Stefano Pallara

Originally from southern Italy, Stefano has lived in London for over two decades. Identity, introspection, mindfulness and freedom are recurrent themes in his work as well as a sense of nostalgia for the Mediterranean Sea and its dazzling light.

"My work revolves around personal meditations on existential
quests like impermanence, attachment and transcending the
ego. A journey beyond the thinking mind that connects to
nature and brings psychological freedom and inner peace."

COLORDIVE
A collection of paintings evoking a solitary jump into the unknown for self-discovery. A spiritual communion with the ocean can both frighten and blind with its beauty. An ancestral instinct of surrendering to the primordial rhythms of the tide that overwhelms and releases giving us back to ourselves. Mindscapes exploring the themes of awareness, sense of self and freedom. Made of recycled materials: reused wooden panels, wall paint leftovers, paper cut-outs.

INNER HORIZON
This series of paintings, mainly oil on canvas, was inspired by French symbolist poetry image of the ocean often used as a metaphor to describe the subconscious mind, and by the practice of mindfulness and meditation. Imaginary sea surfaces representing the mind experiencing moments of calm and stillness, inner horizons and unexplored spaces where to escape to for peace, awareness and acceptance.

WONDERING HEIGHTS
A series of cityscapes/mindscapes and lyrical skies representing collective dreams and desires drifting and sparkling above a brutalist concrete jungle. A tribute to the colourful power of imagination as a relief from everyday life urban greyness but also to the challenges and inputs to inner growth and self-discovery that life in t...