MARCO REA EXHIBITION OPENS IN FLORENCE

Summary:

• Street Levels Gallery in Florence hosts a Marco Rea solo exhibition from June 12 to September 2026.
• The collection features fifty pieces created between 2013 and 2026.
• The artist applies subtraction techniques on advertising materials to explore visual communication.

Marco Rea presents a new solo exhibition titled Silence Is at Street Levels Gallery in Florence. The display opens on June 12 and runs through the end of September 2026. You will find the gallery space located at Via Melegnano 4R. The organizers bring together fifty distinct pieces produced between 2013 and 2026. This selection includes canvases, works on paper, advertising posters, stencils, silkscreens, and two new sculptures. These sculptures represent the only three-dimensional pieces ever created by the artist specifically for this event.

Rea moves through the spaces between urban art, international advertising systems, fashion illustration, and contemporary visual research. The artist builds his visual language through a process of subtraction rather than addition. He targets the glossy surfaces of fashion magazines and advertising posters as the primary terrain for his interventions. Instead of applying paint to a blank canvas, Rea removes existing elements from commercial images in a systematic debranding process. He applies sprays, solvents, abrasions, and positive stencils to alter the original materials. This specific technique changes polished faces from the image industry into vulnerable and fragmented figures.

Federica Schneck curated the critical text accompanying the exhibition. The gallery layout follows a chronological progression mapping the evolution of the artist over the years. The first rooms display dark works where black spray obscures advertising surfaces. The viewer observes only isolated fragments emerging from the darkness, such as an eye or a cheekbone. The central rooms focus on pieces made during the 2020 pandemic isolation. During this specific period, the artist shifted his approach to a more clinical style. He used white solvents to create compulsive, asemic writing across the surfaces. These drawn lines resemble words but function as a visual translation of collective isolation. The final section shows a return to color with renewed energy. The layout concludes near the entrance with the two unprecedented sculptures. These objects represent a material shift from flat surfaces to physical space.

Rea was born in Rome in 1975 and developed an international profile. His background spans comic studies, illustration, and contemporary art history. He frequently portrays female figures bearing melancholy expressions to prompt reflection on the human condition.

Street Levels Gallery operates as the first international urban art gallery in Florence. The organization investigates public space practices and private research by breaking boundaries between the street and the exhibition space. The opening reception takes place on June 12 at 17:00. Entry remains free for all visitors throughout the duration of the show.