Starting at 5 pm on Wednesday 20 March, the exhibition 'Art meets Botany, Watercolours by Elena Zito' opens on the ground floor of the Museo della Grafica at Palazzo Lanfranchi.
Twenty-one watercolours on display, executed by the artist between 2015 and 2023, depict ten species of Italy's spontaneous flora portrayed from life in life size, some of them very rare and present in Tuscany.
The exhibition is part of the project 'At the Museum and in the Garden: dialogues between art and science' conceived by the Museo della Grafica and the Botanical Garden of Pisa. Through an articulated calendar of exhibitions, meetings with the artist, workshops, didactic laboratories and "behind-the-scenes" visits, an itinerary aimed at the knowledge of nature through the dual declination of artistic expression and botanical research methodologies will be created. A series of appointments scheduled in the two museum venues of the Botanical Garden and Museum - the ancient Giardino di Semplici_ and Palazzo Lanfranchi - the seat of the Graphics Museum (Municipality of Pisa and University of Pisa) - will feature paintings, illustrated books, manuscripts, botanical plates, herbarium specimens and photographs, offering a broad panorama that will shed light on the most varied ways of representing and interpreting the natural world.
Elena Zito
Elena Zito approached naturalistic and botanical watercolours many years ago. Determining factors in her training were her curiosity for the multiple expressions of nature and her passion for drawing. This combined interest in art and nature led her to devote herself to the discipline of botanical watercolouring with increasing involvement, taking numerous courses with renowned Italian artists, such as Maria Rita Stirpe, and foreigners, such as Anne Marie Evans. In 2015, she joined Floraviva, the Italian Association of Botanical Painters, paying particular attention to the wild plants of the Flora of Italy. In 2018, she participates in the exhibition "Botanical Art Worldwide" at the Botanical Garden of Padua. In 2019 she is admitted to participate in the prestigious international exhibition of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in London. At the Botanical Garden of Pisa in 2022 she participates, with the painter Silvana Rava, in the exhibition 'Flora Picta'.
The exhibition will be open until 5 May 2024, every day from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
