Gold/Smith Gallery announces the one-man exhibit of Mario Francesconi. Francesconi is considered to be the leader of modernism in all of Italy. His self portrait hangs in the portrait gallery at the Uffizi, the city of Firenze honored him with two retrospectives in 2010, and the city of Venice gave him a room to show his work in their last biennial. He is truly a painter's painter. A talent to be admired and a brush stroke to be envied.

This is the third time Francesconi has shown his paintings at Gold/Smith Gallery and the first time he is featuring his homage to summer with his still-life paintings. The gallery is the only gallery in the United States to show his work although Francesconi has been showing all over Europe since 1959.

Francesconi is a poet of detritus who constructs objects with the perfume of everyday. His everyday is not the ordinary, the mundane, but quite the opposite. For Mario it is small events, fleeting moments, that resonate. He has called himself a man in love with the carnality of the world. His found bits of paper, string, wire, printed matter, sometimes stained or torn, never deny their origins. Mario eschews obvious virtuosity. He recognizes no distinction between abstraction and representation.

There will be an opening reception for the artist at the gallery Saturday, August 4 from 4 to 7 p.m. The gallery is at 41 Commercial Street, Boothbay Harbor. Gold/Smith Gallery can be reached at 633-6252 for more information.