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Francesco Lietti is giving me a tour of his latest exhibition at the Novalis gallery on Hollywood Road, a space owned by an Italian contemporary, and specialising in the artworks of Italians. Lietti has been in Hong Kong for 17 years and, as his website reveals, was enchanted as soon as he set foot here. What the website doesn’t reveal (let’s call it the insider scoop!), is that Lietti actually came to Hong Kong in his previous incarnation as an architect; work that had taken him from his native Italy to London, before he arrived here — thus, his fascination with the city and its architecture, which is really his muse. He nods, “An architect’s work is all about sections, plans and elevations”, says Lietti, adding that the work for which he is best known (his representations of the Hong Kong cityscape), are “basically elevations”.
“My paintings are all basically elevations.”
Most of these cityscapes are taken of the Hong Kong skyline from Kowloon side, although he shows a few on his phone that look towards Tsim Sha Tsui, and there are some deviations from his fascination with Hong Kong in works celebrating Udaipur, Rajasthan, India and Istanbul, Turkey.
Lietti’s cityscapes are multi-layered works that often combine acrylic and oil and use hand-drawn elements via a variety of accoutrements from Chinese calligraphy brushes and brushstrokes, pen and ink, etching into the paintwork or collage.
Each painting offers a depth of field and transports one into the artwork, a feeling only augmented by the collage. The paintings are bright and joyful, “I hope so,” he affirms, in palette, while the collage lends an approachability to his work.
“The collages might be trees or vehicles you’ll find on a Hong Kong street and include text”, he adds — either hand-painted on paper or taken from other sources, such as newspapers.
“To be honest”, he continues, “the words are sometimes chosen simply due to size or are chosen for the message I’m trying to convey. In other cases, when I’ve been commissioned to do an artwork, I have listened to the client and have incorporated the essence of their story into the painting.”
Lietti combined painting with his job as an architect for many years, before taking the plunge in 2017 to fully pursue art. He has a strong work ethic and worked throughout Covid, a period which he says was actually profitable for him, with many expatriates leaving Hong Kong and wanting to take a piece of the city with them.
“Some of these buyers left Hong Kong for Singapore, for example, and then want to have a painting of Singapore too”, he shares, noting that some artistic licence is taken in his repositioning of cities’ iconic buildings, for art’s sake.
“People leave Hong Kong and want to take a piece of the city with them.”
As Lietti takes me around the exhibition, he shows me the deviations from the style for which he is best known — kind of fairground mirror distortions of his 3D work, in which he pushes and pulls aspects of his work further towards the viewer, while obfuscating other aspects, in wood.
Another strand of Lietti’s evolving work has been his ‘Art for Schools’ initiative, which has grown organically out of commissioned work he has done, for international schools HKIS and Kellett. His latest [at the time of writing] commission came from a school in Florida and saw him work with 250 pupils to create a 9m mural featuring Tampa Bay.
Being Neighbourly welcomes Francesco Lietti’s participation in our inaugural art exhibition, Transitions.
Lietti shares 3 things that have influenced him creatively
A south-north, north-south bus route during my London period
Every time I got on board a number 45 or 63 double decker bus, which I took so many times during the seven years I lived in London, I felt inspired and that the price of the bus fare was really worth it. We would cross bridges, see new, glass skyscrapers being built on the South Bank; and behind St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Thames shimmered in the morning/fading daylight.
The Hippie Trail of Vang Vieng in Laos
The platform offers a diverse array of visual content, from contemporary art and classical pieces to interior design and high fashion. I often browse through works of other artists, immersing myself in fresh ideas and concepts. In the art world, there is always someone more skilled from who to learn. Staying updated on the latest trends in colour, style and technique is essential for any artist looking to refine their craft.
A bluey-green, beautiful oops
During one art fair, I kept looking at the blue-green of a painting I’d done (typical of Hong Kong), thinking how much I liked it. Was it the colour, the composition or that I had taken a risk when the painting was nearly done, letting watery paint drip from the clouds as if it were rain? So, during the last day of the fair, I found myself in the strange position of being at a show and hoping that something wouldn’t sell.
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