MY STORY

I am happy to welcome you to my world of colors and to share a bit of my story. My name is Francesca Sganzerla. I was born in Verona, Italy and I am a painter currently based in Zurich, Switzerland. I grew up and lived between Nigeria, Norway, Vietnam, Egypt, Italy, the USA, and Mexico. This itinerant upbringing shaped a visual language that is both cosmopolitan and intimate, attentive to how places collect in memory and become material for painting.

Looking back from a child’s perspective, I recognize the strain of this constant change: I remember always being the new kid at school, having to learn new languages and making new friends. Sometimes school was only a handful of children, as when living in Vũng Tàu, Vietnam, with the exotic garden outside our classroom that from time to time still appears in my dreams. Other times it was a bigger campus, as in Cairo, Egypt and the memory that emerges is of the rich and warm roasted-coffee air drifting into our classroom from the nearby shop. This multicultural upbringing enriched me in countless ways: it made me adaptable and curious by necessity. Learning new languages and social codes sharpened my ability to observe quickly and to shift perspective without losing the thread of myself. It taught me to inhabit many cultural frames simultaneously and to find belonging in relationships rather than in a single place. It gave me a nuanced sense of home that is flexible and layered.

Since I can remember I knew I wanted to study art in high school. However art school was not an option when relocating so often. I attended instead a scientific high school and later studied Motor Science and Sport. Sport and movement have always been a part of my life. That bodily awareness now appears in my work as texture, scratch, and a paced energy that coexists with calm.

Art though always kept coming back in my life: I worked in a studio painting faux finishes when living in Austin, Texas. I painted when I moved to the Cozumel island in Mexico, and its crystal sea taught me a blue that lives inside me. The color stopped being something I chose and became something I remembered breathing. When I paint, blue isn’t just a pigment, it is the weight of long swims, the taste of salt, and the comfort of being held by water.

Themes I return to often in my paintings are the layering of time and the shifting sense of space. The canvas is like a wall where signs and traces of history collect, layer upon layer, revealing the transient nature of time. At first glance my work appears contemplative and tranquil. Beneath that quiet there is a restlessness that surfaces through thick textures, scratches, and scraped layers that suggest the passage of moments and the stories that remain. I aim to evoke a sense of extended space, inviting you to explore beyond what is immediately visible.

Each piece offers a layered history that rewards close looking and repeated visits. If you are drawn to work that holds both quiet and intensity, that shifts with perspective and time, my canvases will continue to unfold in your space.