Leo Frontini: On the Corner Of
NEW YORK, NY: Opening February 6, 2025, albertz benda is delighted to present Leo Frontini: On the Corner Of, the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery and first major solo exhibition in New York. Featuring a suite of paintings alongside a set of copper etching prints, Frontini explores themes of solitude, domesticity, loss, and gratitude through his poetic naturalistic style.
On the Corner Of explores the intersection of togetherness and solitude expressed through the symbolic structure of a house. The exhibition contemplates the beauty and tumult of early life visualized in interior and exterior scenes of the home. Frontini uses distortions of time to impose introspection creating scenes of harmony, imbalance, and interconnectedness. He describes the home as a silent witness to our growth, which sees us mature, thrive, and eventually depart, only to return and find a world that seems a little smaller, evoking a sense of nostalgia and reflection
“A corner, an intersection, a closure. One that provides structure to a whole.
A place in which we can all find each other. The significance of we.” – Leo Frontini
In Soliloquy of a Sleepless Night, Frontini renders a forlorn adolescent boy deep in thought as he looks at his reflection in a rubble-filled puddle. Behind the boy, two structures are simultaneously being blown apart spreading wooden planks, glass shards and other debris across a swirling radiant sky. The image presents an ephemeral memory of a broken home. While taking the metaphor literally, Frontini expresses the bitter trauma that many experience when the conventional family structure breaks down: solitude, isolation contemplation, but perhaps one day, peace.
Frontini’s recent work is a journey through memories and dreams, expressed through dynamic allegorical paintings that delve into the human condition and social constructs. These elements serve as a mirror, reflecting our past, present and future aspirations. Through Frontini’s unique anachronistic style his studies of the home find that the sanctuary we all once had, changes, distorts, and grows into something new. The transformative narrative in his work is not only mystifying, but also a testament to the resilience and adaptability of the human spirit.