Francesco Conti - Tripod

Francesco grew up on the outskirts of Rome and later lived in the United States, where he became attuned to how a sense of isolation lay beneath quiet suburbs, well-kept lawns, and neat buildings. When he moved back to London, he found the same feeling - hidden in the forgotten edges of the city, in old buildings, along industrial canals, and in spaces that carry the memory of lives once lived there.

His work often circles around the idea of urban alienation - the loneliness, beauty, and tension found in places shaped by human presence but now left half-empty or overlooked.

He mainly works with acrylic, drawn to its layering properties and precision - perhaps reflecting my background in science. Sometimes he uses oil to explore different textures and atmospheres.

In his paintings, he is drawn to buildings with few or no people. He finds that when human presence fades, the structures themselves come to life, as if the stillness allows their own voices to be heard. It's a little like walking into the woods: at first, everything falls silent, but if you stay long enough, you begin to hear the hidden sounds of the forest, or even the beat of your own heart. He particularly likes to paint at night as that’s when he naturally tunes in to those inner feelings and voices.

As a child, when he drew houses, he gave them faces - windows for eyes, doors for mouths. That feeling stayed with him, and he still sees buildings that way now, as if they are alive. There’s a faint unease that lingers in them, but he believes even the most neglected places hold a kind of beauty once we stop and pay attention.