CANTO LIBERO mostra di Vittorio Tapparini

Opening in Nardò on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, CANTO LIBERO is the solo painting exhibition by VITTORIO TAPPARINI, dedicated to women and Madonnas, with which the artist celebrates 40 YEARS of his career. The exhibition will be held at the Church of San Trifone in Piazza Salandra, until August 15, 2025.

The VERNISSAGE will take place on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, at 8 PM (free entry).

Vittorio Tapparini's CANTO LIBERO is a display of colorful works, created in oil on canvas, dedicated to enhancing the feminine with images portraying faces of women from various parts of the world. Each work is named after a different city that inspired the artist from Salento. The solo exhibition, presenting the new 2025 collection and celebrating 40 years in the art world of master Vittorio Tapparini, is sponsored by the Municipality of Nardò, the Diocese of Nardò Gallipoli, in collaboration with the Social Cooperative “Ipso Facto,” Fondazione “Fare Oggi,” and the Confraternity of San Gregorio. By praising the diverse stories conveyed through their gazes, the exhibition aims to highlight the issue of women, a central social problem of our times. In his well-known style, the artist praises the icon of women in a new Pop key, sometimes even vintage, thrusting it into the contemporary debate.

The painting exhibition CANTO LIBERO can be visited every day from 9 PM to 11:30 PM at the evocative Church of San Trifone in the heart of the historic center of Nardò (Piazza Salandra 13) from July 1 to August 15, 2025 (Social Cooperative “Ipso Facto” will manage the spaces).

As described by master Tapparini about his works, "these are canvases developed in recent years in the wake of terrible news of increasing violence against women, but they speak of life and convey messages of peace, freedom, and respect. Violence is always to be abhorred, but mistreating, violating, oppressing, forgetting, and disrespecting women as women means committing the same actions against the future of humanity.” And he continues: “do not look for beauty, likenesses, or perfection in my figures: I searched for the vibrancy of the soul. They are brazen or meek, insolent or maternal, ambitious or indolent, colorful or grey, dreamers or disillusioned: they are all women who ask to be heard and deserve the social, relational, and economic equity that is lacking today.”

Through numerous colors and gazes, as instruments of expression and connection, the women of the world freshly drawn by Vittorio Tapparini convey different emotions: from empathy to love, from curiosity to interest, then boldness, astonishment, exuberance, courage, pride, hope, and by communicating their intentions, reveal the need to overcome the detestable inequalities of a male-oriented world. “My representation of the feminine in this particular historical moment,” continues the master, “is a desire to reaffirm the importance of women, the fundamental role they have everywhere in societies, it is a reminder to us men that women EXIST and deserve consideration, respect, and listening. In these canvases, women joyfully reclaim the voice that has been denied to them: they look at us and expect from us men a gesture against such violence: I start from here, and you? Shall we proceed together?”

CANTO LIBERO, with an explosion of colors and positivity, aims to be a hymn to unjustly denied freedom, aspirations, and dreams. At the same time, this event celebrates 40 years of painting by the master, painter, sculptor, and cultural entertainer. Tapparini's first official exhibition dates back to June 1985: at the "La Tavolozza" Gallery on Via Trinchese (in the center of Lecce), he participated in the National Painting Competition "Spring Salentina," earning the Certificate of Merit with the Gold Medal in the "sculpture" section. Thus, 2025 marks a significant milestone in his history in the art world, with personal exhibitions, national and international reviews, and fairs. Born in Lecce in '61, a son of art, Vittorio Tapparini has lived between Salento and Rome since his youth (he studied Architecture in the capital and returns there periodically). Throughout his artistic research, he has explored various languages, including sculptural ones, from abstract to material to Pop. He continues to do so, always experimenting, despite having returned to the realm of surreal, fairytale, and figurative with his unique Pop of research in the last decade.

CANTO LIBERO is a project inaugurated in Rome between April and May 2025, with the eponymous exhibition by the master sponsored by the Municipality of Rome in Via del Corso, at the Gallery of the Church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli. “I am grateful to the Municipality of Nardò and the Diocese of Nardò Gallipoli,” concludes Tapparini, “for giving me the opportunity with this exhibition to again speak about the issue of women, and at the same time celebrate my fortieth birthday of artistic and life research with art.”