Francesco Igory Deiana
I first met Fran in in 2015 when I was asked to frame his show Haptic Render at Cult Gallery here in SF. He, and his work, immediately drew me in: both were charming, approachable and good looking. I wanted to hang out. The work then was dark, heavy rendered in thick layers of graphite and almost opaque through the palpable presence effort it took to make it. I got so overwhelmed by the imagined hours of labor that it was easy to miss the forest for the trees, but after finishing the framing and getting up on the wall I could see how his combination of stark simplicity and a collapsing infinity of complexity combined to produce a visual field that both calmly vibrated and also seethed with razor sharpness to cut the room to shreds. I was hooked on Fran.
Years later, and after few attempts at trying to come up with the right project that could be both accessible and elevated, I'm excited to introduce this edition of a set of five prints based on paintings from his solo show CRAZY ANGLE at RuttKowski;68 Gallery in NY in 2023. These images have those qualities of tantric reverberation mixed with a searing focus as the work that first grabbed me, but these paintings also capture a lightness and a playfulness that is a big part of Fran's personality. Using images of caterpillers and butterflies, as well as high-heel shoes, Fran cuts sensual, even organic lines in One Shot to produce images that are colorful, iconic and mesmerizing.
Our production partner Drew Jorstaad of Giant Coast Editions has reproduced the paintings with painstaking attention to detail, rendering both color and line with incredible precision on the highest quality, hand torn paper. The edition of 40 are each signed and numbered on the back, Fran's generosity as an artist even extends to the signature which is a unique rendering for each print.
We've come up with a frame that responds to the images with a dual bevel that, when facing the work head on, offers two colors from the image. Rounded corners and the revealed wood, both between the bevels on the face as well as on the sides, punch up the colors and lighten the mood of the whole piece. Sets numbered 1-5 will be offered only as framed sets. We invite collectors to select the colors in the pieces that they would like to see. Sets numbered 6-20 will be offered as a folio and sets numbered 21-40 are offered as individual prints.
