He left all of his sadness and all of his joy on the tap floor

The line drawings, often accompanied by short texts, stem from the daily stream of thoughts of the artist Orfeo Tagiuri. Influenced by the New York cartoonist Saul Steinberg, the cartoons of The New Yorker and contemporary memetics, the artist conceives his images as a reusable visual alphabet, composed of recurring figures: “I illustrate a flower, a house, a tree or a dog with the same fluidity with which I write my signature,” says the artist.

In their apparent formal simplicity, each work captures common and deeply human situations, such as frustration, pain and bewilderment, whilst simultaneously transforming into a silent quest for joy. In this subtle interweaving, the images remind us that we are never entirely alone but constantly accompanied by the flow of our thoughts.

Orfeo Tagiuri (born 1991 in Brookline, MA, USA) lives and works in London.
He graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2019 with a Master’s degree in Painting and previously attended Stanford University. He has exhibited internationally, including: “The Stations of the Cross”, St Giles Cripplegate Church, London (2023); “Thoughts to fall asleep to”, Sapling Gallery, London (2021); “Daybed”, MACRO, Rome (2021); “Do Disturb”, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018); 2018, “Song I Wrote For My Four Year Old Nephew”, Sans Titre, Paris; “Fiorucci Art Trust’s Volcano Extravaganza”, Stromboli (2016). In 2020, Orfeo was nominated for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries prize and in 2023 he published his first book, “Little Passing Thoughts” (Chose Commune). Orfeo has directed and animated music videos for James Blake and Brian Eno.