Andrea “Bobo” Marescalchi (Rome, 1954 – Florence, 2015) attends the Artistic High School in Florence and later the Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1975, after interrupting his studies, he begins to work with graphics, while becoming interested in the oriental calligraphic art.  He then started training to replicate the speed in the writing gesture, deepening and studying both techniques and materials.
Alongside his personal research, he collaborates with various artists, producing multi-handed artworks and also worked as an assistant to Alighiero Boetti and Sol Lewitt.
Fascinated by mathematics, numerical symbology, repetitiveness and arithmetic perfection he developed a practice in which the objectivity of the image is connected to unexpected elements. Magic squares, playing cards, geometric shapes, red and yellow numbers superimpose the main imagine usually painted with grey and black India inks.
In 2002, after having his studio in Via Toscanella for over 10 years, he moved to Borgo Albizi in Florence, where he continued working until the last days of his life.
His works can be found in numerous private collections in Italy and abroad.

Solo exhibitions

2014
Paso Doble, Casa dei Mori, Venice, Italy

2010
La scimmia, l’immagine, il suo doppio, Art for the world, Open Care, Milan, Italy

Montaña, Galèria arte sonado, Madrid, Spain

2008
Tra me e te c’è qualcuno che guarda, Galleria Santo Ficara, Florence, Italy

2004
Isole annodate a pesci, Galleria 9, Rome, Italy 

2003
Andrea Marescalchi, Limonaia di Villa Strozzi, Florence, Italy

 2002
Colpo di mano sul Monte dei Draghi, Galleria Seno, Milan, Italy

 1998
Il punto, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy

1997
Peindre? Andrea Marescalchi, Galleria Krieff, Paris, France
Andrea Marescalchi, tensions, Galleria Mottier, Geneva, Switzerland

 1994
One man show, Autorimessa, Rome, Italy

 1989
Andrea Marescalchi, Museo Riz à Porta, Florence, Italy

Group exhibitions

 2019

Il Profumo delle fiabe | Cappuccetto Rosso, Santa Maria della Scala | Museo d’arte per bambini, Siena, Italy

2018
Il Terzo Giorno, Palazzo del Governatore, Parma, Italy

2017
Aqua, ART for the World, Château de Penthes, Geneva, Italy

2016
Cosmic Connections, Galleria David Totah, New York, USA

2014
Anda e rianda, Binnenkant 21, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2012
Muro di china, Galleria Eva Menzio, Turin, Italy

2011
Forest magic mountain, Il bosco dei poeti alla FAO, Rome, Italy

2006
Seeing… blue, The gallery at Buck house, New York, USA

2005
Donna donne, ART for the World, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy

2002
Continuità, arte in Toscana 1990-2000 e collezionismo del contemporaneo in Toscana, Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy

1997
Meditation, ART for the World, Medersa Ibn Yqussef, Marrakesh, Morocco

1995
Dialogue de paix, ART for The World, Palazzo delle Nazioni, Geneva, Switzerland

 1993
Improvvisazione Libera, Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy

 1992
Doppio gioco, Galleria Bonomo, Roma/ Bari – San Domenico, Spoleto, Italy

Michela Eremita is an art historian. She curates multidisciplinary projects, as well as collections and exhibitions in different cities and various contexts such as Manifesta (2018) and La Biennale di Venezia (2023). She is in charge of research projects related to contemporary art at the Santa Maria della Scala Museum in Siena, Italy, where she co-founded (1998) the Children’s Art Museum  creating an international collection dedicated to childhood containing more than 400 artworks with a diachronic development.

A post it

By Michela Eremita

This exhibition is the first one dedicated to Andrea “Bobo” Marescalchi after his passing away thanks to the collaboration of the archive founded by his heirs with the aim of making his research known and valued. It unites friends and people who shared his relentless practice of art, a space of thought and action that for him matched the rituality of the gesture.

The, that recalls his presence is referred to a piece of paper he accurately placed like a post it note at the entrance of his studio in Florence: IO SONO MARESCALCHI (I am Marescalchi).

Tireless, curious, versatile… these definitions, albeit incompletely, trace the attitudes of the artist, always open to experimentation and with a particular attitude to often add a touch of irony to his practice. Irony, is indeed a two-faced Janus, a blade that by opening lightweight scenarios can distract from the accomplished gash. And it is exactly in that ripped space that we can find the rigorous research dedicated to the τέχνη, with the related empirical implications like the ones required by his favourite language, ink on paper. The ripped space itself is key to dive into the quest for the absolute synthesis that gesture can represent, merging will and the nature of things.

From this perspective angle, what is expressed/impressed or revealed by the white (apparent emptiness) of the surfaces of the rice papers acquires a whole different meaning. The papers become homes/spaces for presences (animal or inanimate it does not matter) that drag the eye and the mind toward a continuous tension between the unspeakable and the said. Andrea Marescalchi’s figuration has the power to disregard physicality even though it is so strongly evoked to appear almost similar to real (true deception for the viewer).

But matter does not interest as such (not surprisingly, the use of black and white is dominant). It is a vehicle for the unspeakable that dwells within. And the technique required to spread the ink spontaneously becomes his practice to experience the complexity of existence with the volatility of lightness. Animals, landscapes – no wonder mount Kailash, the sacred mountain of Tiber – and the objects eloquently let the mystery and the secret that lies in life shine through.

The masterful execution talent leads to make the gesture, pictorial and rapid, an effective sign of the immediacy and nature of things, without artifice. And it is precisely the use of ink (on paper or canvas) that emphasizes the rapidity of what is not mutable and is hidden in the ineffable. The magic square and its unapologetic mathematical rigor, often overpowering the representations, only adds mystery to mystery, leaving the viewer often enraptured (and distracted) by the beauty of the subjects depicted in the trap of verisimilitude.

The paintings chosen for “Io Sono Marescalchi” tell us about the artist’s spiritual quest and in particular they evoke Paso Doble (one of his last exhibitions in Venice where he presented a series of views of mount Kailash and Scarpe Serene) while Deità are works made in 2015, shortly before his death and dedicated without veils to subjects with a spiritual afflatus. These are complemented by other works such as Nodo (knot) and the carpet (the only one) made in Afghanistan, together with some animals from earlier periods that share sensibility and language with the other works in the exhibition.

A brief overview of selected documents provides access to studies and visions developed over time as well as evidence of the collaborations entertained by the artist during his lifetime.

What else to say…just add a little thought about the obvious beauty, the aesthetic cuddle he used to coat life forms with. But cosmetics can be distracting, can direct the eye to linger on the surface and be captivated by it, while, doing the sharp eye, one glimpses the sparkle of the life that makes them animated and supernatural.