For now, the exhibition has been postponed until the public health orders allow for a return to relative normalcy.
Piccioni, who was born in Rome, was hoping to find that normality when he decided to move to Australia with his family in March of last year.
His wife, Kylie, is a soprano and was raised in Sydney, the city where the pair met.
“It was 2000 and I’d come to Sydney for the Olympics, but also to study English and to work,” Piccioni said.
“It was then that I met Kylie.”
Love, life and art led the young couple to move to Italy, the home of opera.
Then, COVID-19 arrived, upsetting everyone’s lives, but particularly those of performing artists.
Piccioni’s exhibitions and Kylie’s concerts were cancelled, and with their livelihoods in peril, the couple decided to follow their dream of moving to Sydney with their five-year-old son, Julius John.
“We arrived on March 9, after an odyssey,” Piccioni said.
“We’d planned to leave together, then the airline told us that there was a problem.
“My wife and son were able to fly as scheduled, but I had to wait for another flight, arriving in Australia by myself.
“I was given a seat on a flight to Adelaide where, once I landed, I was transferred to a hotel in order to quarantine.”
The family was divided: Piccioni quarantined in Adelaide whilst Kylie and Julius John were confined in Sydney.
An artist at heart, Piccioni decided to make his mandatory isolation a productive experience, devoting himself to his work.
“I completed two paintings: a panorama of Venice and one of Tuscany,” he said.
“Both sold at the first group show I exhibited for in Sydney.”
It was not difficult for Piccioni to settle into life in Sydney, as he had returned several times since his initial visit in 2000.
“I had participated in some group shows in Sydney in the past years, but I’d never had the opportunity to exhibit in a solo show because I wasn’t a resident,” he said.
“August would’ve been my first time in Australia.”
What worries the 50-year-old painter is not his exhibition, which will be rescheduled once the lockdown has lifted, but the lack of art in this dark period.
“We need art and beauty today more than ever, to escape from this situation,” he said.
“And we need it especially for children because they themselves are art and deserve to live surrounded by beauty.”
For now, Piccioni has found solace in his work, nestled in his garage among canvases and paints.
“I work here and try to devote myself to more Australian themes,” he said.
These works will also be displayed in his upcoming exhibition: ‘Reflections of an Italian Painter’.
“My solo show will include Italian urban landscapes, market scenes, still lifes, portraits and, above all, works in which I will represent my feelings and emotions from my time in Australia,” Piccioni concluded.
