Last 14 June, a new mural by street artist Millo popped up in Palermo – in Lo Sperone district. His style is by now unmistakable and his black and white graffiti (with only a few coloured details) are scattered on walls all over Italy, confirming each time that he is one of the most internationally loved street artists.
But Millo’s works are not only on walls, the artist has in fact a vast production of paintings on canvas, loved and acclaimed by collectors all over the world. One of the most interesting collections, entitled ‘Do Not Open Before 2023‘, will be presented tomorrow 30 June by the Dorothy Circus Gallery in Rome during the last exhibition of the season. The gallery will be enlivened by Millo’s eleven canvases and two previously unseen paintings on wood root.

The theme investigated is that of memory, understood as something to cherish, to protect and from which to draw inspiration. In this sense, Millo creates an emblematic work, the pivotal point of the entire exhibition. Entitled ‘Time Capsule‘, the work consists of a closed box containing memories, both collective and personal, kept under lock and key until now. Tomorrow, during the opening, the artist will open the box and unveil its contents, with the aim of involving the public in a journey into the past, not only from a personal but from a universal perspective. The thirteen objects, or rather, the thirteen memories, are significant for the collection presented. Each of them is in fact the point of origin of each canvas, which visually transcribes, according to MIllo’s personal point of view, some of the most significant events for the community.

Each work, with its evocative power, is able to remind the audience of the fragility and resilience of human beings. For example, the work “Let them Kids Alone” depicts Millo and his cousin jumping on the bed after doing their homework and, suddenly, the cry of his parents from the other room “It’s down! The Berlin Wall has fallen!“. Or even more, with the work ‘I Will Never Surrender‘ – which iconographically takes up Michelangelo’s La Pietà – he deals with the theme of environmental emergency, replacing the figure of Christ with one of the hundred-year-old trees felled to make way for new buildings.

With this exhibition, Millo embarks on a journey of self-discovery, revealing his story and, more generally, that of his generation, born and raised during a period of great social and environmental change, marked by globalisation.
The exhibition will be on display at the Roman branch of Dorothy Circus in Via dei Pettinari 76, until 25 July 2023.

 Courtesy of DCG and the Artist