Francesco Pratillo

I am an Italian contemporary artist, and for me painting is a way of investigating myself. Through faces, eyes and human figures, I translate my emotions, weaknesses, tensions and inner states into color and matter. In every subject there is always a part of me — my sensations, my memories, my fragility, my way of seeing the world.

My work is driven by instinctive gestures, expressive brushstrokes and a physical relationship with the surface. I work mainly with oil and acrylic on canvas, cardboard and reclaimed materials, embracing imperfections, textures and signs of time as an essential part of the artwork itself.

Color plays a central role in my paintings. Sometimes intense and saturated, sometimes muted and delicate, I use it to create emotional atmospheres rather than to reproduce reality. I am interested in the tension between figuration and abstraction, between control and instinct.

Painting, for me, is not simply representation. It is a process of exposure and self-analysis — a way to confront myself and transform inner experiences into visual form.