«In the shadow I seek the form of the human, between veiled realities and hidden truths.»
My artist name is Ombra (“shadow”). It was not always so: I once had another name, but I lost it in the light and can no longer see it.
When I still had a name, I tried to escape it, and I hid in the night to paint on walls. I wanted to be like those mysterious people who coloured the train stations. As a child I asked my father who made those paintings: “They are vandals, they come at night and deface everything without permission.”
Then, in Paris, something changed. I had left in search of a new style — my time in Marseille and my first crew of writers had thrilled me — but as the months passed, I fell more and more in love with painting on canvas: I was captivated by the idea of being able to preserve the work, after so many murals vandalised or painted over.
The theme of memory came later, with a near-death experience in a country where I was regarded as a foreigner. When I regained consciousness it became clear that I wanted to create an archive of images, and to give something back to those who had saved me. From then on I became Oltreombra: a play on words, so as not to name the light I had glimpsed.
Under this name I took part in six group shows and four solo shows between 2018 and 2022. My masters, Alberto Parres and Kano Tatsunori, helped me understand technique and explore the mark.
Since 2022, while painting an average of forty works a year, I have slowed down on exhibitions: I needed to let a more complete idea mature before showing it. It was important to work in the shadow, to paint at night, in my studio, to study the anatomy of the soul. I returned to exhibiting in 2025, with the group show No Balls Game in Milan.
This search has led me to understand that I am only Ombra: however fleeting and temporary my presence may be against the vastness of time, I remain bound to the memory of the world like a thread to a rope.
Selected exhibitions
- 2025 — No Balls Game, group show, Milan
- 2022 — Le Parche Clementi, solo show, Piandimeleto (Castello dei Conti Oliva)
- 2021 — Ospiti Ignoti, solo show, Monfalcone (NAO)
- 2021 — IODIO collective, Bologna (DAS)
- 2020 — Le Parche Clementi, solo show, Monfalcone (Bar Carducci)
- 2019 — solo show, Rome (Enoteca Trimani)
- 2018 — Ultracorpi, group show, Genoa
- 2018 — Parapluie, group show, Athens
- 2018 — permanent mural, Monfalcone (San Polo Hospital, under the patronage of UNICEF and Lions)
Main series: Ritratti d’ignoti · Blu Affondo · Murales · Flags
OLTREOMBRA 