Futuropia Cities — Arboria Series

About the work

She was here before the city. She will be here after.

Ancestra is the oldest presence in the Arboria series a great spreading form whose trunk carries the accumulated weight of centuries in every curve, every torsion, every surface that has been shaped by time rather than by design. The canopy extends in a vast flat arc above the composition, casting an implied shadow over everything beneath it the terraced platforms at its base, the small rounded forms that have gathered around its roots like younger trees that have never strayed far from where they were seeded.

This is not a building that was constructed. It is a building that presided that was already there when the first decision about Verdania was made, and that shaped every decision that followed by virtue of simply existing, of being too old and too necessary to build around rather than with.

Di Nicolantonio draws Ancestra with the loosest, most gestural line in the Arboria series the hatching urgent, the contour of the canopy found rather than placed, the surrounding vegetation scattered with the casual generosity of a landscape that has been seeding itself for generations. The green is everywhere and unhurried. It has time.

In every civilisation, there is one tree that is not a tree that is a meeting place, a memory, a reason to come back. In Verdania, that tree is Ancestra. Generations have sheltered beneath her canopy. Generations will.

An original drawing from the Futuropia Cities — Arboria series by artist-futurist Sébastien Di Nicolantonio.

Edition Unique original — one of a kind

Signature Hand-signed by the artist

Authentication Sold with certificate of authenticity and gallery invoice

Technique Original drawing — pen and watercolor on paper

Dimensions 29.7 × 42 cm — A3 format

Framing Unframed — framing available upon request