Federico de Francesco

Ross + Kramer is excited to present Spring Waters, Federico de Francesco’s debut solo exhibition with the gallery. The show features six new large scale canvases as well as nine new works on paper.

The title of the exhibition comes from the eponymous song by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov. The stirring musical composition shares the spirit of this suite of works. De Francesco began this group of paintings with the same initial image, a flower stem. He elaborated on each canvas until they each took on their own personality, becoming layered and abstract. His large canvases employ oil paint, oil stick and raw pigments, that give the surfaces a shimmery texture that plays with light in a way that further evokes the title of the show.

De Francesco applies a similar image making strategy to his works on paper, repeating forms across different works. These are mounted to panels and framed in a way that makes them appear more as painting than works on paper. The nine works are arranged in the gallery in an off kilter grid that emphasizes the repetition among them, and also their individuality.

Federico de Francesco (b. 1979 in Calabria, Italy) is a classically trained violinist and holds a Ph.D. in macroeconomics from UCLA.