Antecedent. Artefact. Artificial. Artistic.

‘When photography made its appearance in 1827, many cried out with disdain for the end of painting, not being able to foresee that the latter would break free from the need to faithfully portray reality, to go beyond the two-dimensional plane of the canvas, investigating the folds of the human soul and mind. This gave birth to artistic currents such as expressionism or surrealism and beyond to abstractionism.

Two centuries later, today we find ourselves in the same condition with the advent of AI, alarmed by its possible threat to work and creativity. In the light of history, and that of art in particular, this attitude highlights an implicit contradiction: those who claim to be concerned about the future fate of people actually show that they have no faith in the ability of the younger generations to always find a balance between tradition and innovation, integrating the latter into everyday life, making it a tool for productive investigation and creative expression.

Giacomo Urban’s work and works represent an attempt to use innovation to produce images that go beyond the sphere of reality, crossing the pictorial surface to offer the viewer to enter a further dimension that allows him to plumb the meanders of the Web, to know and understand something more of the present time and those who live it.

Generously, Giacomo Urban offers us a great opportunity, to stop looking and start seeing. Inside and beyond. Losing ourselves to the point of finding ourselves. ’