Antonio Recca, "The Silence of Gesture" and the poetic "Chromatisms" at the GAM in Catania

“The silence of the gesture. At the exact point where I get lost, I begin to feel,” is the title of the exhibition by Antonio Recca (in the photo by Renato Zacchia), curated by Giacomo Fanale, hosted until next Sunday, April 12, 2026, at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna (GAM) in Catania, co-organized with the Municipality of Catania (visits from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 AM to 3 PM and from 5 PM to 8 PM, free entry). The exhibition features fifty works created from 2009 to the present, from which the artist's inner geography clearly emerges, offering a poetic reading, “visionary and intimate,” of the Etnean landscapes. To poetry, the clear lens of the world, is dedicated, also at the GAM, within the framework of the aforementioned exhibition, a reading, “Cromatismi,” which will take place on Monday, March 30, 2026, at 6:30 PM, and will see the participation of several voices: Maria Attanasio, Sebastiano Burgaretta, Pietro Cagni, Enzo Cannizzo, Miguel Ángel Cuevas, Iolanda Cuscunà, and Giulio Di Dio. “We believe - declares Giovanni Miraglia - that even within the chromatic dimension, Antonio Recca's painting reaches the meeting of certain poetic chromatisms. Indeed, it was the artist himself who created, within this exhibition, pillars on which poems by various poets can be read. A sort of 'path of verses' that winds through his works.”

-Let’s talk, starting from the title, about your solo exhibition “The Silence of the Gesture”: what are the artistic and propositional peculiarities (also, or especially, in terms of messages to leave to the onlookers)? 

“The Silence of the Gesture At the exact point where I get lost, I begin to feel” is an emotional and sensory crossing, a journey without destination or return, where abstraction becomes inner geography and every stain is a place that has no name. And here the artist disappears, leaving space for the viewer.”

-In her postscript (in verse), we read about a "landscape" that has always inhabited her, a "landscape" that unfolds between what she sees and what she feels. In this regard, we ask: in her art, how do lived experiences and imagined ones come together? Furthermore, how are configurations, meaning, and perceptions "built" within the observation of the world?

"My work proceeds through layering and subtraction, as if color were a thought melting on the surface. I start with a gesture, a line, a color that pushes, then something gives way, and I lose myself. And that’s where it happens when I stop searching for meaning and start to feel. The landscapes that emerge are unknown to me. I have never seen them. But I know they belong to me. Perhaps they are nothing more than maps of what I cannot say."

-Thinking about the upcoming poetry reading, shall we discuss the connection between art and poetry? That is, the connection between two languages that aim for introspection, for understanding existence, giving voice to the inexpressible and (in the most successful cases) making the invisible visible?

"I have always fed on poetry and music. In recent years, I have read several books by poet friends who fascinated me and illuminated my path toward awareness. After all, painting and poetry have always had a relationship of harmony and mutual nourishment."

-How did your passion for art begin? Is there an anecdote you would like to share?

"Since I was a boy, I have been attracted to colors and brushes, having attended the studio of my cousin Giovanni Recca, a talented sculptor and ceramist who taught me to draw and shape clay; and who advised me to enroll in the art institute in the sculpture section, where the Masters Tudisco, Petralia, Giuffrida, and Brancato taught. They made me embrace art."

-From the beginnings to today, what goals has your artistic "journey" directed you towards or would you like it to direct you towards?

"I have never set myself goals or milestones to achieve; I have been quite free in my choices. I live in the present, aware that my path is nothing more than a continuous search, which may lead me to unknown territories."

-If you had to define it, what is your pictorial poetics and what animates it? If you had to choose among your works, which one do you feel best represents you (which one best "draws" your "poetics"), which would you choose (and for what reasons)? What is the "color" that best matches (or would you like to match) your inner self?

"Opening new mechanisms of vision by offering visionary and intimate landscapes. If I had to choose among my works, I would choose the pieces where I feel most represented, most intimate, most lyrical. Blue is the color I prefer because I believe it is the closest to the song of the soul, which, once understood, is never forgotten."

-Is there a work (by other artists) in which you love to “take refuge”? If so, can you tell us which one? Can you share the reasons and the emotions it evokes in you?

"Many works by many artists. I adore the work of Afro and Zao Wou Ki, but if I had to choose a work to take refuge in, I would choose the Ecstasy of St. Teresa of Avila by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It makes me lose my senses; I could spend hours looking at it, and I often go back to see it again. And each time, an infinite sweetness renews within me."

-What are (or should be) the function of art and the responsibility of the artist today?

"The function of art? To illuminate the path of this existence, to advance man on the road of morality and to provide him with elevated visions."

-What has been the greatest lesson received as a gift from art to date?

"It saved my life, it taught me the art of listening. And it made me who I am."