Florence, Piazza Della Signoiria 2013

Pietropoli Patrick made this painting of Florence’s Piazza Della Signoria, we’re not sure when, but it feels pretty timeless. The way he laid down the paint, it's all about the process, like he's building the scene layer by layer. There's a real push and pull between the solid, stony buildings and the way the light seems to dissolve everything. Look at the left side of the painting: the building is almost disappearing, all scrubbed out and hazy, while over on the right, the Loggia dei Lanzi is more defined, with these cool, blueish shadows. It’s like he's playing with how much to reveal, how much to let fade away. That tension, that push and pull, reminds me a bit of Gerhard Richter's blurry paintings, where the image is both there and not there. It's like Patrick is saying, hey, reality is always shifting, always a little out of reach.