FRAGILE EMPIRE.

Fragile Empire begins from a condition rather than a subject, from the understanding that existence itself does not begin by choice. There is no decision about where, when, or under which terms presence starts. The figures that appear in these paintings occupy that condition.

The work does not depict events or construct narratives. Instead, it registers bodies as they negotiate space, gravity, and constraint within structures that precede them, where movement functions less as an act of will than as a response to forces already in place.

Form holds temporarily, then shifts, recalibrates, or gives way. What emerges is not collapse, but the ongoing effort of remaining present within inherited limits.

GIVING DOUBTS A CHANCE.

Doubt is treated here as a working condition rather than something to be resolved. It slows the process, interrupts habit, and keeps decisions provisional.

Instead of pushing the image toward clarity, doubt is allowed to remain active, guiding when to proceed and when to stop. Certain gestures are followed; others are suspended. The painting advances through hesitation as much as through intention.

Doubt becomes a way of listening. It keeps the work open, prevents premature closure, and allows form to emerge through attention rather than control.

TITLES.

The titles function as an extension of the work rather than a caption. They borrow the language of notifications, protocols, and automated responses, fragments of instruction or suspension that echo states of control, delay, and uncertainty. Phrases such as Hold your breath until further notice, Reality currently unavailable, or No further corrections allowed do not describe the image, but operate alongside it, setting a parallel register.

They introduce a tension between authority and fragility, clarity and breakdown, reinforcing the sense of a system that continues to issue commands even as it destabilizes. Like the paintings themselves, the titles remain unresolved, hovering between directive and collapse.

BIO.

Fabio La Fauci is an Italian artist whose practice focuses on painting as a site of tension, negotiation, and instability.

His work engages process, layering, and erasure, addressing how images form, resist fixation, and shift as they unfold. His approach emphasizes tension over resolution, allowing different elements to surface, withdraw, and renegotiate their role within the composition.

The paintings resist narrative clarity, allowing ambiguity to remain active within the image.