Collection: Necco Roberto

(Turin 1969)

Roberto Necco, (elyron_unthink), is a graphic designer and illustrator from Turin, an architect by training. In almost thirty years of activity in the field of graphic design he has created projects in various fields, from visual identity to exhibit design, from illustration to typography.

He has received several awards (Fedrigoni Award in 2009, European Design Award in 2011 among the most important) and some of his works have been selected for the Warsaw Poster Biennial, for the Ogaki Poster Museum in Japan, for the permanent collection of the Milan Triennale.

He was introduced to sumi-e painting by master Raf Chigyo Ianzano, and this practice is part of his daily activity. Ink painting (sumi-e, or suibokuga) is something other than an art form: it is rather a true practice of contemplation, in which what is painted is a direct manifestation of the beauty of nature, without expectations of result and without technical mediation.

The results are often surprising, fascinating, unexpected: it is the wonder of seeing a flower, a small tree, a bamboo grow through the open window of your own sheet of paper. Roberto Necco's research is aimed at experimenting with traditional Japanese ink painting, trying to bring it into the contemporary, trying to escape from the manner of classical subjects, to reconnect with pure manifestation.  

“Sumi-e is painting reduced to the minimum possible: ink, stone, brush, paper. There is nothing superfluous. In its practice there is no planning, composition, not even inspiration. We draw from the world we inhabit and that inhabits us. I am fascinated by wild herbs, the plants that grow on the edges of the road regardless of their beauty”.