On the occasion of artist Lucia Pescador‘s first solo exhibition in an Italian public institution, the Musei Civici di Padova, realised with the contribution of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo, it was decided to highlight her vast production of works dedicated to botany and plants. Lucia Pescador has always favoured drawing, working on themes related to nature, culture and art. The exhibition will open on Friday 30 May at 5.30 p.m.
BOTANIKUM brings together around 500 works, mostly drawings on paper, acetates, photographs, collages. The artist has a special bond with paper: old letters, account books, musical scores, loose sheets of books and diaries, on which she engraves her drawings, thoughts, imaginary worlds. This interest in paper conceals a deep passion for books and in particular for artists’ books.
The series of installations created especially for the spaces of Palazzo Zuckermann in Padua celebrates the beauty and forms of nature, spreading a continuous emotion, as in being surrounded by imaginary gardens. The hundreds of sheets hanging on the wall, supported only by light needles, create a kind of rainbow in the room. In both Eastern tradition and Greek etymology “sheet” has a sensory reference to leaf.
It is in fact tales of leaves, flowers, mushrooms, fruits, woods that inspire Lucia Pescador’s drawings. It is the distant stories of medieval herbaria and Karl Blossfeld’s photo books that activate visions and narratives. It is the botanical collections of great masters such as Filippo De Pisis that stimulate the search for forms and compositions. Trees and geometries form a homogeneous setting for his stories of woods and gardens, at times real, at others imaginative.
Conceived and curated by Claudia Zanfi.
Information:
Palazzo Zuckermann, Corso Garibaldi, 33, Padua
31 May – 15 September 2025
Opening hours: 10 a.m.-7 p.m., closed on non-holiday Mondays.
Free entrance.
