The Art of Impermanence of Federico Gori
- Elevated Magazines
- Dec 14, 2025
- 3 min read
Tuscan contemporary artist Federico Gori founds his multidisciplinary work on the concepts of unpredictability and impermanence in nature. Through engravings, paintings, sculptures, and installations, Gori explores the relentless passing of time in all its facets, highlighting the natural world’s transformation process and the limitations of human action against its action.
“I employ techniques and materials that force internal and external transformations upon my work. These changes, whether predictable or not, give life to the piece, which rarely finds a single, definitive form.”
Drawing inspiration from the organic forms he selects in nature, Gori renders engravings and natural oxidation on copper polyptychs that feature repeated patterns. His works present highly symbolic, minimal landscapes displaying memories of fossils and extinct flora; they exist in a fluid narrative suspended between past and present, transcending the mere reproduction of reality. The artist’s choice of copper is central to his poetics. The metal’s uncontrolled oxidation and changing appearance give the artwork the status of a living piece in continuous evolution, reiterating the life cycle and the impossibility for humanity to fully dominate time or matter.
A selection of Gori’s works, from the series Estinti, Pattern and Perenne, is exhibited within the refined interiors of Molteni Flagship Store in the heart of Manhattan, a project designed by renowned architect Vincent Van Duysen that brings Italian elegance into the vibrant New York architecture. This is a journey through natural history, from deep roots and timber to extinct plant life. To the viewer, it provokes a powerful experience, opposite feelings of bewilderment and profound comfort, characteristic of solitary, contemplative spaces.
Bringing together six different species of extinct plants, Estinti displays a kaleidoscope of the sinuous lines of fossils, unravelling myriad perspectives and a subtle equilibrium between figurative and abstract representation. To create the imprints, the artist drew on the few archaeological remains of the plants that lived on Earth at different times, and thus transformed them into repeatable patterns, yet differing from each other.
Repetition is a fundamental part of nature, comprising visible regularities of forms in multiple contexts. Gori directly refers to this idea in the Pattern series, a coherent group of works where the roots of the trees are the main subject of investigation. As a secret and vibrating underground network, as well as an expression of a living communication system, roots are the site of the command center of the plants. With functions similar to those of the human brain, they receive information from sensory receptors, process it, and implement growth strategies.
Relying on the theme of the life cycles of organisms, the series Perenne presents the imprint of a cross-section of a tree trunk acting as a generator of images. Each artwork in this series simultaneously embeds two temporal linearities, the present and the past. While the original drawings of the imprints are destined to change in the future, the inherent message of the tree’s trunk remains permanent. As storytellers of past events, their rings are a true natural archive that narrates the story of the forest they have grown in, their age and health, as well as the evolution of the climate.
Federico Gori
Interested in the Sign Art painting and fully embracing the lesson of the Art Informel, Federico Gori (Pistoia, 1977) has been awarded the prestigious ministerial Italian PAC 2024 and PAC 2020, art residencies at La Panacée, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Montpellier, and Nanjing University, Jiangsu P. R. China, among others. He has presented his works in numerous significant institutions and museums, including the Biennale Arte di Venezia, Palazzo Fabroni in Pistoia, the Museo Archeologico di Taranto, Collezioni Gori at the Fattoria Celle in Pistoia, Fondazione Biagiotti Arte and Palazzo Strozzi in Florence.
Photography by Daniel Civetta for Kalpa
