There is a moment, between the breath of the earth and the call of the blue, when reality decides to shed its precision and become vision.
In this portfolio, the sky is not a boundary but a liquid canvas.
He chooses to look at the world through a veil of glass, crafted and caressed by his own hands, to rediscover that lost carefreeness that belongs only to a child’s gaze. Rotating this handmade lens before his eyes, he searches for the exact point where light breaks, that breath in which form melts into color and memory becomes substance.
Kites become creatures of a celestial sea: silk jellyfish and windblown puffer fish dancing in a silent choreography, free from the tyranny of gravity and sharpness. Each image is a solitary alchemy, a manual ritual that transforms wind into brushstrokes and air into tangible emotion.
La Danza degli Aquiloni, The Dance of the Kites, is a homecoming. It is an invitation to close one’s eyes in order to see more clearly, to blur the present so that the magic of a time when a string stretched upward was enough to feel like masters of infinity can resurface.
About Francesco Mercadante
Born in 1968 in Cutro, Calabria, and currently based in Reggio Emilia, Francesco Mercadante has developed a photographic practice positioned at the intersection of craftsmanship and intuition. Trained in restoration and interior decoration, he brings a distinctly painterly sensibility to his work. His first encounter with photography dates back to childhood, when a Kodak Instamatic and a blue bicycle opened a path toward exploration, movement, and an early awareness of the visual power of the surrounding landscape.
At the core of his practice is an ongoing investigation into the physical substance of the image. His early use of earth pigments, oxides, and manual tools in painting gradually evolved into a photographic language that resists clinical digital precision. Instead, he introduced handmade frosted glass filters placed directly in front of the lens, allowing light to fracture, drift, and reassemble. The act of photographing becomes performative, guided by slow gestures and chance, as urban scenes dissolve into fluid fields of color.
This approach reached a defining moment in 2024 with Il colore della gente, a solo exhibition at Arcus Art Gallery Lab in Reggio Emilia, accompanied by a publication released by Corsiero Editore. His work subsequently attracted international attention, with features and selections by Vogue Italia and Marie Claire, and with visual resonances that recall the color-driven photography of figures such as Ernst Haas and Saul Leiter.
The same year marked broader institutional recognition. After exhibiting in prominent Italian venues, including the Chamber of Deputies and the Maschio Angioino, he received the Biennale Art and Culture Prize at the Matera Art Festival under the patronage of the International Academy of the Dioscuri.
In 2025, his collaboration with Sofi Gallery RT Bergamo, which now represents him, expanded through two solo exhibitions. The first focused on Tra i mille colori di Napoli, followed by Through Me: Four Visions of Light and Landscape, presenting four unpublished projects: Maestà selvaggia, L’inverno dell’anima, La danza degli aquiloni, and Un sogno chiamato costiera. That same spring, his work was exhibited internationally at Artexpo New York and Frieze New York, culminating in Through the Glass: Weavings of Liquid Love at the Royal Palace of Caserta, presented at the invitation of the International Academy of the Dioscuri.
In 2026, he presented Eternal Sunset at the Giovanni Spadolini Library of the Italian Senate in Rome, invited by the cultural association Art Global. That same year marked a decisive milestone with his first solo exhibition in the United States. From April 3 to April 18, at Sofy Gallery New York, he presented Maestà selvaggia, accompanied by a critical text by art historian Professor Francesco Mazzeo Gallo, bringing his exploration of chromatic abstraction into a new international context. [Official Website]
