Federico de Francesco (b. 1979, Calabria, Italy) lives and works in New York. A classically trained violinist, he also holds a Ph.D. in Economics from UCLA. Across painting, drawing, and ceramics, de Francesco maintains a distinctly bodily approach to making. Gesture functions as an index of the artist’s physical presence, registering the sometimes athletic movements through which he spreads medium across a canvas or compresses stoneware in his hand. His musical training further informs the work, imbuing it with a synesthetic sense of rhythm and lyricism that seems to move physically through each composition, irrespective of medium. In this way, gesture operates simultaneously as mark, movement, and measure of the body.
De Francesco’s recent solo and group exhibitions include And Now, Jupiter, New York; Trav'lin Light, The Journal Gallery, Patmos, Greece (2024); Just How I Like It, Tennis Elbow at The Journal Gallery, New York (2024); City Life, curated by Marcus Leslie Singleton, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark (2024); Oak House, Fernberger, Newport, Rhode Island (2023); I Am the Ocean, Outpost, Copenhagen, Denmark (2023); Sea Bound, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark (2023); Federico de Francesco and Emmett Moore, The Pit, Los Angeles, California (2022); Spring Waters, Ross + Kramer Gallery, East Hampton, New York (2022); Summer Sun, The Journal Gallery at Van de Weghe Fine Art, East Hampton, New York (2021); Vanquishing Ocular, Rental Gallery, East Hampton, New York (2019); Downtown Painting, presented by Alex Katz, Peter Freeman Inc., New York (2019); Garden Dwellers, Regina Rex, New York (2017); Shed, curated by Darryl Westly, Christie’s, New York (2017); and Federico de Francesco, Four A.M., New York (2016).
Work by de Francesco is held in numerous public collections including the Alex Katz Foundation in New York, New York; the Margulies Collection in Miami, Florida; the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor, Maine; Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine; the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia; the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami, Florida; and Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine.
