Sebastiano Sofia, A Robin forgot how to fly #1, 2024 olio su tavola, 20.3 x 25.4 cm Courtesy l’artista e Boccanera Gallery Trento/Milano

Boccanera Gallery is pleased to present Scordare il volo (Forgetting how to fly), a solo exhibition by artist Sebastiano Sofia. The project brings together a series of small paintings, drawings, and sculptures, each born from the artist's personal gestures and painterly actions, evoking a poetic, suspended, yet restless dimension: that of birds not in flight, but falling. These birds are not prisoners of gravity, but of thought. It is not about surrender or an ending, but rather a moment of new awareness. Flight, for these birds, is no longer an instinctive, natural act— it is somehow interrupted. The project poses a disquieting question: What would happen if birds suddenly forgot how to fly?

This reflection naturally extends to the human condition, inviting viewers to consider what it would mean to lose spontaneity in the most natural and essential actions—breathing, walking, loving, living. What would happen if every gesture we take for granted had to become a conscious, deliberate, and continuously thought-out act? Each work in the project represents a fragment of this narrative.

The exhibition unfolds along an intimate, almost introspective, perimeter pathway, inviting the viewer to come closer to the small works on wood panels, as if glimpsing the exact moment when instinct is transformed into reflection.

On the mezzanine floor, traces of a sculptural action by the artist will be visible: small birds made of unfired clay, modeled by Sofia himself, will collide against the large gallery windows in a futile attempt to escape. Their impact leaves visible marks on the glass while their forms are altered by the crash before falling to the ground.

Once dried, these clay fragments will later be fired and transformed into permanent sculptures— witnesses of the original gesture. During the opening, the artist will also perform a personal action, further emphasizing the threshold between instinct and awareness, between natural movement and the loss of spontaneity.... read the rest of the article»

"The aim of this exhibition project is not merely aesthetic, but deeply experiential. Scordare il volo is not just a show; it is an invitation to reflect on the role of consciousness in our ability to live in balance with ourselves and with the world—to look at life with new eyes and rediscover the mystery hidden within the simplest of gestures," says Sofia.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY Sebastiano Sofia was born in Verona (IT) in 1986. He lives and works between Verona and Milan. In 2023, Sebastiano Sofia won the residency programme of Secci Gallery, Florence. In 2022, Boccanera Gallery Milan presented his solo exhibition Marea, a project in dialogue with Alessandro Rabottini and following the residency project won in 2021-2022 in Verona and called by Collezione De Iorio. In 2021 he won the residency programme called by Collezione Palmieri, Celle Ligure, Savona. In 2017 he was selected for the residency project Dolomite Contemporanee, Pieve di Cadore, Belluno.

"To get to know Sebastiano Sofia, one need only look at his works, a faithful - almost indiscreet, so true - mirror of his person. They reflect his past and present experiences, his character, his sensitivity, and fully clarify the medium he uses to relate to the world around him: the dream [...] a fluid painting, at times impalpable but capable of suddenly turning to fields of flat, bright, strongly expressive colour that alternates between figuration and non-figuration, revealing the artist's aptitude for expressing an inner dimension through his creative gesture." - PierPaolo Pancotto