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ESC76
Emiliano Stefano Cavalli
Discover Emiliano Stefano Cavalli (ESC76)
Paris - 2 rue Ferdinand Duval - 06 June to 09 June
In the storied Le Marais of Paris, in the charming Espace Ferdinand gallery at 2 rue Ferdinand Duval, you can find an ever-changing selection of paintings from young artists.
For a moment, you can find Emiliano Stefano Cavalli's work there. His colorful pop images draw us in from the street, inviting viewers into a cartoon world that is both surreal and yet tender.
My goal has always been to color the world... in my own way.
Emiliano Stefano Cavalli
Meet the Artist ESC76
Biography
Cavalli is a painter, photographer, and designer living in Turin.
A graduate of the International Institute of Design in Milan, his art career launched in 2002, and within three years, he had his first solo exhibition in Turin.
Since then, he has collaborated with a wide range of other artists, including the stylists Matino Midali and Walter Dang. He’s created works for Disney, Badari Design, and Belstay hotels. His artwork is found throughout the world, including the private collection of Coldplay frontman Christ Martin and Italian singer Laura Pausini.
ESC76 has also been featured in many major exhibitions, such as the Fuorisalone for Milan’s Design Week and the Cinema Festival in Rome.
Contact : Stefania Della Torre
If you want to get in touch with the Artist, reach out to Stefania or to Pomart.
whatsapp : + 33 6 43 54 32 50
The Pop Art Influence
From the beginning, Cavalli’s work has always drawn most deeply from the well of Pop Art—a mid-20th-century movement characterized by the bold colors, simple shapes, and imagery found in media emanating from pop culture. Posters, movies, comic books, music videos, product packaging, corporate logos, and television are the sources of inspiration and style guides for pop artists.
Their ranks include some of the most important figures in modern and contemporary art. Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Claes Oldenburg transformed the so-called “low brow” into substance to be alchemized into works that have become a legitimate part of “high brow” culture.
The Shift
Cavalli’s career trajectory shifted in 2019 when a personal event confronted the artist with questions about life, death, and the meaning of existence. He looked at his work and rethought his mission.
Around this time, he began painting saints within the context of contemporary pop signifiers, all depicted with his trademark bright colors. This led to his series Quasi Tutti | Santi Giorni (Almost All Holy Days).
In these works, Cavalli takes the saints of the Roman calendar and turns them into icons for our century through paintings that reimagine their classic iconography within a pop context.
This turn has come to impact all his work, bringing the gravitas of history into the evanescent world of pop imagery. These include his latest series of French portraits, which you can see for a limited time at Espace Ferdinand.
The French Portraits
Saints and POP
As with his portraits of saints, Cavalli has also captured key figures in French history and introduced them into his personal pop dimension, which we experience through his canvases.
Marie Antoinette
Of course, he immortalized Marie Antoinette this way. There may be no figure in French history better suited to the role. As the last Queen of France before the French Revolution, shy symbolizes the absolute and unrestrained opulence that helped turn the people against the monarchy with such fervor. But the real historical Antoinette was much more complicated, often scapegoated for the crimes of the monarchy. The flattening effect of mass storytelling that turned a complicated woman into a symbol is a phenomenon that pop culture would come to supercharge in the 20th century and beyond.
In this way, Mary Antoinette is like a pop star of her time, one who the public loved to love and, when the time arose, loved to hate even more.
Saint Denis
ESC76 also has a portrait of Saint Denis, the first bishop of Paris and a martyr known for spreading Christianity to France. According to legend, he was beheaded on Montmartre but miraculously continued preaching while carrying his own head. That fantastical narrative has remarkable echoes of the dream-like logic of many of Cavalli’s pop paintings.
Saint Genevieve
The portrait of Saint Genevieve adds even more depth to the series. The patron saint of Paris, Saint Genevieve, is credited with saving the city from invasion through her prayers. The image of the pious woman who, through the power of prayer, is able to turn the tide of war is seen throughout the world. The archetype resurfacing here is captured not with religious reverence but with pop’s shimmering charisma.
Beyond these figures from French history are also other artists (like Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and Basquiat) as well as fictional characters (like Miranda Priestly).