This was the challenge at the heart of the project “Potente di Fuoco”, which began several years ago and later took shape in a publication by Modo Infoshop. The exhibition “Potente di Fuoco and Other Drawings”, held at Palazzo Rasponi, featured 88 drawings on paper of both real and imaginary animals. On one side were the works created back in 1985 by young Leonardo—Ericailcane’s given name—at the age of five, lovingly preserved by his parents who, twenty-five years later, decided to “return” them to their son, now a celebrated artist. The temptation to redraw and reinterpret them proved irresistible.
And so began this unique dialogue across time. The animals of the past had “grown up”: the uncertain, childlike strokes made with markers and colored pencils—already brimming with remarkable quality, freshness, and expressive power—were met by the control and precision honed through years of artistic practice, in a compelling confrontation between past and present.
The city of Ravenna dedicated to Ericailcane one of the most comprehensive exhibitions of his career, both in terms of variety and quantity of works shown. At the core of the exhibition was the Potente di Fuoco project, enriched with new, previously unseen drawings based on the same concept, offering a preview of the artist’s forthcoming publication.
Among the new works on display was a series of large-scale black-and-white drawings created during the darkest days of the COVID-19 lockdown. These powerful pieces welcomed visitors at the entrance to the exhibition. Also on view were a selection of recent colored drawings, alongside installations, videos, and objects—including a limited-edition skateboard designed by Ericailcane in collaboration with Marco Miccoli’s “Bonobolabo.”
Originally from Belluno, Ericailcane rose to prominence in the early 2000s with graffiti and wall paintings in Bologna, as well as through video art events organized by the Bologna Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied. Today, his work is internationally recognized for its extraordinary precision and distinctive imagery—anthropomorphic animals rendered with technical finesse and placed in surreal, socially and ecologically charged settings.
Ericailcane shares a strong connection with the city of Ravenna, where he created one of his most monumental works in the Darsena district, painted on the brick walls of the old ex-Mosa feed mill. This emotionally resonant piece seems inspired by the fantastical animals—the Colombre and the Sea Serpent—invented in the 1950s by Dino Buzzati, the Belluno-born writer greatly admired by the artist.
In 2019, Ericailcane returned to Ravenna, invited by Subsidenze, the street art festival curated by the cultural association Indastria. On that occasion, he created the monumental mural “Non facciamo di tutte le erbe fasci”.
The exhibition was curated by Andrea Losavio and Paolo Trioschi, and promoted by the Department of Culture of the City of Ravenna and MAR – Ravenna Art Museum, in collaboration with D406 gallery from Modena.