Luca Bray/ Nacio Alli/
Bray
Born in Italy. Trained at Brera. Living in Mexico. Painting with his hands, in conversation with the canvas, until they are both breathing harmoniously.
His muted colour palette, diffusion of the picture plane, and juxtaposition of meditative atmospheres with underlying energy imbue each work with a sophistication and clarity of expression. His poignant canvases evoke a strong sense of nostalgia. The intangibility of line, intermittent fragmentary sentences, nebulous forms: all hint that the artist is searching for a hidden meaning, just beyond our grasp.
A heated conversation with the image.
It basically talks back.
My work is completely intuitive, visceral and immediate. I don't sketch before painting, I don't prep. Once I'm standing before the white canvas it all comes to me. My need to play with the surface and bathe it in colour, light, words, brings me to start placing my hands all over it.
My process is one of elimination. I place the elements and then one by one remove them until I'm left with the perfect dialogue between myself and the canvas. I work as if I was in a heated conversation with the image and it basically talks back, telling me what it needs and how I should go about achieving it. The end result is only definite once that conversation has ceased and we are both breathing harmoniously.
He arrived in Mexico for a vacation after graduating from Brera and decided to stay. Milan had been constant study and the eternal search to find his own style. Mexico became the place where the search changed form: no longer what his style was, but how to perfect it. He has been in Mexico since. He travels constantly, breathes foreign cities, makes them his own, and returns to the studio with impressions he transfers directly to canvas before they fade.
His process requires that nothing is fixed in advance. No sketches, no preparation. He stands before the white canvas and places his hands on it, bathing it in colour and light and words, and then removes elements one by one until what remains is a dialogue he can live with. The canvas tells him when it is finished. He lights a cigarette.
My life is the one and only influence of my work. I need to constantly travel, discover, breathe foreign cities and make them my own. I am inspired profoundly by the people I meet, those whose paths cross with mine. Each moment, each person, each story becomes an impression which I document in my personal diary and as soon as I return to my studio, I transfer these impressions onto the canvases before me.
I didn't spend much time in Milan. Straight after university I went to Mexico for vacation and decided to stay. What has influenced me is the constant travel and seeing new places. In Milan it was constant study, and the eternal search to find my own style. Not an easy feat. Arriving in Mexico my search became the need to perfect my style.
I have tremendous admiration for Cy Twombly. I am extremely attracted to his work and the language his images create.
"The end result is only definite once that conversation has ceased and we are both breathing harmoniously."
Luca Bray · On the moment a painting is finishedMy love with New York is rooted in its multiple facades. Its people make New York so unique in the world. The people are the vibrant heart of the New York streets; without them, New York would be just another wonderful city.
Mexico is rich with art, galleries, collectors and an extremely vibrant art world in general. Their proposal is always avant-garde. I truly appreciate the Kurimanzutto Gallery in Mexico City.
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