On January 19th, La Lettura’s Corriere Art Collection unveils a magnetic new cover: Sottobosco Fuori Registro by Luca Pancrazzi.
Celebrated for his multidisciplinary approach, Italian artist Luca Pancrazzi presents an intricate exploration of nature’s complexity and the unconscious rhythms of creation. Sottobosco Fuori Registro is a visual tapestry of branches, leaves, and shadows, an evocative representation of Pancrazzi’s unique process of repetitive, liberating, and instinctive painting. This work transcends traditional categories, offering a profound reflection on the layered and dynamic nature of perception.
The physical issue will hit newsstands nationwide starting Sunday, January 19th. Shortly thereafter, the edition featuring the digital collectible version of the cover, complete with a digital certificate of authenticity and an innovative 3D rendering of the artwork, will be available on Tuesday, January 21st.
Luca Pancrazzi: Exploring the Thresholds of Perception
Luca Pancrazzi has established himself as a pivotal figure in the Italian art scene over the past three decades. Born in Figline Valdarno in 1961 and based in Milan since the 1990s, Pancrazzi’s career reflects a deep exploration of visual perception, memory, and the relationship between the physical and the abstract.
After studying in Florence, he collaborated with renowned artists such as Sol LeWitt in New York and Alighiero Boetti in Rome, experiences that profoundly shaped his multidisciplinary approach. Pancrazzi’s practice spans painting, sculpture, photography, video, and installation, often engaging with the concept of the “threshold”, a recurring theme in his work that examines the boundaries between image and abstraction, the real and the imagined.
From early solo exhibitions at Galleria Margiacchi to significant showcases at the Venice Biennale, the Whitney Museum, and Palazzo Te, Pancrazzi has consistently investigated how we perceive and internalize reality. His works, whether architectural studies, fleeting natural impressions, or abstract forms, push viewers to consider not only what they see but how they process and remember it.
Pancrazzi’s fascination with archiving, evident in his extensive collection of visual references and notes, speaks to his commitment to documenting and reinterpreting the ephemeral moments of daily life. In recent projects, such as those exhibited at Totah Gallery in New York, Pancrazzi transforms details like light filtering through tree branches into pure chromatic fields, challenging the viewer to traverse the threshold between recognition and abstraction.
Publishing also plays a vital role in Pancrazzi’s creative vision. His catalogues, artist books, and monographs form an integral part of his artistic dialogue, mirroring his meticulous attention to detail and layered approach to art-making.
Through his work, Pancrazzi invites us to navigate the thresholds of perception, teaching us to observe the world with greater clarity and awareness. His multifaceted practice bridges media, memory, and imagination, offering profound insights into the complexities of contemporary life.
Exploring Thresholds: Sottobosco Fuori Registro
Launching with the January 19th cover of La Lettura’s Corriere Art Collection, “Sottobosco Fuori Registro” by Luca Pancrazzi invites us to rethink our perceptions of reality. Created specifically for La Lettura, this artwork is a reflection on the intricate interplay between memory, perception, and the unconscious.
The piece presents an evocative tangle of branches, leaves, and shadows, blending organic forms with an abstract rhythm of repetition and liberation. Pancrazzi’s signature style captures fleeting moments and transforms them into layered compositions, urging viewers to traverse the “thresholds” between clarity and ambiguity. The work embodies the tension between the real and the imagined, highlighting the complexity of how we process and internalize visual stimuli.
Reflecting on Pancrazzi’s work, Gianluigi Colin, Art Director of Corriere della Sera, remarks:
A tangle of branches, leaves, light, and mysterious shadows: this is what Luca Pancrazzi calls a “Sottobosco Fuori Registro” ("Undergrowth Out of Register"), one of his iconic works, created in this instance specifically for la Lettura. For Luca Pancrazzi (born in Figline Valdarno, Florence, 1961), the “Fuori Registro” (Out of Register) are neither figurative paintings nor abstract ones. Instead, they inhabit a layer of repetitive, unconscious, and liberating painting, a kind of “doing” without thinking, a rhythmic progression that builds a whole, moment by moment. A highly cultured artist with international experience (he has worked in the United States with Jo Watanabe and Sol LeWitt, and in Rome with Alighiero Boetti), Pancrazzi engages in rigorous and sophisticated research, centering on the concept of space and the value of perception. He explores urban realities and the natural world through diverse media, mastering painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, and video with exceptional skill. Luca Pancrazzi, one of the most significant voices in the Italian art scene, helps us grasp the deeper meaning of making art, an endeavor that also teaches us to see with greater clarity and understand that the world is, in essence, a reality “Out of Register.”