Opening October 2nd, 2009, Ann Long Fine Art will present “Toscana: Recent Work by Leo Mancini-Hresko.” Toscana opens on Friday October 2nd with a reception from 5 to 8 pm in the gallery at 54 Broad Street in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, and will show until October 31st. Artist will be present.
Born in 1981, Leo Mancini-Hresko was enthralled with various visual arts from a young age. Growing up in Boston, he attended classes at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Rhode Island School of Design. In 2000, after his first year studying Fine Arts and Graphic Design at the Art Institute of Boston, he enrolled in a study abroad program in Florence, Italy.
During his year in Italy, Leo chose to drop his studies and stay abroad, ever searching for a more fitting training. Luckily, he stumbled across the Florence Academy of Art, where he began studies in spring of 2001.
Drawing on his classical education, Leo paints traditional subjects using Old Master techniques yet keeps his work modern in both design and vision. He moves beyond simply painting the objects to expressing the space between objects with fleeting colors and light effects. Leo also looks to calligraphy for inspiration as searches for a personal “handwriting” with the brush.
For this exhibition, Leo focused on landscape painting inspired by the particularly beautiful weather in Tuscany this year. He paints only from life, believing “there is more than enough inspiration in the world around us; nature has its own stories to tell without our impositions.” In addition to Tuscan landscapes and cityscapes, still life and figure work painted in his Florentine studio will be exhibited.
Leo discusses his approach to painting: “The most important element in painting is the creation of imagery. A beautiful image must be considered in composition, color, drawing and execution; it is not enough, however, to just make an image including all four elements. Already that is well difficult. A painting should be painted, you must see the process, the brushstrokes, creation of the ground, glazes and impastos. No two inches of any picture should be treated the same. What always drew me to painting was the contrast between rough and smooth, harsh and subtle. That is where beauty is. I hope to draw the viewer in, to see the world a moment in the way I do.”
Leo Mancini-Hresko has exhibited throughout the United States and Europe and remains at the Florence Academy where he is currently Director of the Drawing for the Sculpture program. This marks his second solo exhibition with Ann Long Fine Art.
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