Francesca Bifulco – Studio Portrait 2020
Drawing on themes based in the complexity of human existence, Italian artist Francesca Bifulco passionately displays her view of the world through a multitude of media including painting, performance and sculpture. Through the use of bold, contrasting colors, sharp lines, and moody imagery, much of Bifulco’s work invokes a sense of pride in the strength of community and its ability to overcome turmoil. Her unique style of painting is unmistakable: dark backgrounds juxtaposed with bright, shocking hatch marks, demonstrating the hours of meticulous labor put into her spectacular canvases.
Bifulco’s series In the Crowd focuses on the power of numbers showing the human race as one big mass; individuals almost indistinguishable from the rest, searching for connection amongst one another in the wake of COVID, which has changed the dynamics of crowds, now evoking a feeling of nervousness in many who once felt excitement. Though lost in the crowd, the power of the individual is not forgotten as seen through Bifulco’s series Candles in the Wind. Showing
fiery red and orange palm trees rising tall from the concrete and a dark background, the series explores the diversity of Los Angeles and memorializes the strength of immigrants coming together to build such a powerful city. Being an immigrant herself, Bifulco has a deep affinity with the palm tree, which her late-father also shared.
Bifulco says, “I embrace the LA palm tree as a symbol of three different aspects of endurance. The literal because this species survives fire, growing back even after it has been burned and destroyed. The personal meaning this tree has been carrying for me, from growing up surrounded by palm plants and knowing how to trim a few by watching my father doing it, to integrating them in my work right after his sudden passing. And the collective because this nonnative species reflects the transplants and immigrants’ long history of shaping the culture and identity of this city.”
Bifulco explores the individual human experience through her sculptural series, Nero Apperente; a conglomeration of dark, melancholic imagery dedicated to her late father, contemplating what it means to overcome personal loss. Such a deeply personal experience is simultaneously a universal experience making this work both representative of the individual in addition to humanity as a whole. Within the large-scale installation from Nero Apparente , an assemblage of
palm fronds left on the porch by her late father before tragically passing. Bifulco had been working on this piece before his passing, noting that her father had said that he liked where the piece was going, only for it to take on an entirely new direction following the devastating news when Bifulco decided to use it as an homage to his legacy. Painting the fronds black, Bifulco fixed them to the wood where she had previously been painting. The fronds slash and scar the wood while others hover above the viewer almost as a veil beneath the light above.
Her latest series, Ignited States of America features bright, chaotic scenery, highlighting how hiveminds can alter the course of our social infrastructure. Representing the two sides of the political and social spectrum of America following the January 6th attacks, the works show the heartbreaking reality of our divided country. Through a binary use of color – black and yellow/red – Bifulco reinforces the societal climate of the US: chaotic, violent, divided. Working with social themes of today, the work of Bifulco serves as a legacy of our current world as we struggle to unite our communities through uncharted territory.