In the works of Franco Passalacqua, one feels a significant relationship between a minimalistic artistic representation and a “naturalistic inner mantra”: Passalacqua breaks down nature into its components, using tree canopies almost as if they were atomic particles, excluding the human figure, houses, and even trunks…. This extremizes the theme of greenery and evokes a self-sufficient nature. This repeated element becomes the “module” of his expression.

This almost obsessive repetition of dense vegetation, like a texture made of tiny marks, has been compared to a mantra or a rosary.

Parallel to this tendency towards minimalism, a “naturalistic inner mantra” is felt: despite the evolution of his style, the main subject of his investigation remains consistently nature, which, through the slow and careful “weaving” of repeated artistic marks, is seen as an exercise in meditation, in parallel with the slow and constant biological process of nature….

The accumulation and absolutization of particular forms, like leaves, aim to reach the “natura naturans,” the generative principle of every natural form.

Passalacqua’s work is deeply connected, “body and soul,” to his homeland, Umbria. The meticulous repetition of natural elements like forests and trees gives the sensation of a familiar, cherished, and almost ancestral environment.

Studio la Città, 2025