Davide Allieri’s LOST IN THE SHELL series references the junction between real and imagined catastrophe. Handmade fiberglass and plexiglass frames that resemble protective cases enclose delicate drawings on transparent tracing paper. Each drawing conjures apocalyptic visions, science fiction scenarios, and brutalist architecture, suggesting a world of defensive and protective structures. The precise illustrations are overlaid with a network of dense yet fine colored pencil strokes, translating the fibrous quality of the fiberglass into the artwork itself. A dystopian luminescence permeates these desolate landscapes, which function both as blueprints for imaginary fortifications and documents of a world in decay. Influenced subtly by the recent global COVID pandemic in his hometown of Bergamo, these works evoke a reflection on protection and isolation, merging the speculative with the real in a contemplative exploration of architecture and environment.

The imagery in the largest work in the series on view at the gallery is partially generated by AI. Allieri fed the software with key-words such as ‘bladerunner; sci-fi; city; future; akira; accelerationism; evangelism; evangelion,’ the resulting output resembling the identifiable visual language of disaster as depicted by science fiction: brutalist architecture within a city in ruin, environmental disaster visualized by heavy green fog.