Francesco Biondo a "Sirenuse" con 4 Studi per Creature...

**FRANCESCO BIONDO AT SIRENUSE WITH FOUR STUDIES FOR WATER CREATURES AND ANCIENT LANDS**

A new stage in the research on “Creatures” in the Neapolitan group exhibition dedicated to the myth of the Siren

Naples, September 19–29, 2026
 – Galleria Spazio 57, Via Chiatamone 57

From September 19 to 29, 2026, Francesco Biondo will take part in SIRENUSE, a group exhibition devoted to a contemporary reinterpretation of the myth of the Siren, bringing together 38 artists and 42 poets at Galleria Spazio 57 in Naples.

Conceived and curated by Maria Di Stasio and organized by the Athenae Artis Cultural Association, the project brings visual art, poetry, and performance into dialogue, taking the figure of Parthenope as the starting point for a contemporary reflection on identity, memory, the body, desire, belonging, absence, and metamorphosis.

For this occasion, Biondo presents Four Studies for Water Creatures and Ancient Lands, a polyptych in which painting, matter, and collected elements come together, giving form to presences suspended between water and land.

The Siren is not represented through a recognizable figure. The reference to the myth remains in the background and seems to emerge from the forms themselves, like a presence slowly rising from the material.

The four works are constructed through traces, layers, and painterly gestures that articulate the space of the surface. Blues, greens, turquoises, ochres, and earth tones overlap and break off, constructing organic forms—at times liquid, at times mineral. Color does not simply define a figure: it helps bring it into being.

Added to this pictorial dimension are fragments of wood, stone, and other collected elements. These are materials that retain their own identity and a history predating the artwork. As they enter the composition, they are neither completely transformed nor concealed: they retain something of their origin and introduce a concrete, archaic, almost fossil-like dimension into the work.

It is in the relationship between matter and memory that an important part of Francesco Biondo’s research is situated. The collected materials become traces of a history that painting does not erase, but brings into relation with new forms. The work thus emerges from the encounter between what already exists and what takes shape through the artist’s gesture.

The Research on “Creatures”

Four Studies for Water Creatures and Ancient Lands forms part of a body of research that Biondo has been developing for some time around the figure of the Creature.

The word “creature” recurs at various points throughout his work, from Noblesse Creature to Attesa – Altrimenti e altrove – Senza alcun timore, and through to Dalla A alla Zeta.... It does not indicate a precise figure attributable to a specific image or subject, but rather a possible presence, an organic and mysterious form that can emerge from matter and transform throughout the creative process.

The Creatures belong to a dimension in which reality and imagination remain close to one another. They are forms in the process of becoming, nuclei in which memory, energy, and emotional tension may settle. Their identity is not necessarily entrusted to a definitive outline: often, it is precisely what remains incomplete that suggests their presence.

The four works presented in Naples represent a new stage in this development. Their origin is now linked to water and ancient lands, while their relationship with the Mediterranean and the myth of the Siren offers the research a new field of possibilities.

The title Four Studies for Water Creatures and Ancient Lands emphasizes this openness. They are not four completed creatures, but four possible appearances—four moments in a process of research that deliberately remains in progress.

The forms emerge through irregular contours, incisions, superimpositions, and fields of color. In some areas the material becomes dense; in others, it allows the underlying surface to show through. Small spheres of colored glass introduce points of light and depth, almost like liquid presences held on the surface.

The work thus maintains a tension between concreteness and imagination: on the one hand, the weight and texture of the materials; on the other, a form that seems continually to elude definition.

The word “study” also takes on a particular meaning. It does not necessarily indicate a preparatory stage leading toward a definitive form, but rather an open possibility. The four works may be regarded as fragments of a larger organism, as often occurs in Biondo’s research, where memory is reassembled through traces, details, and omissions.

The Myth as a New Possibility

Participation in SIRENUSE places this research in relation to one of the deepest figures in the Neapolitan and Mediterranean imagination.

Parthenope represents a point of contact between an ancient memory and the present. For Biondo, however, the myth does not become an image to be reproduced. Rather, it is a possibility capable of entering matter and generating new forms.

The Siren thus remains an indirect presence, suggested rather than declared. What emerges is a creature that belongs entirely neither to water nor to land, neither to the past nor to the present.

It is in this uncertain zone that Four Studies for Water Creatures and Ancient Lands finds its place within SIRENUSE: four fragments of a broader research project, in which matter, memory, and imagination give form to presences still in the process of becoming.

Selected Artists

Luca Berno, Manuela Pini, Antonio Esposito, Stefania Tagliabue, Maria Milena Rocchetto, Paola Piol, Marco Verdelli, Cècile Batillat, Antonio Rana, Paola Petrelli, Giusi Dorn, Aldo Diana, Emanuela Liccardi, Ilaria Leganza, Nunzio Viscovo, Lia Chia, Cinzia Bevilacqua, Francesca Bice Ghidini, Lorenzo Trombino, Stefania Fienili, Lola Llinares, Rosanna La Rosa, Simona Carbone, Francesca Rota, Maria Felice Vadalà, Angelo Monte, Carmen Rieger, Andrea Alemanno, Massimo De Santis, Fabiana Brizi, Elena Achilli, Margherita Pomati, Rosaria Sportelli, Enrico De Santis, Ylenia Pilato, Francesco Biondo, Giuseppe Iovino, Antonietta D’Alessandro, Pasquale Rolfi.

Selected Authors

Antonio Rana, Maria Milena Rocchetto, Francesca Bice Ghidini, Cècile Batillat, Andriana Ura, Barbara Maresti, Ada De Vincentiis, Vincenza Postiglione, Emilia Tartaglia Porcini, Gaia Ierace, Carlotta Segoni, Tina Nicolò, Sabina Gianquinto, Elisa Zolin, Enrico Frandino, Cecilia Gramiccia, Micol Costa, Salvatore Casuccio, Grazia Maremonti, Matteo Piergigli, Nadia Buonomo, Gilda Caprara, Maria Tedeschi, Chiara Renda, Anna Callipo, Ivana Babic, Ernesto De Feo, Rita Rashid, Edo Ferrero, Lucio Pacifico, Rino Casazza, Giorgia Gottardi, Teresa Marino, Maria Grazia Blasio, Erika Filardo, Riccardo Muffatti, Rossella Covi, Guendalina Sagnotti, Rita Felerico, Sonia Bonu.

SIRENUSE

Visual Art · Poetry · Performance
September 19–29, 2026
 – Galleria Spazio 57
 – Via Chiatamone 57 · Naples

September 19 · 5:30 p.m.
 Opening of the Visual Arts Exhibition
 – with the participation of Mariangela Bognolo, art critic and art historian
Performance: Maps of the Instant by Simona Carbone

September 26 · 5:30 p.m.
 Poetry Opening
 – An evening directed by Ciro Cianni, poet and writer
Poetry performance: A Heart in Two by Barbara Maresti

with actress Chiara Pavoni

Free admission

Concept and Curatorship: Maria Di Stasio

Organization: Athenae Artis Cultural Association

Info: mariacira88@live.it – 342.0397475

Two official catalogues with ISBN codes
 – Visual Art | Poetry