The Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation presents Evenfall, Jem Perucchini's first institutional solo exhibition. Spanning between painting and ceramics, Perucchini's practice draws from a historical artistic imaginary coming from various sources, from motifs related to late Italian Gothic painting, to Ethiopian frescoes, and the iconography of Renaissance art, offering a new interpretation of the classical Western canon.

Evenfall focuses on the theme of twilight, bringing together a selection of twelve paintings, some new, others already existing, accompanied by an installation of ceramic tiles specially produced for the exhibition. The ceramic piece, Tappeto (2025), borrows its title from a short poem by Giuseppe Ungaretti, describing how the colors of a carpet are intertwined, each separate yet connected to the other. Placed at the entrance of the gallery, the artwork introduces the concepts of duality, interaction, and ambiguity within the exhibition. The paintings explore the liminal space between a series of dichotomous relationships: day and night, visible and invisible, conscious and unconscious, spiritual and earthly, redemption and sin. Through the dramatic use of light, shadow, and composition, Perucchini deliberately disrupts these contrasts to draw attention to their illusory separation.

The titles of the paintings in Evenfall allude to classical antiquity, bringing to light lesser-known figures, such as Elagabalus, the young emperor of Syrian origin whose tumultuous reign over the Roman Empire was later erased from history, or Eros and Thanatos, personifications of love and death in Greek mythology. Their narratives illustrate how history and mythology intertwine over time, like Elagabalus, a historical sovereign of the past who evolved into a cult figure and later a nearly forgotten mystery, or like Eros and Thanatos, minor deities in Orphic literature, linked to the religious beliefs of Orphism and Orpheus himself, whose historical existence remains uncertain. Perucchini's portraits seem to avert their gaze, as if looking beyond the frame and silently inviting the viewer to consider what lies outside the represented image. Details such as a letter and a caress evoke rich narratives, offering audiences an emotional intimacy that prompts a further reconsideration of the classics.

By bringing to light elements long obscured within familiar canons, Perucchini reformulates the idea of the classics as a construction in a continuous process of interpretation. Instead of confirming these established stories, his paintings reveal them anew as mysteries, waiting to be unveiled and rearranged by the viewer. In this way, the artist restores the ongoing transformation of narrative as he moves between geography and time, blurring the boundaries between history, mythology, and faith.