Salina

Nunzio’s artistic production is marked by constant experimentation with different
materials, including plaster, charred wood and lead, in order to explore the potential
of matter and give concrete shape to a constructive situation of an artistic reality.
The work exhibited is one of a series involving lead, used here to cover seven
panels of wood, worked on the surface to create grooves and divided by a strip of
charred wood. Despite the atonal nature of the material, there is an evident intention
to work with light, particular attention being focused on the transformation
of matter and its potentialities. As the artist explained in an interview (1989-
1990), “lead is a mysterious material that lends itself to many possible uses. […] I
use it for its colour, its ability to change, its softness and a certain kind of contrary
or adversarial relationship it can have with wood, with black charred wood, whereby
a dialectic that I find interesting is created within the materials.”. (Transl. by Paul Metcalfe per Scriptum, Roma)