PRIMA LUCE – A Solo Exhibition by Francesco Loliva
Sofy Gallery, New York
May 21 – June 4
Press Release by Felicia Robustelli
Sofy Gallery NYC is pleased to present Prima Luce, a solo exhibition by Italian photographer Francesco Loliva (b. 1956), organized as part of the PicassoDefi Project hosted at Sofy Gallery NYC. The exhibition will be on view in Chelsea, New York, from May 21 through June 4.
Prima Luce captures the exact moment when darkness recedes and the world begins to reveal itself again. Suspended between shadow and illumination, silence and awakening, the photographs inhabit a fragile yet powerful threshold where reality is not yet fully disclosed, but already anticipated.
Each image becomes a point of departure—not merely a captured instant, but a passage into renewed perception. Through landscapes shaped by stillness, atmosphere, and light, Loliva invites viewers into a slower and more contemplative way of seeing. In an era saturated with images and visual acceleration, Prima Luce proposes a return to attention, presence, and the quiet wonder of dawn.
Originally trained in medicine and later specialized in cardiology, Loliva began exploring photography during his university years, developing a parallel artistic practice grounded in observation and emotional resonance. His visual language is deeply informed by travel and landscape, as well as by the luminous geography of his native Puglia in Southern Italy, whose horizons and natural light continue to shape his work.
Self-taught and deeply influenced by both Italian and international photographic traditions, Loliva has developed a personal approach rooted in careful observation and poetic restraint. Since 2017, his work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. With Prima Luce, Sofy Gallery presents a photographic meditation on light as revelation—an invitation to slow down, look again, and rediscover the act of seeing itself.
