Alberto Di Fabio’s first solo exhibition in Croatia, Lights of Existence, offers a rare opportunity to engage with a body of work where light is both medium and subject, yet the experience of his paintings resists straightforward interpretation. Far from being merely decorative, the luminous forms he creates appear to occupy a space between scientific observation and spiritual meditation, inviting viewers to confront the tension between the tangible and the invisible.

One of the most striking aspects of the exhibition is the way Di Fabio’s brushwork conveys motion and energy, as if the light itself were vibrating within the canvas. In works where networks of radiating lines and delicate filaments intersect, the viewer is caught between the recognition of familiar patterns—neuronal pathways, cosmic constellations, molecular structures—and a sense of otherworldly abstraction. This duality raises questions about perception: how much of what we see is mediated by prior knowledge, and how much is an intuitive response to pure form and color?

Certain canvases succeed particularly in cultivating a sense of immersion. In pieces where luminous arcs seem to spiral into depth, the eye is drawn along trajectories that are at once gravitational and ethereal. Here, Di Fabio does not merely depict light; he choreographs it, creating a temporal dimension in which the act of viewing becomes a small journey, an oscillation between contemplation and disorientation. Yet in some works, this abstraction can verge on opacity. While the scientific references—titles borrowed from quantum physics, neuroscience, and astronomy—suggest a dialogue between art and science, the connection is often poetic rather than literal, leaving the viewer to negotiate meaning without explicit guidance. This ambiguity is, in fact, a productive tension: it challenges the expectation that conceptual inspiration must be directly legible and instead prioritizes experience, affect, and intuition.

Di Fabio’s approach consistently blurs boundaries. Synapses transform into constellations, galaxies dissolve into neural sparks, and strands of DNA evoke luminous tunnels stretching across imagined space. The work provokes reflection on the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm, but also on the nature of painting itself: can the two-dimensional surface accommodate the suggestion of infinite expansion? In several pieces, the layering of translucent washes and radiating lines achieves this sense of boundlessness, yet the tension remains palpable—the viewer oscillates between the seductive allure of light and the intellectual challenge of deciphering the structures behind it.

The exhibition also prompts reflection on the role of perception and consciousness in experiencing art. Di Fabio’s canvases invite a gradual relinquishing of self-consciousness, but this journey is not uniformly comfortable. The luminous forms can be disorienting, reminding us that the intersection of beauty, abstraction, and conceptual inquiry is not always reassuring. In this sense, the exhibition is less a meditation on certainty than a provocation: it asks how we inhabit space and how we interpret energy, both within the physical world and within our own interior landscapes.

Lights of Existence occupies an interesting position in contemporary art because it foregrounds the intersection of artistic intuition and scientific imagination. Di Fabio’s references to physics and biology are never diagrammatic; they are refracted through a personal visual grammar that prioritizes resonance over explanation. This approach raises questions about the ways in which scientific concepts can be translated into aesthetic experience: is the work successful in bridging these domains, or does the abstraction risk distancing the audience? In practice, the paintings oscillate between clarity and ambiguity, providing moments of visual recognition alongside encounters with the unknown. This tension is arguably the central achievement of the exhibition, offering a space in which analytical and emotional responses coexist, sometimes uneasily, sometimes harmoniously.

For Croatian audiences, the exhibition has particular resonance. Beyond the novelty of Di Fabio’s presence, it introduces a perspective on contemporary painting in which light, energy, and invisible forces are the primary subjects, and where scientific thought and spiritual reflection coexist without hierarchy. The works resist simplistic categorization, challenging assumptions about what painting can represent and how viewers engage with abstraction. In this way, the exhibition encourages reflection on broader questions: how do we perceive our own place in the universe? How do unseen forces shape experience? How can art mediate between material reality and metaphysical speculation?

Ultimately, Di Fabio’s paintings are compelling not only for their visual beauty but for the intellectual and affective space they create. Light functions simultaneously as metaphor, phenomenon, and material, revealing both the fragility and the complexity of existence. The exhibition does not offer answers; it offers encounters, moments in which the viewer is asked to inhabit a space that is both immediate and infinite. In navigating these luminous worlds, one cannot help but consider the ways in which perception, knowledge, and intuition intersect, and how painting itself remains a medium capable of exploring these intersections with subtlety and poetic force. Lights of Existence is, therefore, less a spectacle than an invitation: to dwell with uncertainty, to follow the traces of energy, and to reflect on the luminous threads connecting the individual to the cosmos.