Toni Alfano

Toni Alfano was born in Legnano (MI) in 1977. He exhibits in Italy and abroad in private galleries, fairs and public museums. Self-taught, he was always involved in transversal research (video, music, comics) that leads to pure painting and its informal deconstruction. Influenced by the phenomena of spontaneous art, he creates expressive paths in the field of palliative care and non-drug therapies. In 2014 he published the graphic novel POMPEI for the New Edition: an essay on the search for oneself through the expressive codes of art and the creative process. In 2019, on the occasion of the 26th World Alzheimer's Day, he exhibits the monumental painting THE HIDDEN GATE at the MA * GA Museum in Gallarate. His pictorial research investigates three main aspects: CREATION, with its visual dimension; PRESERVATION, in the choice of materials and durability of the work over time and DESTRUCTION, the action of time and space on the work, the transfiguration of its appearance into splinters of gestures, looks, profiles, moments recovered and proposed in a continuous Moment-History. The paintings are made on cardboard covered with a thin layer of concrete. A slow layering of tempera paint recreates the effect of a supposedly repainted wall. The figures are made in charcoal and bitumen glazes. The last process is called "Descialbo": an ancient restoration technique that literally means remove the layer of paint from the plaster with a hammer, spatula or scalpel.