STEFANO RIBOLI

Where We Droppin’, Boys?

Opening on Wednesday July 1st,  6pm

Until 30 july 2026

Text by Natalie Zangari (Foglio di sala)

Where We Droppin’, Boys? is Stefano Riboli’s first solo exhibition at A+B Gallery, featuring a selection of paintings created from images taken from the Fortnite universe. Through painting, the artist removes these digital fragments from their original function, transforming them into suspended landscapes that question the relationship between image, memory, and perception.

The project stems from a seemingly simple practice: the selection of screenshots taken during match replays. While in the video game these environments are frantically crossed as functional tools for survival, in Riboli’s works they instead become places to be observed and inhabited by the gaze. Streets, parking lots, gas stations, and commercial areas emerge as settings devoid of human figures, yet rich with traces of their presence, conveying the impression of a world suddenly abandoned. It is precisely this marginal dimension that Riboli recovers in his works.

Through the replay, the artist returns to places already traversed, observing them once the action that animated them has ended. In this suspended temporality, the image acquires a second, slower, and more contemplative life, allowing for the identification of details, atmospheres, and light qualities that would have gone unnoticed during gameplay.

Rather than merely representing a video game, Riboli’s works reflect on the possibility of tracing new imageries within unexpected contexts. By shifting the focus from action to backdrop, from the scene to the scenography, the artist restores autonomy to images originally conceived for rapid consumption. Painting thus becomes a tool for deceleration and observation, capable of transforming a virtual space into a place of contemplation.

Stefano Riboli (Crema, 1996) lives and works between Crema and Brescia. Through painting, photography, and digital imagery, his practice explores the aesthetics and imageries produced by contemporary virtual environments. From 2021 to 2024, along with Valery Franzelli, he ran SPAZIO15, an artist-run space in Brescia. Recent exhibitions include Dinamismo digitale (Progetto Ludovico, Milan, 2023), Mitologie Digitali (Museo del Tessuto, Prato, 2022), and Body Embodiment Digital Self (Interact Studio, New York, 2022).