of the artwork itself. Presented together, the 33 works form a unified system of relationships. The viewer is invited to move continuously between the detail and the whole, without ever locating a privileged focus point. Each panel alters the reading of the others, making this relationship an integral part of the exhibition experience. Rather than representing a figure, Retaggi Lunari stages a condition: that of an identity that resists being fixed, continuously redefining itself within the interplay between memory, time, and transformation.