Francesco Moretti (born 1955) creates sculptures in metal with themes drawn from nature: the human body, plants and animals.  The subject is gradually relieved of any superfluous elements which do not evoke the primary meaning of things.

 

The relationship that Moretti has developed with metal is atypical. Whilst others work the material through physical confrontation –compression, hammering – or choose to push it to its limits until it loses all its substance – and melts – he chooses to accompany it. This understanding of the material results in a self-evident gesture.  Folded, bent like simple paper, the metal becomes light and delicate.  Gradually, the sculptor’s work fades, the subject regains its central place.  Moretti reveals figures under construction, captured in the moment when the subject becomes intelligible and palpable.  Beyond hand-crafted virtuosity and decorative indulgence, Francesco Moretti seeks to render accessible, without artifice, the process of the construction of the form.