“Lighting Cigarettes for Ghosts”: Francesco Costantino’s solo show at

“Lighting Cigarettes for Ghosts”: Francesco Costantino’s solo show at MARTHA

From 9 May to 11 July 2026, the early-20th-century spaces of MARTHA - Music ART House Academy (Via Siracusa, 32, Palermo) host “Lighting Cigarettes for Ghosts”, a solo exhibition by painter Francesco Costantino (Palermo, 1986), curated by Federico Lupo and Martina Martire. The opening takes place on Saturday 9 May at 18:30.

The exhibition focuses on Costantino’s recent oils on paper, presenting two intimate series — Mele and Agavi — whose surfaces recall twentieth-century motifs while probing deeper pictorial archetypes. The presentation also stages a dialogue with a group of works from the 1970s by the artist’s mother, painter Laura Natangelo, producing generational echoes and tensions.

Main themes:

• Generational transmission and artistic inheritance as a complex structure to be disassembled and reassembled;
• Memory as an alienating force and painting as a space where identity is traversed;
• The materiality of paint and combinatory possibilities of the support.

The show’s layout uses openings and overlaps — windows, breakthroughs and nested boxes — to stage alternate presents across the gallery walls. The title evokes everyday gestures turned into rituals that engage image and time.

Practical information:

• When: 09/05/2026 - 11/07/2026. Opening: Saturday 9 May at 18:30.
• Where: MARTHA - Music ART House Academy, Via Siracusa 32, Palermo.
• Admission: free, visits by reservation.
• Bookings: email [email protected] or WhatsApp +39 333 100 8512.
• Website: marthapalermo.it

The exhibition provides a concise, accessible encounter with contemporary painting where family legacy and material exploration converge.