Variazione di segno brings together Matisse Mesnil’s work on metal and printmaking. Using blacksmith tools, the artist engraved metal plates that were then printed, exploring the variability of the engraved trace. Through subtle changes in surface texture and printing density, the series produces images suspended between presence and erasure. The works are defined by a restrained palette, elemental gestures of scratching and engraving, and a close attention to the relationship between image, support, and material process, resulting in softened contrasts and blurred forms.

Matisse Mesnil (1989) is a French-Italian artist based in Paris. Positioned between craftsmanship and industry, Matisse Mesnil has developed a body of technical and methodological experimentation centred on his material of choice: metal.

Through practices such as welding and grinding, the artist reworks the means of figuration within its most traditional genres, including landscape and still life, while his research is accompanied by an increasingly abstract vocabulary that approaches the language of minimalism.