Alfredo Zelli. Beata moltitudo

Promoted by the Department of Culture of Roma Capitale, Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, and Fondazione Mattatoio di Roma - Città delle Arti, the free exhibition in Pavilion 9B of the Mattatoio is dedicated to the Roman artist Alfredo Zelli and his forty-year career. It is an anthological project conceived, however, in the form of a solo exhibition, which brings together the full scope of his artistic practice through the display of over 40 works.

Since his debut in 1986 at Ugo Ferranti’s gallery, Alfredo Zelli has quickly made a name for himself on the international scene, exhibiting in Paris and New York, among other places. In his work, painting intertwines with a sculptural sensibility: materials are shaped in relation to space, conceived from the outset as a welcoming and livable dimension – the primary driving force behind the work.

The exhibition creates a dialogue between works from the past and the present (from “Untitled” 1987 to the acrylic on PET “Tra giorno, notte, cielo e terra”, 2025-2026), inviting viewers to reconstruct, through their own gaze, the figures and identities present in the paintings. Paraphrasing the well-known Latin saying found in Franciscan and Cistercian hermitic contexts, Beata moltitudo thus refers to humanity, in its development through the history of art and the sacred.