The exhibition represents a proper homage to an artist whose links to our country are family related (his ancestors, although born in the US, came from Naples and Sciacca), personal (Michael lives near Trevi for part of the year), but also because even in Umbria, prompted by the sight of a block of oak, he had the idea, inspired by Giotto’s and Cimabue’s frescos, of turning similar blocks into the material that mostly defines his work: long parallelepipedal wooden modules of standard and variable length, covered by superimposed layers of colour, arranged next to each other to form chromatic stripes. 

After the series «Twills» (diagonal weavings), made as early as 1965, followed by «Stripes» and «Sprays» (spray paint), «Blocks» stands as Venezia’s ultimate quest: the artist imagines his compositions to represent words devoid of a narrative or meanings that are not related to the structure of colour itself, the latter embodied on painted shelves and tridimensional volumes that give colour its substance through their objective existence. These works, without denying their own conceptual value, manage to tie it with chromatic impressions and lyrical clues, and leave the viewer complete freedom to re-assemble a story made of silent and inner images, as if these were abstract icons or horizontal landscapes.

(from the press release of Palazzo Collicola, Spoleto)