From 3 to 30 November, the exhibition 'Honua' by Luca Davini, curated by Valeria Pardini, will be held at the Spazio Espositivo Sopra le Logge. The exhibition will be inaugurated on Thursday 3 November at 6 p.m. in the presence of the councillor for culture Pierpaolo Magnani, and can be visited free of charge every day, except Tuesdays, from 10.30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Luca Davini (stage name Mana, meaning life force, spiritual energy, power), born in 1977 in Florence but has always lived in Pisa. He attended scientific high school, studies that did not reflect his true passions; in fact, from a very young age he was interested in drawing and the art of tattoos. At a 'more mature' age, he approached street art and expressive calligraphy. Over the years, he has increasingly developed his own style. Initially, he was influenced by the work of artists such as Chaz and Retna who work in East Los Angeles, the Arabic El Seed, the Turkish calligraphic tradition and the Japanese Shodo or 'Way of Writing'.
To create his works, he uses various materials: Chinese and Japanese brushes, the traditional flat plate; graffiti markers, acrylic and spray paints, various media such as wood, canvas or paper. The texture of the background is often created by stencils of real leaves, linoleum prints, weaving of written words. In other works, however, he makes use of photographic support. Photos he took in Hawaii, a particularly important place in Davini's artistic journey. The reference to those islands is to be found above all in the colours used - black, reminiscent of lava rock, the brown of the earth, the red of fire, the green of the trees, the blue of the sea and sky and the yellow of the sun - but also in the words found in his works and the concepts they contain: mana (spirit), ohana (family), honua (planet), aina (earth), kai (ocean), to name but a few. The works exhibited at the Spazio Sopra le Logge tell a story of a journey that began in 2010 and is constantly evolving, and of the artist's enormous love for these distant islands, their people and their culture.
