A figure emerges from a dense accumulation of torn and layered paper fragments, a face, composed and direct, looking outward from the collision of images. The word indipendenza appears across the figure's chest like a caption or a declaration, the only legible text placed with intention amid the controlled chaos of the composition. Fragments of mid-century imagery, advertising type, color fields, and textural scraps press in from all sides, yet the figure holds its ground, one eye clear and steady above the fracture lines.

In Indipendenza, Demetrio Di Grado works in his characteristic mode: sourcing fragments from magazines and printed matter of the 1920s through 1950s and reassembling them into compressed, vertical compositions that feel simultaneously archaeological and urgent. Where his works often conceal the eyes of their figures, here one eye remains exposed, meeting the viewer with quiet defiance. Independence is something asserted from within the material itself.

Demetrio Di Grado is a Caltagirone-based artist whose collage practice, developed since 2016, draws on the visual language of the mid-twentieth century to interrogate identity, memory, and the layered nature of the image. His work is held in private collections and is represented by Nomad Art Collective, Sambuca di Sicilia.

Indipendenza is presented as part of IL BIVIO III: Mosaica, Coexistence without Resolution, on view at Nomad Art Collective, Sambuca di Sicilia (AG), May 9 through July 4, 2026. This work is available for purchase and will ship upon the closing of the exhibition.