Collettivo 900 — Leonardo Crudi, Elia Novecento
A Two-Person Exhibition Curated by Giovanni Argan
From October 15 to November 15, 2026, the ALETIS Cultural Association presents Di notte, notte e dì at Gallery Morphè in Rome, a two-person exhibition featuring Leonardo Crudi and Elia Novecento, founders of Collettivo 900.
Founded in Rome in 2016 through the collaboration of artists Leonardo Crudi and Elia Novecento with art historian and curator Giovanni Argan, Collettivo 900 brings together artistic and curatorial practices in an ongoing exploration of painting, poetry, and interventions in public space.
Sharing a background in graffiti writing, an interest in overlooked histories and cultures, and a passion for poetry, the two artists have developed parallel artistic practices. Elia Novecento creates biomorphic abstract paintings in which references to Rorschach inkblots and post-graffiti aesthetics intertwine with the decorative patterns of Asian carpets and batik textiles. Leonardo Crudi combines graphic realism with geometric abstraction, drawing on Constructivism, Futurism, Roman Pop Art, and the visual language of Italian underground cinema and poetry.
Alongside their individual practices, the artists pursue a shared urban practice of “cultural agitation propaganda.” Through hand-painted posters displayed on the walls of Rome, Collettivo 900 invites the public to rediscover forgotten figures and engage with visual languages that reinterpret the legacy of the avant-garde alongside influences from Asian decorative traditions.
For this exhibition, Leonardo Crudi and Elia Novecento present a body of previously unseen works created specifically for the occasion, emerging from a shared reflection on everyday life, both by day and by night. What if the passage of time were nothing more than the repetition of seemingly insignificant gestures and forgotten dreams?
In Di notte, notte e dì, Leonardo Crudi gives form to the daytime dimension through hands, protagonists of the small, almost invisible gestures that punctuate our daily lives. Elia Novecento, by contrast, explores the nocturnal counterpart, where lived experiences lose their contours and resurface as abstract forms, expressions of dreams and memories.
Day and night thus emerge as two inseparable moments within the same cycle: what we experience becomes what we imagine, while what we dream shapes our lived reality.
The exhibition invites visitors to recognize themselves in this shared experience, drawing attention back to what habit has led us to stop noticing and remembering.
BIOGRAPHIES
Leonardo Crudi
ROME, 1988
Shaped by graffiti, Crudi works in a graphic visual language in which figuration and abstraction coexist harmoniously. Over the years, his artistic research has developed through the study of diverse sources, from Italian Neorealism to the Russian avant-garde, from Roman Pop Art to underground cinema, and from visual poetry to Futurism. His works convey political and cultural messages through an original, consistent and visually striking aesthetic.
His major public works include Il suono di Roma (2023, Piazzale Labicano), Pier Paolo Pasolini (2022, Santa Maria del Soccorso station) and Fantasia in Piazza (2021, Piazza dell’Immacolata). He has exhibited at MACRO in Rome and MMMAC in Paestum. His exhibition history includes approximately 40 solo and group shows in Italy and abroad.
Elia Novecento
ROME, 1989
With a background in graffiti writing, Elia Novecento pursues a practice that intertwines Western and Eastern visual languages, combining the legacy of Roman Pop Art and the abstraction of the Forma 1 group with the geometries and decorative motifs of Asian carpets, Javanese batik and Nepalese textiles. Having embraced biomorphic abstraction, he draws inspiration from poetry. In his painting, which he describes as an “emotional diary”, verses by twentieth-century Italian poets and his own lyrical compositions are translated into symbolic images.
His most significant public works include L’illeggibile diventa planisfero unico (2021, Sapienza University of Rome) and La finestra sul Luna Park (2021, IC Poggiali-Spizzichino).
He has exhibited at the Museo del Mare e del Sale in Salina and PAN in Naples, taking part in more than 30 solo and group exhibitions in Italy and abroad. He has undertaken artist residencies in Bali and Java, Indonesia, and Kathmandu, Nepal.