Gregorio Zanardi
Something is striking about Gregorio Zanardi’s work. Born in Argentina in 2000, he’s barely in his twenties, yet the emotions in his paintings and digital pieces feel as deep as if he’d spent decades on them. That clash of youth with old-soul feeling may be the point.
Zanardi's work is most steady in portraiture, especially of older faces. These portraits aren't idealised or sentimental. They show weathered, thoughtful people with something unresolved. Wrinkled skin, eyes turned inward. Zanardi chooses faces society often ignores and puts them front and centre with blunt intensity. This follows a Latin American figurative tradition. Artists like Antonio Berni or León Ferrari used human presence as resistance, and Zanardi, whether intentionally or not, continues that line.
What separates him from simple melancholy portraiture is tension. One can describe his practice as a deliberate collision between beauty and unease, and you feel it. Harmonious compositions that carry a current of discomfort just beneath the surface. An imperfectly rendered face with something slightly off in the gaze. The work doesn't let you settle.
Worth following across NFT Platforms, and worth keeping an eye on his physical work, which you suspect may be where the most interesting surprises are still to come.