GUERRILLA SPAM'S FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION OPENS IN FLORENCE

After fifteen years of artistic activity, the collective Guerrilla Spam presents their first solo exhibition at Street Levels Gallery in Florence from May 3 to June 8, 2025.

Titled "Di mondi lontanissimi, delle perdute pitture di Pontormo e altro ancora" (Of distant worlds, Pontormo's lost paintings and more), the exhibition features over thirty previously unseen works including painted panels, sketches, installations, drawings, and engravings.

The exhibition marks an important moment for the collective, which originated in Florence in 2010 and has since become an integral part of the Turin and international art scene. Their work explores a variety of themes and styles, drawing inspiration from diverse cultural sources.

The project began in 2015 with a study of the lost fresco cycle created by painter Jacopo Carrucci, known as Pontormo, in the choir of Florence's Basilica of San Lorenzo around 1530. This controversial work, described by painter and historian Giorgio Vasari as "things so strange and difficult" and "outside of any rule", serves as a starting point for the exhibition.

The exhibition is structured around three thematic areas: shadow, light, and color, which correspond to an initial state, a change, and a final phase. This division takes shape through three cycles of works: black works (shadow phase), white works (light transition), and colored works (final phase).

The transition between phases occurs through repeated interaction, with black works containing white elements and white works incorporating color, emphasizing the continuous and consequential progression. The artistic style features pronounced symbolism, multiple stylized figures, and incisive signs against broad backgrounds.

Visitors will encounter various references—literary, philosophical, and musical—throughout the exhibition. Text plays an essential role in the works, with titles serving as integral components that contextualize the pieces and reveal hidden reflections.

The exhibition opens with "Il marinaio Sinbad ascolta la storia" (Sailor Sinbad listens to the story) and concludes with the smallest work, just 10x20 cm, titled "In Oriente il Gran Khan gli dirà che la freccia è diversa dall'arco, e che il bersaglio si muove continuamente" (In the East, the Great Khan will tell him that the arrow is different from the bow, and that the target moves continuously), from songwriter Flavio Giurato's song "Marco Polo".

Street Levels Gallery, founded in 2016, is the first and only contemporary urban art gallery in Florence. The gallery explores the interactions between urban art, public space, and exhibition context, serving as a bridge between street and gallery environments.

Guerrilla Spam began in 2010 in Florence as a spontaneous unauthorized posting action in urban spaces. Today, they alternate this practice with muralism, installations, actions, performances, and workshops in Italy and abroad. Their work incorporates numerous iconographic sources, from sub-Saharan African textile and mural art to rock engravings, European medieval allegories, Aboriginal paintings, and public space occupation actions from the 1970s.

The exhibition will be open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 AM to 1 PM and 3 to 7 PM, with free admission.