The Art of Words

Valerio was first linked with Gucci when he was featured in the inaugural volume of Gucci Prospettive, a series that underscores the dialogue between art and fashion – a connection that speaks to the artist’s own personal narrative. From early attempts at fashion illustration and designing lines for a seamstress to his parents’ fortuitous first meeting (his mother met his father while taking sewing lessons from his grandmother), Valerio has always been surrounded by fashion. “These continuous exchanges and influences definitely conditioned me and consequently, my way of creating art. Fashion has a great power: to capture one’s gaze,” he says.

Before Sabato De Sarno’s debut fashion show in September 2023, the Creative Director handpicked Valerio as one of the four young artists to be spotlighted in Gucci Prospettive and an accompanying exhibit in Milan where the artist showed a work with the words ‘Fingevamo l’intimità ed era l’unico modo per amarci’ (We pretended intimacy and it was the only way to love each other), a piece with which he declared “the only language I know is that of emotion”. Valerio’s work, which was first rooted in imagery until he realized imagery wasn’t enough, is rich with sentiment. “I began to mentally isolate fragments of sentences and I realized that some words, simple, linear, one next to the other, created images in my head. Images that spoke of emotions that I was living. I understood that those same words created different, personal images in the mind of the person reading them,” he says.

The artist’s first work for the House is now also showcased in the art-filled New Bond Street boutique in London while his new piece, that says ‘Ogni tanto, lo so, sogni anche tu, e sogni di noi’ (Every now and then, I know, you dream too, and you dream of us), graces various Art Walls around the world, conveying his vision to a global audience. However, Valerio maintains a strong connection to Sicily, the place where he grew up, and Milan, where he now resides. “I have to thank Milan because it allowed me to do what I have always dreamt of doing. I don’t know if I feel at home, but I could never leave. It is a constant struggle, ideally, that keeps me in a condition of statelessness. So I try to speak to my two homes, as if they were my lovers, and I do it through my art.”