The unprecedented solo exhibition by Benetti features a substantial number of works—32 in total—on canvas, each highly captivating not only for the technique employed but also for the message of love and peace contained in every single painting. The compositional structure embraces primitive forms that evoke the earliest civilizations. His canvases, rigorously prepared with natural pigments and substances such as cocoa, are adorned with signs and symbols imbued with a playful essence—joyful, stripped of their three-dimensional effect, designed to transport the viewer back in time and into an inner world.
As exhibition curator Silvia Grandi explains:
“As in ancient Byzantine mosaics or medieval paintings, Benetti’s figures are radically flattened onto the surface; the third dimension, meaning the illusionistic rendering of spatial depth, has been entirely eliminated, along with all personalizing and descriptive details. The figures resemble standardized molds that force them into repeated, iterative positions, arranged in a paratactic and frontal disposition, leading us to define his art as abstract and synthetic.”
The universality of his message underscores a fascinating artistic research with synesthetic, sociological, and psychological nuances, aiming at rediscovering the concept of the “Acorn,” of which James Hillman was a renowned scholar. The artist is also the author of the Neo-Cave Art Manifesto, presented at the 53rd Venice Biennale within the Nature and Dreams Pavilion. Respect for nature and ecology are fundamental pillars of his aesthetic experience, just as his love for music makes him an artist constantly in search of abstract forms that engage the senses synesthetically.
Highlighting the significance of music in his creative process was the live musical performance by Frank Nemola during the opening of the solo exhibition at Palazzo D’Accursio on April 13.