Ismaele Nones: What we hold, what we lose

From the very beginning, Ismaele Nones’s artistic research has developed within a liminal territory where art history becomes a living material and an operative tool for questioning the present. Nones considers art history as “a toolbox to draw from,” using it to construct images that connect different times, symbols, and imaginaries. His references range from ancient art – particularly 4th-century Byzantine art – to the refined visual language of Arte Povera masters, as well as certain figures from contemporary British Pop Art.

The exhibition brings together a selection of works created between 2023 and 2026, including Verso l’Alto verso la Terra: Sguardo al Firmamento, the large mosaic presented in Ravenna during the 9th Biennale of Mosaic, alongside works on canvas and panel. The exhibition project evokes a suspended temporal dimension in which past and present coexist without hierarchy, shaping a layered and deeply contemporary narrative.