Although Tomaso Albertini has been living in Naples for two years, his artistic sensibilities keep him in a New York state of mind. After all, it was in Manhattan where the idea of creating colorful swirling compositions from triangular pieces of cardboard first came to him. Collecting this all-important building block for his multidimensional paintings was a snap because the recycling bins outside the bodegas that proliferate NYC and its boroughs were virtually everywhere.
“So many galleries ask me to move to another medium, but I cannot; cardboard is an essential part of my background,” he says. “The material is super personal for me because no one else is using it the same way I am.”
In Albertini’s hands, cardboard is molded into three-dimensional sculptures that he then paints as if they were canvases. “Reused cardboard becomes the skin of my figures, which enclose the complexities and contradictions of the human heart,” says the artist. “My technique introduces dynamics approaching sculpture. It is, in fact, a hybrid manifestation.”
A native of Milan, Albertini and his wife landed on the Gulf Coast when the Naples Art Institute tapped him as an artist-in-residence in 2023. Two years later, he’s now a teacher for the organization, and his works are on view at its galleries. At his studio, he is currently collaborating with a physicist friend on a series inspired by quantum science.
“We are combining art with serious properties of matter and energy,” he says. “The process is developing slowly because we are exploring complex ideas that embrace the physics of the entire universe.”
Story Credits:
Text by Saxon Henry
Photos courtesy of Tomaso Albertini
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