Francesco Conti
I grew up on the outskirts of Rome and later lived in the United States, where I became aware of a subtle sense of isolation beneath ordinary built environments. Returning to London, I found a similar atmosphere in overlooked urban spaces - industrial canals, ageing facades and quiet passages that seem to hold traces of lives no longer present.
My paintings begin from these places, but they are less about describing urban scenes than about how familiar spaces can feel quietly altered: real, yet slightly withheld. Through repetition, compressed light and suspended stillness, I try to evoke a kind of constructed reality in which ordinary places take on an ambiguous presence. Human figures rarely dominate these paintings; even when they appear, I am often interested less in narrative than in atmosphere.
Much of the work is made at night, and I think that solitude enters the paintings as a way of perceiving space.
Recent selective exhibitions:
New English Art Club 2025, 2026
Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition 2025
ING Discerning Eye 2019, 2022, 2024
Gallery Green and Stone 2024, 2026