Every time we meet, Luca Dall'Olio draws my attention things which don't usually catch the public eye, like a not-so-famous exhibition, or an old church not mentioned in the usual itineraries, or a flea market which selis strange nick-nacks. He is a curious person, and his curiosity makes him enthusiastic. He's refined, enough to not be satisfied with good taste alone. He has an undoubtable talent, what is needed for a person who has chosen to make a career of his art. The proportions that his story take on makes it hard for us to believe that it is possible to master painting on first impact. His origins, his aims, his far away shapes and infinite mainifestations create uncertain notions that can complicate the understanding of a work of art usually considered easy. Furthermore, our concept of dimension and of shape is completely worthless as it is determined by a personal sense of aestheticism and by the constant comparisons that we make between a work of ari and our personal experiences and knowledge.n\hat is it, then, that gives us the possibility to interpret signs and colors when confronted with a work of ari and not when we 100k at an insignificant assembly of objects? It's the language, it's the writing of the artist that makes it possible for us to read him. lt's the common denominator that we find in all of his works and through his writing we are able to interpret what he is saying. It can be virtuosity or invention, it can be imprinted with signs or with colors, it can be more or less complicated, more or less spontaneous, but it is easily recognisable as the writing of someone who wants to teli us something. The majority of people expect to find the reflection of themselves and of their feelings in a painting, but the true value of art is the exact opposite of this. It has to involve and capture the interest of those who are worthy and be able to take them away on the discovery of new worlds. It has to move the mind toward the emotions that arise from these new worlds. This takes commitment and perhaps even hard work. Luca Dall'Olio is a young artist and for this reason it is surprising how capable he is of characterising his language. Young people have the great gift and the great fault of being just that - young. They do not realise that fashion spreads also through ideas, but they follow blindly what is new, they conform, and as result they all become the same. Dall'Olio immediately understood this theory and therefore chose originality, imagination, fantasy and the tendency to tell stories, or better, fables. The fact that Dall'Olio is the son of a great and refined poet has certainly served in shaping his inspiration and brilliance together with his unleashed and surprising creativity. I personally find it not enough to identify Dall'Olio as an effective contemporary artist in story telling known all over the world and who fascinates people of different ages of different cultures. I consider Luca Dall'Olio capable of aesthetic inventions with sources deep enough to be compared to prehistoric civilisations. His are inventions which do not pursue beauty objectives in the lateral sense, but that aim to be the connection between the world of the subconscious and that of supernatural myths and legends. He manages to conquer a clean and captivating painting that presents itself as a game of knots and tangles connected with figurative themes. From these last works arise subjects that cause problems in aesthetic, psychological and historical interpretation; animals and people that, in Dall'Olio's intentions are always fantastic creations but orientated towards symbols of reassuring mental protection. There is nothing worrying in these paintings. On the contrary, our lives and our subconscious lives are materialised in them perhaps in their most simple aspects, but in an incredibly effective way. Magicians, fairies, mermaids, skies, fields, houses, rivers and seas that are not evoked by hallucinations, but that come from dreams that are very, very real. I have in front of my eyes one of Luca Dall'Olio's great works.The canvas gives me flashes of blue, red, yellow, green and brown. But more than colors, they are reflections of diamonds, rubies, turquoise, emeralds, sapphires and topaz. It is the sparkle of a hidden treasure that has just been discovered - and the discovery causes the terrestrial things from our souls to vanish. It is the incredible surprise in discovering that there are no more projects in our minds and no regrets in our hearts. Only our dreams are left. Dall'Olio does not need much to capture our attention. He has only to paint a moon in its last quarter to emanate a colour, or better, a dying glance which reflects his next departure. In each of DalI'OIio's paintings a beautifully decorated aesthetic invention comes to life. Extremely original geometric motifs are interwoven in them, traced with incisions or reliefs or stamps as intense as passion or as faint as a sigh. The castle - one of the wonderful things forever present in the fairy tales of children, the epicentre of tales about magicians, dames and knights. A place of both refuge and adventure, the stage for ironmasters and their horses, bakers and their freshly baked bread, blacksmiths and their anvils, waterwells, where stories of love and arms were read and toid. lt is the piace that we tind in many of Luca Dall'olio's paintings, where the artist lets us relive all those childhood dreams. The memory of his distant ancestors is very much alive in Luca Dall'Olio. He brings to life the creative spirits of primitive beings and unknown artists all over the world. The artistic spirit of Babel and Saana, Ceylon and Cattai, Melanesia and Fiji, of Easter Island and Yucatan. And it is thanks to him that the heritage of these ancient spirits will never go lost. Luca Dall'Olio often takes on the role of the extravagant noble lady who orders the construction of enchanting castles in the middle of the incredible landscape in which she lives. It seems that the beauty of things is not enough for him, and for this reason he imagines and creates  littering hori19 zons, painted forests, sun-golden landscapes, suggestive reflections of the moon and stars. Theatrical devices that inebriate our souis with poetry. Many times we are surprised by the childhood simplicity in Luca DaiI'OIio's paintings, a simplicity without shrewdness. There is no malice in his works, no pre-meditated plan, only a clear state of obstinate righteousness and serene happiness. Each of Luca Dall'OIio's paintings gives 0ff and spreads itself an indefinite and pleasurable sense of welI-being of the soul. One of those unclear feelings which make us believe in some sort of supernatural influence, an unexpected ability to steal the artist's thoughts. A totally subdued sense of abandon which allows us to feel the invisible links that tie us to the soul. Another aspect of DalI'OIio's work is how it always articulates itself with originality; an originality that is certainly not his objective, but it is the means through which the artist tells the rituals of the characters and the functions of the things which are present in his paintings. To immerse oneself in one of Luca Dail'OIio's works of art means living the rites of passage from childhood to adulthood, a rite which includes surprising revelations of their essence, including the revelation of a new artistic shape. it is through these revelations that we savour the eternal events of our lives, the never ending story of the terrestrial and extra-terrestrial birth and destiny of the individual. Dall'Olio's work shows itself in two distinct ways: the more recent represented by imaginative castles built with fascinating vigour and riddled with stimulating symbolism. Totality different are the works which I call ''open sky'', of a clearly more naturalistic inspiration, but stili with an underiying fairy tale note. Usually the figurative painter uses shapes which then lead towards realistic or symbolic potrayals. Luca Dall'Olio adopts a style which has an incredible power to evoke invisible worlds and strengths. He is a painter who knows how to represent not only reality but also imagination and, often, also abstracts.

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Gigi Montini