Blanco & Izzo | Overlap | May 2026

OVERLAP

 Featuring the works of

Leonardo Blanco

Donatella Izzo

Presentation text: Anna Gasperini

 Overlap will remain on show until June 3, 2026

Von Buren Contemporary

Via Giulia 13, 00186 Roma

Von Buren Contemporary is thrilled to present Overlap, the duo exhibition of award-winning artists Leonardo Blanco and Donatella Izzo.

The abstract paintings of Blanco and the portrait and nature photographs of Izzo, when placed side by side, generate a striking and dynamic contrast. Yet an overlap exists, not only visually but also in the reliance the artists place on the technique of layering, both in real terms and conceptually.

The works of Leonardo Blanco are based on a process of material and temporal layering, using inks and acrylics on various supports including wood and aluminum. Central to Blanco’s art is the dialogue between paint and material, which translates into a search for harmony and tension, contrasts and affinities. The colors and gestures that bring the composition to life are imbued with a powerful existential and symbolic charge.

Donatella Izzo, meanwhile, presents two photographic collections: her No-portraits project, which she has been working on for more than a decade, and Post Eden // l’Ultra Natura, a more recent series focusing on nature. No-portraits reinterprets the concept of the traditional portrait, reworking the original image through techniques such as abrasion, painting and collage, before creating a final shot. Her new collection instead engages with the natural world through simple, close-up, one-off shots which shun any digital manipulation of the final image.

Leonardo Blanco was born in Santarcangelo di Romagna, Italy in 1968 and holds San Marino citizenship. He is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, sculpture and installation. Known for his remarkable versatility and refined aesthetic language, Blanco has exhibited extensively on both national and international stages.

Blanco has held numerous solo exhibitions in San Marino, Italy and Belgium and participated in prestigious group shows in London, Los Angeles, Istanbul, Dubai, Beijing, Venice and Kassel (documenta 15). In 2009, he took part in the 53rd Venice Visual Arts Biennale, selected to represent San Marino in the Republic’s Pavilion. His works are to be found in noted public and private collections including the headquarters of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, and the Water Cube Museum in Beijing. Blanco has also won a number of important competitions for public commissions, including one for a monumental steel sculpture which now stands at the entrance to San Marino’s city centre.

Donatella Izzo was born in Busto Arsizio, Italy in 1979 and is now based in Milan. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Brera, where she immediately focused on the field of photography combined with pictorial intervention. After graduating, she won numerous painting awards, striking a balance between painting and photography in perfect coexistence.

In the following years, she refined her original technique in which painting, cuts, abrasions and collage are enmeshed within the photographic process, becoming an integral part of the final image. In 2016, she launched No-Portraits which has become a central plank of her work. These photographs are reproducible yet capable of incorporating the material and sensorial nuances of various manual techniques. At the same time, the artist pursued a “stricter” photographic project entitled The Dreamers which has been exhibited internationally as well as in solo and group shows in Italy. In 2020, she was selected by the Cariplo Foundation for a solo exhibition at the Fabbrica del Vapore museum in Milan, while in 2024, the DAV (Department of Visual Arts) in Soresina dedicated a retrospective to her art. Photographs by Izzo are to be found in prestigious public and private collections and have appeared in numerous Italian and international magazines.