Deux Meus

Every exhibition has two sides. The first is what visitors see: the gallery lights, conversations, photographs, smiles, and the moment when a work of art meets the gaze of strangers for the first time. This is the part that remains in photos and on social media. The second side is known only to the artist. It consists of all the small details that happen off-camera such as communication, organization, transportation, the safety of the artwork, and the way the piece is treated once the ceremonial opening is over. When I send my paintings abroad, there’s always something very personal about it. For weeks or months, I work on the canvas in the silence of my own studio. The painting becomes a record of the emotions, time, and energy I pour into the creative process. Then comes the moment when I have to entrust it to someone else’s care and trust that they will treat it with the same respect. Over time, however, I’ve learned that the art world isn’t made up solely of beautiful moments. Sometimes, the real story begins right after the exhibition ends.

My most recent exhibition, titled *Where Art Begins*, took place at Marzia Gallery, located in the heart of Barcelona’s historic district, Ciutat Vella, at Carrer de la Flor del Lliri 4. The event ran from June 12 to June 26, 2026, and I participated with two small paintings. The location itself had something special about it. The narrow streets of the old town, the proximity to history, and the character of Barcelona made the place a perfect fit for the atmosphere of art. The city in June was vibrant, full of light, energy, and that distinctive southern rhythm that turns even a simple stroll into an experience. The exhibition opening itself was very well-organized and was combined with a social event. The presentation of the works in the gallery space, the professional lighting, and the multimedia elements created a wonderful setting for my canvases. When I saw the coverage of the event, I was absolutely enchanted by the overall atmosphere of the opening and deeply regretted that I couldn’t be there in person at the time.

This beautiful, gala-opening facade, however, began to crack when it collided with the organizational reality. The first signs appeared right at the very beginning, when the call for entries was still brand-new, and the organizers hadn’t provided any deadlines for delivering the paintings to Barcelona those details weren’t communicated until much later. After qualifying for the first stage, I encountered minor communication difficulties, unable to get a clear answer regarding the required length of my artist’s biography. Although communication during the exhibition itself was ultimately satisfactory, a real crisis and a drastic decline in professionalism occurred after the exhibition closed. It’s often said that the moment of presenting a work is the most important, but my experience shows that the caliber of an organization is revealed by how it treats art once the lights go out. The return of my two paintings to my studio turned into a logistical nightmare in which the organizers made a massive blunder. Every subsequent email regarding the dates and times for package pickup contained an error. The confusion forced me to resend the shipping label three times, and communication with the shipping agency was very poor. 

To make matters worse, there was no further contact from the gallery itself my messages to them were completely ignored, and no one even read them. When the shipment finally arrived, the condition of the packaging turned out to be the worst I’ve ever encountered in my entire career as an artist. My original protective packaging was gone, and the paintings were sent back completely unprotected, without even a single layer of plastic wrap on the outside. It was only by sheer luck that the canvases returned unscathed, because in terms of the safety of the return shipment, this collaboration was a complete disappointment.

The biggest surprise during this collaboration, however, was discovering the identities of the people behind the Barcelona project. Looking at the names of the curatorial team in Spain, I recognized the same people I had previously worked with on my first exhibitions in Italy in Naples and Venice under the Divulgarti banner. Since the old Divulgarti accounts and the new profiles from Spain coexist on Instagram, I decided to ask about this directly at the source. In response, Marta officially confirmed that Divulgarti still exists, but she and her curatorial team have distanced themselves from that name and created a new organization under the name OASI. This change of identity and name sheds a stark light on the mechanisms at play in the art market. It turns out that under the new, fresh banner of OASI presumably intended to create the illusion of a new level of quality exactly the same old organizational sins are resurfacing. Changing the facade did not fix the foundations errors in emails, logistical ineptitude, and a lack of respect for the physical safety of the artwork remain unchanged, regardless of whether the project is managed from Italy or Spain.

Looking back at my international exhibitions so far in terms of total points earned, Barcelona ranks in a peculiar, contrast-filled position. Each of these cities was a harsh lesson. Naples, under the Divulgarti banner, gave me a painful debut with a mishung painting, dim yellow lighting, and a lack of accountability for the damage. Venice showed a slight step forward in communication, but organized a chaotic opening and returned my work to me damaged and poorly secured. Milan, both with the Ricordare di essere project and the traumatic "When They See Us" at Artemida Gallery, proved to be the lowest point in terms of a lack of promotion, linguistic exclusion, and the brazen defacement of my painting with black wall paint. At the other extreme is Nottingham, UK, and the "New Beginnings" exhibition, which showcased the absolute pinnacle of professionalism, excellent lighting, constant communication, and the selfless assistance of the curators in navigating post-Brexit customs procedures. Against this backdrop, Barcelona with a total of thirty-six points wins out thanks to the magic of the opening reception and the technical execution, but in terms of logistics and respect for the artist’s work, it is on par with the Italian chaos from which the new quality of OASI was supposedly meant to emerge. This is definitive proof that the most beautiful image on social media does not reveal the whole truth, because art begins on the wall, but its value to the institution ends where the lights go out.

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