Kátharsis. Prima personale di Francesca Diana Martines. A cura di Nicoletta Rossotti | 9 18 giugno 2025 | Palazzo Valentini, Roma

Francesca Diana Martines presents her first solo exhibition at Palazzo Valentini (via Quattro Novembre 119) with Kátharsis: a series of mixed media works (160×140 cm) that explores the foundational stages of existence: childhood, identity, eros, vice, motherhood, freedom. This personal excavation transformed into a visual language was conceived between 2023 and 2024 and is displayed in the Sala Pace.

Eight canvases. Eight moments in a path of human growth that concerns each of us.
“Between 2023 and 2024, I significantly revisited the key stages of my life. I created an artistic transposition rich in emotions and reflections — what could be called a true catharsis.”

Martines' painting is physical. She handcrafts some of her colors with pigments — “preparing black with oxide is a baroque, seventeenth-century gesture,” she says, citing Artemisia Gentileschi as a reference — then applies enamels, acrylics, and oils. Works that up close are pure matter; from a distance, they become an immersive experience, inviting dialogue and complicity from the observer.

As art curator Nicoletta Rossotti states: “From the beginnings of figurative subjects — with an attention to the Roman school of the ‘70s echoing in her thoughts and works — the artist's language begins to work towards gestural abstraction, in continual osmosis with the great masters of the past: Emilio Vedova, Jackson Pollock, Giosetta Fioroni. A kaleidoscope of references and contaminations that merges traditional trends with contemporary languages. Martines’ modus operandi outlines a path of continuous experimentation to investigate the infinite painting possibilities. A strong painting, sometimes material, always mature.”

Kátharsis is also born from a precise conviction. “I often hear people say: I don't understand anything about art.” But must art really be understood or simply experienced? Francesca Diana Martines opens her studio, welcomes, and narrates. Everything is part of the work, including the backstories, the scents of colors. “I invite people to abandon their prejudices, to remove the premises, and allow themselves the judgement to interpret freely what they see, to say: I like it or I don’t like it. Because art belongs to everyone.”

Thus, curator Nicoletta Rossotti explains the expressive urgency of the exhibition: “We chose each other, almost as if we had been waiting for each other for a long time. Her mother showed me her paintings, and I was profoundly struck. What emerges strongly is the maturity of the language: in the stroke, in the style, in the awareness of the gesture, Francesca demonstrates a depth that goes far beyond her young age.
In front of her canvases, I had the sensation of being inside genuine sensory experiences: works that are almost physically perceived, as if the scent of the paints were still in the air.”

Vernissage: June 9, from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM | Palazzo Valentini, Sala Pace, Rome
Participants: Francesca Leoncini, Councillor of Rome Capital

Artist bio notes
Francesca Diana Martines was born in Rome in 1989, daughter of the artist Alberto Diana, a painter of the Roman school from the ‘70s. She grew up among colors and canvases — materials she never had to search for; they were already there. At 19, she sold her first painting, exhibited in her parents' art and framing shop: “this will be my job,” she told herself. She often works closely with her father — “we are both jealous of our canvases” — seeking his critical gaze and advice. Her path develops between Rome, the Caribbean, Spain, and Mexico: travels that leave an imprint on her painting and identity, culminating in the integration of her maternal surname, Martines, a Hispanic-Latin root that she feels deeply connected to. In 2023, she won the European Artist Award and exhibited at Galleria Antonio Battaglia, Brera, Milan. In 2024, meeting the master Giorgio Celiberti opens a new phase: gesture, energy, matter. Kátharsis is her first solo exhibition.

Instagram: @francescadianamartines.art
Palazzo Valentini, Rome | June 9 – 18, 2025 | Hours: Monday to Friday 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM.
Free entry | info 3928507137
With the sponsorship of the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital
Press accreditations: danielagambino@gmail.com