To artist Francesco Lietti, a rosy future would see him doing “more important, large-scale exciting projects, to touch the lives of as many people as possible”. This is no small ambition because, although Lietti’s best known works are his residential-sized cityscape canvases, he already has numerous notches on his paintbrush for commercial and civic projects (see below). Last year, he was even on the television screens of Americans, due to a collaborative mural he completed with elementary students at a school in Florida.

As a youngster, the Italian says he enjoyed drawing and “messing around with paints”, but, that, in his case, his artistic practice became more regular with the passing of the years, not less —as is usually the situation with children, who grow or are pulled out of art to focus on more ‘sensible’ academic pursuits.

Yet, for Lietti, art has been something he has grown into, and, such is the stretch of his artistic journey, that he is almost at a loss to describe it. After all, how does one begin to piece together an infinity of daily impressions that have taken place over many years into anything resembling a whole; and then describe it in proper sentences?

Belying Lietti’s much-loved, colourful collage paintings of Hong Kong and other major cities around the world, is an obsession with urban spaces, his exploration of the interconnectedness/ disconnect that exists for those who dwell within his paintings’ colourful parameters; and his well-known love of travel, which is a constant in his conversations and interviews, and clearly discernible in the large collection of Lonely Planet guides he keeps in his home. 

What always elicits an “Ah-ha!” moment is the sharing of the fact that Lietti was trained as an architect — a trade he practiced for 17 years, first in London and later in Hong Kong. Between his earlier work as an architect and personal travel, he has clocked up a lot of mileage and memories, which result in his return to the question of what it means to be a city dweller today with all of its mental, emotional and physical distractions.

“Although I enjoyed architecture very much and working in the field gave me a good understanding of buildings, cities and how to put a project together, I prefer painting. It’s more manual and tactile than architecture. When I switched fully from architecture to  art, I wanted to have more control over the projects I was working on,” says Lietti, about the whys behind his transition from architect to artist.

“My work is about cities,” he continues. “… elevations, buildings, facades, textures; these are all informed by my work as an architect. As a traveler, I also like to feel and depict the energy, the vibrancy and the colourfulness of a place.”

In 2019, Lietti embarked on an abstract series in wood, adding a new three-dimensional element to his creations, that departs from his trademark style by simplifying the city into silhouettes; although it shows consistency to his muse of city living and his adoration of colour. One example can be seen at the Louis Vuitton shop in Pacific Place, a brand with which Lietti shares a veneration for the hand fashioned. Like his canvas works, the painted woodworks somehow achieve an air of both the contemporary and the retro. 

Other exciting commissions that have jettisoned his star higher and clocked him ever more IG followers have included Commercial projects for real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, premier global asset management organisation, T. Rowe Price; and architectural companies OVA Studio and Nil Studio;  Civic projects for the likes of the Hong Kong Museum of History and the Hong Kong Science Museum; and Lietti’s collaborations with schools and universities in the US and Thailand, where he has taken up Artist-in-Resident positions.