Carlo Albucci is a Florentine painter focused on very curious happenings. He paints the ironic, the iconic, and surreal, poignant, and comic events – sometimes all together in one painting.
In all ways, Albucci’s paintings are fun to look at and even more fun to figure out. These events, all oil paintings on masonite panels, are inventions of his rather elaborate and curious imagination, or maybe not. Only the viewer can decide. Any way one looks at them, they will leave you wondering, smiling, perhaps laughing at this crazy world he has painted.
Albucci, born in 1947, turns 70 on the opening day of his exhibit at Gold/Smith Gallery on Thursday, June 1. He is a famous antique dealer who frequents the open air antique fairs throughout Tuscany on the weekends. During the week, Albucci paints. It is what he loves to do and he is wonderful at it.
Albucci won a scholarship to the Academia at the school of San Marco when he was in his early 40s. There, he fine-tuned his natural talents and gained the confidence to paint from his heart, and that is what he does. Albucci’s scenes are rich in the fables and fantasies of Italian culture. Growing up in Firenze, it would have been nearly impossible to not absorb the magnificent heritage of its art, the church, and the eccentricities within daily life. Albucci takes the ordinary and steps out of the box to show the other side of dogma, tradition, and fantasy. His paintings are ironic and lyrical. They resonate with joy and his ability to laugh at himself and everyone else, too.
Gold/Smith Gallery will be featuring Albucci’s oils on board, his third exhibit in three years, at the gallery beginning June 1 and continuing through Wednesday, June 28. The gallery is located at 8 McKown St., Boothbay Harbor. A reception for Albucci, via WhatsApp, will be held from 3-5 p.m. on First Friday, June 2. The public is invited to see his newest paintings and “meet” him via the internet, a first for the artist!
For more information, the gallery can be reached at 633-6252. It is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon-5 p.m.; it is usually closed on Mondays in June.
