On Saturday,November 9th 2024, the Giuseppe Iannaccone Foundation inaugurated Io che ti guardo nascosto e commosso (Me Looking at You Hidden and Moved), the tenth IN PRATICA project. The exhibition featured the young artist Robertode Pinto (Terlizzi, 1996) and was curated by Daniele Fenaroli.
Followingprevious editions showcasing artists such as Davide Monaldi, Luca De Leva, Andrea Romano, Beatrice Marchi, a collective of ten young Albanian artists incollaboration with ART HOUSE by Adrian, Melisa and Zef Paci, Cleo Fariselli, Chiara Di Luca alongside Aronne Pleuteri, and Pietro Moretti, the IN PRATICA project once again offered a platform at the Iannaccone e Associati Law Firm to a promising emerging artist. This initiative mirrors the ‘practice’ period experienced by lawyers at the start of their careers, providing the artist the opportunity to engage in dialogue with established international works within the Giuseppe Iannaccone Collection. The project reaffirmed the Foundation’scommitment to support young talent and to promote contemporary art and culture.
Roberto de Pinto’s works featured a recurring alter ego; a sometimes mustachioed character portrayed obsessively in a variety of semi-fictional scenarios: standing, lying down, chilling, posing, or caught off guard; sometimes only visible in the details of his own skin or subtly hidden within the shape of a flower. Acting as both author and model, the artist explores his own body, sensations, and desires through this character, akin to a protagonist in acoming-of-age story gradually gaining self-awareness. Through an ambiguous, erotically charged pictorial approach, de Pinto generates asubject and an object who observes themself secretly yet emotionally. His subtle gaze reveals an artist who, though often hidden, remains palpably present, leaving traces behind.
His works entered into a thematic and emotional dialogue with modern and contemporary pieces of the Giuseppe Iannaccone Collection. Among these were The Flute Player by Filippo de Pisis (1940), portraying a man in his studio: a model and lover onto whom the painter projected desire andpassion; Beasley Street by Nicole Eisenman (2007), where the archetypal painter furtively observes a square, symbolizing the human kaleidoscope, as if lacking inspiration from both his studio and model; and Reclining Nude by Dana Schutz (2022), depicting the last man stranded on a desert island, captive to the artist’s urge to portray him.
This interplay between visibility and invisibility, discreet observation and emotional engagement, as well as the representation of a character that is part self-portrait, part mask, reflects contemporary tensions between appearance and authentic selfhood. It reinforce the Giuseppe Iannaccone Foundation’s dedication to promote art as a lens through which understand life.
The exhibition was accompanied by an artist’s book, published by Allemandi, created entirely with recycled materials and sustainable methods, further emphasizing the Foundation’s commitment to environmental issues.
Io che tiguardo nascosto e commosso was also part of the celebrations marking ten years of the Contemporary Art Foundations Committee’s activity, during which a series of exhibitions was promoted in collaboration with various Academies of Fine Arts.
ROBERTO DE PINTO
Born in Terlizzi (BA) in 1996, after obtaining his first and second level academic degree at the Brera Academy, he inaugurated his first solo show in the Lucerne space at Le Dictateur Studio (Milan) in 2023 after having already been in group exhibitions at the Triennale (Milan), ArtNoble Gallery (Milan), Match Gallery (Ljubljana), Sanctuary of Ercole Winner (Tivoli), Ordet (Milan), Galerie Mazzoli (Berlin), Casa Testori (Novate Milanese) and Spazio Favilla (Cervia).
In 2022 he was a finalist for the Francesco Fabbri Prize and in 2023 a finalist for the Cairo Prize.
In September 2024, he held the Palio of Revenge of the Quintana of Foligno.