Francesco Pergolesi

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United States
Chicago, IL
Francesco Pergolesi

Artist photographer represented by Catherine Edelman Gallery Chicago

04/28/2026

Venusia, Spoleto, 2015

A doorway frames the scene, marking a clear boundary between the street and the interior.

The figure stands within this threshold, surrounded by elements that define the space: flowers, products, shelves. Everything is arranged according to daily use, forming a composition that is both functional and structured.

The reference to “La nascita di Venere” by Botticelli lies in the idea of appearance, a figure emerging within a defined setting, positioned at the center of the image.

In Heroes, each photograph is constructed as a scene where the subject and the environment remain closely connected, without hierarchy. The space is not a backdrop, but part of the image itself.

04/21/2026

A suspended moment where the ordinary quietly shifts into something else.
A domestic interior, familiar and intimate: toys scattered across the floor, a child asleep in the background, a television glowing in the corner. Nothing unusual, and yet everything feels slightly displaced. The light isolates, separates, subtly rewrites the scene.
Julie sits at the center, present but elsewhere. Her gesture, almost absent-minded, carries a quiet tension — as if time had slowed just enough to reveal what usually slips by unnoticed.
In Stars, these spaces become stages. Not to exaggerate reality, but to gently tilt it. The everyday doesn’t turn into spectacle, it becomes a place of attention, where fragility, fatigue, and care coexist.
There is no climax, no resolution. Just a quiet awareness: that even within the most familiar environments, something remains open, unresolved, and deeply human.

04/17/2026

La stanza dei giochi, Cave Canem

This image is built around a familiar space: a room meant for play, repetition, and everyday gestures.

The scene is constructed, but it holds onto something real: the way the dog occupies the space, moving between attention and distraction, presence and instinct. The environment is not just a background, but part of the image’s structure.

A balance emerges between control and unpredictability. The space is defined, the light is measured, but the subject always introduces a slight shift.

A reference can be found in L’illusioniste by Jacques Tati, in the quiet, slightly offbeat atmosphere, where small actions and details carry the weight of the scene.

The result is an image that stays grounded in reality, while quietly moving away from it.

04/10/2026

Las Hermanas, from the series Insulae

A façade, two windows, two women facing each other.

This image is loosely inspired by Il racconto dei racconti by Matteo Garrone, in the way it approaches the idea of a constructed, suspended narrative.

The image is built on a simple structure: two figures positioned in opposite directions, connected by their gaze. The architecture defines the scene, creating both separation and relation at the same time.

There is an apparent similarity between the two figures, yet at the same time subtle differences emerge in color, style and attitude.

What interested me here was working on symmetry and repetition, two similar presences that mirror each other within a controlled space. The result is an image that feels constructed, where a very ordinary situation is slightly shifted.

04/03/2026

Looking back at:
Tableaux
Catherine Edelman Gallery
May 4 – July 7, 2018

Tableaux followed my earlier series Heroes, both rooted in the environments I grew up in: small Italian towns where work, relationships and daily life are still closely intertwined.

With Tableaux, my attention shifted from individuals to surfaces. Worktables, tools, materials, spaces where time leaves visible traces. Marks, calculations, fragments of leather, layers of paint: elements that are usually overlooked, but that quietly contain a history. I think of these tables as unconscious canvases, shaped day after day through repeated gestures.

The exhibition brought together different formats: large-scale photographs alongside smaller “memory boxes” — objects that combine images and materials from the workshops, extending the idea of the photograph into something more tactile.

What interests me is this passage: from document to construction, from observation to staging.Each work becomes a way to hold onto a world that is slowly disappearing, while still existing in the present.

03/31/2026

What you see is the final image: a small circus, almost like those late 19th-century postcards where animals performed in carefully constructed scenes.

Dog Circus was built like a small stage: a controlled space where light, objects and movements had to align for a brief moment. The dogs are not simply subjects — they become performers, reacting to gestures, sounds, and invisible cues just outside the frame.

There is always a tension between precision and unpredictability. The set is constructed in detail, but the scene only comes alive when something real breaks through: a glance, a hesitation, a sudden movement toward the ball.

In that sense, the image is never fully staged, and never fully spontaneous. It exists somewhere in between, where control meets chance, and the scene turns into something slightly unexpected.

Address

Chicago, IL

Website

http://www.francescopergolesi.com/

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