Meeting at the bar, 2026

Francesco Calistri  

Francesco Calistri, born in 1991 in Pistoia, is an Italian painter based in Rome.

Her work explores the instability of perception through a practice that oscillates between figuration and dissolution. Rooted in a classical training developed in Florence and Milan, her painting has gradually moved towards a more open and indeterminate visual language.

Working primarily in oil on canvas, Calistri constructs images that emerge and disperse within the pictorial surface. His recent works focus on plant forms, treated not as subjects, but as transient presences that resist any fixed form.

Alongside his artistic training, he studied theatre, visual culture — DAMS — and neuroscience, thus nurturing his interest in perception, memory and the limits of vision.

He has exhibited in Italy and internationally, and his works are included in private collections in Europe, the United States, and Asia.

ARTISTIC APPROACH

My work explores the instability of perception through painting.

Working between portraiture and botanical imagery, I approach these two registers as unstable presences rather than fixed subjects. Figures and flowers are treated as transient events—forms that emerge, disperse, and resist any fixation.

The image is never fully resolved; it remains suspended between appearance and disappearance. Through gesture, dilution, and partial erasure, I construct a pictorial field in which vision becomes uncertain and cannot be fully stabilized.

Rather than representing subjects, my work focuses on the conditions under which images appear and dissolve. Painting becomes a place where the image is continually formed and dissolved, existing only temporarily before transforming or disappearing.

MAIN SOLO AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026

Collective exhibition Premio Mestre di Pittura, Mestre.

Group exhibition South East, Tobian Art Gallery, Florence.

Oversize group exhibition, Palazzo Stella, Genoa.

Collective exhibition Visioni di donna, MIIT, Turin.

2025

Solo exhibition Natura Viva, Ghiggini Gallery, Varese.

Collective exhibition Creative States, Crocetti Museum, Rome.

Collective exhibition Spring, Tobian Art Gallery, Florence.

Collective exhibition Ritorno a palazzo, Palazzo San Severino, Pavia.

Cremona Art Fair with Galleria Ghiggini.

2024

Artefiera Padova with Ghiggini Gallery.

Collective exhibition, Galleria Ghiggini, Varese.

Personal exhibition Guardami, Spazio Ramé, Trento.

Personal exhibition Sogni di carta, Spazio Forno, Rome.

Exhibition at the Chianciano Art Biennial, Siena.

Group exhibition Premio Firenze, Palazzo Bastogi, Florence.

Collective exhibition 100 artists in villa, Villa Contarini, Padua.

Collective exhibition, Palazzo Sanseverino, Pavia.

Group exhibition, NucleikArt Gallery, Catania.

Collective exhibition, Tobian Art Gallery, Florence.

2023

Group exhibition, Ghiggini Gallery, Varese.

Collective exhibition Premio Viviani, Villa Brivio, Nova Milanese.

Collective exhibition, Galleria Il Leone, Rome.

Collective exhibition, Galleria Vittoria, Rome.

Group exhibition, Studio d'Arte 99, Pavia.

2022

SaturARTE group exhibition, Genoa.

Artefiera Genova with Satura Gallery.

2021

Collective exhibition Malamegi Lab.19, Piazza di Pietra 28, Rome.

Hirdilak & Chris Cann exhibition, Studio d'Arte 99, Pavia.

Exhibition at the London Art Biennale.

Exhibition at the Genoa Art Biennale.

Online exhibition with the artist Alessandra Guttagliere: L'Indomabile.

2020

Collective exhibition Yicca 20/21, Milan.

SaturARTE 2020 group exhibition, Genoa.

Collective exhibition Fortezza in arte, Fortezza Medicea di Montepulciano, Siena.

2019

Solo exhibition, Studio Bong Gallery, Florence.

Group exhibition, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Mall Galleries, London.

Group exhibition, Arthill Gallery, London.

Collective exhibition Arte at Palazzo Fantuzzi, Galleria Farini, Bologna.

2017

Solo exhibition organized as part of Pistoia Capital of Culture, former church of San Biagino.

AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS

2026

Publication in the Tobian Art Gallery catalogue for the T J Watson Library, MET New York.

2025

Master's degree in neuroscience, mindfulness and contemplative practices, UniPi.

Solo exhibition prize at the Ritorno a palazzo art prize, Pavia.

Honorable mention, Premio Mestre.

Honorable Mention for a Portrait, Teravarna, Los Angeles, California.

Honorable mention for a flower, Teravarna, Los Angeles, California.

2024

Honorable mention in figurative art at the Chianciano Biennale, Siena.

Honorable mention, Premio Mestre.

Beginning of the collaboration with Tobian Art Gallery, Florence.

Publication in Marlé magazine.

2023

Publication of the photographic book Fotosintesi. 96 Polaroids of Spring.

Awarded with merit for painting, Florence Prize.

Noted with merit, Viviani Prize, Monza and Brianza.

A noteworthy report, Premio Mestre.

Start of collaboration with Galleria Ghiggini, Varese.

2022

Satura Prize, SaturARTE, Genoa.

2021

Acquisition price Malamegi Lab.19, Rome.

Emerging artist prize for painting at the Genoa Biennale.

2nd place at the Yicca 20/21 Art Award, Milan.

2020

Award-winning artist at SaturARTE 2020, Genoa.