Francesco Zavattari

The Empire Galaxy: Orbiting New York

On view June 10 - 16, 2025

Opening Reception Thursday, June 12, 6-8pm

72 Warren Street, Tribeca, NYC

Together Francesco Zavattari and curator Hope Pallis are thrilled to present The Empire Galaxy: Orbiting New York, a selection of thirty-three works in celebration of New York City. This exhibition marks Zavattari’s first solo exhibition in New York. The body of work, all painted in 2025 specifically for this show, spans beloved neighborhoods, iconic landmarks, and maps from above, imbued with Zavattari’s unmistakable style and energy.

Zavattari is well known in Italy and abroad for his “created worlds” and “universes,” landscapes or scenes filled with unexpected characters and elements. In this case, he creates The Empire Galaxy. Hidden in plain sight within the compositions are astronauts, fish, angels, satellites, aliens, hearts, spacecrafts, constellations, flowers, ships, clocks, even self-portraits, and depictions of his beloved dog. Zavattari takes familiar scenes and sets them ablaze with his characters and dynamic brushwork. These vibrating scenes of New York stand proudly as they are, but are expanded beyond that which is expected.

“My vision of New York in this series is a vibrant, but also a peaceful place seen in many views, in different times of the day, and in different moods as I was drawing, so everything is in a way connected to two very important things in my heart: space and the space-time concept,” says Zavattari.

Zavattari’s use of color in The Empire Galaxy also portrays the city in an unusual way. Yellow and deep greys dominate the pieces; calling to mind skyscrapers, streets, city lights, and yellow cabs rushing down avenues. The rich yellow, too, suggests a joyfulness and hope, and is crucial to the thrumming and lively scenes that evoke the inherent energy of New York City.

While all works in the show possess elements of Zavattari’s universes, the smaller works tend to draw more inspiration from New York’s ties to Street Art and Graffiti Art, incorporating bold, yet partially obscured text into the cityscapes. These smaller pieces often offer a more intimate view of a special place or monument, like Upper East Side.

Five large scale maps, create more macro views of New York as a galaxy. They clearly are of the same world, incorporating many of the same characters and elements, but on a larger scale, with Manhattan as the central focus point. Compared to the other pieces, the method for these maps deliberately produces a more antiqued style to reflect the deep history of the city and the surrounding area, as in Map I.

Through different viewpoints, sites, angles, and artistic approaches, Zavattari takes us on a whirlwind tour through a never-before-seen New York, buzzing with his characters and alight with what is clearly a deeply rooted love for the city that never sleeps.

“Everything I do is to project something into the infinite. The kind of New York I have drawn is not still,

it is very alive, but even so it is crystallized in a moment that is past, present, and future.”

– Francesco Zavattari

Map I, 2025, 2025, 76 3/8 x 56 ¾ inches, water-based paint, graphite, & marker on canvas