On the occasion of Rome Art Week 2026, Cabaret Voltaire Roma presents the new solo exhibition by PA Artist, an artist from Abruzzo who, in recent years, has developed a highly distinctive painting practice centered on the human figure, perception, and the relationship between light and darkness.
The exhibition, hosted in the salotto of Cabaret Voltaire Roma from 20 October to 8 November, represents a new stage in the artist’s journey, which began with Blackout, his first solo exhibition, presented in 2025 at the Maison des Arts of the Fondazione Pescarabruzzo and curated by Katia Di Simone.
It is precisely from that experience that one of the most interesting keys to understanding PA Artist’s work emerges: the use of black not simply as a background or a negation of light, but as an active pictorial space, in which the figure can appear, fragment, lose definition, and then re-emerge.
“Each work represents a profound investigation into the boundaries and potential of the pictorial medium,” observed Katia Di Simone when presenting Blackout. This reflection finds further development in the artist’s new exhibition in Rome.
The Human Figure Between Presence and Dissolution
The human face often lies at the heart of PA Artist’s painting.
Not a portrait understood simply as the representation of a person, but a figure subjected to a process of transformation: the face is crossed by marks, brushstrokes, fractures, and layers that progressively alter its perception.
The figure remains recognizable and, at the same time, seems to elude us.
It is within this space of ambiguity that the artist’s research takes shape: between what we see and what we believe we recognize, between identity and the loss of identity, between order and chaos.
In the Blackout exhibition, this tension was described as a journey capable of transforming unease into an opportunity for discovery, making black not an absence, but a condition from which something can emerge once again.
From Black to Matter
In Rome, PA Artist continues this exploration while engaging with an exhibition space profoundly different from that of his previous institutional solo exhibition.
Cabaret Voltaire Roma, in the heart of the Monti district, is a place dedicated to encounters between different artistic languages: painting, photography, music, literature, performance, and art history. Its vocation is not simply to be an exhibition space, but a place where art can be observed, discussed, and experienced.
An Ongoing Exploration
PA Artist studied at the Artistic High School in Pescara and developed his artistic language also through encounters with artists and masters from the Abruzzo region, such as Duccio Gammelli, Albano Paolinelli, and Enrico Terribili. His first solo exhibition, Blackout, marked an important moment in his career, attracting critical attention and also leading to the publication of a monograph dedicated to the exhibition. In 2025, PA Artist was selected as a FINALIST in the AMEDEO MODIGLIANI PRIZE 2025 in the Painting category with his work YOUTH, which will be exhibited at Cabaret Voltaire alongside nine other very recent works.
The Rome exhibition is not intended simply as a re-presentation of that project.
Cabaret Voltaire instead presents this new exhibition as an opportunity to observe where the artist’s research is heading, what new possibilities his painting is opening up, and how the figure can continue to serve as a means of speaking about the contemporary individual.
It is a form of painting that asks the viewer to pause before the work.
To move closer.
To recognize a figure and, immediately afterwards, question whether they have truly recognized it.
In this continuous movement between presence and absence, light and darkness, order and disorder, PA Artist creates a space in which painting does not necessarily offer answers, but opens up questions.
And perhaps this is precisely the most natural point of encounter with Cabaret Voltaire Roma: a place where art is not merely exhibited, but becomes an opportunity for dialogue.