Turi Simeti, born in 1929 in Alcamo, Sicily is among the best known representatives of the Italian Zero movement together with Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni. He belongs to those 30 artists which Lucio Fontana – who already in the 50s developed his ›Concetti spaziali‹ (Space Concepts) turning the painting into a relief – presented in his atelier in 1965 as the »Zero-Avantgarde«. These artists rejected traditional painting and conventional materials and developed instead a new use of space and light.
Since the 60s Simeti begun working with the ›Oval‹ form which became characteristic of his oeuvre. The painting becomes a relief by the repetition of the oval form set on the canvas in a geometrical composition. Simeti’s monochrome artworks stand out for their minimalistic and clear forms. The interplay of light and shadow on the surface, always different depending on the intensity and direction of the light, impacts the viewer in a poetic and unique manner.