Just a quick look at Federico Pietrella’s work and you might think at first that you’re admiring a painting by one the 20th century’s greatest artists, such as Camille Pissarro or George Seurat. Like these artists, Federico uses the pointillism technique to recreate photographs and simple objects, but he has put a contemporary touch on classical painting: instead of using small, distinct dots of pure color applied in patterns to form an image, Federico uses only a library date stamp.
As you can see in the following detail image, each day that Pietrella works on a painting is recorded in the work by changing the date on the stamp as proof of the huge work required to finish it. Time itself becomes the main subject of all his works, as the artist himself affirms: “For me time is a mysterious thing, it’s the most important thing from which everything is derived- work, existence, life.”

















